Former Canadian House of Commons President Anthony Rota. BLAIR GABLE (Portal)
Anthony Rota resigned this Tuesday as President of the Canadian House of Commons for causing one of the biggest scandals in the country’s parliamentary life. Rota announced on Tuesday afternoon that he was resigning from his position after repeated pressure. The reason was the presence of a former member of a Nazi unit – and ovation for this person – at the parliamentary ceremony in honor of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Liberal Party of Canada MP Anthony Rota has been leader of the House of Commons since 2019. On Friday, before President Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered their speeches in the legislative chamber, Rota said the following: “Today we have in this House a Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran of the Second World War who advocated the independence of Ukraine against the Russians and who still supports the troops today at the age of 98. His name is Yaroslav Hunka,” adding that he is “a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero.” Visibly moved, Hunka received a standing ovation from the audience.
On Sunday, Jewish organizations in Canada such as B’nai Brith Canada and the Friends of the Simon Wiesental Center expressed dismay at the invitation, since Hunka served in the Waffen-SS’s 14th Grenadier Division during World War II. Ukrainian volunteer unit involved in the murder of Jews and other minorities. Anthony Rota responded the same day, indicating that he was unaware of various elements of Hunka’s past, and in particular apologized to “Jewish communities across Canada and around the world.” As Rota pointed out at Friday’s event, Jaroslaw Hunka lives in the constituency he represents as an MP (Nipissing – Timiskaming, in the province of Ontario).
Rota claimed in his message on Sunday that he was solely responsible for the incident and stressed that other parliamentarians, the prime minister’s office and Zelensky’s delegation were unaware of the invitation and intention to applaud Hunka. A day later, Rota repeated his apology to the legislative chamber. “I cannot express how much I regret what happened,” he said. Minutes later, the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party called for Rota’s resignation for an “unforgivable mistake that discredits the entire House of Representatives.”
That same Monday, Prime Minister Trudeau called the incident “deeply shameful” for Parliament and all Canadians, but did not call for Rota’s resignation. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, said Trudeau should take responsibility and personally apologize. The Russian and Polish embassies in Ottawa commented on social media about the events in the legislative chamber.
This Tuesday morning it was the turn of the Conservative MPs to call for Rota’s departure. Likewise, key figures in the Liberal government – such as Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Leader of the House of Commons Karina Gould – indicated that resignation was the only alternative. Anthony Rota’s fate has been decided. A few hours later, at the start of Tuesday’s parliamentary session, he said: “I rise to announce, with great regret, my resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons.”
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Canada hosted numerous victims of the Second World War; also several collaborators with the Nazi troops. The Jaroslaw Hunka case is not the first to provoke reactions. In September 2021, Helmut Oberlander, a former member of a Third Reich extermination unit, died at his home in Waterloo, Ontario. He had been fighting his deportation in court since 1995. This Tuesday, the Polish Minister of Education stated that he had taken steps to demand the extradition of Jaroslaw Hunka.
The impact of this incident on the image of the Trudeau government was not small. Volodymyr Zelensky’s second visit to Canada – the second since the start of the Russian invasion – was marred by reactions to Hunka’s presence. Likewise, the scandal comes at a time when the press around the world is describing tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi due to the alleged involvement of Indian intelligence services in the murder of a Sikh leader in Vancouver, a crime that took place last June was committed.
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