User:Cagliost/Yaroslav Hunka controversy

On September 22, 2023, Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian-Canadian World War II veteran of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), a military formation of Nazi Germany, was recognized in the House of Commons of Canada by Speaker Anthony Rota, who had invited him to attend the visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. Hunka received two standing ovations from all house members, including Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Zelenskyy. Hunka's identity as a former Waffen-SS member was soon reported by the Canadian media, receiving international attention. Rota resigned as speaker five days later, and the House unanimously adopted a motion to condemn Nazism and withdraw its recognition of Hunka. Prime Minister Trudeau and Canadian government officials apologized to the worldwide Jewish community.

Handling of suspected World War II war criminals in Canada
In years after after World War II, Canada's permissive immigration policies enabled many alleged Nazi war criminals to settle in the country. An especially large number of former SS Galizien members (relative to their total number) migrated to Canada from the United Kingdom, where they had been detained. While there existed a policy of denying entry to former Nazi military personnel, members of this unit were exempted by a 1950 cabinet-level decision.

In 1985, the government of Canada formed the the Deschênes Commission to investigate claims that Canada had become a haven for Nazi war criminals. The commission's final report was issued at the end of 1986 in two parts. It alleged that Nazi war criminals had immigrated to Canada and in some cases were still residing in the country, and recommended changes to criminal and citizenship law to allow Canada to prosecute war criminals. The second part of the final report, which concerns allegations against specific individuals, and contains an appendix listing 240 individuals suspected of war crimes, has never been made public. SS Galizien was a significant topic of the investigation; according to the report, "Charges of war crimes against members of the Galicia Division have never been substantiated."

In 1994 Canada said it would no longer prosecute Nazi war criminals.

Yaroslav Hunka
Yaroslav Hunka (Ярослав Гунька, Jarosław Hunka) was born in 1925 in Urman, Second Polish Republic (now Ukraine). In 1943, Hunka volunteered to join the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) at 18 years old. According to Hunka, his reason for enlisting was following the call of the Ukrainian Central Committee to fight for the idea of "Unified Ukraine". During his time in the SS Galizien, he was photographed training in Munich and Neuhammer (present day Świętoszów). In 1944, Hunka was deployed into combat against Red Army forces on the Eastern Front of World War II. Dominique Arel, the chair of Ukrainian studies at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News that thousands of Ukrainian volunteers had been drawn to the division, and that many aspired doing so could help attain Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. According to Arel, it was "difficult to determine" whether specific groups of the division took part in atrocities, but he said that by the time Hunka's unit reached the front, German operations relating to the Holocaust would have ended in that area. He said, however, that the SS Galizien had been implicated in the killing of Polish civilians.

Following the conclusion of World War II in Europe, Hunka settled in the United Kingdom and joined the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain. In 1951, he married Margaret Ann Edgerton (1931–2018), and the couple emigrated to Canada three years later, settling in Toronto, where they raised their two sons, Martin and Peter, and became active in the Ukrainian-Canadian community. After graduating from a technical college, Hunka worked in the aircraft industry, eventually becoming an inspector for De Havilland. In retirement, Hunka was heavily involved in the Ukrainian community; his sons established the Yaroslav and Margaret Hunka Ukrainian Research Endowment Fund at the University of Alberta to advance academic research in the underground Ukrainian Catholic Church. After the 2023 controversy surrounding Hunka, the interim provost of the University of Alberta announced it would close the endowment and return the approximately CA$30,000 to Hunka's sons, saying that the university "recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused."

On August 20, 2004, Hunka was named an Honorary Citizen of the City of Berezhany by the Berezhany city council, in Ukraine. In 2007, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress awarded Hunka and other former members of the SS Galizien the "Medal of Merit."

Hunka contributed to a blog by an association of SS Galizien veterans on the Internet in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he compared the Ukrainian diaspora to the Israelites. As of 2022, Hunka lived in North Bay, Ontario, and travelled to Greater Sudbury to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine that year. Describing the situation in Ukraine, Hunka told CTV News that the "Destruction is just unbelievable but it will take years and years to rebuild it, ... But Ukrainian [sic] will win and God Bless Ukraine and I pray for it."

Canadian involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war
After the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada has sanctioned Russia, and has sent weapons to Ukraine. On 8 May 2022, Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On 22 September 2023, the media reported that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making a surprise visit to Canada, his first since the invasion, and that he would speak to the House of Commons of Canada.

Hunka in the House of Commons of Canada
In September 2023, Anthony Rota, the speaker of the House of Commons, invited Hunka to visit the Parliament of Canada, where Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered remarks. According to a later statement by government house leader Karina Gould, Rota did so without informing the government or the Ukrainian delegation. On September 22, 2023, Rota recognized Hunka's presence in the chamber, saying: 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. Rota further praised Hunka, asserting that "He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service." After Rota's praise, the chamber gave two standing ovations to Hunka, which Zelenskyy and his wife also joined.

Reactions
Reactions to the celebration of Hunka were negative and generated international headlines. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies condemned SS Galizien as "responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable", referencing events such as the 1944 Huta Pieniacka massacre of Polish civilians. In a statement released on September 24, Rota accepted responsibility for inviting Hunka to the ceremony, and stated that "I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my action." Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, a spokeswoman for Trudeau, called Rota's apology "the right thing to do" and emphasized Rota's responsibility for inviting Hunka to the ceremony.

The event renewed interest in the topic of the handling of suspected war criminals who immigrated to Canada. Canadian politician and human rights advocate Irwin Cotler, who was chief counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress at the Deschênes Commission, said on behalf of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights: "While the apologies are necessary and welcome, it raises a larger question. How did Yaroslav Hunka, a notorious Nazi war criminal, enter Canada to begin with? How is it that he was never held accountable?"

The president of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada defended Hunka and stated that there was nothing wrong with the Canadian Parliament applauding a man "who fought for his country", although acknowledging in the circumstances "this may not have been correct". The Ukrainian Canadian Congress said in a statement that there were "difficult and painful pages in the common history of the communities that have taken up residence in Ukraine" and said it recognized that "recent events that have brought these pages to the forefront have caused pain and anguish". President Zelenskyy did not comment on the incident.

Following the incident, an image of a fake Ukrainian postage stamp featuring Hunka was shared on Twitter by multiple users, including the Russian embassy in the U.K. Other Russian embassies have also criticized the event.

Rota's resignation and House motion
On September 26, Rota announced his resignation over the controversy. The same day, the House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion by Yves-François Blanchet to "utterly condemn Nazism in all its forms" and express "full solidarity with all victims of Nazism, past and present." The motion also condemned the invitation extended to Hunka, and formally withdrew his recognition by the House.

Hunka's family goes into hiding
In the wake of the controversy, Hunka's family were reported to have gone into hiding in their hometown of North Bay, and did not respond to interview requests. Hunka's daughter-in-law was quoted as saying her family was "shocked at what happened"; according to a family friend, they had not known in advance that Hunka would be publicly recognized by the House Speaker, and had only expected "he would be in the same room" as President Zelenskyy.

Possible Polish extradition initiative
On September 26, Polish education minister Przemysław Czarnek stated that his government may seek to extradite Hunka as a war criminal. In a post made on Twitter, Czarnek said: "In view of the scandalous events in the Canadian Parliament, which involved honoring a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation in the presence of President Zelensky, I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland. #NOForFalsifyingHistory!"