The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons apologized Sunday for recognizing a man who fought for a Nazi military unit during World War II.
Just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an address in the House of Commons on Friday, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation when Speaker Anthony Rota drew attention to him. Rota introduced Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.
“In my remarks following the address of the President of Ukraine, I recognized an individual in the gallery. I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so,” Rota said in a statement.
He added that his fellow Parliament members and the Ukraine delegation were not aware of his plan to recognize Hunka. Rota noted Hunka is from his district.
“I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my action,” Rota said.
Canadian lawmakers cheered and Zelenskyy raised his fist in acknowledgement as Hunka saluted from the gallery during two separate standing ovations. Rota called him a “Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.”
Zelenskyy was in Ottawa to bolster support from Western allies for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion.
Vladimir Putin has painted his enemies in Ukraine as “neo-Nazis,” even though Zelenskyy is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said in a statement that Rota had apologized and accepted full responsibility for issuing the invitation to Hunka and for the recognition in Parliament.
“This was the right thing to do,” the statement said. “No advance notice was provided to the Prime Minister’s Office, nor the Ukrainian delegation, about the invitation or the recognition.”
The First Ukrainian Division was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies issued a statement Sunday saying the division “was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable.”
“An apology is owed to every Holocaust survivor and veteran of the Second World War who fought the Nazis, and an explanation must be provided as to how this individual entered the hallowed halls of Canadian Parliament and received recognition from the Speaker of the House and a standing ovation,” the statement said.
B’nai Brith Canada’s CEO, Michael Mostyn, said it was outrageous that Parliament honored a former member of a Nazi unit, saying Ukrainian “ultra-nationalist ideologues” who volunteered for the Galicia Division “dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing.”
“We understand an apology is forthcoming. We expect a meaningful apology. Parliament owes an apology to all Canadians for this outrage, and a detailed explanation as to how this could possibly have taken place at the center of Canadian democracy,” Mostyn said before Rota issued his statement.
Members of Parliament from all parties rose to applaud Hunka. A spokesperson for the Conservative party said the party was not aware of his history at the time.
“We find the reports of this individual’s history very troubling,” said Sebastian Skamski, adding that Trudeau’s Liberal party would have to explain why he was invited.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
23 Responses
You want Jew hatred just go to TelAviv and maybe meet it’s mayor or Lapid.
Now that’s Jew haters.
The biggest Fascist and wanna-be dictator sits in Parliament and actually is the PM.
This monster ‘Trudeau ” is a Marxist and a Fascist dictator, which makes a bonafide NAZI.
Ironic since the Trudeau labels everyone who criticizes him a fringe Nazi or “a Swastika”.
Putin doesn’t need to paint these guys. They actually wear nazi insignia on their uniforms. Today! Google it! The Azov division! It’s no secret. Zelensky is a figure head and a shield
AND WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT??
We all know that the Zionists שר”י caused more Jews to be killed during the so-called “Holocaust” than the Nazis did!
Yossi…, what you wrote is an absolute lie!
Reiven, what shaychos? You’d rather live in Israel or in Nazi Germany?
Why is that guy not in prison?
not unusual today at all, trudope is a nazi and so is most of Canada…..
At least, all Canadians are fully vaccinated. Vinishmartem.
@mdd1,
don’t reveal stupidity for all to see.
asking a question like “what shaychos? You’d rather live in Israel or in Nazi Germany” sounds and is SO ignorant.
seriously grow up!
and by the way, the zionists were responsible for millions of Jewish deaths in WWII.
If you didn’t know this, than research your facts and than criticize, don’t ignorantly “answer” someone if you do not know what you are talking about.
Not getting involved
For some one who’s motto is NOT GETTING INVOLVED
DEAR
IN GERMANY THEY DONT WRAP THEMSELVES UP WITH ISRAELI FLAG. The duplicity
The animosity
The hate
The absolute crossing of all red lines by left who are disintegrating by 1.5 and 2 dogs in TelAviv vs. 8/9 of charidi and Arab child birth.
but they WANT want to draw blood is nothing less then their forefathers AFTER WWII who forced fed Jews SURVIVERS pig and cut their peios and said the false messiah of state has arrived.
In Germany the SS and SS Youth wore uniforms when they attacked shuls.
In Israel the left and Meretz youth wear Israeli flag and UNINVITED ATTACK PUBLIC SQUARE PRAYER.
Who invited them?
They can have Pork BBQ like their forefathers and lust in Toeava kidnap children from their mothers womb as open minded Start Up Nation.
I put all the blame FOR this NOT ON REFORM AND EVENGICAL ISRAELI LEFT, I SQUARELY BLAME THE CHARIDI FOR INSTEAD OF BEING INVITING AND WARM AS TORAH SAYS IN THE PAST 50 YEARS INSTEAD SCREAMED SHABBOS SHABBOS SHABBOS
YOU REAP WHAT YOU VOMIT OUT.
