Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Rota Resigns

All so that Justin doesn't have to:

Canada is being mocked around the world after a man who fought for the Nazis was celebrated in Parliament, presumably by mistake, but on Monday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s chief concern was to ensure everyone that it wasn’t his fault . “The Speaker has acknowledged his mistake and apologized,” he said, repeating the talking point given to every Liberal with a pulse.

And now that Speaker of the House Anthony Rota has resigned, Trudeau can go on pretending like the whole thing had nothing to do with him.

 

 

The story so far:

Flight Lt. Bohdan Panchuk was the man behind the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen’s Association (UCSA), which supported the cultural and social needs of Canadians of Ukrainian heritage serving overseas during the Second World War. Panchuk was also involved in the effort that saw as many as 30,000 Ukrainian refugees brought to Canada after the war.

The media focus on Panchuk, who died in 1987, came about because Ukrainian groups in Canada and the United Kingdom were honouring him and the UCSA by unveiling a stained glass window on the 75th anniversary of the Victory in
Europe.

By all accounts Panchuk contributed to Canada’s war effort and helping Ukrainian refugees from war-torn Europe.

But missing from the accolades in the Globe article and the CBC broadcast were the details about some of the Ukrainian “refugees” that Panchuk managed to convince the Canadian government to accept – 2,000 members of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS.

Panchuk was able to get members of the 14th Waffen SS Division Galicia into Canada by lying about their past.

Members of the unit had surrendered to Allied forces and were being held in a camp in Italy. In an attempt to hide the SS connection, the unit had changed its name in the last few days of the war to the First Division Ukrainian National Army. 

Panchuk was trying to get Canada to accept large numbers of soldiers from the unit but he had a major problem. The Canadian government would not accept as immigrants anyone who voluntarily served in the German military. Not only had the Ukrainians voluntarily served in Hitler’s war machine but they had eagerly signed up for the Waffen SS, which had been declared a criminal organization by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.

Those who served in the 14th Waffen SS Division Galicia had taken an oath to Hitler and had received education in Nazi doctrine. Ukrainian officers had been trained at SS facilities in the Dachau concentration camp. In fact, some of the division’s members have noted in their memoirs that concentration camp prisoners were required to remove their hats as a sign of respect for the Ukrainian SS. Unit members were given SS tattoos under their left arm indicating their blood group. Leadership of the division included some key figures who had been directly involved in the Holocaust.

As part of his efforts to have Canada accept the Ukrainian SS soldiers, Panchuk pushed a “positive narrative portraying the former Galicians as an anti-Soviet” German Army unit, noted Ukrainian historian Olesya Khromeychuk. She is the author of the book “Undetermined Ukrainians” which looks at the various narratives surrounding the 14th Waffen SS Division Galicia.

No mention was made of the SS. Instead, the Ukrainians were portrayed by Panchuk as being victims, having been forced into the division against their will.

If Canadian immigration officials had actually probed deeply into the background of the 14th Waffen-SS division they would have found few victims in its ranks. “The volunteers (of the Galician Division) committed themselves to German victory, the New European Order, and to Adolf Hitler personally,” explained Per Anders Rudling, a historian of Eastern European history and Associate Professor at the Department of History at Lund University, Sweden. The division not only fought the Polish Home Army but it took part in the crushing of the Slovak National Uprising and hunted down anti-Nazi partisans in Slovenia. There were also allegations of war crimes being committed by division members.

While some in the Canadian government didn’t probe deeply into the background of the Ukrainian “refugees,” British government bureaucrats knew who they were dealing with and were more than happy to dump the SS troops into Canada’s lap. “The Division was an SS division and technically all of its officers and senior NCOs are liable for trial as war criminals,” noted a report from Britain’s Under-Secretary of State. 

** 

There are monuments to the unit at cemeteries in both Alberta and Oakville, Ont., both of which avoid any mention of its SS origins, instead referring to it as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army. When this was pointed out by the Russian Foreign Ministry in 2018, documents later obtained by Postmedia would show that Global Affairs Canada rushed to have the claim labelled as “misinformation.” The minister of foreign affairs at the time, Chrystia Freeland, has also played the “disinformation” card whenever Russia has pointed out that her own family tree contains a Ukrainian collaborator (although not one who served with the Galicia Division).

(Sidebar: this Chrystia Freeland.)

Officially known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the Galicia Division was one of a number of “foreign” units of the Waffen-SS formed during the course of the Second World War.

After conquering a new corner of Europe, Nazi commanders would put out a call for volunteers to sign up for the Schutzstaffel (SS), an elite corps loyal to the Nazi Party that stood distinct from the German army.

There was a French SS unit, a Norwegian SS unit, a Dutch SS unit, and even SS units formed from British and American prisoners of war. And in 1943, the Nazi occupiers of what is now Ukraine recruited a unit of racially acceptable Ukrainians to bolster their invasion and subjugation of the Soviet Union.

** 

During that time, Mr. Hunka fought with the 4th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party. The unit consisted of troops from the Galicia region in western Ukraine and was armed and trained by the Nazis.

In February 1944, the unit perpetrated a massacre of Polish villagers in Huta Pieniacka, Ukraine, burning between 500 and 1,000 Polish people alive, according to various estimates. According to witnesses, children were executed in front of their parents by having their heads smashed against tree trunks or being burned alive in houses.
After the war, the Waffen SS was declared to be a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal. Some 5 million to 7 million Ukrainians died during World War II, and the country would remain under the control of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991.
**

Yes indeed, after a couple of dry runs in which many politicians and media activists tried desperately to portray the trucker-led Freedom Convoy of 2022 and the Sept. 20 Million March 4 Children protests as fuelled by Nazis, white supremacists, and others suffering from a glossary of prejudicial phobias, the government of Justin Trudeau at last reeled in the real deal.

