New Delhi: The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, Anthony Rota, resigned Tuesday over inviting to the House and praising a former Ukrainian-Canadian who fought in a Nazi unit during World War II.
This followed Rota apologising twice for last Friday’s incident, both inside and outside the House.
Ninety-eight-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a former member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galicia), a volunteer unit created by Nazi Germany to fight the Soviet Union, was called a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero” by Rota before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to address the Canadian Parliament. Rota’s comments prompted members to give Hunka a standing ovation.
“It is with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as the Speaker of the House of Commons. It has been my greatest honour as a Parliamentarian to have been elected by you, my peers, to serve for the 43rd and 44th Parliament,” Rota said Tuesday on the floor of the House, according to media reports.
“The work of this House is above any of us. Therefore, I must step down as your Speaker. I reiterate my profound regret for my error in recognising an individual in the House during the joint address to Parliament of President Zelenskyy,” Rota added ahead of the question period.
Accepting responsibility, Rota made it clear that his resignation will come into effect at the end of 27 September. A Liberal Party Member of Parliament, Rota has served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019.
Leaders from all four official parties in the House of Commons had called for Rota’s resignation. As reported by ThePrint earlier, the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois called for his resignation Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Karina Gould, the leader of the government in the House and Liberal Party member, said she does not see any way for Rota to retain his position, while the Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly also called for him to step down, according to media reports.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre also called for Rota’s resignation Tuesday.
Hunka’s veneration has set off a round of domestic and international troubles for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. As reported by ThePrint earlier, the Opposition has asked for Trudeau to personally apologise for failing to vet Hunka before letting him into Parliament.
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While seeking the PM’s apology, Conservatives in the House of Commons also accused Trudeau of throwing Rota under the bus. Poilievre accused him of hiding from the House, leaving the job of defending the government to Gould.
“Where is he and why is he hiding under a rock today?” Poilievre asserted in the House Tuesday, to rousing applause, the video of which is posted on his X account.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman also accused Trudeau of hiding, while ratcheting up the pressure on Trudeau for failing to take responsibility for the diplomatic embarrassment the Hunka incident has caused for Canada and President Zelenskyy as well.
Meanwhile, Minister of Education of Poland — a NATO ally — Przemysław Czarnek Tuesday announced he has “taken steps” towards Hunka’s extradition in a post on X.
“In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian Parliament, which involved honouring, in the presence of President Zelenskyy, a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien (Galicia) formation, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland,” the translated post by Czarnek on X said.
Canada has refused to comment on the development. CBC News, a division of Canada’s public broadcaster, quoted Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, Arif Virani, as saying to the media Tuesday that the Canadian government has no comment on this as there has been no official extradition request from the Polish government yet.
Nevertheless, the Hunka incident has given fodder to Russia, which has long stated its aim of the ‘denazification’ of Ukraine as one of the goals of its ‘special military operation’. Kremlin also called the veneration of Hunka by the Canadian Parliament as ‘outrageous’ as reported by ThePrint earlier.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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