NOW YOU HAVE CREATED THE SATANIC RULE.
@Yossi Name Edited:
Get your facts in order.
The Zionists may have abetted the Nazis by making it more difficult to rescue Jews and getting in the way of R’ Michoel Ber Weissmandel זי״ע etcetera.
That would affect at a maximum about 1/3 of the victims of the Holocaust (2,000,000 Jews.) A huge number in its own right, but not close to equaling the total number that the Nazis brutally murdered.
Even if you want to count all the עולים חדשים who died through the mismanagement and infighting of the Zionists through the 1940s, you don’t get near half a million. And I would argue that while they are at least anomaly responsible for those deaths, none of that rises to the level of intentional genocide.
Finally, I would like to point out that it is largely the wording of your comment that I am responding to.
Had you simply said that the Zionists caused the Nazis to kill more Jews than they would have otherwise. He I would’ve agree with you.
But you wrote specifically “ caused more Jews to be killed during the so-called “Holocaust” than the Nazis did” which is factually incorrect, and helps feed certain narratives, which blur the lines between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
Matzav don’t you moderate the comments? How could you allow such filth on your site! The comments by
@”Yossi Name Edited”
And by @”pure yiddishkeit” are tge most disgusting comments possible! And don’t you think that racist sites are going to pick up on these quotes from tgem and shout out “see even The Jews say so”
WOW MATZAV YOU ARE DISGUSTING!
pure…, go learn some history. Real history, not the Satmar-Neturei Karta propaganda. And do not mix apples and oranges.
pure yiddishkeit,
mdd1 actually has a great point.
You say that Zionists kill more Jews than Nazis, but you would run from Nazis into the arms of zionist soldiers.
You say that this is stupidity and “SO ignorant”.
Why? Care to explain?
Wow everyone take it easy lmao
@long Island yid continuously calling ywn “matzav” has me dead 😂😂
@long Island yid continuously calling ywn “matzav” has me dead
To all stupid (but nebach) brainwashed “worldly” people who never learn history outside a couple of magazines and maybe a few ranting zionist pigs in knesses haminim like B Netanyahu YM”SH,
one by one:
@fakenews,
You do have a point, blowing out of proportion will never get anywhere. BUT, if you take a careful look at history and count up the many “incidents”, “happenings” or whatever you want to call them, that ultimately trail back to zionist roots, you’ll find that not only the big infamous stories ((that you yourself mentioned) like R’ M. B. Wiessmandl, Hungarian Jewry, or the fact that the filthy zionists made sure that all borders except for Palestine were closed,) count towards Jewish deaths directly or indirectly caused by zionists/ism.
Count them all up, and the fact stands that the zionists surpass the nazi’s, especially when you look at it through the lens of Yidishkeit, that Gadol HaMachti’oh Yoter M’Hargo.
Now to the zionist zombie robots;
@Long island Yid,
I don’t know what exactly you find so disgusting,
Is it maybe revealing facts causes sfekot in your zionist idols?
Or, do just find truth disgusting?
@mdd1,
I am really sorry to tell you dear, but I was told that to long ago, which made do exactly that and I’m sorry to say but I have learnt History quite well, unlike some babies here, whose whole history knowledge comes from one source, or is based on telling others that “Real history, not the Satmar-Neturei Karta propaganda.”
Whatever such an ignorant statement could mean.
I come with hardcore facts, there is more than enough material out there (outside of the Isra’helli Governments “jewish library” or “yad vashem” or whatever magazine you subscribe your hashkafot to) and you answer with babyish statements (like as if only “satmar” etc have their propaganda, the others are clean pure facts…sure thing hhhmmmm).
Grow up. If you can’t answer at least hold your respect and don’t show others your utter ignorance.
Just as you tell @Pure Yidishkeit (and probably anyone else that doesn’t fit the exact narrative that you call “truth”) I have also been told to “study” my history and I am sorry to tell you but @PureYidishkeit is 100% right. spot on.
swallow it if you don’t like it!
History is learnt not created, sorry for you.
“INSTEAD SCREAMED SHABBOS SHABBOS SHABBOS” I’ll never understand the Israeli’s wish to have a 7 day workweek. Most people in the US wish to work less, no matter the background or ethnic group.
But then I figured it out. It’s not that they really want to work 7 days a week, which they will be forced to do to keep up with the rising cost of rent etc. It’s that they want someone to serve them 7 days a week. But it will backfire.
Or as Herzl Yemach shemo vezichro said that zionism has two arrows, the first is for zionism to succeed, and the second is for the “maushels” heart.
The whole modus operandi of the zionist state is to uproot every little tidbit of Judaism.
That’s the reason for non sensical 7 day work weeks,
and for not needed bus routes that run on Shabbos through religious neighbourhoods,
and building a trainline at an immense financial loss,
etc
etc
etc.