Blair Gable/Portal
Canadian Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota speaks on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on November 22, 2021.
CNN –
The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons has apologized after celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit in World War II.
Speaker Anthony Rota paid tribute to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka in a speech he delivered during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the Canadian Parliament on Friday, praising Hunka as a Ukrainian and Canadian veteran.
The speaker praised Hunka as a war hero who served in the First Ukrainian Division and “fought for the independence of Ukraine against the Russian aggressors back then and still supports the troops today.”
“I later received additional information that made me regret making this decision,” Rota said in a statement shared by his office on Sunday. He added: “I would like to apologize deeply, particularly to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world.”
Several human rights and Jewish organizations have condemned the recognition, saying Hunka served in a Nazi military unit called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
“Hunka, who immigrated to Canada after serving in the 14th Waffen SS – a Nazi unit whose members swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler during World War II – received a standing ovation from parliamentarians and senators in attendance,” the Jewish human rights organization said B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement.
Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press/AP
Jaroslaw Hunka, right, sits in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Onatario, on Friday, September 22, 2023.
B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said in a statement that Parliament’s recognition of Hunka was “beyond outrageous.”
“We cannot allow history to be whitewashed. … Canadian soldiers fought and died to free the world from the evils of Nazi brutality,” Mostyn said.
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was part of the Nazi SS organization, which was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which found that the Nazi group had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In its statement, B’nai Brith condemned the Ukrainian volunteers who served in the military unit as “ultranationalist ideologues” who “dreamed of an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and advocated the idea of ethnic cleansing.”
The human rights organization says it expects an apology from Parliament.
Rota said he took full responsibility for recognizing Hunka, who he said was from his constituency.
“I want to make it clear that no one, including my parliamentary colleagues and the Ukrainian delegation, was aware of my intention or my comments before I made them,” Rota said. “This initiative was entirely my own, the person in question came from my equestrian background and was brought to my attention.”