The president of the lower house of Canada’s Parliament, Anthony Rota, resigned from his position this Tuesday (26), days after praising a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi military unit during the Second World War.
On Friday (22), after a speech by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, Rota described 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a Ukrainian-Canadian “war hero” who “fought for the independence of Ukraine against Russian aggressors and continues to support troops today.”
Jewish and human rights organizations have since condemned the statement, saying Hunka served in a Nazi military unit known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division.
This division was part of the SS, a paramilitary organization linked to the Nazi Party declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg in 1946, which determined that the group committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Repercussion
“This House is above any of us, therefore, I must resign from my position,” Rota said this Tuesday, reiterating his “deep regret” for the error. He claimed to have “become aware of further information” that made him “regret” the decision to recognize Hunka.
“Public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities, including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world, as well as survivors of Nazi atrocities in Poland, among other nations,” the Liberal Party member added. Rota said he accepts “full responsibility” for his actions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident “deeply embarrassing.”
In a statement, the Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada condemned the Ukrainian volunteers who served in the unit as “ultranationalist ideologues” who “dreamed of an ethnically homogeneous state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing.”
The organisation’s CEO, Michael Mostyn, said the story should not be “allowed to be covered up”. “Canadian soldiers fought and died to free the world from the evils of Nazi brutality,” he added.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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