Ottawa has a historical past of overlaying for a lot proper extremists, from World War II to present-day Kiev
The stomach-churning scene of the Canadian parliament giving a standing ovation three days in the past to a former Waffen SS Nazi has by now made the rounds on the web.
During Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s go to to Canada, and following his predictably bombastic pan-handling speech, House Speaker Anthony Rota went on to gush reward over a Ukrainian-Canadian in parliament that day: Yaroslav Hunka, a World War II-era Nazi, calling him “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” and thanking him for his service.
Two days later, Rota issued an apology for lauding the person, saying he had “recognized an individual in the gallery” and had subsequently turn out to be conscious of “more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so.”
Just to be clear – since Rota was not – the particular person he meekly referred to was Yaroslav Hunka, and the data which made Rota remorseful was that Hunka had been a voluntary member of 1st Galician Division of the Waffen SS – you realize, the one accused of mass murdering Poles, Jews and Ukrainians in Ukraine and Poland, in addition to committing different atrocities.
Whereas Rota claims he was unaware of Hunka’s service as a Nazi, provided that he had additionally praised Hunka for combating “for Ukrainian independence against the Russians,” one can assume that is the service he referred to.
In his apology, Rota said, “no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s workplace denied any information of Hunka and his Nazi service, stating, “The Speaker had his own allotment of guest seating at Friday’s address, which were determined by the Speaker and his office alone.” It appears extremely unlikely, nonetheless, that the Canadian authorities would enable anybody into parliament with out thorough pre-emptive screening when Zelensky, a visiting president, was talking.
Whether Trudeau (and his Stepan Bandera-sympathizing deputy PM Chrystia Freeland) knew about Yaroslav Hunka or not, the query stays: why was he by no means dropped at justice? He, or any of the opposite 2,000 SS Nazis Canada reportedly took in within the years following WW2. Having been accepted as anti-communist refugees with little to no scrutiny, these suspected battle criminals and collaborators have been allowed to reside out the remainder of their days in peace, and most of them have executed so overtly underneath their very own names, because the Simon Wiesenthal Center has repeatedly reported.
There is far to be mentioned about Canada’s historical past with Ukrainian Nazis. Not solely did it take them in after WW2, however the government-backed Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which, till lately, listed Nazi-collaborator veterans organizations as members, in addition to government-funded Ukrainian ‘youth facilities’ that commemorate Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich. There are even monuments honoring Nazi collaborators and Ukrainian Insurgent Army criminals nonetheless standing in Canadian cities.
Canada has additionally supported modern-day Nazis in Ukraine itself, by coaching members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion on Canadian soil, though Canadian company media has in recent times tried to downplay this.
Radio Canada reported in April 2022 that the Canadian Armed Forces, “did contribute to the training of soldiers of the Azov regiment in 2020, to the point where this unit is now boasting of being able to train its own soldiers according to Western standards.” The Ottawa Citizen, writing about this report, cited a 2017 briefing by Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine as saying, “Multiple members of Azov have described themselves as Nazis.”
In November 2021, the identical Ottawa Citizen journalist wrote about Canadian officers assembly with leaders from the Azov Battalion in June 2018. Canadian officers and diplomats, “did not object to the meeting and instead allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials despite previous warnings that the unit saw itself as pro-Nazi.”
Canada (along with the US and Ukraine itself) has repeatedly refused to help UN resolutions in opposition to the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and racial discrimination, as they have been seen as focusing on Kiev. An overwhelming majority of member states has supported these resolutions, with Kiev’s different Western backers (like all of the EU member states) and their allies (like Japan and New Zealand) abstaining.
If you’ve got adopted Canada’s unrepentant help to Nazis, the parliament’s standing ovation for a former SS member turns into much less shocking. It set off a small storm, with outrage expressed not solely by Jewish rights activists and Moscow, but additionally by the Polish ambassador in Canada.
One can solely hope that there have been members of parliament who have been sincerely appalled to be taught they’d cheered for a Nazi. However, now that the apologies have been made, the outrage will most certainly merely die down and Ottawa will proceed supporting the identical sort of folks, so long as they’re on the identical aspect within the West’s proxy battle in opposition to Russia.
After all, as Canadian researcher Tamara Lorincz famous, whereas everybody applauded the Ukrainian Nazi, “Not one MP called for peace, ceasefire & negotiations.” That’s the quiet half few are prepared to say out loud – simply as Canada apparently accepted SS “refugees” as a result of they have been fighters in opposition to the Soviet Union’s communism, simply as Canada (and different Western powers) are prepared to help terrorists if they’re combating in opposition to an “undesirable” authorities within the Middle East, so will Canada proceed to cowl for, give help to, and faux to not discover a resurgence of one in every of historical past’s most atrocious ideologies so long as its adherents can be utilized in opposition to the present adversary – Russia.
For his half, Zelensky praised Canada for all the time being on the “bright side of history.” Just to recap: Canada helped destroy Libya, Canada not directly supported terrorists in Syria in opposition to the nation’s elected president, Canada housed 2,000 Nazis after WW2, and Canada helps Nazis in Ukraine now. Zelensky’s definition of the brilliant (or proper) aspect of historical past is peculiar to say the least.