The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons resigned Tuesday after apologizing again for presenting a 98-year-old Ukrainian who served with a Nazi SS unit as a “hero,” shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had spoken before a joint session of parliament.
The speaker, Anthony Rota, on Friday introduced Yaroslav Hunka, a voter from his constituency, as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero,” drawing two standing ovations from MPs and other guests and a fist pump from Mr. Zelensky. Who is Jewish?
But in the days that followed, several Jewish groups expressed anger and outrage, saying Mr. Hunka was a member of a volunteer Nazi unit called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, which fought alongside Germany in World War II and declared allegiance I think of Adolf Hitler.
After days of calls for his resignation, Mr. Rota announced his resignation on a day when he was scheduled to host an annual garden party at his official country residence.
“This house is above every one of us,” he told his colleagues. “I reiterate my deep regret.”
Mr. Rota initially apologized over the weekend for both his invitation and the introduction of Mr. Hunka, noting that he “later became aware of further information.”
The demand that he first resign came from Jagmeet Singh, leader of the left-leaning New Democratic Party. They accelerated on Tuesday ahead of a lunchtime meeting Mr Rota had planned with the leaders of all parties in the House of Commons.
Before Mr. Rota’s announcement, the deputy prime minister, foreign minister, industry minister and government leader had told reporters in the House of Commons that he should resign.
“What happened was completely unacceptable and a very damaging event indeed,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. “I hope and believe that the speaker will reflect on how serious and damaging this was and that he will do the honorable thing.”
She repeatedly said the incident was particularly damaging to Jews in Canada and around the world, adding: “It is also a painful situation for the people of Ukraine.”
Over the weekend, Mr. Rota said he had not told the governments of Canada or Ukraine about his plan to invite Mr. Hunka.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered no support for Mr. Rota and what he called his “deeply embarrassing” decision, but also did not specifically call for Mr. Rota to resign as speaker.
“It’s a good thing that Speaker Rota personally apologized, and I’m sure he’s now thinking about how to ensure the dignity of the House going forward,” Trudeau said.
Although Mr. Rota is an MP for Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party, he is not a political power broker like his counterpart in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Speakers of Canada’s House of Commons serve as non-partisan, government-independent arbitrators in the chamber. The Speaker, not the government, controls all activities and conduct in the chamber and its staff.
That didn’t stop Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader whose party leads Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals in polls, from also blaming Mr. Trudeau for the incident.
“Trudeau (and his Liberal spokesman) have shamed Canada,” Mr. Poilievre wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “The Liberal speaker must resign. But that does not excuse Justin Trudeau’s failure to check and prevent the honoring of a Nazi through his vast diplomatic and intelligence apparatus.”
In the House of Commons, the opposition Conservatives said the incident served Russian propaganda. Collaboration between Ukrainian independence advocates and Nazi forces during World War II was an integral part of Moscow’s false narrative that the current government in Kiev had been infiltrated by neo-Nazis.
Before Mr. Rota made his announcement, several members of opposition parties in Parliament called on Mr. Trudeau to apologize on behalf of Canada to Jews, Ukraine and the world at large.
The 14th Waffen-SS unit consisted of volunteers from the Galicia region, which spanned parts of today’s southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. After the Soviet occupation of western Ukraine in 1939, the unit’s creation in 1943 attracted Ukrainians eager to fight for their independence, said Dominique Arel, chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa.
“Since they were trained by SS officers, you can imagine the political indoctrination they received,” he said. Although its goal was independence, Mr. Arel said the unit “fought for and was trained by Nazis.” There is no doubt about that.”
— Ian Austen reports from Ottawa