The accidental invitation of a former Nazi to the Canadian parliament opens the door to talk about Canada's actions following World War II

Hunka is one of 2,000 members of this SS unit who were permitted to resettle in Canada following the war.

Last week was one of the rare occasions where behaviour at the Canadian Parliament made global headlines. 

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was appearing before Parliament to thank the Canadian government for its support of Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia. Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota invited the 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, a resident of North Bay, Ontario, Rota’s constituency, to be in attendance. Before the House of Commons, Rota recognized Hunka as a veteran of the Second World War who had fought for Ukrainian independence from Russia. Hunka received a standing ovation from Prime Minister Trudeau, President Zelenksy, and the rest of the assembly. 

The story of Hunka’s army service, however, was revealed to be much darker. 

Shortly after this scene took place in Parliament, Ivan Katchanovski, a political scientist from the University of Ottawa unearthed photos from Hunka’s military service on Twitter, revealing information subsequently confirmed by The Forward and other news outlets. The photos posted by Katchanovski confirmed that Hunka was a soldier in the SS-Waffen Galicia Division, also known as the “SS Galichina.” The unit was formed under German command in 1943 and has been held responsible for atrocities including the Huta Pieniacka massacre where upwards of 1,000 villagers were burned alive. In blog posts from 2010 and 2011, Hunka describes his time in the military as the happiest years of life, and made comparisons between the way his unit had subsequently scattered across the world to the Jewish Diaspora. The entire SS-Waffen, including Hunka’s unit, were declared war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.

 

In the wake of the incident, Prime Minister Trudeau has described it as being “deeply embarrassing” and Speaker Rota has stepped down from his position, following calls to do so by two opposition parties, and community advocacy organizations including the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies. Poland has called for Hunka to be deported to stand trial for the actions he committed during the war. 

Canada has an uncomfortable history with the SS Galichina. In the wake of the Second World War, approximately 2,000 members of the unit were permitted to resettle in Canada. We keep failing to have a serious conversation about the decision to admit Nazis to Canada at the end of a war where the country famously turned away the MS St. Louis, sending 907 Jewish refugees back to Europe in 1939, where 254 would be murdered in the Holocaust. 

The 1985 Deschenes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals report examined the circumstances of specifically Nazi war criminals being allowed entry into Canada in light of Dr. Josef Mengele’s attempt to immigrate to the country from Argentina in the 1960s. At the time of the report, in addition to the 2,000 members of the SS Galichina, the Commission identified at least 240 individuals, whose names have not been made public, who had been permitted to resettle in Canada with ties to the Nazi party and who were likely to have been involved in war crimes. At the time of the Commission’s report, there had been no prosecutions under the Criminal Code and no deportations or revocations of citizenship, though the Commission held that all of these things would have been reasonable options under the circumstances. 

In the decades since the Deschenes Commission report was released, prosecution and deportation of former Nazis, while it has occurred, has been sparse. But in light of last week, the waters seem to have warmed to finally having the aforementioned discussion about the presence of former Nazis in Canada. 

One of the first questions that always seems to come up with this topic is whether we’re at the point of too-little-too-late. Hunka, like most people who were old enough to have involvement in the Second World War, is 98-years-old. Just as our days being able to talk to Holocaust survivors are increasingly numbered, so too are our chances to prosecute the perpetrators of the Holocaust. 

The second part of that question, of course, is whether there is a point to prosecuting individuals involved in the commission of Nazi war crimes 77 years ago. In response to that, I think about something that David Matas, co-author of the Kilgour-Matas Report and famed human rights lawyer, once talked about. He explained that when we remember the Holocaust, we must remember not only the murdered, but also their murderers. Preserving the memory of the Holocaust and understanding what happened is not only about discussing concentration camps and death marches, but also talking about the regular people, living regular lives, who shot men, women, and children at Babi Yar and gassed innocent people in Concentration Camps. When I look at Holocaust education and remembrance from this perspective, I do not feel that it will ever be too late to demand that the perpetrators of Nazi war crimes stand trial for their actions. 

For far too long, Canada was complicit in helping thousands of former members of the SS Galichina and others who fought for the Nazis to avoid facing the consequences of their actions in Europe. What took place at Parliament was and is deeply embarrassing. But just saying that is not sufficient. Because the Canadian government has known since at least 1985 about the members of the SS Galichina and other former Nazis who had been allowed to resettle in Canada and have not taken steps to address this. Rather than an apology, perhaps it’s time take some actions to right those wrongs.