If the embarrassing events in Canada’s House of Commons last Friday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address to MPs and Senators illustrate anything, it ought to be the value of teaching history – and remembering your history lessons.
Key takeaways from everyone’s modern history education should include the facts World War II started in 1939 and ended in 1945; that notwithstanding whatever has happened since then, during that time Canada’s principal enemies were Germany and Japan; that Canada was absolutely justified in fighting the repugnant and genocidal Nazi regime in Germany; and that our principal allies in World War II included Britain, the Soviet Union, and, after December 1941, the United States.
If you don’t know those basic facts, no matter how old or young you are, you are not fit to hold public office.
Moreover, if you don’t know that much, no matter what you do for a living, you should probably be required to take a mandatory remedial history course.
So it is appalling and more than a little shocking that, judging from their conduct at the moment former House Speak Anthony Rota introduced Yaroslav Hunka as a “98-year-old Ukrainian Canadian who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians during the Second World War,” a majority of the members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate did not know those basic facts.
Either that or, much worse, some MPs and Senators have reached the conclusion Canada fought on the wrong side in World War II and others didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to challenge them, even tacitly.
Since last Friday, there has been a great deal of effort made by the participants in this disgraceful episode to blame someone else for the fact Parliamentarians leaped to their feet and cheered the moment Mr. Rota so introduced Mr. Hunka.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet blame the former Speaker, who has since resigned in disgrace; the Conservative Opposition and their many supporters in media blame the PM and his cabinet.
But the plain fact is that the moment the offending words exited Mr. Rota’s mouth, it should have been obvious to anyone with even a deficient education that if Mr. Hunka was occupied fighting one of Canada’s principal allies during the Second World War, he was fighting for Canada’s principal enemy in that conflict.
In other words, his unit was at war with Canada.
And yet – notwithstanding the well-known horrific behaviour of Nazi Germany in that conflict – we are supposed to believe that not one of them thought it might be prudent to remain in their seat and refuse to applaud a man who was self-evidently fighting in the Nazi cause?
And there’s no way to get around it, waging war on Canada and its allies is exactly what Mr. Hunka and other members of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) – to the veterans of which, notoriously and controversially, there is a large memorial in Edmonton – were doing.
This is so idiotic it is almost breathtaking.
What the hell is wrong with our Parliamentarians?
It obviously calls for serious remedial attention.
And that is why, notwithstanding the enthusiasm with which the Conservatives and their cheerleaders in media have been attacking the PM and his cabinet about this episode, the questions that need to be asked are unlikely to be pursued with much vigour.
After all, when you start to think seriously about what happened, it is hard not to conclude that everyone involved looks like an idiot.
And that, of course, includes Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and his caucus.
So while Mr. Poilievre, for once, has been asking the right question – how the hell did this happen? – it’s unlikely he’ll keep asking it for long.
When it sinks in with the Poilievre cheer team at the National Post that Conservative caucus members were apparently all on their feet applauding the Nazi veteran too, and that despite the blame game there’s really no excuse for such stupidity, it’s reasonable to assume they’ll all be pleased to let the matter fade away as quickly as possible.
Surely, though, some of those Parliamentarians (Conservatives, New Democrats, Bloc and Liberals alike) must have understood what was happening and yet didn’t have the courage to do the right thing and go, even silently, against the Orwellian groupthink that clearly now dominates the Canadian government
Interestingly, as a result of the outrage Mr. Rota’s moment of stupidity provoked, there now seems to be an elite consensus – or, at least, a Parliamentary consensus – that the unit for which Mr. Hunka fought must be acknowledged as in fact a Nazi division.
This has the potential to have some interesting results.
Already, the University of Alberta has announced it is paying back a $30,000 endowment made in the names of Mr. Hunka and his wife to the university’s Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies, a story broken Wednesday by independent reporter Jeremy Appel in his Substack column.
“After careful consideration of the complexities, experiences, and circumstances of those impacted by the situation, we have made the decision to close the endowment and return the funds to the donor,” U of A Provost and Academic Vice-President Verna Yiu said in a statement. “The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused.”
Moreover, someone is now sure to ask who in the federal cabinet was co-ordinating President Zelenskyy’s visit for the government. After all, Mr. Poilievre is quite right that it strains credulity that no one in the government was aware in advance of Mr. Rota’s invitation to Mr. Hunka – notwithstanding the technical independence of the Speaker’s office.
So just who knew what, and when, is a legitimate question that ought to be pursued.
One also wonders what the impact, if any, of this elite consensus about the true nature of Mr. Hunka’s former military unit might be on the upcoming legal proceedings in Edmonton stemming from vandalism to the memorial to that SS unit’s members.
Very difficult to comprehend how the whole situation could have come about.
Canada has the largest diaspora of Ukrainians outside of ukraine, many of
whom are shall I say, far right. This diaspora has been widely explored by both major parties as our good blogger has pointed out
It has been widely reported the Ukrainians who had the easiest passage to Canada post WW2 were those with SS tattoos, anti communist bonafides don’t you know.
The deputy premiers grandfather spent the war living in two apartments stolen from Jewish families and publishing nazi propaganda, a man she is quite proud of.
