OTTAWA – Rideau Hall says it deeply regrets that a man who fought for a Nazi unit in the Second World War was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1987.
Peter Savaryn was chancellor of the University of Alberta and leader of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, according to his Order of Canada biography.
He also fought for the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, a voluntary unit created by the Nazis to help fight off the Soviet Union.
At a high-profile event for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 22, Canadian lawmakers gave 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Canadian immigrant who ostensibly fought for the First Ukrainian Division against the Russians in World War II, a standing ovation for his service in the cause of freedom. Speaker of the House Anthony Rota introduced Hunka as a “war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians.”
OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are beginning to nervously watch for signs of a breakdown in the cross-partisan Canadian consensus on support for Ukraine, but hoping it will hold amid shifting American and international rhetoric.
Both Liberals and Conservatives tell the Star they are starting to see a shift in online discourse in Canada about the war. Some report a rising number of emails coming into their offices that question the $9 billion in spending Canada has pledged since 2022 to help Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion.
At one point Freeland attempted to link support for the near universally hated carbon tax with support for Ukraine. Stupid move.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive to liberate territory occupied by Russia may be taking longer than expected, but the central goal of inflicting a devastating defeat on Moscow remains imperative if other autocratic regimes like China are to be deterred from initiating future acts of bellicosity.
Since the Ukrainians launched their counter-offensive in the summer, their forces have made slow but steady progress in recapturing territory occupied by the Russians after President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion last year.
An unbearable stupidity has trickled down from the Liberal government
Perhaps I should say straight away that I love Canada. Some of my best friends are Canadian. That minimal throat-clearing aside, let me say — as a friendly outsider — that Canada today looks like a nation of ignoramuses.
The incident in Parliament the other week is just one case in point. Standing ovations are very rare things. They should be very special things. When a whole House stands to applaud someone they had better be very sure who they are applauding.
The condemnation of 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a former member of the Waffen SS after he was honoured in Canada’s Parliament has been excessive. The person who exposed him in that capacity, Lev Golinkin, is a Nazi hunter whose criterion for the asseveration of capital crimes for a suspect of Nazi crimes is service in any capacity in a para-military or police unit that has reasonably been found guilty of the commission of such crimes.
Britain has run out of defence equipment to donate to Ukraine and other countries should step in and shoulder more of the burden, a senior military chief has said.
The comments come after Ben Wallace revealed that he asked Rishi Sunak to spend £2.3 billion more on support for Ukraine before he resigned as defence secretary last month.
Mr Wallace warned that the UK had been overtaken by Germany as the biggest European military donor to Ukraine as he called for the 50 per cent increase on funding that the UK has committed so far.
Russian forces have destroyed about half the battlefield equipment that Ukrainian company Metinvest has produced for the country’s military. Managers want Russian troops to target more of it.
At a workshop in central Ukraine, workers are busy making parts for howitzers, radar stations and mortars. They are all fakes. Metinvest churns out high-quality replicas that serve as decoys, seeking to lure Russian fire.
Some members of the local Ukrainian community say there’s “broken trust” after a former Ukrainian soldier who fought in a Nazi division was honoured in Parliament during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ottawa — and want an apology of their own.
“This is just so, so disappointing,” said Jane Kolbe, an active member of the community in Ottawa.
Now-former House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota invited veteran Yaroslav Hunka, one of his constituents from North Bay, Ont., to sit in the gallery during Zelenskyy’s address on Sept. 22.
Ukraine is fighting Russia on many fronts. And just as progress on the battlefield is hard won, so too these days are its diplomatic gains.
Since Russia’s invasion last year, Western support for Kyiv has remained largely strong. But cracks are beginning to form in the pro-Ukraine alliance.
The United States is Ukraine’s greatest supporter by a long way, providing more than $110bn (£90bn) in military and economic support. Yet over the weekend, Congress ditched plans to give Ukraine another $6bn in a bitter internal battle over how to fund the federal government.
Jewish groups say the federal government must disclose more information from investigations into alleged war criminals who entered Canada after the Second World War, in a push that was re-energized after Parliament honoured a man who was revealed to have fought for a Nazi unit.
“When it comes to remembering the victims, we’ve done a lot. But when it comes to remembering the murderers, we’ve done very little,” David Matas, senior legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada, said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live that aired Sunday.
Kyiv has a battle plan to recapture the peninsula but behind the scenes there are serious fears about what would happen next
Last week Mykhailo Podolyak, one of President Zelensky’s main advisers, made it clear that Ukrainian attacks on Crimea would only intensify, because he saw it as crucial to winning the war. When Crimea falls, he predicted, “Russian troops at the front will panic and Moscow’s political rhetoric will change completely.” The fighting talk apart, it is less clear how the peninsula could be liberated, and even whether this would be wise.
A former federal justice minister says the “failure of indifference and inaction” over Canada’s history with Nazis in the country likely contributed to Parliament’s unknowing recognition of a Nazi veteran in the House of Commons last week, and that he wants to see nearly 40-year-old documents on suspected war criminals living in Canada unsealed.
The push to release the documents comes amid ongoing fallout after Parliament’s recognition of 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian veteran who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
The apology by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a tribute by Parliament to a man who had fought in a Nazi unit is an important healing step — but more needs to be done, Jewish groups say. Namely, declassifying more of the “secret” information contained in the Deschenes Report.
These reports were completed after the Second World War and contain information on Nazis who came to Canada after the conflict ended. However, the names are all redacted, as is any information on how those individuals were allowed to come.
Civilians who did essential jobs in Russian-occupied areas were arrested after liberation. They say they have been branded ‘enemies of the people’
When Russian tanks rolled into the rubble of his home town, Dmytro Herasymenko faced a dilemma.
Months of fighting had left Lyman without electricity. He could return to his job at the power grid to repair the lines and risk being viewed as a collaborator, or he could refuse and face the consequences.
The choice he made, and what happened to him as a result, has opened up a painful public debate in Ukraine that is set to grow in significance as the country strives to liberate more occupied territory in the coming weeks.
