Several Jewish rights organizations condemn MPs for giving a standing ovation to a man who fought for a Nazi unit during World War II.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Ottawa on Friday, MPs paid tribute to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka in the House of Commons.
Hunka was invited by House Speaker Anthony Rota, who introduced him as a war hero who fought for the 1D Ukrainian division.
“I am very proud to say that he is from North Bay and my riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming,” declared the Ontario MP by way of introduction. He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service. »
MPs applauded and President Zelensky raised his fist in recognition, as Hunka greeted the Commons from the podium in two separate ovations.
The 1D Ukrainian Division was also known as the SS Galicia 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 division “was responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians with an unimaginable level of brutality and viciousness.”
“An apology is owed to every Holocaust survivor and World War II veteran who fought the Nazis, and an explanation must be provided as to how this individual entered the hallowed halls of the Canadian Parliament and received recognition from the Speaker of the House, as well as a standing ovation,” the statement said.
B’nai Brith Canada President and CEO Michael Mostyn said it was beyond outrageous that Parliament honored a former member of a Nazi unit, saying Ukrainian “ultranationalist ideologues” who stood Volunteers for the SS Galicia Division “dreamed of an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing”.
“We understand that an apology will be issued soon. We expect a meaningful apology. Parliament owes all Canadians an apology for this outrage, as well as a detailed explanation of how this could have happened at the center of Canadian democracy,” said Mr. Mostyn.
The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which represents Jewish federations across the country, said it was deeply troubled 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 whitewashed,” the group said in a statement, published Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office directed The Canadian Press to the Speaker of the House’s office for comment.
In a statement issued late in the afternoon, President Rota expressed his regret for having presented a certain person in the gallery of the House of Commons, without naming him, saying he had since obtained information.
He made it clear “that no one among [ses] parliamentary colleagues or the Ukrainian delegation were aware of [ses] intentions or [ses] remarks before [son] speech.”
“I am solely responsible for this initiative, the individual in question being a person from my constituency who I had been told about. I would particularly like to offer my most sincere apologies to the Jewish communities across Canada and around the world,” he commented.
MPs from all parties stood up to applaud Hunka. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre blamed Prime Minister Trudeau.
“This is a serious error of judgment on the part of Justin Trudeau, whose office of protocol is responsible for organizing and approving all guests and programs for state visits of this type,” he said. he wrote on X, asking for an apology from the Prime Minister.
Mr. Poilievre sought to excuse all MPs for the ovation given to Hunka. “Without warning or context, it was impossible for any parliamentarian present in the room [autre que M. Trudeau] to be aware of this dark past,” he added.
The leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh, also made his mea culpa. He said he and his party were unaware of the individual’s activities during World War II and apologized to the Jewish community.
“New Democrats will express their concerns directly to the government about the fact that this has happened,” Mr. Singh said.
Joined by The Canadian Press early in the evening, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, indicated that he was “refraining from playing partisan politics on this subject.” He highlights the fact that no one in Parliament was aware of Mr Hunka’s link to Nazism.
“My first thought was that it was certainly an error in treatment and judgment,” argued the elected official. The Speaker of the House took responsibility and apologized. Let us think first of the people of the Jewish community and of all the communities who were victims of Germany in the Second World War. These are the people we need to think about. For the rest, it is an error. »
Mr. Blanchet recognizes, however, that parliamentarians will probably have to make amends with the communities affected in the coming months and apologize again for this “collective error”.
“I am convinced that there is no one in Parliament who has any sympathy for Germany during the Second War,” continued the Bloc leader. It’s a sad episode, but the president has apologized. I’m relatively at peace with all of this. »
Controversial monuments
In Canada, monuments in honor of the 1D Ukrainian division has caused controversy in recent years.
In 2021, a statue of Ukrainian military leader Roman Shukhevych and a monument to SS Galicia Division fighters in Edmonton were vandalized by someone who painted the words “real Nazi” on it.
The Friends of the Simon-Wiesenthal Center said at the time that they had been calling for their abolition for decades.
In 2020, a monument dedicated to the SS Galicia Division in Oakville, Ontario was similarly vandalized.
The decision to admit 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 at Nuremberg declared the SS to be a criminal organization, including the entire Waffen SS, of which the SS Galicia Division was a part.
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 come to Canada “despite their service in the German army, provided they were otherwise admissible.” These Ukrainians should be subject to special security screening, but should not be rejected on the grounds of their service in the German army.”
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 discovered that approximately 600 former members of the SS Galicia Division were living in Canada at the time. Judge Jules Deschênes, however, declared that membership in the division did not in itself constitute a war crime.