Canada loves Banderite Ukrainians, we just kept it close to our chest for
A good long while
Sadly, history of Canada, and of world events, isn’t covered comprehensively enough in our schools. First Nations history, Metis history, and other events, such as the Holocaust, aren’t given the attention they deserve. We have also had Holocaust deniers, such as Jim Keegstra, teaching that the Holocaust never happened, in Alberta schools, during the 1980s. There have been people who believed him, which is bad. If you were in Eastern Europe, and fighting Russia, during World War 2, the common sense conclusion, should be that you were in the SS, under Hitler. Nobody should be glorifying anybody that was associated with bloodthirsty dictators, such as Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, or anyone else. It’s just sickening, and evil. We do need to improve our education system, so that history is better covered. This is also a slap in the face to our veterans, who fought the evil Nazi regime, during World War 2, including my own uncles, and other relatives. It is also a slap in the face to the families of people who perished in the Holocaust.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorials_in_Canada_to_Nazis_and_Nazi_collaborators
From the link, “removing this monument will require the Ukrainian-Canadian community to take a hard look at its own history.”
Yes, it will. But that’s not all:
https://www.theprogressreport.ca/edmonton_facility_with_nazi_statue_received_35k_from_the_federal_government_in_2020_to_reduce_hate_motivated_crime
“However, statues venerating Nazi collaborators have no place in Canada, and should never have been permitted to be built in the first place. Our government should instead be working with Polish and Jewish communities to correct this historical error and ensure that Nazi collaborators are no longer publicly venerated in Canada.”
In the meantime, all Albertans can ask themselves if it was appropriate for the UCP under Jason Kenney to donate $6M to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which counts Yaroslav Hunka as its friend and donor on its website.
I had the privilege of meeting an Edmonton woman who took part in the Warsaw Uprising as a teenage member of the Polish resistance. Left for dead in a ditch after being shot, she was later captured and sent to a concentration camp. She bore her war injuries for the rest of her life. She had no monument here in Alberta. Lest we forget…
Um, that’s the US from 1941, not ’42.
Speaking of Ukrainians with nazi connections who found a home in Canada following WW2, one might
recall deputy PM Freeland’s grandfather. And likely many others. Freeland denies it all, of course.
I’ve never personally been comfortable with the number of Germans who turned up in the USA after WW2. That misgiving dates back over 60 years now, since I was a child in England reading British comics — they often mentioned Ukrainians fighting for Germany as well. And of course, my father, who was putting in his medical residency in London in 1944-46 used to talk about V1 and V2 attacks and their aftermaths. And used to shake his head that Wernher von Braun and team turned up in the USA carrying on their rocket research.
I do believe that our remembrances of WW2 have to a certain extent been turned on their heads over the decades. A British series of six books on WW2 called WW2 in Pictures, but with a lot of text in heavy tomes published in 1946 by Odhams Press, was bequeathed to me by my father, who died over three decades ago. The story there isn’t quite what we get fed today, harumph. Nobody had had the time in 1946 to crank up the propaganda machine.
Thus I fear my feelings about the current conflict in Ukraine do not match the general mood in the West today. That and a lot of reading about politics and soccer hooligans in Ukraine in the oughties show a rather abrupt u-turn on commentary in the Western press’s coverage of that country’s politics around 2016. That’s my take — YMMV.
@Bill M
Whilst I share your sentiment we have to realize that the cat is now out of the bag and needs to be restrained!
Why the cat needed to leave the bag is another discussion that will not be met with much approval!
As for former Nazis! WTF they are everywhere ; I met more than a few ex Hitler youth in Prince George in the 1970’s.
We should be more concerned with modern day Nazis who pop up under many a well sounding banner!
TB
Freeland can deny it all she wants,
Her own Uncle, who is a proper
Scholar, not a spy/ propagandist is the one that rebutted her claim of “Russian disinformation”. Quite frankly I’m disgusted by her Bandera worship. She’s a bad liar (bad driver too reportedly)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorials_in_Canada_to_Nazis_and_Nazi_collaborators
Just a little disingenuous? Really, we’re still shocked by depths of ignorance? You have just eliminated the entire UCP caucus if knowledge and understanding of current and past affairs are requirements for public office. (I’m still naively partisan enough to hope some in the provincial NDP may scrape by.) You have correctly identified the breadth and depth of the gaps, nay crevices in understanding in federal government ranks. Many in office are not fit to be in office. And then there are the ones we lost. Mumilaaq Qaqqaq -Jane Philpott – Jodie Wilson-Raybould https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6068158 I don’t know if they know who were ‘our’ war heroes or not but they were ready to learn and bring their particular understanding of part of our Canada.
Maybe it’s our own fault? Please participate in the rewrite of the Alberta Social Studies curriculum. Faint hope. The initial survey does not bode well but maybe do it anyway?https://www.alberta.ca/curriculum-have-your-say
Yes, math is hard and history is complicated. What to do with our Ukrainians? https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-home-during-the-war/enemy-aliens/the-internment-of-ukrainian-canadians/
Typo — the US joined WWII in December 1941, not 1942.
I think you’re seriously underestimating the ability of most politicians (not just the CPC, honestly) for doublethink. Poilievre will absolutely hammer the Trudeau government for this while ignoring his own caucus’ ignorance.
