Canada’s house speaker apologises after praising Ukrainian veteran of Nazi unit

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The ovation took place shortly after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, delivered an address to the parliament on Friday, when the assembly’s speaker, Anthony Rota, called lawmakers’ attention to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, whom he described as a “war hero” who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.

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

It added: “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 row also raises uncomfortable questions surrounding the memorialising of prominent Ukrainian figures who fought alongside Nazi forces during the war.

In his speech to Canadian lawmakers, Zelenskiy noted that the city of Edmonton was the first to commemorate victims of the Holodomor, the mass famine inflicted on Ukrainians that killed millions in the early 1930s.

Within the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex, a bust depicts Roman Shukhevych, a known Nazi collaborator linked to massacres of Polish civilians.

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3 comments

Doing their best to play dumb, but it's plain to see they knew what "against the Russians in WW2" means.
historically relevant info:
https://jweekly.com/1997/02/07/canada-admits-letting-in-2-000-ukrainian-ss-troopers/
They are only apologizing because people found out. They knew exactly who he was, they don't just invite unknown random people to the House of Commons, they always check who they are.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The ovation took place shortly after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, delivered an address to the parliament on Friday, when the assembly’s speaker, Anthony Rota, called lawmakers’ attention to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, whom he described as a “war hero” who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies issued a statement on Sunday saying the division “was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable”.
It added: “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 row also raises uncomfortable questions surrounding the memorialising of prominent Ukrainian figures who fought alongside Nazi forces during the war.
In his speech to Canadian lawmakers, Zelenskiy noted that the city of Edmonton was the first to commemorate victims of the Holodomor, the mass famine inflicted on Ukrainians that killed millions in the early 1930s.
Within the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex, a bust depicts Roman Shukhevych, a known Nazi collaborator linked to massacres of Polish civilians.
The original article contains 1,003 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!