Public Backlash Against Trudeau & Parliamentarians Over WWII Ignorance

"All you government people who gave a standing ovation to someone who was associated with the Nazis during WW2 would be really funny if it wasn't so tragic."

"My dad spent years in Buchenwald concentration camp. I still remember all the stories he told me, and it wasn't pretty."

"You clowns all look ridiculous after such a big blunder."

Critic of Parliamentary MPs ignorant of their history

 

"You ennoble the Waffen-SS [a criminal organization per the Nuremberg Trials], and you spit in the faces of our surviving Canadian veterans as well as besmirching the memories of those who died fighting tyranny."

Emailed criticism of Members of Parliament

Yaroslav Hunka, right, waits for the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the House of Commons in Ottawa, on Sept. 22. Photo by Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, anxious to demonstrate to the world at large its limitless support for Ukraine under bombardment by Russia, welcomed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Jewish President, to honour and lionize him for his courageous stand against his neighbour's plans of domination and territorial aggression. The Ukrainian president was on another of his tours of supporting nations, to express his country's gratitude for their help and to urge that increased financial and weaponry assistance was badly needed.

 

Canada has an extremely large Ukrainian-Canadian community. And among many Ukrainians there is a strong appreciation for wartime Ukrainian patriots who volunteered their services under the Third Reich which was in conflict with the Soviet Union. Although the Soviets had originally signed a pact with Germany to become a partner in its Axis forces, Chancellor Hitler gave orders to attack the USSR which moved to align itself with the Allies.

 

In their great wisdom and wish to do honour to President Zelinskyy, an invitation to attend Parliament went out from the Speaker of the House to an elderly Ukrainian man living in his constituency who happened to be a WWII veteran. He was feted in the House of Commons as a valorous combatant against the evil of fascism, leading to two standing ovations. Even President Zelenskyy rose from his seat to hail 99-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a war hero. 

He was, in fact, a member of the 14th SS Galician which fought as volunteers with the Axis in a Division that swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. When Jewish and Polish groups revealed the awkward truth that Hunka served in a Ukrainian SS unit, the news circulated wildly and widely of Canada's lack of WWII memory and its government's ignorance of the sacrifices made by its own military to free Europe and the world from the threat of fascist domination of the world order.

Ex-Waffen SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka's appearance in Parliament became an embarrassment to the Trudeau government, the result of which was jeering from abroad and outraged emails sent to the House of Commons by Canadians provoked into disbelief that their government leaders could be so witless.The chastising comments of some of those emails condemning the appearance of the elderly man were released under Access to Information law when all members of the House offered two standing ovations for the former Waffen SS soldier.

House Speaker Anthony Rota took complete responsibility for the contretemps and resigned his post. That Hunka had fought against Allied forces during the Second World War seemed obvious to those paying attention, but all those present in Parliament that day were obviously not paying attention. With the release of the  documents, including condemnatory emails with names of senders redacted, Canada faced responsibility of embarrassment emanating from the source of its public voters.

 

Soviet and German officers are having a friendly conversation in the newly captured Polish city of Brest, September 1939. This photo was taken during a joint Soviet – German military parade in Brest, Sep. 22, 1939. This photo was taken during a joint Soviet – German military parade in Brest, Sep. 22, 1939.

That members of the Waffen SS were able to enter Canada following the war left some speechless. But Canada was well known to have become a North American haven for former Nazi German war criminals, and Ukrainians who joined them as allies were given the same entry opportunities by Canadian governments that failed to pay attention then, as they do now. The British government, post-WWII, was involved in releasing imprisoned members of the unit they balked at having on British soil, sending them instead to Canada.

In a report from 1948, British government official Beryl Hughes discussed plans to send SS members to Canada: "What little we know of their war record is bad", he wrote, while handling the issue for Britain's Home Office. "We're still hoping to get rid of the less-desirable Ukrainian PoWs either to Germany or Canada". And to Canada they came. Some members of the wider Ukrainian-Canadian community still worship those Axis-aligned Ukrainians as war heroes. Statues erected to their honour in Canada remain to this day.

The monument to Roman Shukhevych, commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army from 1943 until his death in 1950, has stood at the entrance of the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in North Edmonton, Alberta, since mid-1970s. Shukhevych is lionized by some for his fight for Ukrainian independence against Poland, the Soviet Union and later Germany. But critics of the monument say it glorifies a Nazi henchman who sided with Germany in hopes of winning independence for Ukraine.Photo: (Photo courtesy of John-Paul Himka)