Mr. Johnston: I never said I qualified to hold public office – well, actually, I did, but the voters said no. DJC
Didn’t Canada become allied with the US in December 1941 not 1942? I mean just talking history and all
Marvin: I never said I qualified to hold public office – well, actually, I did, but the voters said no. DJC
I think it’s a bit of a stretch to expect parliamentarians to connect the dot’s in the moment. To be honest, I too, was appalled by Rota’s failure and did make the connection about Hunka fighting the Russians… 3 days after the event.
What bothers me the most about this is the lack of accountability displayed, only a handful of applauders have offered a personal apology. It took DAYS for Rota to resign and almost a week for JT to come out of hiding and address the matter. Once again, he was careful to not take personal responsibility.
This is a pattern with JT. He should be a lot better at dealing with these errors in judgement given his many learning opportunities, but his failures continue to pile up. When you continue to deny error, you continue to make mistakes. You learn nothing.
I mean like criticized p.m. for failing to take personal responsibility were he personally responsible, but I just don’t see how he is in this instance.
I agree with you that expect everybody to draw the correct conclusion in three seconds when they’re focussed on demonstrating their support for Ukraine is unrealistic and unreasonable.
while urging a population to gain rudimentary historical fact, it is also necessary to recall that the SS recruited battalions from france, the netherlands, norway, denmark, hungary, and most of the other occupied nations in Europe. these battalions partipated in, and initiated, mass muderer as well as combat against the allies.
The best indicator of the participation of the occupied European states in Nazism is the percentage of their Jewish population that was murdered during the war. Along with Germany and Austria, Poland and the Baltic states wiped out 90% of their Jewish nationals indicating substantial public support. The Dutch allowed 75% of their Jewish nationals to be murdered. The Germans did not occupy all of the Ukraine, yet 60% of their prewar Jewish population was murdered, often with great public enthusiasm matched only in the Baltic states. France lost 26%. The Danish population with the help of the Church and implicit support from the Royal Family smuggled 98% of Danish Jewish nationals to safety in Sweden under the noses of the Gestapo and at considerable personal risk for all those families involved. Many Danish policemen spent the war in Belsen for their actions. Denmark brought back capital punishment and hanged the few Danish Nazi collaborators that survived the more informal retributions at the end of the war. To our complete shame Canada welcomed an influx of former Nazis at the end of the war. See: Dawidowicz, “The War Against the Jews”
Pearl Harbor, Dec 1941
Geronimo: I never said I qualified to hold public office – well, actually, I did, but the voters said no. Seems they were onto something. DJC
So true, thank you! just a minor correction: you meant December 1941
BOK: I never said I qualified to hold public office – well, actually, I did, but the voters said no. DJC
That is too bad – you would have been quite a step up from the ‘Unskilled Clown Pantomimes’ running the current show!
The U.S.A. entered WW II following the attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, not the 1942 you list as one of the basic facts we all need to know.
Mr. Foster. Ha-ha. Well done. I never said I qualified to hold public office – well, actually, I did, but the voters said no. DJC
And it also should be noted that Germany never declared war on any of the countries it invaded and occupied. Japan declared war on the US concurrently with the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, which lead to a declaration of war by the US and its allies. Germany was allied with the Japan, so had to honour their treaty by declaring war on the US and its allies. My understanding was that Italy, allied with Germany, was very reticent about joining the wider conflict. Mussolini was terrified at the prospect of being involved in a larger war, and that Germany would have an even greater hold over him as a result.
Is it too much to expect that a lesson will be learned from this incident and that steps will be taken to prevent similar events from happening in the future? If, as many suspect, this scandal in parliament reeks of a trap set up by nefarious entities with political motives, what are we going to do about it? Is it time to stop these special invitations completely? It just a short time ago that a convicted murderer made his way to the gallery at Saskatchewan’s legislature. Do we really need to single out such individuals out for special favors and attention?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/colin-thatcher-sask-throne-speech-1.6631009
Cool, if I am not mistaken, your lead photo is the library (Long Room) at Trinity College in Dublin. I was there last year myself. If you published while there, do you need to send a copy to the library? The world might be a better place if folks spent more time in libraries and less in arenas.
Dave: I’m impressed. You have correctly identified the location of that photo. Photos were expressly permitted in the library, so I don’t think any notice is required. Photos were not allowed in the presence of the Book of Kells, however. DJC
The gaffe in the H of C during Zelenski’s official visit was a long time coming. A long time coming in the sense that Canada, like many of the Western Allied countries and a host of neutral ones at the time of WW2, had a rather soft touch where agreeable and useful Nazis were concerned.
Operation Paperclip was a US-backed program designed to recruit scientists from the Nazi war effort in the coming war effort against the Soviet Union. As a result, a host of Nazis were conveniently immigrated into the US, among them NASA founder and former SS Untersturmführer Werher Von Braun. Of course, Von Braun never participated directly in Nazi atrocities, but he did accept the patronage of Heinrich Himmler, for the purpose of developing his V1 and V2 missile technology. Oh, and all the concentration camp labour he also needed. But he was considered a good and useful Nazi, so let him and others in.
