A growing chorus of voices led by Jewish human rights groups demands Canada release long-classified records on Nazi immigrants, a response to leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau honoring a 98-year-old former Waffen SS soldier in Parliament in September.
Trudeau joined lawmakers in giving a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian “veteran from the Second World War” in Parliament during a visit to the legislature by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust. Then-Parliament Speaker Anthony Rota introduced Hunka as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” prompting the ovation in which Zelensky participated.
No evidence indicates that Rota, who apparently planned to bring Hunka to the Parliament, informed Zelensky that Hunka had served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician). Rota reportedly invited Hunka to Zelensky’s appearance in Parliament at the behest of Hunka’s son, who contacted his office.
Historians have documented extensive evidence that the Waffen-SS committed a large number of atrocities during World War II, though subsequent attempts to reveal what, exactly, Hunka was doing during his service remain inconclusive at press time.
“The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited to and given a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking,” Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Canadian Jewish human rights organization, said in a statement shortly after the incident. “There should be no confusion that this unit was responsible for the mass murder of innocent civilians with a level of brutality and malice that is unimaginable.”
Rota resigned shortly after the incident, asserting he would “accept full responsibility” for the scandal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and then-Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota (L) take part in a signing ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on September 22, 2023. (PATRICK DOYLE/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“I reiterate my profound regret for my error in recognizing an individual in the House,” he wrote in his resignation.
In contrast, Trudeau — who stood and applauded alongside Zelensky while the Ukrainian president raised his fist to honor Hunka — called the affair “deeply embarrassing” for the Parliament but blamed “Russian disinformation” for the outrage surrounding his celebration of a Nazi soldier.
Less than a week later, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae lectured the U.N. General Assembly on the need to “end systemic racism” and “walk the path towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples” — without mentioning the burgeoning Nazi celebration scandal at home.
“We also continue to search for ways to break down gender barriers and end systemic racism,” Rae declared. “To protect and promote the rights of Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual individuals and communities, in all their diversity. And to walk the path towards reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”
“More than an apology needs to happen,” Richard Robertson, manager of research and advocacy with the Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada, told Jewish Insider in a report published on Monday. “We need action, and the action the government can take is long overdue.”
B’nai Brith has been campaigning for years for the Canadian government to release records detailing how many Nazis it allowed to seek shelter in the country following World War II and its role in aiding Nazi war criminals generally. Shortly after the Canadian Parliament honored Hunka, the organization published a statement urging the government “to release the complete and unredacted 1985-1986 Deschênes Commission report on Nazis who immigrated to Canada after World War II, as well as all other classified Holocaust-related records.”
“The Jewish community expects more than an apology after parliament last week celebrated a 98-year-old former member of the Waffen-SS. Canadians deserve to know how and why Nazi war criminals were able to settle in this country,” B’nai Brith asserted in its statement on September 29.
The Deschênes Commission report, completed in 1986, compiled information about more than 800 people who fled to Canada following the end of World War II and were suspected of having participated in human rights atrocities in Europe. Some estimates suggest as many as 2,000 Ukrainian Waffen-SS may have successfully found peaceful lives in Canada following the war.
“The commission found that hundreds of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division were living in Canada by the mid-1980s, according to The Canadian Press, but Justice Jules Deschênes said that membership in the division did not itself constitute a war crime,” CTV detailed on Tuesday.
Jewish Insider noted that the report is believed to have identified 20 alleged Nazi war criminals and more than 200 “collaborators” living in Canada, but the Canadian government has kept most of the salient details from the public eye. The government censorship means a full accounting of the number of Nazis who escaped justice in Canada — and may still be living there — remain unknown.
“This was a failure here of indifference and inaction by successive Canadian governments, the result being that we became a sanctuary for Nazi war criminals, and no accountability would then ensue,” former Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler told CTV.
“We really want these records to open up so we can understand Canada’s past and begin to heal from it,” Robertson told Jewish Insider. “There are wounds in this country, and we have a right to the information. Our main issue is to ensure that this never happens again.”
Also speaking to Jewish Insider, Günther Jikeli, the associate director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University, lamented that the Hunka incident “clearly shows that Canada should release more information about Nazi immigration to Canada and bring war criminals to justice.”
“It’s now time for Ottawa to not only release the unredacted files related to the Deschênes Commission, but to also address the stark reality that there are still former Nazis with blood on their hands living in Canada,” Michael Levitt, president of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, similarly said in a statement this week, as reported by the CBC.
Canada’s Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship told Jewish Insider through a spokesperson that it was “aware of requests” to publish the Deschênes Commission report “and will look to see if any additional information can be released, subject to requirements of the Privacy Act and related to national security.”