Several Jewish human rights organizations are condemning lawmakers for giving a standing ovation to a man who fought for a Nazi unit in World War II.
MPs in the House of Commons paid tribute to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Ottawa on Friday.
Hunka was invited by House Speaker Anthony Rota, who introduced him as a war hero who fought for the Ukrainian 1st Division.
“I’m very proud to say that he’s from North Bay and I’m from Nipissing-Timiskaming,” the Ontario MP began. He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his services. »
MPs applauded and President Zelensky raised his fist in recognition, while Hunka greeted MPs from the podium with two separate ovations.
The Ukrainian 1st Division was also known as the SS Galizien Division, a volunteer unit under the command of the SS.
The advocacy group Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement Sunday saying the department was “responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians with an unimaginable level of brutality and viciousness.”
“Every Holocaust survivor and World War II veteran who fought against the Nazis deserves an apology and an explanation must be given as to how that person entered the hallowed halls of the Canadian Parliament and also received recognition from the Speaker of the House of Representatives. “as a standing ovation,” the statement said.
Michael Mostyn, president and CEO of B’nai Brith Canada, said it was beyond outrageous that Parliament honored a former member of a Nazi unit, saying Ukrainian “ultranationalist ideologues” who volunteered for the SS Galicia Division “dreamed of an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and supported the idea of ethnic cleansing”.
“We expect there will be an apology soon. We expect a meaningful apology. “Parliament owes all Canadians an apology for this crime and a full explanation of how this could have happened at the heart of Canadian democracy,” said Mr. Mostyn.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which represents Jewish associations across the country, said it was deeply disturbed by the incident.
“Canada’s Jewish community stands firmly with Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we cannot remain silent when the crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are glossed over,” the group said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office referred The Canadian Press to the speaker’s office of the House of Representatives for comment.
In a statement issued late in the afternoon, President Rota expressed regret that he had introduced a particular person in the House of Commons gallery without mentioning him by name, saying he had since received information.
He made it clear that “no one under [ses] Parliamentary colleagues or the Ukrainian delegation knew about it [ses] intentions or [ses] Comments beforehand [son] Speech.”
“I am solely responsible for this initiative as the person in question is a person from my constituency who I have come to know about. “I would like to offer my sincerest apologies in particular to the Jewish communities across Canada and around the world,” he commented.
MPs from all parties stood to applaud Hunka. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre blamed Prime Minister Trudeau.
“This is a serious misjudgment by Justin Trudeau, whose Office of Protocol is responsible for organizing and approving all guests and programs for state visits of this nature,” he said. He wrote on X demanding an apology from the Prime Minister.
Mr Poilievre tried to excuse all MPs for the ovation given to Hunka. “Without warning or context, it was impossible for any of the parliamentarians present in the room [autre que M. Trudeau] to be aware of this dark past,” he added.
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh also made his mea culpa. He said he and his party were unaware of the person’s activities during World War II and apologized to the Jewish community.
“New Democrats will express their concerns directly to the government that this has happened,” Mr. Singh said.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet joined The Canadian Press earlier in the evening and said he “does not play partisan politics on this issue.” He highlights the fact that no one in Parliament was aware of Mr Hunka’s connection to Nazism.
“My first thought was that there was certainly an error in treatment and judgment,” the elected official argued. The Speaker of the House took responsibility and apologized. Let us first think of the people of the Jewish community and all communities that fell victim to Germany in the Second World War. These are the people we need to think about. Otherwise it is an error. »
However, Mr Blanchet acknowledges that in the coming months MPs will likely have to make amends to the affected communities and apologize again for this “collective mistake”.
“I am convinced that there is no one in parliament who has sympathy for Germany during the Second War,” the bloc leader continued. It’s a sad episode, but the president apologized. I’m relatively happy with all of this. »
Controversial monuments
In Canada, monuments honoring the Ukrainian 1st Division have sparked controversy in recent years.
In 2021, a statue of Ukrainian military leader Roman Shuchevich and a monument to SS Galicia Division fighters in Edmonton were vandalized by someone who painted the words “real Nazi” on them.
The Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said at the time that they had been calling for its abolition for decades.
In 2020, a monument dedicated to the SS Galicia Division in Oakville, Ontario was also destroyed.
The decision to accept Ukrainian immigrants who had served in this division in the postwar period was controversial, with Jewish groups arguing that they should be excluded from the country.
The International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg declared the SS a criminal organization, including the entire Waffen-SS, which also included the SS Galicia Division.
The SS Galicia Division surrendered to the British Army in 1945 and just over 8,000 men were transferred to the United Kingdom in 1947.
In 1950, the Federal Cabinet decided to allow Ukrainians living in the United Kingdom to enter Canada “despite their service in the German army, provided they were otherwise admitted.” These Ukrainians should be subjected to special security checks, but should not be rejected because of their service in the Bundeswehr.”
In 1985, then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called for a royal commission to examine whether Canada had become a haven for war criminals.
The Deschênes Commission found that around 600 former members of the SS Galicia Division were living in Canada at that time. However, Judge Jules Deschênes stated that membership in the division did not in itself constitute a war crime.