During Canada parliament's welcome ceremony to Zelensky, House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota introduced an elderly man in the parliamentary gallery whom he described as a “veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98.”
Yaroslav Hunka, Rota stressed out, “is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.” In unison, Zelensky, Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, the leaders of the opposition parties, all the assembled MPs and Senators and the top brass of Canada’s military rose to their feet to give Hunka a standing ovation. He in turn stood up and pumped his fists.
But who is this "Ukrainian and Canadian hero"?
Hunka fought against the Soviet Red Army with the “first Ukrainian division” — as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (“Galicia”), a largely Ukrainian Nazi collaborator unit, was renamed in March 1945 as Germany was on the point of losing the war.
In fact, Canada's Parliament and Prime Minister Trudeau gave a standing ovation to a Nazi war criminal.
Jewish organizations have demanded Canada’s parliament apologize for celebrating an SS veteran. “An apology is owed to every Holocaust survivor and veteran of the Second World War who fought the Nazis,” declared a Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre statement. “And an explanation must be provided as to how this individual entered the hallowed halls of Canadian Parliament and received recognition from the Speaker of the House and a standing ovation.”
On Sunday, House Speaker Rota issued a brief apology in which he personally accepted all responsibility for parliament’s recognition of Hunka.
But, unfortunately for them, the Canadian government has been irreversibly exposed.
While the imperialists are using the war in order to rewrite history by slandering the Soviet Union and rehabilitate Nazi collaborators, while Soviet-era monuments are torn down in Ukraine and East European countries (e.g. Poland, Baltic states), Canada's governments bears immense responsibility for honoring Nazi war criminals.
Justin Trudeau and his government must be held accountable by the Canadian working people for this shame.
