New Delhi: Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre has called on prime minister Justin Trudeau to personally apologise to Canadians for the veneration of a former Waffen-SS member by the Canadian Parliament in the presence of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Terming the failure of authorities to properly vet Yaroslav Hunka a “massive act of incompetence,” Poilievre said it was Trudeau’s job to protect Zelenskyy from this embarrassment.
“Canadians are sick and tired of a prime minister who never takes responsibility for the things that happen under his watch. Whether it is the record high inflation rates, or the doubling of housing costs, or the constant international embarrassments, he always finds someone to throw under the bus,” Poilievre asserted in the Canadian Parliament, to a rousing reception from the opposition benches.
Trudeau is in Ottawa today.
When will he answer for this disgraceful embarrassment to Canada? pic.twitter.com/jo82gL2Lw1
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) September 25, 2023
Hunka, a 98-year-old Canadian-Ukrainian and former member of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, was called a “war hero” and a “Ukrainian hero” by Anthony Rota, speaker of the House of Commons, just before Zelenskyy’s address Friday. He also received a standing ovation from MPs and an acknowledgement from the Ukrainian president.
As reported by ThePrint earlier, the Waffen-SS was declared a criminal organisation at the end of World War II owing to its role as a voluntary unit under the command of the Nazis.
Speaking on Parliament Hill Monday, Trudeau said the incident was “deeply embarrassing” to the Parliament and “by extension to all Canadians”. He added that it is important to push back against Russian propaganda and “misinformation” the incident may have spurred.
Russia, which has long stated “denazification” as one of the goals for its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, called the standing ovation for Hunka in the Canadian House of Commons “outrageous”.
The episode showed a careless disregard for historical truth, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. “Many Western countries, including Canada, have raised a young generation that does not know who fought whom or what happened during the Second World War. And they know nothing about the threat of fascism,” he was quoted as saying.
Hunka’s visit to the Parliament occurred just two days before the commemoration of what is considered to be one of the holiest days in Judaism — Yom Kippur — which fell on 24-25 September this year.
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Rota apologises, Oppn calls for resignation
At the opening of the Parliament Monday, Anthony Rota, speaker of the House of Commons, apologised for inviting Hunka, while also taking full responsibility for the incident.
“I would also like to add that this initiative was entirely my own. The individual in question being from my riding and having been brought to my attention, no one including you, my fellow Parliamentarians or the Ukrainian delegation were privy to my remarks prior to their delivery,” Rota said in the House.
“This was my decision and my decision only. This was a constituent who wanted to be here and I recognised him. It was my decision and I apologise profusely. I cannot tell you how regretful it is,” he added.
Karina Gould, the leader of the government in the House of Commons and a ‘descendant of Holocaust survivors’, asked the opposition not to “politicise” the issue and acknowledged that the decision to recognise Hunka was the speaker’s alone.
The Conservatives in the House asserted that the presence of Hunka in the House of Commons gallery was a failure that went beyond Rota and that the Prime Minister’s Office was partly to blame, as reported by the National Post.
The Canadian daily quoted Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer pointing the finger at the PMO, saying, “What kind of message does this send to our allies around the world that when they come to the House of Commons to address the House and Senate, that basic rudimentary vetting as to who might be in the galleries isn’t done?”
New Democratic Party (NDP) House leader Peter Julian Monday called for the resignation of Rota during a speech in the House of Commons. Shortly after the NDP’s call, the Bloc Québécois, another party in Parliament, echoed the call for Rota’s resignation.
Oppn prevents deletion from records
On Monday, Gould moved for unanimous consent to adopt a motion to strike all records, including video recordings, of the celebration of Hunka in the House of Commons.
The Conservative Party disagreed, with Member of Parliament Marty Morantz arguing that “deleting the words from the Hansard [transcripts], would have only one purpose, to try and forget what happened.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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