The speaker of Canada\u2019s House of Commons has apologized after celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit in World War II. <\/p>\n
Speaker Anthony Rota recognized 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka in a speech given Friday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s visit to the Canadian parliament on Friday and lauded Hunka as a Ukrainian and Canadian veteran. <\/p>\n
The speaker hailed Hunka as a war hero who served in the First Ukranian Division and \u201cfought for Ukrainian independence against the Russian aggressors then, and continues to support the troops today.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so,\u201d Rota said in a statement shared by his office Sunday. He added, \u201cI particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
Several human rights and Jewish organizations have condemned the recognition, saying Hunka served in a Nazi military unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. <\/p>\n
\u201cHunka, who immigrated to Canada after serving in the 14th Waffen SS \u2013 a Nazi unit whose members swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler during WWII \u2013 received a standing ovation from members of Parliament and senators in attendance,\u201d Jewish human rights organization B\u2019nai Brith Canada said in a statement. <\/p>\n
B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s CEO, Michael Mostyn, said in a statement that the parliment\u2019s recognition of Hunka is \u201cbeyond outrageous.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot allow the whitewashing of history. \u2026 Canadian soldiers fought and died to free the world from the evils of Nazi brutality,\u201d Mostyn said. <\/p>\n
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division was part of the Nazi SS organization that was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which determined the Nazi group had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. <\/p>\n
B\u2019nai Brith in its statement condemned the Ukrainian volunteers who served in the military unit as \u201cultra-nationalist ideologues\u201d who \u201cdreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The human rights organization says it expects an apology from parliament. <\/p>\n
Rota said he takes full responsibly for the acknowledgment of Hunka, who he said is from his electoral district. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish to make clear that no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them,\u201d Rota said. \u201cThis initiative was entirely my own, the individual in question being from my riding and having been brought to my attention.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
The speaker of Canada\u2019s House of Commons has apologized after celebrating a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit in World War II. Speaker Anthony Rota recognized 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka in a speech given Friday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s visit to the Canadian parliament on Friday and lauded Hunka as a Ukrainian <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}