Like everyone, I have been following the uproar with House of Commons speaker Anthony Rota and his ineptitude in hosting and applauding Yaroslav Hunka, who as a WW2 Ukrainian teenager was fighting for the Nazis against the Russians.
When this first hit the news, I thought "Doesn't anybody know history anymore? Who couldn't have figured out that of course the people fighting the Russians in Ukraine in WW2 were the Nazis?"
But it's actually not quite that simple.
Justin Ling wrote a brilliant column yesterday that delves into the politics around that period of the war in Europe - About the SS Officer in the Gallery: History is messy, horrible, complicated. All we can do is face it:
...Dozens of veterans of the Ukrainian 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the Galicia Division, came to North America after the war. As did soldiers from the 15th and 19th Waffen Grenadier Divisions, the Latvian Legion. As did others from Estonia, Lithuania, and elsewhere.Back then, we considered their actions and, ultimately, welcomed them here. And then we tried to forget about it.While there are occasions where crying “Nazi!” should be the beginning and ending of the conversation, this isn’t one of them....Yaroslav Hunka was 14 years old when Nazi Germany and Communist Russia signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, invading Poland and divvying up Ukraine. ...
Ling continues to summarize the events of WW2 in Ukraine, the shifting alliances as the war evolved, and how peace was achieved. He concludes:
The Galician Division, like many aspects of the war along the eastern front, is caught in a tension. It exists in a difficult space between one genocidal regime and another.For those of us in North America, whose democracies sided with one over the other, we often pretend as though the choice was a simple one.It wasn’t.The compromise we settled on long ago is, I think, a good one: For those who fought with the SS in Eastern Ukraine and the Baltics, we looked for evidence of war crimes and, finding none, we accepted that war is hell. We let these men go about their lives, without ever forgetting that history. We chose not smear that fight for independence — which is still happening today in Ukraine — with the decisions made during the war.Rota’s decision to put Hunka in that gallery upset that fragile compromise. The histrionics have only made things worse.As Shkandrij concludes: “The force’s controversial, complex, and long story presents contemporaries with a range of lessons and challenges, and obliges them to consider how a previous generation reacted when trapped in the maelstrom of war.” ...
Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick reminds us that choices were made 80 years ago and thousands of miles away, in her article titled House Speaker pays price for ignorance — meanwhile Ukraine still needs weapons: Anthony Rota should have understood how complicated history is, how, post-Holodomor, a Ukrainian caught between Hitler and Stalin made a fatal choice:
...Trudeau often apologizes for concepts and for things he didn’t do, out of Canadian courtesy and representative moral duty.News flash: Trudeau apologized.Presumably every MP who voted for Rota as Speaker apologized personally to each of their constituents but I have no way of checking, also do not care.“This is something that is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada, and by extension to all Canadians,” Trudeau said.No, not really. I’m not embarrassed. I checked my calendar. I didn’t do it....Rota’s education included a political science degree from Wilfrid Laurier. It’s not much, apparently, but it’s something.He should have understood how complicated history is, how, post-Holodomor, a Ukrainian caught between Hitler and Stalin made a fatal choice.We can hate Hunka for that now. I do.But would every Canadian MP have made immaculate choices inside Stalin’s “Bloodlands” in 1943? Of course you and I would have been heroic, joined the White Rose movement, been executed for our troubles. But everyone?I would have checked Hunka’s background because the Second World War was another of the consecutive moments when human nature was defined. Definition: We are horrible. Except when we’re not.
Dale Smith makes this interesting point too:
And also worth noting:If the PM gave his apology before Rota resigned, it would have given Rota cover and allow him to convince himself that he could stay on, which would have been a mistake. Had Rota done the right thing and resign on Monday morning, Trudeau’s apology could have come sooner. #PnPCBC
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) September 27, 2023
I am UNPLUGGED from the Canadian Media
— G.T. Lem 林 家 聰 (@gtlem) September 26, 2023
So I'm watching
BBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS News
NONE OF THEM are talking about Anthony Rota or Justin Trudeau
So for those saying Canada is being laughed at in the International Media
Truth is - NONE OF THEM are paying attention #cdnpoli
The House of Commons protocol office does not report to the prime minister. The parliamentary protective service does not report to the prime minister. The RCMP does not report to the prime minister. Just how micromanaged WAS the former PMO?
— kady o'malley (@kady) September 27, 2023
What on *earth* are the Conservatives doing?
— kady o'malley (@kady) September 27, 2023
