— Feature, Musings —09.25.2023 04:48 PM
My latest: kick the Nazi out
They weren’t an army division. They were actually a criminal organization.
That was what the Nuremberg Trials called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS: Criminals, not soldiers, who found themself in the spotlight on Parliament Hill on Friday when former 14th Waffen member Yaroslav Hunka was invited to the House of Commons by Speaker Anthony Rota and received a standing ovation as “a Ukrainian and a Canadian hero” who fought for “Ukrainian independence against the Russians.”
Of course, there’s much more to the SS division’s sordid past than that. The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division murdered many, many Jews and Polish civilians. For this, they were applauded by Heinrich Himmler, who was the leader of the Nazi Party and the architect of the Holocaust.
In a speech, Himmler said of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division: “Your homeland has become so much more beautiful since you have lost — on our initiative, I must say — those residents who were so often a dirty blemish on Galicia’s good name, namely the Jews … I know that if I ordered you to liquidate the Poles … I would be giving you permission to do what you are eager to do anyway.”
Which they were. Which they did. For their homeland, which was Ukraine.
One such atrocity took place at the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka. According to those who were there, civilians were locked in barns, which were then set on fire. Those who tried to escape were killed.
On another occasion in the spring of 1944, 2,000 women and children had sought refuge in a monastery in the Polish village of Pidkamin, which is now part of Ukraine. The SS Grenadiers captured it and murdered hundreds.
Canada’s Deschenes Commission later concluded that it was unfair to call everyone in the 14th Division a war criminal. But the fact is that the commission never travelled to Europe to interview its victims.
The Nuremberg prosecutors who did found that the Grenadiers were led by men who had participated in the mass murder of Jews and civilians. And were indeed homicidal maniacs.
As Esprit de Corps magazine concluded: “Over the decades, as Holocaust historians publish more details about the atrocities of those who served in the SS Galicia Division, it has become clear to critics that the Deschenes commission was simply a whitewash of a military unit that subscribed to and served the ideology of Adolf Hitler and SS leader Heinrich Himmler.”
And one of them — one of the Nazis — was praised in the House of Commons this week. Our Church of Government defiled by the presence of a man who subscribed to the ideology of murder, Naziism.
The fact that he was there was bad enough. But this writer had a different question: What the hell was he doing in Canada in the first place?
The answer: He came here with 2,000 other Nazis. And the Canadian government welcomed them with open arms, too.
Flight Lt. Bohdan Panchuk was their sponsor. Writes historian and Postmedia journalist David Pugliese: “Panchuk was able to get members of the 14th Waffen SS Division Galicia into Canada by lying about their past.
Members of the unit had surrendered to Allied forces and were being held in a camp in Italy. In an attempt to hide the SS connection, the unit had changed its name in the last few days of the war to the First Division Ukrainian National Army. ”
To get them into Canada, Panchuk depicted them as anti-Soviet fighters. If Canadian officials had bothered to probe deeper, they would’ve found the truth. In fact, most of the men had SS tattoos under their left arms.
Ukrainians who lived in Canada knew who they were. They raised the alarm. But nobody listened to them. The 2,000 Nazis thereafter started to arrive throughout the 1950s and got to work whitewashing their past.
Which brings us to now. And the main question.
The main question is not how this Nazi came to be in the House of Commons. By now, we all know he was invited there by the moron who is the Speaker of the House of Commons, who the Liberals and Conservatives refused to fire.
No, the more important question is this: How did this Nazi get to Canada in the first place — and why is he still here?
What was the involvement of the PMO?
Did Trudeau promise Speaker Rota he could keep his job if he took the blame for PMO/Trudeau?
Justin Trudeau: “This is deeply embarrassing to the Parliament of Canada and by extension to all Canadians” (as if Trudeau and the Liberals had no role in it).
“… It’s important that all of us push back against Russian propaganda.”
What’s Russian propaganda have to do with a Liberal’s screw up?
Warren,
In a word: St-Laurent. Prime Minister until 1957.
Sad thing is they were still not as bad as the Dirlewanger Brigade “Crimes included the mass rape and murder of 15 Red Cross nurses and the killing of thousands of civilians. After troops entered a makeshift military hospital, they first killed the wounded with bayonets and rifle butts before gang raping the women.”
https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/oskar-dirlewanger-27b623301ced
Dave,
Oskar was a sadist and loved every minute of it. It really says something when the rest of the Nazis were revolted by their conduct. They thought he went too far.
