Canadian lawmakers also gave Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation at the House of Commons on Friday. Rota called him a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero and thanked him for his service.
The speaker of Canada's House of Commons has apologised for giving a standing ovation to a man who served in a Nazi military unit during World War II. The incident happened on Friday just after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a trip to Canada, delivered an address in the House of Commons.
Speaker Anthony Rota drew flak from the Jewish community when he introduced 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as a war hero who fought for the First Ukrainian Division. Canadian lawmakers also gave Hunka a standing ovation and Zelenskyy raised his fist in acknowledgement as Hunka saluted from the gallery. Rota called him a “Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service”.
“In my remarks following the address of the President of Ukraine, I recognised an individual in the gallery. I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so,” Rota said in a statement on Sunday.
"I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my action," Rota said.
He also said that his fellow Parliament members and the Ukraine delegation were not aware of his plan to recognise Hunka. Rota noted Hunka is from his district. A statement from Prime Minister Trudeau’s office read that Rota has accepted full responsibility. “This was the right thing to do,” the statement said. “No advance notice was provided to the Prime Minister's Office, nor the Ukrainian delegation, about the invitation or the recognition.”
Zelenskyy was in Ottawa to bolster support from Western allies for Ukraine's war against the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy is himself a Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust.
The First Ukrainian Division was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis.
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies had issued a statement denouncing the Canadian speaker’s remarks. They said the division “was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable”.
“An apology is owed to every Holocaust survivor and veteran of the Second World War who fought the Nazis, and an explanation must be provided as to how this individual entered the hallowed halls of Canadian Parliament and received recognition from the Speaker of the House and a standing ovation,” the statement said, as reported by Associated Press.
B'nai Brith Canada's CEO, Michael Mostyn, said it was outrageous that Parliament honoured a former member of a Nazi unit, saying Ukrainian “ultra-nationalist ideologues” who volunteered for the Galicia Division “dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing”.
“We understand an apology is forthcoming. We expect a meaningful apology. Parliament owes an apology to all Canadians for this outrage, and a detailed explanation as to how this could possibly have taken place at the centre of Canadian democracy,” Mostyn had said.
Several others from the Jewish community had reacted sharply to the remarks and cheering for Hunka at the House of Commons.