“We have here in the Chamber today, a Ukrainian Canadian veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at the age of 98. His name is Yaroslav Hunka,” Speaker of the House Anthony Rota said. “I am very proud to say that he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing–Timiskaming. He is a Ukrainian hero, Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.”
All good, right? Until it turned out that Hunka’s First Ukrainian Division had been strategically rebranded in the last days of the Second World War in an effort to disguise its original title, the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. Connected to crimes against humanity during the Holocaust, this was a Nazi military unit ultimately under the command of Adolph Hitler.
The first politician to speak out in protest was Conservative MP and Co-Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, a Jew, and the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants.
And then others lowered the boom.
The Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre swiftly denounced “Parliament’s recognition of a Ukrainian veteran who served in a Nazi military unit during the Second World War implicated in the mass murder of Jews and others,” and demanded an apology “to every Holocaust survivor and veteran of the Second World War who fought the Nazis, and an explanation must be provided as to how this individual entered the hallowed halls of Canadian Parliament and received recognition from the Speaker of the House and a standing ovation.”
By day’s end, Rota’s office had issued a full apology for the latest, enormous domestic and international embarrassment to be suffered by Trudeau and his increasingly troubled government.
The incident came on the heels of the prime minister’s humiliating Asian sojourn, the suspension of trade talks with India, and the escalation of tensions following the uncomfortable handling of accusations that the Indian government orchestrated the murder of Khalistan independence activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
No doubt the engagement with Hunka was a mistake. Given that Francois-Phillipe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, recently X-posted that Canada and Japan have “always” been allies, it’s clear there are many in Ottawa with little, if any, knowledge of even recent history.
But this was also a richly deserved moment of karma for a government that has been far too swift to accuse others of sidling up to Nazis.
It was only February 2022, after all, when Trudeau stood in the House of Commons and, in response to a question from Lantsman regarding what many viewed as his thuggish response to the Freedom Convoy, said: “Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas. They can stand with people who wave the Confederate flag.”
Lantsman, in shock that the prime minister would accuse a person of her history of such behaviour, demanded an apology, which she never got.
Last week, when thousands of parents from coast to coast took to the streets to express their discontent with explicit sexual content in schools and radical gender ideology, Trudeau issued a statement inferring all involved are opposed to the rights of the LGBTQ community.
“Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country. We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations,” he said in a social media post.
Others went further. In an email, members of the Greater Victoria Teachers Association were warned that “these campaigns are being organized by known white supremacist groups. These campaigns use dog whistle techniques that try to frame their hateful message as ‘protecting children.’”
Police shut down the Victoria #1MillionMarch4Children because they couldn’t keep participants safe from a large mob of counter protesters.
None of this is useful. Hyperbolic portrayals of anyone who disagrees with the left’s increasingly radical policies as goose-stepping psychos serve only to deepen divisions in society.
Yet for years, it has been encouraged by a prime minister far too comfortable questioning the need to tolerate or accommodate dissenting views.
Let this past week teach him and others that it is their job to heal wounds, not manufacture and exploit them.
Too bad it took a humbling encounter with real Nazi history to remind them of that.
