The Canadian Parliament is under fire after accidentally applauding a former Nazi during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Canada.
Videos and photos show the Canadian giving a standing ovation to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian immigrant who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.
According to the Toronto Star, however, Hunka’s division was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, which fought for the Nazis as its paramilitary arm under the Schutzstaffel organization.
The event received negative responses on social media, with local Jewish organizations slamming the Canadian Parliament for glorifying an ex-Nazi.
“FSWC is appalled that Canada’s Parliament gave a standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran who served in a Nazi military unit during the Second World War implicated in the mass murder of Jews and others. An apology and explanation is owed,” the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Canadian non-profit dedicated to educating people on the Holocaust, wrote on the social media platform X.
“The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking. 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,” the group continued.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since issued an apology to the public on Sunday, saying that the “Speaker of the House has apologized and accepted full responsibility for issuing the invitation and for the recognition in Parliament.”
“This was the right thing to do,” Trudeau’s office continued. “No advance notice was provided to the Prime Minister’s Office, nor the Ukrainian delegation, about the invitation or the recognition.”
“Canada will continue to stand for a free Ukraine, and we were proud to host President Zelenskyy and reaffirm our support.”
According to the Edmonton City News, Hunka was invited by House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, who hailed him as a military hero.
