Liberal MP Anthony Rota is stepping down as House of Commons Speaker after inviting a Ukrainian veteran who fought in a Nazi division to Parliament — a dramatic turn of events that will be welcomed by MPs on all sides who said the embarrassing incident was unforgivable.
Rota’s resignation will take effect at the end of the sitting day on Wednesday.
h/t XC
For their own sake, Western nations must contend with the politics of the large and growing diaspora communities they host.
… Canada, in particular, has had a long history of tolerating supporters of militancy abroad. Even after 9/11 built pressure on all Western allies to root out supporters of terrorism, Ottawa resisted calls to clamp down on local financial support for Hezbollah.
Canadian communities also provided much of the financing for Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam — who, famously, invented suicide bombing. A lot of that money was raised, according to human-rights activists, by intimidating Canadian citizens who still had relatives in Sri Lanka.
Now tensions have begun to flare domestically as well. Last year, violence between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the post-industrial town of Leicester, while Sikhs and Hindus clashed in the middle of downtown Melbourne in January. Two years earlier, a Hindu man who had been deported from Australia for allegedly attacking Sikhs was given a “hero’s welcome” when he returned to India.
On Sept. 22, Canadian members of Parliament gave a standing ovation in the House of Commons for a former member of the Waffen SS, a Nazi division accused of war crimes during World War II.
The incident, which has now taken centre stage in Canadian politics, happened during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament as Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on. The man in question, Ukrainian-Canadian Yaroslav Hunka, was called “a Canadian hero” by Speaker of the House Anthony Rota and was also thanked for his military service.
The short version of the story is that Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh nationalist figure, was killed in Canada. According to India, he’s a terrorist. The Trudeau government decided to incite a diplomatic crisis by accusing India of killing him. But the basis for some of this crisis seems to have come from the Biden administration.
The truth about the 98-year-old Ukrainian former Nazi is complicated
Justin Trudeau’s government has been forced to apologise to Canadian Jewish organisations, after House Speaker Anthony Rota honoured a 98-year-old war veteran — who then turned out to have fought under the Nazis.
The incident occurred following a visit to the Canadian government by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Rota called out Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran sitting in the gallery, prompting a round of applause. Then someone dug up a blog post Hunka wrote in 2011 describing his wartime service — under Hitler.
The ADL declared the Azov Battalion deradicalized? Who knew!
Between a rock and a hard place is the best description of available choices in that time and place.
On Indian TV, former Indian diplomat Deepak Vohra claims there are "credible rumours" that sniffer dogs in India found cocaine on Trudeau’s plane and that Trudeau didn't attend the G20 dinner because he was high on cocaine. 😳 pic.twitter.com/SJTZYKRrRh
— Rupa Subramanya (@rupasubramanya) September 26, 2023
Liberals, Socialists and other progressives often claim that Conservatives are in bed with the far right and Nazis. This repulsive term is sometimes used to describe Conservatives themselves.
Well, that’s not going to work anymore. The political left can thank Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals for this after they unwittingly honoured a Nazi in Parliament.
OTTAWA — The Liberal government sought to erase from the record of the House of Commons the celebration of a Nazi war veteran during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit last Friday but that request was denied by the Conservatives who say to do so is “absolutely wrong.”
Government House leader Karina Gould stood up on Monday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to adopt a motion calling to strike “from the appendix of the House of Commons debates” and from “any House multimedia recording” the recognition made by Speaker Anthony Rota of Yaroslav Hunka, 98, whom he described as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero.”
If Canada was ever going to embarrass itself by having its Parliamentarians applaud the enthusiastic veteran of a Nazi combat unit, it’s almost inevitable that the unit would be the Waffen-SS Galicia Division.
Long before Galicia Division veteran Yaroslav Hunka ever scored an invite to Parliament Hill, Canada spent decades overlooking and even providing official cover for an organization that would later claim to be full of Ukrainian freedom-fighters, but was founded by Nazis, served under Nazi command and fought exclusively to serve Nazi aims.
India isn’t backing down on efforts to pressure, track and capture Sikh separatists in Canada in the face of a high-stakes diplomatic showdown between the governments of prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Narendra Modi.
After Canada’s assertion that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian state may have ordered the June killing of Surrey, B.C.’s Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an outspoken advocate of Sikh independence, law enforcement in India is instead ramping up the fight against individuals it considers to be terrorists, gangsters and fugitives from justice in this country.
Records show Canada’s former Governor General David Johnston, who was appointed as “special rapporteur” to lead the investigation into Chinese election interference by family “friend” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier in the year but resigned in disgrace, gave out millions in sweetheart contracts to preferred consultants.
Finally, a real Nazi affiliate appears to have breached the ramparts of Canada’s Parliament.
Yes indeed, after a couple of dry runs in which many politicians and media activists tried desperately to portray the trucker-led Freedom Convoy of 2022 and the Sept. 20 Million March 4 Children protests as fuelled by Nazis, white supremacists, and others suffering from a glossary of prejudicial phobias, the government of Justin Trudeau at last reeled in the real deal.
Surely now, even the Trudeau Liberals will start to take national security seriously. If indeed the Indian government was behind the killing of a Canadian citizen, it proves yet again that the idea that Canada is much too enlightened to concern itself with something as unsophisticated as security is nothing but a fantasy.
Universal health care, a whole pile of “humility and audacity” and all the “honest broker” nonsense the Liberals can muster won’t stop foreign adversaries from harassing, kidnapping or murdering Canadians.
With his spectacles and sombre grey suit, Pavan Kumar Rai looks every inch the professional senior Indian civil servant.
His low-key, bureaucratic manner fits perfectly with the anodyne name of his employer: the Research and Analysis Wing.
Yet Mr Rai and his organisation were thrust into the spotlight this week, after explosive allegations from Justin Trudeau that India assassinated Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
Amidst cryptocurrency booms and innovations in blockchain technology, governments have been showing great interest in creating their own digital monetary imprint through what is called a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to the Atlantic Council, a NATO-aligned think tank, the number of countries investigating a CBDC has exploded from 35 pre-COVID-19 to 130 today. China, for example, has a pilot program covering over 260 million people which allows transactions for public transit, stimulus payments, and e-commerce. Russia’s “digital ruble” went into action last month as an optional currency.
