Days after the Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation to a 98-year-old Nazi collaborator Yaroslav Hunka, the Polish ambassador to Canada Witold Dzielski on Monday (September 25) demanded an apology from the Justin Trudeau-led-government.
In a tweet, Dzielski wrote (archive), “09/22 Canada and Ukrainian leadership at House of Commons cheered a member of Waffen-SS Galizien, notorious UA military formation of World War 2 responsible for murdering thousands of Poles and Jews.”
The Polish Ambassador to Canada said, “Poland whose best ally is Ukraine has, will never agree on whitewashing such villains. As Ambassador to Canada, I expect an apology.”
09/22 🇨🇦&🇺🇦 leadership at @OurCommons cheered a member of Waffen-SS Galizien, notorious #UA military formation of #WW2 responsible for murdering thousands of Poles & Jews.
— Witold Dzielski (@WitoldDzielski) September 24, 2023
🇵🇱 best ally 🇺🇦 has, will never agree on whitewashing such villains! As 🇵🇱 Amb. to 🇨🇦 I expect an apology. pic.twitter.com/j6EkVWGg1d
Canada celebrated Nazi soldier who fought for Hitler in World War II
On 22nd September, the Canadian House of Commons gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a World War II veteran who fought for “Ukrainian independence” against Russian aggressors.
This is how the speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, introduced him. The 98-year-old war veteran, however, was a member of a SS unit, the 14th SS-Volunteer Division “Galicia”, established in 1943 by the Nazis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also present during the occasion.
Notably, SS was the main paramilitary group under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany and was primarily responsible for tunning Holocaust operations. 14th SS-Volunteer Division Galicia was made up of volunteers, which means that Yaroslav Hunka joined the unit on his own will, and was not conscripted.
The war criminals of World War II and Canadian connections
The members of the First Ukrainian Division have been deemed war criminals by several experts. However, Canadian inquiry into their history did not recognise them as war criminals. Interestingly, there is clear evidence that Canada housed at least 3,000 war criminals.
Canadian authorities established a commission to look into war criminals, and the commission headed by Justice Jules Deschenes submitted its report in December 1986 titled “Commission of Inquiry on War Crimes“.
As per the report, the Canadian government had allowed over 2,000 war criminals from WWII to enter Canada despite the Canadian Jewish Congress’s opposition. The commission gave Hunko’s division “clean chit” due to the lack of evidence.
2014 Nazi Hunter Steve Rambam called Canada a safe haven for war criminals. Notably, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs also called out Canada in a recent statement for giving shelter to terrorists and gangsters.