Who recommended Jaroslav Hunka to Speaker Rota?
A fly on the wall recommended Hunka to Speaker Rota.
It was the same fly that was spotted on Mike Pence’s
hair during the last U.S. election.
Apparently Hunka’s son contacted Rota.
Or I should say Rota’s constituency office.
Kick Hunta out? He’s 98 and he will die before the legal proceedings play out.
Re how Hunta came into Canada? Isn’t it a bit too late?
Perhaps a better question; how many similar individuals are we letting in now? And do we wish to do anything about it today?
Wait a minute!
You’re suggesting that out of a simpleton’s mistake we could actually take concrete action, that we actually SHOULD take sole action to stop it from happening again?
That we ritually and regularly allow and invite unsavory people with really good connections into our country? How dare you, sir!
We were busy here, having a perfectly nice day, replete with 2 minutes of hate we’ve all saved up for those evil N-words, and blaming everyone for them even being alive. Greatest generation my ass! These guys are collaborators, all!
And now you’re pointing back at our current nation, our current immigration policies, our current gaping holes in policy which have brought foreign insurgencies to the Lower Mainland, in daylight hours. How dare you!
Instead of owning our problems, we’d rather point out the obvious ad nauseum- in a war, nobody gets out clean. And these Ukrainians had no right to fight against the encroaching army of a man who would starve 20 million of their brethren to death over 30 years of pogroms. They should have been passive, and this Hunka is no brave soldier.
He’s an N word.
The NDP has maintained integrity whereas the LPC
& Cons have lost all credibility & didn’t even bother to
maintain integrity. It’s all very sad stuff IMHO.
Clearly, the LPC is incompetent to govern as a laughingstock. The NDP cannot support a laughingstock let alone the status quo. Ergo, this will be a long term dumpster fire the LPC won’t be able to extinguish.
Vote NDP in the next election.
The NDP is supporting a laughing stock.
They may chirp and tweet a lot about Trudeau, but they keep voting for Trudeau.
Parliament is the best job NDP MPs will ever hold and they know it. Liberal MPs will move onto bigger and better things because they are an extension of the inbred group of old money families and oligopolistic corporations that dominate Canada. Parliament is likley the best job Conservatives MPs will ever hold, but they fail to accept they reality. The NDP will prop up the government no matter the amount of detritus Liberal detritus that sticks to it.
Robert,
Seriously, do you think this horrible disaster will change one iota regarding the supply and confidence agreement? Nope. Singh will keep propping up Trudeau, period.
Voters: you want Trudeau out? Vote CPC, the only party that can get him and his pathetic bozos out.
Clark, Campbell, Turner and Martin looked like geniuses compared to these inept and incompetent fools.
Normally Justin’s itinerary says he will attend QP. That was a remarkable demonstration of cowardice not to show up yesterday and let Goold(sic) and Rota take the heat. He couldn’t take a few minutes away from Eby to answer a question or two?
Here is today’s. And now he is in Toronto. I mean WTAF.
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/itineraries/2023/09/25/prime-ministers-itinerary-tuesday-september-26-2023
The kiddies in the short pants in the PMO likely haven’t come up with a comms plan for this yet and he won’t attend until they do. Good luck with that.
Martin,
I, out of the goodness of my heart have already prepared it for them: WE’RE FUCKING STUPID!
Fought for “Ukrainian independence against the Russians”. Our now former Speaker Rota made this statement when introducing Mr. Hunka. My guess is Mr. Rota was unaware Canada was an ally of the Soviet Union during WW11. Indeed, how many members of Parliament, including Cabinet Ministers, could have passed this test (they certainly can now). As others are posting here, this absolutely gives the Russian propaganda machine lots to work with.
If people have became parliamentarians and did not know that basic historical fact, then our educational system has totally failed us(not to mention the fact that they mustn’t actually read much).
That we were allied with a homicidal maniac only tells us that, at the time, there were bigger homicidal maniacs afoot. The bedfellows we kept are difficult to cheer for when we watch the Soviets eat their own for 100 years afterwards.
And the Russian propaganda machine doesn’t operate in the sunlight anyway. No need to concern ourselves with starving it out; TikTok is keeping the hatred moving no matter who we goose-step into Parliament.
