by David Solway, PJ Media:
At a high-profile event for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 22, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Canadian immigrant who ostensibly fought for the First Ukrainian Division against the Russians in World War II, a standing ovation for his service in the cause of freedom. Speaker of the House Anthony Rota introduced Hunka as a “war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians.”
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It soon became known that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a Ukrainian unit formed by the Nazi regime in 1943. This division is notorious for its mass murders of Jews and Poles on the Eastern Front during the war. Journalist Lori Spencer has unearthed a video in which Hunka speaks of yearning for the arrival of the “mystical German knights” during Operation Barbarossa. “We greeted the German army with joy,” Hunka confides.
Rota dutifully fell on his sword, confessing that he took responsibility for the travesty and that members of Parliament and the Ukraine delegation were not aware of his plan to recognize Hunka, who is from Rota’s electoral district. Rota’s admission was obviously met with both relief and righteous indignation since both parliament and leadership were thus absolved of complicity in the debacle. After all, how could they have known that an obscure Canadian immigrant was in effect a war criminal?
“Never in my life would I have imagined that the speaker of the House would have asked us to stand and applaud someone who fought with the Nazis,” House government leader Karina Gould said. “This is very emotional for me. My family are Jewish holocaust survivors. I would have never in a million of [sic] years stood and applauded someone who aided the Nazis.”
Trudeau’s apology — “All of us who were in this House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped even though we did so unaware of the context” — was par for the Liberal course. But the expressions of affront and umbrage, the protestations of innocence, and the apologies, all miss several key points.