‘Deeply Embarrassing’: Trudeau Issues Statement After Canadian Parliament Gives Standing Ovation to Nazi SS Veteran
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement on Monday after the Canadian Parliament gave a “deeply embarrassing” standing ovation to a man who served in the Nazi Waffen-SS.
Ninety-two-year-old Ukrainian Waffen-SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka was given a standing ovation by members of parliament last week after he was introduced by Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota as a Ukrainian and Canadian “hero” and thanked for his service.
The incident — which took place during a visit to parliament by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — was condemned by several Jewish and Holocaust education organizations, which pointed out that Hunka had “served in a Nazi military unit during the Second World War implicated in the mass murder of Jews and others.”
In a statement to reporters on Monday, Trudeau said, “Obviously it’s extremely upsetting that this happened. The Speaker has acknowledged his mistake and has apologized, but this is something that is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada and by extension to all Canadians.”
He continued, “I think particularly of Jewish MPs and all members of the Jewish community across the country who are celebrating Yom— commemorating Yom Kippur today. I think it’s gonna be really important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation, and continue our steadfast and unequivocal support for Ukraine as we did last week with announcing further measures to stand with Ukraine in Russia’s illegal war against it.”
Speaker Rota apologized this week after the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and B’nai Brith Canada published statements condemning the incident.
“The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking,” declared the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, which called for an apology to be made “to every Holocaust survivor and veteran of the Second World War who fought the Nazis”:
At a time of rising antisemitism and Holocaust distortion, it is incredibly disturbing to see Canada’s Parliament rise to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit in the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others and that was declared a criminal organization during the Nuremberg Trials.
In its own statement, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said, “Canada’s Jewish community stands firmly with #Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. But we can’t stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.”
Watch above via CBC.