And because Ukrainian nationalists became useful during the Cold War, it was prudent to give them asylum, even if they happened to be members of the 14th SS Grenadiers Div. (Galicia) And there were many others who suddenly became not so bad, regardless of their SS affiliations. It’s noted that no one ever talks about the SS Viking, which had an abundance of volunteers from Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, and pretty much every other occupied country in Europe at that time.
So, it’s apparent that everyone has a funny relationship with Nazis, and it continues to this day.
The Soviet Union only became our ally after National Socialist Germany and her Axis partners attacked her on June 22, 1941. Before that, the Soviets and the Nazis were working together (part of history is also the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was the impetus for the Second World War). The Soviet Union attacked Poland after Germany did in 1939, and terrorized Poland’s population. The Soviet Union also attacked the Baltic States and Finland. Only Finland managed not to be taken over. The Soviet Union was an important ally in the war, because without her the Western Allies would have taken much longer to defeat Germany. The Red Army suffered appalling casualties, but degraded the Wehrmacht to such an extant that Germany was unable to continue to resist. The Soviet Union was not democratic, and committed atrocities like the Katyn massacre. They were not our friends and did not share our values. None of this is an excuse for Mr Hunka or Mr Rota though. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Eastern and Central Europeans came to Canada seeking a better life, and most (IMHO at least) have been contributors. Members of groups like the 14th SS Division Galicia should have been told to renounce their beliefs and pledge allegiance to Canada and our values, otherwise look for some other place to live. On a more general note, I am disquieted by the insistence of ethnic groups who come here for an ostensibly better life, yet insist on brining old hatreds and prejudices with them.
ER: My military history professor, the late Reg Roy, used to teach us that without the Soviet Union, “we’d still be fighting in Normandy.” Mind you, that was more than 40 years ago, so it’s possible the fighting would have been over by now. DJC
I have tried to post: am I banned?
YYC Lefty: No, you’re not banned. I’ve been busy and there were a lot of comments on this post. I moderate them all. I’ve been working through them, writing another post, walking my dogs, mailing packages, and getting ready to return to work tomorrow. Sorry. Only so many hours in a day. DJC
Phew!! Well you can expect a kind and respectful letter in the post from me which you can ignore. Except for the part about meeting for a beer or coffee!
Lefty: Don’t worry about it. I’m pretty open to publishing comments, event highly critical ones. I do get overwhelmed by the stuff I take on from time to time. DJC
I need to be careful about what I say about this matter. I am not an expert, I am of English descent, but have mid European friends and relatives by marriage. From them I have learned the politics of the war years in Poland, the Ukraine and Russia was immensely complex. It was split by ideology, nationalism, religion, ethnicity, border changes and long historical hatreds. One person’s hero could be the next person’s criminal. Families, much like Halyna Freeland’s family could be split by internal dissension.
In any event, even with a sound understanding of WW2, the alliances and hatreds of this part the world in world war 2 are complex. Think of the shifts and changes of the USSR over the war. So, not to excuse this error, but perhaps we ought to wonder why such an incident did not arise sooner. And yes Canadians and our politicians are woefully ignorant of our nation’s history, and of WW2.
If you were not fixated on World War 2, as it was conducted on the Eastern Front, you probably did not read “Clash of the Titans” by Glantz, or “Blood Lands” by Snyder. Or about the German economy by Adam Tooze.
One aspect comes to light, that is driven by starvation, that occured in Germany during the First World War while it was blockade by the British Fleet. This is one factor that would shape what would become “The Hunger Plan”. The plan essentially condemned millions to starvation and death. Herbert Backe was assigned to oversee the planning. The expected death rate was expected to be on the order of 20 – 30 million souls.
The end goal was to seize the most productive crop lands in Europe. These areas were then to colonized by settlers, who would use what survivors existed, as slave labor. The plan did nto come to fruition due the defeats suffered by the German army and it’s allies.
As an aside, in a posting about the protestors occupying Ottawa, the term “Trawnikii” was used to describe them. This was out of line. If you were familiar with the origin of the term, the responsible individual should have been brought to task.
“Trawniki” refers to a SS training facility that was established June 1941. It was located in the occupied territory, that had been Poland, prior to Sept. 1939. It was set up for the purpose of training those who would staff the concentration camps and carry out the elimination of the enemies of the state.
As part and parcel of our democracy, the people in Ottawa are part of our communities. What we did not see, for quite some time, was effective counter protestors. So, a stalemate occured. There is a perception that we can be complacent about current events, because “those guys will sort it all out”.
Didn’t Smith think she had the powers of a US state Governor with respect to granting a pardon? Didn’t some of the folks involved in the convoys think they had second amendment rights? Sure sounds like there are too many citizens in Canada who need to stop watching US news and take a Canadian Civics course.
The Parliamentary reporters agree that the Speaker is independent and since he is serving the House in a non-partisan way it would be bad to have the PMO trying to control who he invites to his gallery in the House. Hunka lives in Rota’s riding and it seems likely his children asked Rota to invite him to the House while Zelensky was there as Hunka is a devoted Ukrainian. On CBC tonight a friend said they did not know Rota would point him out and the family is now hiding in fear.
As for Hunka, he joined the new Waffen division in 1943 when he was about 18 and was in it until they surrendered in 1945. Many of his friends joined and I wonder about what kind of training they had in school. He didn’t say much in his memoir about what he did in the war.
