Ian Austen
NY Times, Sept. 26, 2023
“Being trained by SS officers, you can imagine the kind of political indoctrination they got,” he said. Even if their aims were for independence, Mr. Arel said the unit “fought for and were trained by Nazis. There’s no question about it.”
The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons resigned on Tuesday after again apologizing for introducing a 98-year-old Ukrainian who had served with a Nazi SS unit as a “hero” just after President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine addressed a joint session of Parliament.
The speaker, Anthony Rota, introduced Yaroslav Hunka, a constituent from his electoral district, as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” on Friday prompting two standing ovations from the lawmakers and other guests as well as a fist pump from Mr. Zelensky, who is Jewish.
But over the following days, several Jewish groups expressed anger and outrage, saying that Mr. Hunka had been a member of a volunteer Nazi unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, which fought alongside Germany during World War II and declared allegiance to Hitler.
After days of calls for him to step down, Mr. Rota announced his resignation on a day when he was scheduled to host an annual garden party at his official country residence. “This House is above any of us,” he told fellow lawmakers. “I reiterate my profound regret.”
Mr. Rota first apologized over the weekend for both his invitation and introduction of Mr. Hunka, noting that he “subsequently became aware of more information.”
While Mr. Rota is a member of Parliament from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, he is not a political power broker like his counterpart in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speakers in the Canadian House of Commons act as nonpartisan adjudicators in the chamber and are independent of the government. The speaker, not the government, controls all activity and conduct within the chamber, as well as its employees.
Mr. Rota said that he did not inform the governments of Canada or Ukraine about his plan to invite Mr. Hunka. Still, Mr. Trudeau’s political opponents immediately called on The House of Commons and the prime minister to formally apologize on behalf of Canada to Jews in Canada and abroad.
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