Speaker Anthony Rota, who became speaker in 2019, apologized on Sunday amid major controversy.
Ottawa:
The speaker of Canada’s Parliament resigned Tuesday, just days after publicly celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for the Nazis in World War II.
During a parliamentary visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, Anthony Rota praised an elderly Ukrainian immigrant from his district as a hero, prompting a standing ovation.
But Rota faced growing pressure to resign after it was revealed that the veteran had served in a Nazi-affiliated military unit.
“It is with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons,” Rota told MPs in Parliament.
He expressed his “deep regret for my mistake” and the pain it caused to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world.
Russia has accused the government in Kiev of promoting Nazi ideals, even though Zelensky was Jewish and lost family members in the Holocaust, and the controversy is likely to add fuel to that narrative.
On Friday, Rota paid tribute to Jaroslaw Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian immigrant who attended parliament and is from Rota’s constituency.
He praised Hunka as “a Ukrainian-Canadian World War II war veteran who fought for Ukraine’s independence against the Russians” and “a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero.”
But Hunka actually served in the SS’s 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, “a Nazi military unit whose crimes against humanity during the Holocaust are well documented,” according to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The Jewish advocacy group called the incident “shocking” and “incredibly disturbing.”
“This incident endangered all 338 Members of Parliament,” the organization said, adding that it “gave Russia a propaganda victory and distracted from the meaningful show of unity between Canada and Ukraine.”
– “Deepest apology” –
Several political parties in Canada had called on Rota, a Liberal lawmaker, to resign.
Rota, who was first elected in 2004 and became speaker in 2019, apologized Sunday and said he “later became aware of more information” that led him to regret his comments about Hunka.
“This initiative was entirely my own… I would like to extend my deepest apology especially to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world,” he said.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Rota’s comments shameful.
The main opposition Conservatives criticized the Trudeau government for failing to properly vet Hunka, despite claiming it had received no prior notice that he had been invited to the event.
Zelensky’s visit to Canada was the third leg of a trip to boost international support after he spoke at the United Nations and visited US President Joe Biden in Washington.
During the visit, Trudeau promised additional aid to the war-torn country of Zelensky.
Canada is home to the world’s second-largest Ukrainian diaspora, and Zelensky, in his speech to parliament, thanked Kiev for the support it has received since Russian troops crossed Ukrainian borders in February 2022.
Russia has accused Ukrainian leaders of being “neo-Nazis” and tried to justify the war on the need to “denazify” its neighbor.
Addressing the issue of the Ukrainian veteran, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Such negligence in remembrance is outrageous,” Russian media reported.
In Poland, Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek expressed the possibility of requesting Hunka’s extradition.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Czarnek wrote that he had commissioned the National Historical Research Institute to find out whether Hunka was wanted for crimes against Poles or Polish Jews.
“I have taken steps toward possible extradition of this man to Poland,” Czarnek wrote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)