Also some people transferred into the division who had already committed war crimes. Besides just fighting, there are accusations that some of them massacred the people of several Polish villages, maybe other stuff too..
After they surrendered they were interned in Italy then UK then some 2000 immigrated to Canada, including Hunka in 1951 with his English wife. Some of them fought with more leftie Ukrainian immigrants here and they may have been welcomed by the Canadian gov’t as proven anti-communists.
There were some inquiries and vetting before and after they came to Canada, not clear if adequate. None were ever tried for war crimes.
Lots of arguments over their record. One became a Chancellor of the U of A 1982-86, Peter Savaryn (see Jeremy Appel’s twitter feed).
There is no evidence so far that Yaroslav Hunka had any part in any war crimes. A Polish politician claims to be seeking extradition, but he appears to be an extreme rightwing jerk and I doubt it will come to anything unless some solid evidence turns up.
Oh yeah, Rota kind of paused while reading his fulsome speech as if he had not seen it before and just realised what he had said, and my opinion is that someone wrote it for him and most or all of the HoC clapped without really listening or thinking about it. A perfect storm.
Well we don’t have to speculate, the man had a diary, and he wrote his thoughts down for posterity.
From the gray zone:
Authored by Yaroslav Hunka, the journal consisted of proud reflections on volunteering for the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS Galicia. Hunka decribed the Nazi Wehrmacht as “mystical German knights” when they first arrived in his hometown of Berezhany, and recalled his own service in the Waffen-SS as the happiest time in his life.
In my sixth grade,” he wrote, “out of forty students, there were six Ukrainians, two Poles, and the rest were Jewish children of refugees from Poland. We wondered why they were running away from such a civilized Western nation as the Germans
When Soviet forces held control of Berezhany, Hunka said he and his neighbors longed for the arrival of Nazi Germany. “Every day,” he recalled, “we looked impatiently in the direction of the Pomoryany (Lvov) with the hope that those mystical German knights, who give bullets to the hated Lyakhs are about to appear.” (Lyakh is a derogatory Ukrainian term for Poles).
In July 1941, when the Nazi German army entered Berezhany, Hunka breathed a sigh of relief. “We welcomed the German soldiers with joy,” he wrote. “People felt a thaw, knowing that there would no longer be that dreaded knocking on the door in the middle of the night, and at least it would be possible to sleep peacefully now.”
Seems like a nice guy.
Some of you hate communists so much it’s turning your brains to mush. The world owes the Soviet Union an eternal debt for smashing the Nazi war machine to little tiny bits. Hunka is lucky he surrendered to allied forces, the Soviets would have killed him, and they would have been justified in doing so.
“and recalled his own service in the Waffen-SS as the happiest time in his life.” No, this is incorrect, though many have repeated this claim. What he said was that his time at the gymnasium from age 16-18 were the happiest years of his life.
However, I think he said the OUN was involved with the gymnasium, so I wonder if he and his friends were being indoctrinated by the OUN with the approval of the Nazis.
Then when he was about 18 the 14th Waffen SS division was created. I’ve seen it said that they spent a year at an SS training place. I am speculating here, but I have to wonder if they were trained there to commit war crimes; there were forced labour/prisoner of war camps nearby and the Nazis murdered and starved many people in those camps as a matter of course.
That could explain why the Nuremburg tribunal would call the whole division war criminals.
The Galatian division of the waffen ss was basically wholly created from the OUN-B. The OUN-B isn’t really a group you join because they indoctrinated you, you join because you’re a committed fascist who hates Russians and poles and Jews and Romani. They’re bad people to a person, they also still very much still exist and very much hate Jews and Russians and communists. They weren’t forced, they were happy conscripts, and once again, the Nazis found them so rabid and uncontrollable they placed their leader under house arrest.
I absolutely refuse to let you whitewash the very real and disgusting crimes this unit carried out. Maybe read one of the several books written by Ukrainian Canadian scholars about the subject rather than speculating, thanks.
Maybe you should re-read my post and think about it. No white-washing there, but speculation about their training in the Waffen SS as well as before they joined it.
It looks like Per Anders Rudling has done much research on the Nazi connections:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-university-of-alberta-facing-calls-to-return-thousands-more-in/
DJC, I think you’re being a bit harsh. Firstly, it was entirely conceivable at the time of this event that Mr Hunka had fought with Ukrainian partisan units against both the Nazi invasion and their Soviet occupiers … or had been drafted into the mainline German Army — the Wehrmacht — in which case his service would have been far less problematic than the reality. This information about his background could not have been known to the assembled parliamentarians at the time of this event.
Secondly, there is absolutely no responsibility to be laid at the feet of the Government for this fiasco. The Speaker is an independent, neutral, non-partisan officer of the House, accountable only to the members of Parliament, not to the Government of the day. He is absolutely within his rights to invite any guests to sit in the Speaker’s Gallery, without any oversight by or permission from the Prime Minister’s Office or any other arm of the Executive branch. That he screwed up with respect to this individual is indisputable, but this can in no way be laid at the feet of the PM, despite PP’s ranting on the matter.
Picture, if you will, the outrage from the Opposition benches if the Executive decided it did indeed have the authority and responsibility to vet the invited guests of Members of Parliament. Or if the Executive decided it could and should tell the Speaker what to do on anything.
