The elderly veteran, Yaroslav Hunka was honored during a session in which President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine addressed the lawmakers to thank them for their support since Russia invaded his country, saying Canada has always been on “the bright side of history.” The Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota — who had compared Zelenskyy to Winston Churchill — recognized 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.”
The assembly then rose to applaud a man in a khaki uniform standing on the balcony, who saluted, according to this screenshot from Canadian television.
The man was identified as Hunka by the Associated Press, which published a photograph showing Zelenskyy smiling and raising a fist during the ovation.
The AP caption described Hunka as having “fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.” The First Ukrainian Division is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the [NSDAP]; the unit was also called SS Galichina.
The comparison to Winston Churchill is actually quite suitable, but not for the reasons that they had in mind.
Related: Leader of Canada’s House of Commons apologizes for honoring man who fought for Nazis. Quote:
“I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my action,” Rota said. […] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said in a statement that Rota had apologized and accepted full responsibility for issuing the invitation to Hunka and for the recognition in Parliament. “This was the right thing to do,” the statement said. “No advance notice was provided to the Prime Minister’s Office, nor the Ukrainian delegation, about the invitation or the recognition.”
Make of that what you will.
They are not sorry for honoring a Nazi in their center of governance. They are sorry they got caught.
If you don’t know what or who “fought for Ukrainian independence against Russia during WW2”, then you are an idiot.
I want to believe this is just Hanlon’s Razor.
They probably looked up “Canadian citizens that fought in Ukraine during WWII” so that their comment about Churchill would have more impact, but then just didn’t do any other research.
Well they would be hard pressed to find many Ukrainian WW2 vets in this country who aren’t nazis
Nazis love the idea of “refuge in audacity” where they will say and do things so absurd that people disbelieve it on principle. Don’t be fooled. They knew what they were doing. Even if the heads of parliament themselves didn’t, enough people along the chain of decisions did and were ok with it. This is how fascism is normalised in a country. It’s not through a big brown “fascism filter” but through little “gaffes” like this, little “accidents” that occur more and more frequently, and become more and more normalised until they are no longer gaffes, but “just how things are.”
The issue of Ukrainian Nazis being in Ukraine isn’t new though. The fact that there are several memorials to the Waffen SS in Canada comes up in the news fairly regularly when the things get vandalized.
They knew.