DISINFO: Canadian Parliament honoured a Ukrainian Nazi veteran because he fought against the Russians
SUMMARY
The 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran of the WWII, Yaroslav Hunka, who served in the Nazi Waffen SS division, was honoured with long applause in the Canadian Parliament. He was applauded only because he fought against the Russians.
RESPONSE
Disinformation accusing the West of nurturing Nazism following an incident that took place during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Canada in September 2023.
It is false to claim that Yaroslav Hunka was honoured in the Canadian parliament because he fought against the Russians.
The Canadian Prime Minister recognised that the incident was deeply embarrassing: “I also want to reiterate how deeply sorry Canada is for the situation this put President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation in. It is extremely troubling to think that this egregious error is being politicised by Russia and its supporters to provide false propaganda about what Ukraine is fighting for,” he said. Liberal MP Anthony Rota also apologised and stepped down as House of Commons Speaker.
Background:
Although the Waffen-SS as a whole was declared to be a criminal organisation at the Nuremberg Trials, the Galician Division has not specifically been found guilty of any war crimes. Numerous accusations of impropriety were levelled at the division, and particular members.
Some surviving members of the division, who were Polish citizens until the onset of WWII, were admitted as refugees to Canada. Immigration was prohibited for members of the Nazi party, the SS, Waffen SS (an equally heinous military branch of the SS), the German Wehrmacht or regular armed forces, and collaborators. However, non-Germans conscripted into the Waffen SS after 1942 were exempted from this prohibition in 1951.
The special Canadian Deschênes Commission on war criminals, convened in October 1986, concluded the following in relation to membership in the Galicia Division: 'The Galicia Division should not be indicted as a group,' 'The members of the Galicia Division were individually screened for security purposes before admission to Canada,' and 'in the absence of evidence of participation in or knowledge of specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to justify prosecution'.
See other false claims of pro-Kremlin media related to WWII.
Russia uses accusations of 'Nazism' to destroy Ukraine, including targeting civilians, women and children amid full scale invasion of Ukraine started in 2022. Ukrainians are dehumanised up to being called "animals" by pro-Kremlin media. President Putin made an outlandish claim that the Jewish origin of Volodymyr Zelensky is a cover for his Nazism.
Read a similar disinformation case, claiming that Canada refuses to apologise for honouring a Ukrainian Nazi.