        By invitation.

** 

Liberals, Socialists and other progressives often claim that Conservatives are in bed with the far right and Nazis. This repulsive term is sometimes used to describe Conservatives themselves.

Well, that’s not going to work anymore. The political left can thank Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals for this after they unwittingly honoured a Nazi in Parliament.
Yes, you read this correctly. An actual Nazi was honoured in Canada’s House of Commons.
And on the eve of Yom Kippur, to boot.

 

(Sidebar: also not too long after a Polish family, butchered by the Nazis, was called blessed by the Church, an organisation we know helped Jews during the war.)

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The Speaker’s Office has the authority to invite a guest to the House. However, even so, they would do necessary background and other checks. And they would know to run it by PCO and PMO. Just keep all the powers-that-be in the loop; especially for a guest like Zelenskyy, who operates in a highly complex global environment.

Either Rota went rogue, as his statement of apology suggests, or he worked with PMO and PCO, which reality and past practice would point to as being the more likely possibility.

We know that Mr. Hunka had a private audience with a number of Liberal MPs, but the PMO is denying that this included either Prime Minister Trudeau or Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

 

(Sidebar: again, this Chrystia Freeland.)

** 

MPs yesterday questioned how an SS member escaped scrutiny prior to being honoured on Parliament Hill. Cabinet said it played no role in any background check on Yaroslav Hunka, 98, of North Bay, Ont.: “A Nazi was honoured in this place; I cannot believe I am even uttering these words.”

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The Liberal government sought to erase from the record of the House of Commons the celebration of a Nazi war veteran during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit last Friday but that request was denied by the Conservatives who say to do so is “absolutely wrong.”

Government House leader Karina Gould stood up on Monday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to adopt a motion calling to strike “from the appendix of the House of Commons debates” and from “any House multimedia recording” the recognition made by Speaker Anthony Rota of Yaroslav Hunka, 98, whom he described as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero.”

**

**

The Kremlin said on Monday it was "outrageous" that a Ukrainian man who served in one of Adolf Hitler's Waffen SS units during the Second World War had been presented to Canada's Parliament last week as a hero.

Yaroslav Hunka, 98, received two standing ovations from Canadian lawmakers during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The speaker of Canada's Parliament has since apologized to Jewish groups for the incident.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the episode showed a careless disregard for historical truth, and that the memory of Nazi crimes must be preserved.

"Such sloppiness of memory is outrageous," Peskov told reporters. "Many Western countries, including Canada, have raised a young generation that does not know who fought whom or what happened during the Second World War. And they know nothing about the threat of fascism."

 

(Sidebar: this is the Russia that was Nazi Germany's ally until Hitler invaded it and that Justin's dad visited and praised as a communist paradise. It is also the Russia Justin so hates but will not enforce sanctions on. But I digress ...)

** 

Taking a tough stand would have made sense for Trudeau, not only to save face, but to show support for Zelenskyy, who was in Canada for the first time since the war began. Instead, Trudeau deputized Government House Leader Karina Gould — a descendant of Holocaust survivors, no less — to toss Rota under the bus.

On Twitter, she wrote, “The Speaker has now made it clear that he was responsible for inviting this individual to the House. The government played no role. It did not know he would be there. The PM did not meet him. I am deeply troubled this happened. I urge MPs to avoid politicizing this incident.”

What planet are the Liberals on? This isn’t about politicizing an incident. This is about doing the right thing and fixing a mistake. Saying the government had no role and knew nothing is even more embarrassing. And it also reveals a complete lack of understanding of foreign affairs and events that are directly impacted by this screw-up.

** 

Speaker of the House Anthony Rota has finally stepped down from his position, after facing increasingly growing calls to resign for honouring in the House of Commons a man who was a member of a Nazi SS unit during the Second World War.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I rise to inform members of my resignation as Speaker of the House of Commons,” he said in a brief statement to a partially full House on Tuesday afternoon.

“The work of this House is above any of us. Therefore, I must step down as your Speaker. I reiterate my profound regret for my error in recognizing an individual in the House during the joint address to Parliament of (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy,” he added.

“That public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities, including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world In addition to survivors of Nazi atrocities in Poland, among other nations.”

Rota said he accepts “full responsibility” for his actions and said his resignation will be effective at the end of day Wednesday. Until then, he added, deputy speakers Chris d’Entremont and Alexandra Mendes will be chairing the House proceedings.

 

Thank you for falling on your sword, Anthony.

You may go now.


It wouldn't be the first time the Liberals screwed up in this regard:

Jaspal Atwal, a convicted former member of an illegal Sikh separatist group, was invited to dine with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a formal event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner Thursday in Delhi.

The invitation, which was extended by Canada's High Commissioner to India, was rescinded after CBC News asked the Prime Minister's Office about it Wednesday. 

As the story made headlines in the Indian media, Trudeau was forced to respond.

"Obviously we take this situation extremely seriously. The individual in question never should have received an invitation and, as soon as we found out, we rescinded the invitation immediately," he told reporters. "The member of Parliament who included this individual has, and will, assume full responsibility for his actions."


Laziness? Sympathy? Collaboration?

You decide.


This entire debacle (in a long train of complete debacles) has had its share of apologists for Hunka's disreputable actions and the Liberals' malice or stupidity in this.

But this entire thing can only go away if Canadians let it.



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