2023-09-26 19:17:00
Rota said in a session of the House of Commons in Canada that he made a “mistake” by inviting the 98-year-old to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s parliamentary speech. Rota not only invited Hunka, but also called him a “hero”, whereupon he received two standing ovations from the MPs.
Following the speech, it emerged that Hunka, who lives in Rota’s constituency, had served in the Nazi criminal force Waffen-SS during the Second World War. The affair was grist for the mill of Russia, which is trying to portray its war of conquest in Ukraine, which violates international law, as an operation to “denazify” the neighboring country.
Resignation effective Wednesday
“I take full responsibility for my actions,” said the liberal politician. The resignation will take effect on Wednesday. Rota made the comments following Foreign Minister Melanie Joly publicly called on him to resign. Trudeau was more reserved but equally unequivocal, calling on his party colleague to “think regarding his future.”
The affair overshadowed Zelensky’s visit to Canada. It was initiated by the organization Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), which shortly following the speech expressed outrage that Rota had honored Hunka, a “Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran” who fought for Ukraine’s independence once morest Russia. Rota did not mention that Hunka served in a Waffen-SS unit during the Second World War.
“Deep regret”
Rota then apologized. “I would particularly like to express my deepest regret to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world,” the Liberal politician said, according to Canadian media reports over the weekend.
According to the FSCW, Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the Waffen-SS-Division Galizien. The SS, which was classified as a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials following the end of the war, had national associations in many occupied countries that were involved in war crimes. To support its Nazi claims once morest Ukraine, Russian propaganda repeatedly refers to the nationalist leader Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), who temporarily collaborated with the Germans, was sentenced to death in absentia in the Soviet Union and murdered by a KGB agent in Munich became.
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