Bucharest, September 25, 2023 – On Friday, September 22, 2023, on the occasion of the visit and speech of Ukrainian President Zelensky, who is on a visit to Canada, the country’s parliament, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, solemnly applauded and greeted an unprecedented guest, none other than the former Ukrainian collaborator of the Hitlerite troops of the Second World War.
According to otawasun.com, Friday’s honors for Yaroslav Hunka of North Bay, Ont., sparked outrage on social media and calls for the resignation of House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota.
Hunka fought with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, also known as the 14th Waffen SS Division and sometimes referred to as the First Ukrainian Division – a volunteer unit under Nazi command.
Today, the UN says it opposes any celebration of Nazis. This was stated at a briefing by the representative of the UN Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, commenting on the greeting of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to the veteran of the SS Galicia division Jaroslav Hunka in the Canadian Parliament.
The honoring in the Parliament of Canada of a Nazi who served in the SS division “Galicia” (also known as “Galicia”) is a farce that could lead to a global tragedy. This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, on the Rossiya-24 television channel.
“This will end in tragedy on a global scale, now it’s a farce when the Canadian parliament applauds a Nazi collaborator,” she said.
According to the diplomat, the glorification of Nazi murderers in the West will lead “to a global catastrophe, to a tragedy.”
Anthony Rota apologized Sunday, saying he was solely to blame for his remarks and the harm caused to the Jewish community. He did not name Hunka in his statement.
But Ivan Katchanovski, a Ukrainian-Canadian professor at the University of Ottawa who is at the center of the discovery of Hunka’s past, said it is time for Canada to send a clear message denouncing the establishment. “The Canadian government should directly condemn the SS Galicia, not honor it,” said Katchanovski, a specialist in Ukrainian politics. “It’s unbelievable that this happened in the first place.”
Details of Hunka’s service are on a website honoring the division, including photos of the North Bay man in his Nazi uniform. Katchanovski’s tweets about Hunka, along with photos, have been viewed on X, formerly known as Twitter, more than three million times. Media in the US, UK, Poland and Australia reported on the controversy.
Katchanovski said lawmakers should have realized what was happening as soon as Rota introduced Hunka as a “Ukrainian-Canadian World War II war veteran who fought for Ukraine’s independence against the Russians.” .
The Russians allied with Canada, the US, Great Britain and other nations to fight the Nazis during the war.
The Associated Press previously published photos showing that during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech in the Canadian Parliament on September 22, those gathered saluted the 98-year-old Ukrainian nationalist, who during World War II served in the 1st Ukrainian Division, also called SS “Galicia” Division. One of the images is captioned: “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greet Yaroslav Hunka, who served in the Ukrainian 1st Division during World War II and later immigrated to Canada.”