The Speaker did the honourable thing by falling on his sword — though many have questioned what took him so long — and the Prime Minister has apologized on behalf of Parliament. But that should be the end of it.
The vast majority of Ukrainians fought FOR the USSR, the partisans were a tiny minority, the majority of which were extreme fascists who were too extreme for the Germans, which is why Bandera was placed under house arrest by the Nazis, they didn’t trust him.
What you’re doing is speculative revisionism of well documented history, much of which was documented by Ukrainian scholars living in this very country.
The Galatian SS WERE FASCISTS, NAZIS (literally) and BAD. This isn’t complicated at all actually.
This column is bang on, but barring a civics exam for newly elected MPs ( and appointed Senators) what hope is there?
Great take on this horrible event. May I refer readers to the October 20, 2020 issue of Esprit de Corps magazine re the Canadian officer who worked so hard to get the Ukrainian members of the 14th Galician into Canada.
CBC has reported that the Hunka family has gone into hiding in North Bay, Ontario. Apparently they didn’t expect the backlash that has arisen, nor did they realize that Yaroslav Hunka would be honored the way he was in Parliament. The fiasco continues.
A second thought is justified?
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/head-of-canadian-ukrainian-group-defends-man-who-fought-for-unit-created-by-nazis/ar-AA1hsxgr?cvid=e950f9eb28164e908356708893db770d&ocid=winp2fptaskbar&ei=49
TB
I would say, rather than parliamentarians leapt to their feet to support Ukraine, for whom this very elderly former soldiers is introduced as a stand-in. I think most people if they take in five minutes to think about it would’ve recognized the problem but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect everybody – or anybody really — to be able to do so in a split second.
it’s like getting worked up about what side somebody’s great great grandfather was during the Franco-Prussian war. That is the political entities involved even exist anymore.
frankly, I’d be looking for the set up.
Sure Rota and his staff messed up.
Yes the rest of the MPs demonstrated their thoughtlessness.
But, perhaps, the underlying issue is Canadian culture too often glorifies militarism (clearly we feel insecure when we look at the US) and our political leaders too often pander to thoughtless populism and symbolism when what we really need is sophisticated, nuanced and mature adults as our leaders.
If you do know basic facts about who was fighting whom in World War II, and you still support Nazi truckers and hang out with Nazis, then you’re not fit to hold public office.
It also behooves us to ask why so many Nazi collaborators were allowed to immigrate to Canada after the war. I’m wondering what roles they have played in making our politics more right wing over the years……..because when you join a genocidal team, and seem to get away with it….it stands to reason you can continue to pat yourself on the back as an enemy of Russia………and imagine your anti Semitism will be quietly buried with the many victims you helped dispose of in Ukraine.
It might even make a few of us ask is the enemy we’ve all been taught to fear some kind of substitute for the enemy we still have among us. Umberto Eco has an excellent list of the traits of Ur Fascism, in an essay published in the New York Review of Books, June 1995.
It might be a good idea for all of us patriotic, war loving Canadians to review it and ask ourselves: Do these 14 characteristics apply to me or anyone I know?
Because our need for an enemy may have confused more than a few of us, since the end of world war 2…and blurred what we were all fighting for back then.
I am not sure that Pierre Poilievre did not know who this guy was. Maybe the applause from the Conservatives was real. It is no secret that Little Pierre likes to mingle with White Nationalists and he was pretty clear as to what he thought of the convoy leaders. I am sure that people with Hunka mindset consider Pierre Poilievre a supporter.
Who is responsible for screening guests: the Speaker’s Office or Parliament?
The Hunka saga gets better and better.
Defending Hunka
BTW, I think Poilievre is wrong that someone in the Govt would have known that Hunka was invited. MP’s guests are a House derogative and there is no normal way that anyone outside of House admin & House of Commons security would know who was on any MP’s guest list.
In fact, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour December 7, 1941, it was Hitler who declared war on the USA, not the other way around.
Mr. Finlayson: This is true, and it was a fateful and foolish decision on Hitler’s part. I didn’t suggest otherwise. DJC
Thank you, David, for this website. This was a really interesting event, with ongoing repercussions across our land, and outside our borders. I pretty much agree with the take you and most of the posters have, but I’m going to put forward some controversial stuff for our consideration.
1. After WW2, Canada and the west in general took in many Nazis and Japanese Imperialists who had worked on rocket technology and nuclear science and biological warfare. We brought in these people, and their families and friends, so we would have access to their learning, and so the Soviets (our allies still) would *not* have that access. The Soviets did this as well, for the same worthy reasons. Pretty soon the victors overtly turned on each other and that was the Cold War. As a way to discredit the Soviets in the eyes of the rest of the world, Canada and other western nations often took in, with fanfare, anyone who stood against the Soviets, and that included people who had fought against the Soviets during the war. So, yes, a lot of Ukrainian Canadians have that in their family history. But it’s a total crock to call Ukrainian Canadians out on this now, 7 and some decades later. It was *Canada* welcomed these people. At the time we *Canadians* thought it was the best decision. If we were right, Ukrainian Canadians have nothing to apologize for! If we were wrong, then that is on *us all, as Canadians*, not just on them.
