Canada Issues Official “Oops” for Honoring Nazi Soldier in Parliament

Ben Mathis-Lilley
·2 min read
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Canada! The United States’ northern neighbor has long been perceived as a relative haven of civility, tolerance, and not forcing citizens into bankruptcy because they have cancer. But also, as of last week, it’s the only North American country in 2023 whose legislature and prime minister have given a standing ovation to an aging Nazi. Per Reuters:

The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons on Sunday apologized for praising an individual at a parliamentary meeting who served in a Nazi unit during World War Two.

Two days earlier, Speaker Anthony Rota had recognized 98-year old Yaroslav Hunka as a “Ukrainian hero” before the Canadian Parliament. Hunka served in World War II as a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, according to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group that demanded an apology.

Haha, whoops! The incident was especially embarrassing because it took place during a session attended by both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish. (Rota’s apparent intention had been to highlight Hunka as a fellow fighter for Ukrainian freedom who had taken up arms against Russia. But Russia, at the time, was the Soviet Union, and was engaged in a war against Nazi Germany, whose forces included Ukrainians after Germany seized Ukrainian territory from the USSR.) Zelensky does not appear to have commented on the incident, which Trudeau called “deeply embarrassing.”

In the United States, the ongoing embrace of Nazi iconography by some members of the Ukrainian military has complicated Democrats’ support for the country’s cause, while Republicans who meet with white supremacists usually do so on purpose. (Canada has had its own controversies involving conservative legislators meeting with far-right figures; a number of conservative MPs also supported the anti-vaccine “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations in 2022, despite the involvement of known white supremacists in organizing the protests and the presence of Confederate flags and swastikas at its gatherings.)

In any case, 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka is canceled.