Canadian Parliament Gives Two Standing Ovations to Former Nazi

During Zelensky's Address to Parliament

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy addressed the Canadian Parliament. Dressed in his usual military green coloured outfit, purely for the optics of reminding everyone he is fighting a war, Zelensky thanked Canada for its financial, political and military aid.

But then something odd happened. After Zelensky’s speech, Anthony Rota, the Speaker of the House of Commons, made a speech. It wasn’t the comparison of Zelensky with Nelson Mandela that was odd, nor was it the comparison with Winston Churchill. It was when Rota announced the presence of a “Ukrainian-Canadian veteran from the second world war, who fought the Ukrainian independence against the Russians” in the Chamber.

To this introduction, the Chamber, including Trudeau and Zelensky gave this veteran a long standing ovation. You can watch this moment at around 48 minutes in the video below.

Zelensky can be seen gesturing to the man during the ovation. When the clapping stops, Rota reveals that the man is called Yaroslav Hunka, a “Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero and we thank him for all his service”.

Hunka then gets another standing ovation.

But what is so odd about this “hero” getting a standing ovation? Who is war veteran Yaroslav Hunka?

Go back to Rota’s introduction - a “Ukrainian-Canadian veteran from the second world war, who fought the Ukrainian independence against the Russians”. Who were the Russians fighting in the second world war? That’s right, the Nazis. Maybe that’s why Rota pauses for a while after he read out that sentence. Was that the moment he realised he had f****d up?

AP News pictured Zelensky cheering Hunka and clarified that he had fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II but they failed to explain what that Division was.

The First Ukrainian Division was actually called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) when it was formed in 1943. It was renamed in 1945 after surrendering to the Western Allies.

German, Austrian and Ukrainian officers commanded the Division. During the Nuremberg Trials it was declared to be a criminal organisation and many of its recruits are alleged to have committed atrocities against Jews and Communists. The Division also destroyed a number of Polish communities in western Ukraine, murdering Polish civilians in the process.

According to the Times of Israel, “the SS division was involved in putting down the Warsaw Uprising, in which an estimated 200,000 civilians and rebel fighters were killed…Soldiers from the division were also involved in the destruction of Huta Pieniacka, a village in Poland that also served as a shelter for Jews, in which 1,000 people were killed”.

Forward reports that Hunka volunteered to join the division in 1943. There are a number of photos of him during SS artillery training in Munich and “during SS artillery training in Munich in December 1943 and in Neuhammer (now Świętoszów), Poland, the site of Himmler’s visit”.

Hanka can be seen standing in the middle in the photo above.

After the war, Canada allowed approximately 2,000 members of the SS to settle in Canada. Strangely, Canada doesn’t even try to hide that fact and an inquiry refused to recognise them as war criminals. They also have a number of memorials which include the emblem of the SS Division. Over the last few years these have been vandalised with someone painting “Nazi monument” on them.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs have condemned the decision by saying “We are deeply troubled & disturbed that a Ukrainian veteran of the infamous 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Nazi SS - which actively participated in the genocide of Jews - was celebrated with a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament. Canada’s Jewish community stands firmly with Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we can’t stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.”

As the Post Millennial notes, “it is not the first time the Trudeau government has supported Nazism”.

As media publisher Ezra Levant noted, "Last year, Chrystia Freeland held up a scarf promoting a far-right Ukrainian Nationalist movement linked to Neo-Nazis commemorating Stefan Bandera, the Nazi criminal. Freeland deleted her social media posts, but not before the photo was saved."

Freeland’s office not only rushed to take down the photo from the minister’s website but maintained Freeland had been a victim of "Russian disinformation."

"A photo was taken, tweeted, and later replaced when it was clear some accounts were distorting the intent of the rally and photo," read a statement by Freeland press secretary Adrienne Vaupshas. She added that the origins of the scarf were not known and that "many people were jockeying for photos and giving the Deputy Prime Minister tokens."

Freeland’s grandfather worked as a Nazi propagandist, a fact she denied for years.

This follows European Council President, Ursula von der Leyen’s recent address at the Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards. At around 6 minutes, without mentioning the US, she discussed how the atomic bomb razed Hiroshima to the ground. She then goes on to say that “Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons once again. It is heinous. It is dangerous. And in the shadow of Hiroshima it is unforgiveable”. It seems Russia is to be blamed for Hiroshima now.

Russophobia has become so extreme and so disconnected from reality now, that Canada is celebrating a real-life Nazi. In this upside-down world, just because the Nazis fought the Russians during the second world war, that makes them heroes now that the Russians are the baddies.