2. That is *not* to say our Parliament should honour a member of a Ukranian Nazi battalion. Its beggars the imagination how thoughtless our MP’s were to all stand and applaud. I can only guess that they were so swept up in the current lust for Russian blood that they could not think straight. Though he took a few days, the speaker did the right thing by resigning. But all the rest are dancing around blaming others for their own folly, and this just adds to the farce. They should all resign; they honoured a Nazi. But resignation en mass would not serve the country. The practical thing to do is to offer apologies.
Parliamentarians should apologize (and to some degree they have) to the world Jewish community for that foolishness, because some 6 million European Jews died in Nazi-run concentration camps. But the world Jewish community is not the only group we Canadians have insulted with our parliament.
3. The Nazis also collected up and killed millions of Roma, and Polish people, and Communists, and disabled people. The Canadian Parliament should not be endorsing that behaviour. Parliamentarians should apologize to these groups.
4. The President of Ukraine was there in Parliament and he fist-bumped the air for the Nazi when Parliament rose in applause. Currently, we Canadians, as ‘allies’ of Ukraine, are waging a publicity battle to deny that modern-day Ukraine has a significant neo-Nazi faction. As such, honouring a Nazi with Mr. Zelensky in the House is, well, a very significant misstep. Now, whether there is or is not a neo-Nazi influence in Ukraine is not the issue. Mr. Zelensky may have been confused during the Parliamentary session, or he may have just been swept up in the excitement. That also is not the issue. The issue is : President Zelensky was our guest, and Ukraine is our ‘ally’. In their exuberance, Canada’s parliamentarians have harmed Ukraine. We set up their President for this public-relations embarrassment. Parliament should be publicly apologizing to Ukraine and to Mr. Zelensky. (Since writing this I looked it up, and seems Mr. Trudeau did make a personal apology to Mr. Zelensky.)
5. As you have pointed out, Dave, the Soviet Union was our ally during WW2. Its estimated 27 million Russians died, civilians and soldiers, in those famous and desperate battles on Germany’s eastern front. It was the Soviet contribution to a united war effort that gave our side victory. Obviously, at present, Russian-Canadian relations are very poor. But, we honoured a Nazi in our Parliament. It was wrong. It cheapens the sacrifice Russians made in WW2 to end the Nazi menace we all stood against together. Goodness knows, it is hard to say “I was wrong; I am sorry.” to someone you don’t like. Only adults do this.
6. Of course, our other allies were also there. Americans, British, Ausies and New Zealanders, all fought and died liberating Europe from the Nazis. They also deserve apologies from Canada.
7. Have I forgotten anyone? Oh yes; one more: Us! One way or another, it is reasonable to conclude that the Nazi Galician force that Mr. Hunka fought in, on Germany’s eastern front, freed up some German fighters and resources for the western front. Through Mr. Hunka’s effort, a few more Germans were available to shoot Canadians as they stormed Juno beach, and to make liberating the Netherlands a little more deadly. The Canadian parliament owes an apology to Canadians who lost family members and friends in the war in Europe, for honouring a Nazi in Parliament.
Thank you for the chance to vent, Dave. Didn’t realize, till I got going, how mad I am about this.
Someone asked on Twitter, and I think it’s a fair question, ‘Who put Hunka’s name forward as a veteran worth honouring?’ If the former speaker’s office did a bit of legwork and came up with ‘old Ukrainian veteran’ and left it at that, it’s a failure for sure. But, did someone actually put forward his name?
It’s a sad reflection on journalism in this country that the best, most in-depth, article that I have found on this issue is on the BBC Spanish website (it may appear on its English website, I haven’t checked). Edmonton figures prominently in the article, with it’s large diaspora and variety of memorials to Ukrainian history. The great value of an article like this is that it gets into the nuances and complexities of an issue that has been simplified almost beyond recognition, with people vilified and hurt as a result. This is not to suggest there is not blame to go around, but that it is probably not what people might imagine it to be.
For all the ink spilled on this situation, I have yet to see any discussion concerning how this man came to the attention of the speaker. With my tinfoil hat on. Could this be a conservative plot or a Russian plot? Just asking.
Canadian politicians of all stripes love the Galatian ss. I’ll reserve the language I usually use, but it’s disgusting. Russian disinformation about what exactly, the Galatian SS was a Nazi unit made up of oun-B members who carried out numerous atrocities against Jews, communists, poles, and Romani ?
Once again, this information has been seeded into public consciousness by UKRAINIAN CANADIAN scholars, and you’re attempting to speak over them, speculating about “Russian disinformation”
Real cowardly
An excellent source of comment on the strange relationship between various European nationalist organizations and the Nazis is Mark Felton’s Youtube channel.
His most recent video, which was prepared as a primer for Canadian MPs on WW2, its participants, and who was this Adolf Hitler guy anyway?
Welcome back!
There’s a lot of weird stuff going on with this embarrassing episode which, it seems to me, is too tritely polarized by half.
It appears the only metric the Speaker (or his staff) considered is that Mr Hunka fought against the Russians (or Soviets, at the time) and somehow that qualified him to attend President Zelensky’s address to our House of Commons. Naturally that would be to confuse the Soviets, our allies in WWII (which my old man, a WWII veteran, always said was absolutely vital to the Allies’ eventually victory over Nazi Germany) with Putin’s post-Soviet Russia which is now the enemy from NATO’s point of view which obliges Canada to be materially involved with its strategic partners.
