I could have sworn I’d seen this in a tv show or a comedy sketch.. like they invite some old veteran to speak about his life at some event only to realize halfway through that he was a nazi
Maybe it’s just me, but I found the article a bit confusing trying to figure out who this Yaroslav Hunka character is and his relationship to Zelensky/Ukraine.
Honestly he's not related. Someone simply wanted an old Ukrainian (war vet preferred) for them to parade around when Zelensky came to visit to show they have been friends forever and take good care of Ukrainians in Canada.... but apparently people didn't do their homework very hard and their simple easy win that would be a 3 minute thing ended up being a lot bigger.
And honestly, they really did Zelensky a disservice here. Of course detractors are going to run with the headline "Zelensky salutes Waffen-SS Nazi". Grist for russian trolls' mills.
It's insane to me nobody questioned this given the historical context and that no alarm bells went off in the whole process, the whole House just unanimously clapped after learning this guy fought for Ukraine in WW2. Like the absolute best case is basically that the person only cared about Ukrainian Independence against the Soviets and begrudgingly accepted Hitler's help, that's not something that deserves honor or recognition for obvious reasons, and that's the best case. These units committed atrocities and it shows how stupid our government is when they seem to be completely ignorant.
Ah, I see how my comment is worded as though I was potentially trying to tie this guy to Zelensky. I understood they weren’t “related“, but I didn’t understand the Ukrainian context of the old Nazi guy.
The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, also criticized Justin Trudeau for the fiasco, saying the prime minister had “brought shame on Canada” after the government’s failure to have its “massive diplomatic and intelligence apparatus vet and prevent honouring a Nazi”.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies said that the division “was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable.”
The prime minister’s office said there was no advance notice Hunka would attend Friday’s session of parliament because he was a guest of the speaker and the list of attendees is not shared.
The political commentator David Moscrop posted a picture of Rota and a head of lettuce, a nod to the final, embattled days of the former UK prime minister Liz Truss.
“In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian Parliament, which involved honouring, in the presence of President Zelenskiy, a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland,” Przemysław Czarnek said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement the event had also “handed a propaganda victory to Russia, distracting from what was a momentously significant display of unity between Canada and Ukraine”.
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 63%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Canadian Parliament, always fucking worrying about every other country BUT Canada. Pulling this political theater bullshit, instead of legislating shit that will actually help Canadians. The Canadian government is all about foreign affairs and not actually governing Canada.