Canada: Jewish advocacy organizations condemned members of Parliament on Sunday for giving a standing ovation to a man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War - Speaker resigns

[Emily]

OTTAWA -
Several Jewish advocacy organizations condemned members of Parliament on Sunday for giving a standing ovation to a man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Ottawa on Friday, MPs honoured 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, who fought for the First Ukrainian Division, in the House of Commons.

Hunka was invited by Speaker Anthony Rota, who introduced him.
"I am very proud to say that he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing--Timiskaming," the Ontario MP said.

"He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service."
MPs cheered and Zelenskyy raised his fist in acknowledgement as Hunka saluted from the gallery during two separate standing ovations.

The First Ukrainian Division was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies issued a statement Sunday saying the division "was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable."

"An apology is owed 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," the statement said...
...
B'nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said it is beyond outrageous that Parliament honoured a former member of a Nazi unit, saying Ukrainian "ultra-nationalist ideologues" who volunteered for the Galicia Division "dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing."


https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/house-...ment-1.6575593

[Emily]

FSWC Calls for Canada's Speaker of House of Commons to Step Down after Inviting Nazi War Veteran to Parliament
September 26, 2023


Toronto (September 26, 2023) - As the spiraling fallout caused by a former Nazi Waffen-SS unit member being invited to and celebrated on the floor of the House of Commons continues to mount, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is calling for Anthony Rota to resign from his role as Speaker of the House of Commons.

While we acknowledge his apology, Speaker Rota's decision to invite a former member of the Waffen-SS, notorious for its involvement in Holocaust atrocities, to Canada's Parliament has left a stain on our country’s venerable legislature with profound implications both in Canada and globally. This incident has compromised all 338 Members of Parliament and has also handed a propaganda victory to Russia, distracting from what was a momentously significant display of unity between Canada and Ukraine. It has also caused great pain to Canada's Jewish community, Holocaust survivors, veterans and other victims of the Nazi regime.

As a result, for the credibility of the institution of Parliament, Speaker Rota must step down. We also call on the Parliamentary Procedure and House Affairs Committee (PROC) to hold public hearings and investigate what took place, vetting process failures and propose measures to ensure that no such incident could ever happen again.

Media Contact:
Avital Borisovsky

Director, Communications

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies

https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/new...r-canadas.html

[Emily]

Sept. 26, 2023 / 6:09 PM
Canadian House Speaker Anthony Rota resigns post after he honored Nazi

By Adam Schrader

Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Anthony Rota, the speaker of Canada's House of Commons, has resigned his post after he faced criticism for honoring a man who served in a unit of the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi's paramilitary organization in World War II.

"It is with a heavy heart that I rise in the House today to inform members of my resignation as speaker of the House of Commons," Rota said in a statement published by the lower house of Canada's parliament.

"It has been my greatest honor as a parliamentarian to have been elected by you, my peers, to serve as the speaker of the House of Commons in the 43rd and 44th Parliaments."

Rota had invited Yaroslav Hunka to the House of Commons for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's address to Parliament. The politician recognized the 98-year-old as "a Ukrainian hero" and "a Canadian hero," which led to a standing ovation in the gallery.

However, it was revealed over the weekend that Hunka had served in the First Ukrainian Division, a voluntary unit of the SS under the command of the Nazis.

Poland's Education Minister Przemysław Czarnek has now announced the possible extradition of the nonagenarian to face criminal charges. Canada and Poland do not have a formal extradition agreement...
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...6431695763377/

[Emily]

SWC Urges Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to Explicitly Condemn the Galicia Division Part of the Waffen SS During WW II

September 26, 2023

98 year-old “hero” hailed by Canadian Parliament was a member of the division

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is calling on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to explicitly condemn the Galicia Division, an organization founded by the Nazis and part of the Waffen SS, that swore their allegiance to Hitler during World War II. This follows the hailing of a 98-year-old “hero” by the Canadian parliament, who was a member of the Galicia Division. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Canadian affiliate - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies has already called for the resignation of Anthony Rota as Speaker of the House of Commons after the former member of the Waffen SS, notorious for its involvement in Holocaust atrocities, was celebrated on the floor of the House of Commons. “Nobody put a gun to their heads to serve in that division,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, where the Bible teaches us not to hold children responsible for the crimes of their parents. However, we will never forget and never forgive. Over one million Jews where mass murdered in that region by the Nazis and their willing collaborators.This takes us back to post World War II when the British shipped 5,000 Ukrainians in Canada. Many identified as anti-communists but the British never informed the Canadian government that among them where individuals who were implicated in crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Cooper added. Simon Wiesenthal, the heroic Nazi hunter, refused to go back to Canada after his first visit as he said that there was no political will to deal with the issues of Nazi War Criminals by the Canadian government. “Some ask who won the Cold War - the former Nazi war criminals,” Cooper concluded.

For further information contact the Center’s Global Communications Director at [see article], join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/swc-urges-canadian-prime.html

Red highlight added by poster.

[Emily]

Renewed calls to take down Nazi-linked Ukraine monuments in Edmonton
https://globalnews.ca/video/9990784/...s-in-edmonton/


By Karen Bartko Global News
Posted September 27, 2023 9:06 pm
Updated September 27, 2023 9:09 pm

The fallout continued over Parliament’s recognition last week of a man who fought for the Nazis — a move some have called the most embarrassing international debacle in Canadian history — and now there calls to remove two monuments in Edmonton with ties to the regime.

“We believe that both monuments in question are monuments to people who are complicit in the genocide of six million Jews and millions of other victims of the Nazi regime and their collaborators,” said Dan Panneton, director of allyship and community engagement with the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC)...

https://globalnews.ca/news/9990704/e...-nazi-history/

[Emily]

The US has many more monuments honoring Nazis and their collaborators than Canada has. (I'm glad my state has none known.) A world map is here:

https://forward.com/news/481224/the-many-monuments-that-still-honor-fascists-nazis-and-murderers-of-jews/

Russia only has one on the map, and Belarus has none. Instead, Belarus has a spectacular monument honoring its 3 million civilians killed by Nazis. 800,000 were Jewish. JTA says Belarus "was one of the few places in Europe where German brutality toward non-Jews matched their anti-Semitic savagery."

https://www.jta.org/2017/08/14/global/this-holocaust-monument-in-belarus-is-haunting-and-subversive