But that’s the simple take. There are so many questions yet to be answered about this whole sorry gaff that it appears some positions only want to make easy hay—a little too easy, if you ask me—using the same, simplistic metric that Speaker Rota used: whose side is who on?
Had the Speaker delved into the exceedingly complex history of Ukraine, he’d find the same question peppered throughout, all the way from ancient times to modern when, as it happens, the former US presidunce made nice with Putin (despite evidence that Russia interfered with a US election) and made an enemy of NATO in which the US is the predominant member. Has anybody noticed that not a small amount of tRumpublican dissonance has seeped over our border and been adopted by Canada’s Conservative Party leader, Pierre Poilievre? Whose side, exactly, is he on? Unlike many during the Nazi invasion who could never be sure from one day to the next, Poilievre is self-assured that he himself is on the right one.
Missing in the whole kerfuffle is why the nearly century-old Mr Hunka thought it was appropriate to attend Zelensky’s address: the only thing I heard was that his son nominated him—but that hardly satisfies, even if true—and Rota (or his staff) only knew enough of Ukraine history to consider it and its citizens forever worst enemies of Russia—a nice, simple “them versus us” myth.
However, anybody who knows about Stalin’s genocide of Ukrainian farmers who were reluctant to be collectivized into the communist system—the most recent, unforgettable tragedy that formed Ukrainians’ antipathy towards Soviet Russia before the Nazis invaded —understands how so many Ukrainians enthusiastically recruited to the enemy of their enemy. Does anyone factor in that Hitler and Stalin were, hitherto Hitler’s betrayal, on the same side?
Many Ukrainians fled to the west and into the arms of Allied forces and, eventually, into North American as immigrants—displaced people—while Stalin executed and/or imprisoned civilians as he recaptured the USSR’s most important federate under the rubric that anyone who survived the Nazi occupation must have been a collaborator. Sweeping but also as tritely simple as many a prejudgment of whose side anybody might have been on in the foggiest of wars. I personally know of expat Ukrainians who wore more than one uniform, variously committed to defeating either invader or re-invader from time to time ‘in mufti’ (that is, out of uniform to disguise movements) as circumstances required, only to flee to the west whenever opportune.
This kind of free-for-all lasted for centuries—just ask Jewish refugees from the region and, in context of WWII and the Holodomor which preceded it, those Jews unlucky enough to have remained in Ukraine after the depredations of the Tsar’s imperial Cossacks in the late 19th century. To have been on any side trying to save itself from the threat of genocide was to be Ukrainian, Jewish or not.
Ukraine has only been independent—nominally, at least— since the Soviet collapse thrifty years ago, following violent subjection to a litany of invaders for millennia—and that’s no hyperbole. It’s only been a decade since Ukrainians booted the pro-Russia puppet president out and earned Putin’s ire. It hasn’t been very long since the question of who’s on who’s side is predicated on the precept of state sovereignty within a global community —and this first taste of modernity, this first invigorating lungful of freedom has, in this sorry circumstance of war, made crystal clear who’s on what side. That’s not the Ukraine Mr Hunka was born in.
This newly acquired freedom includes exposing the many factions, proxies, fifth columns, and reactionary hangers-on from the dustbin of a long, complex history below the eastern horizon. Of course there are Ukrainian neo-Nazis like there are in nearly every Western, supposedly “free” nation today, and they would be as clear and simplistic about their Ukrainian patriotism and anti-Russian ethoi. Conspicuously, these cells are mostly confined as ultra nationalists in ethnic Russian enclaves of eastern Ukraine—the bombed-out wasteland of the Donbas which Putin has in hand right now. Somehow the insinuation has been that Hunka is affiliated with these war zone radicals. Is that even possible?
Mr Hunka is a relic of an age of chaos. I’d sure like to know how he rationalized attending Zelensky’s address—or even if he did of his own volition in clear cognition. It would be unforgiving to reject a claim of ethical reform, of apology for extenuated circumstances. His story or excuses are very likely as erratic and chaotic as many, many a Ukrainian refugee of WWII. Perhaps he was convinced that he could be a symbol of forgiveness, of personal reform. Perhaps he’s achieved some level of atonement for whatever it was his Nazi-directed unit committed. Any of that, if indeed there is any, will be hard to discern now that the ramparts of particular positions have been thrown up and piled-on. But there’s a bigger story here than particularist reaction will allow.
Finally, Hunka’s presence and standing ovation might have been inappropriate in any case, but it’s Pierre Poilievre who offended the Commons by blaming JT for, in PP’s words, “allowing” the tottering old combatant to attend (in fact, the PM has nothing to do whatever with the Speaker’s choice of guests—and he did apologize on behalf of parliament for the gaff—to roars of hypocritical derision from the CPC caucus, all of whom Poilievre ‘allowed’ to applaud Hunka just a few day earlier). Poilievre definitely knows what side he’s on, at least when his odious, opportunistic rhetoric is in full flight. Of all the hackneyed angles that have been drawn from this unfortunate episode, Poilievre’s is the most trite.