Former Speaker of the House Liberal MP Anthony Rota will be called before a House affairs committee to testify on the Nazi in Parliament scandal, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.MPs representing all parties had a closed-door meeting and voted unanimously to cross-examine Rota over his 'Canadian hero' tribute to Nazi war veteran Yaroslav Hunka in Parliament in September. Hunka received a standing ovation from members of all parties, and was personally invited by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Office to a “special event” in Toronto. While introducing Hunka to the House of Commons, Rota said, “We have here in the chamber today a Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98."“His name is Yaroslav Hunka,” Rota announced at the time. “I am very proud to say he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing-Temiskaming. He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service. Thank you.”Rota resigned shortly after the embarrassing episode and became the first Commons Speaker in 66 years to resign under threat of censure. He remains an MP.“I don’t think I have ever been through a tougher time in this House since I got here in 2004,” Rota earlier told the Commons. “It may not be good enough for some of you and for that I apologize.”Rota will be required to explain “the international embarrassment” he had caused, MPs said after the secret meeting. The former Speaker of the House explained after the incident that he was unaware the man was a Nazi collaborator who had interned in 1945 as a member of the 14 Waffen SS Grenadier Division. Trudeau has since blamed the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for sponsoring Hunka on its parliamentary VIP list.“My intention was to show that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is not a new one, that Ukrainians have unfortunately been subject to foreign aggression for far too long,” Rota said in his Commons apology. “I am deeply sorry that I have offended many with my gesture and remarks.”.Hunka appeared in a 2011 edition of Combatant News, a Ukrainian-language periodical, describing himself as a Ukrainian nationalist who “gladly welcomed the German soldiers” in the Second World War and volunteered with the Waffen SS. “I was just 16 years old and the next two years were the happiest years of my life,” wrote Hunka. “None of us asked what our reward would be, what our provision would be or even what our tomorrow would be.”“We felt our duty to our native land.” He provided no details of his war record, however Cabinet on February 1 declassified an internal 1986 study in-house called Nazi War Criminals In Canada: The Historical And Policy Setting From The 1940s To The Present, which states “most Waffen SS units were combat units.” It found thousands of Nazi collaborators were allowed into Canada. “There is little evidence pointing to the commission of war crimes by the Division as a unit,” said the report. “By early 1944 when it had completed its training, the Nazi campaign against Jews in the Ukraine was largely completed.”The report cited evidence the voluntary Ukrainian Waffen SS Division of which Hunka belonged, formed in 1943, included killers implicated in the “campaign to murder the Jews of the region.”All SS volunteers swore an oath as Nazi collaborators, described as “the oath of allegiance to Hitler” and it “was obligatory.”The oath stated: “I swear by God this holy oath that in the struggle against Bolshevism I will give the commander in chief of the German armed forces, Adolf Hitler, absolute obedience and as a fearless soldier if it be his will I will always be prepared to lay down my life for this oath.”“The response to the call for volunteers was overwhelming,” wrote researchers. “According to one account, the influx was so great it astonished even the Germans who had to appeal to higher authority for instructions.”“The quota set for the unit was overfilled many times and tens of thousands of volunteers had to be rejected,” the report states. “According to SS Hauptamt reports 80,000 men had volunteered. Fifty thousand were accepted and 13,000 were called up by the summer of 1943.”The Division surrendered to the British in May 1945 and members were interned as enemy prisoners of war in Italy and then Britain until 1948, wrote researchers. The 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal declared the Waffen SS a criminal organization. The internal 1986 study researchers wrote that evidence of atrocities by individual officers and infantrymen was “persuasive.”“Units of the Waffen SS were directly involved in the killing of prisoners of war and the atrocities in occupied countries,” wrote researchers. “It supplied personnel for the Einsatzgruppen and had command over the concentration camp guards after its absorption by the Totenkpof SS."
Former Speaker of the House Liberal MP Anthony Rota will be called before a House affairs committee to testify on the Nazi in Parliament scandal, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.MPs representing all parties had a closed-door meeting and voted unanimously to cross-examine Rota over his 'Canadian hero' tribute to Nazi war veteran Yaroslav Hunka in Parliament in September. Hunka received a standing ovation from members of all parties, and was personally invited by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Office to a “special event” in Toronto. While introducing Hunka to the House of Commons, Rota said, “We have here in the chamber today a Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98."“His name is Yaroslav Hunka,” Rota announced at the time. “I am very proud to say he is from North Bay and from my riding of Nipissing-Temiskaming. He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service. Thank you.”Rota resigned shortly after the embarrassing episode and became the first Commons Speaker in 66 years to resign under threat of censure. He remains an MP.“I don’t think I have ever been through a tougher time in this House since I got here in 2004,” Rota earlier told the Commons. “It may not be good enough for some of you and for that I apologize.”Rota will be required to explain “the international embarrassment” he had caused, MPs said after the secret meeting. The former Speaker of the House explained after the incident that he was unaware the man was a Nazi collaborator who had interned in 1945 as a member of the 14 Waffen SS Grenadier Division. Trudeau has since blamed the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for sponsoring Hunka on its parliamentary VIP list.“My intention was to show that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is not a new one, that Ukrainians have unfortunately been subject to foreign aggression for far too long,” Rota said in his Commons apology. “I am deeply sorry that I have offended many with my gesture and remarks.”.Hunka appeared in a 2011 edition of Combatant News, a Ukrainian-language periodical, describing himself as a Ukrainian nationalist who “gladly welcomed the German soldiers” in the Second World War and volunteered with the Waffen SS. “I was just 16 years old and the next two years were the happiest years of my life,” wrote Hunka. “None of us asked what our reward would be, what our provision would be or even what our tomorrow would be.”“We felt our duty to our native land.” He provided no details of his war record, however Cabinet on February 1 declassified an internal 1986 study in-house called Nazi War Criminals In Canada: The Historical And Policy Setting From The 1940s To The Present, which states “most Waffen SS units were combat units.” It found thousands of Nazi collaborators were allowed into Canada. “There is little evidence pointing to the commission of war crimes by the Division as a unit,” said the report. “By early 1944 when it had completed its training, the Nazi campaign against Jews in the Ukraine was largely completed.”The report cited evidence the voluntary Ukrainian Waffen SS Division of which Hunka belonged, formed in 1943, included killers implicated in the “campaign to murder the Jews of the region.”All SS volunteers swore an oath as Nazi collaborators, described as “the oath of allegiance to Hitler” and it “was obligatory.”The oath stated: “I swear by God this holy oath that in the struggle against Bolshevism I will give the commander in chief of the German armed forces, Adolf Hitler, absolute obedience and as a fearless soldier if it be his will I will always be prepared to lay down my life for this oath.”“The response to the call for volunteers was overwhelming,” wrote researchers. “According to one account, the influx was so great it astonished even the Germans who had to appeal to higher authority for instructions.”“The quota set for the unit was overfilled many times and tens of thousands of volunteers had to be rejected,” the report states. “According to SS Hauptamt reports 80,000 men had volunteered. Fifty thousand were accepted and 13,000 were called up by the summer of 1943.”The Division surrendered to the British in May 1945 and members were interned as enemy prisoners of war in Italy and then Britain until 1948, wrote researchers. The 1946 Nuremberg Tribunal declared the Waffen SS a criminal organization. The internal 1986 study researchers wrote that evidence of atrocities by individual officers and infantrymen was “persuasive.”“Units of the Waffen SS were directly involved in the killing of prisoners of war and the atrocities in occupied countries,” wrote researchers. “It supplied personnel for the Einsatzgruppen and had command over the concentration camp guards after its absorption by the Totenkpof SS."