Still, the award for the best headline ever, “I did Nazi that coming”, still with Sun News. 😀
At least the Sun is addressing all the F*cking Nazi/SS memorials in Canada.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/warmington-another-tribute-to-wwii-ukrainian-nazi-unit-in-oakville/ar-AA1hfvTf?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=69abc083a84446cfb05714f1bb87e619&ei=25#image=1
Dave,
Bulldozer all of them.
Justin on the way into the cabinet meeting. Says that there will be “important conversations” between Rota and the House Leaders. That would be as opposed to unimportant ones? In my business I routinely make fun of important meetings, discussions and people so that literally made me laugh.
Any word from the esteemed Deputy PM and well-known Ukrainian-Canadian Freeland?
Has she calculated that staying silent is the best way to avoid any shit splatter that misses her boss, the PM?
Dawn,
Not working. After this, she’s no longer in contention for the NATO gig. Poland will block her for damned sure.
Here is a well researched post on the unit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_Gs-0dhOo
History will pass judgement on these men. It should be noted there is a great deal of support for these men, and their fight against the Red Army, in present day Ukraine. Canada has decided to support Ukraine against Russia (rightly so, IMHO). If we want to continue that support, we will have to accept that not everybody shares our opinion of Mr Hunka, and the 14th SS Division Galicia.
Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin does a good job of describing what a vicious and complex place Ukraine, Belarus etc was during that period. Don’t forget that Stalin and company did the Holodomor, in which literally millions of Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death. In an environment like that, you can see why certain Ukrainian nationalists may have been receptive to fighting on the Nazi side. Not an excuse for being a Nazi obviously but that entire region was a vicious hellscape for many years, in which people were often faced with lousy choices and in many cases lost touch with humanity.
I have no nazi sympathy and still very much disagree with the idea of kicking this man out of our country (his country).
I am guessing 0% of the people posting here have much more than shared experiences passed on to them about living in a war zone.
This man was a child of 18 at the end of the war. Hitler was pushing his country’s own youth into suicidal situations by this time and as I stated earlier, this man’s choices were to pick an oppressive force to your left or right or face real possibility of being shot by both sides.
Yes, Nazi ideology permeated this unit and I have no doubt there were atrocities committed. No I am not excusing those one bit. I am saying we can’t have a double standard where a Nazi criminal is treated differently i.e. that there is no chance of rehabilitation.
If this man needs to be kicked out of the country, then much of the population should be awarded the same treatment. Likewise, we should have a death penalty for persons like Paul Bernardo, who I think it is safe to say performed some of the most reprehensible crime in Canada.
I do not believe in the death penalty and equally while I feel deeply for people who suffered at the hands of Nazis I really think 18 year olds were a hell of a lot more scared of what could happen to them then what was happening to others. If anyone here can truthfully say they would have risked their own ass, I don’t believe they have a grasp of the then world.
I personally know several men only a few years younger than this guy who were either pressed into the Hitler youth, or evade it by running. In one case getting very lucky. I worked for a man who spent some of his youth in a U-boat, not his choice. He was a tough man, but a lot of our own veterans came home, just as tough, just as mean and just as misdiagnosed and misunderstood. Canadians committed atrocities as well. That is the hard truth.
If you want to see by today’s standards, and the man should’ve been thrown out I’m OK with that, but not by the standards of his day this deportation would be white washing history as well.
Unfortunately, the allies had within them, a Satan they chose over another. Had the allies resolved to defeat Stalin after Hitler died. Maybe we don’t have the current world situation???
Like clockwork, team Justin’s response is predictably despicable. They *all* stood up and clapped without understanding what they were clapping about. They are all just as guilty as Rota. But then again, standing up and clapping with total disinterest in the truth has become rather routine with this Government.
Barking seals.
In defense of most of them they were given no time to process who they were clapping for. All they heard was Ukrainian hero and since lots of Ukrainians fought for the Allies then that is what they thought. The only thing that would have set my ears up would have been fought the Russians for Ukrainian independence and even then and 30 seconds the majority of people would have not processed it fast enough to act. This applies to all members of the house. (unfortunately) . Makes me dirty to say this as i detest the Liberals and NDP in their current form but there it is. IMHO
Any way to blame this on Steven Harper or Pierre Poilievre? Asking for a friend.
We made Jimmy Dore!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA7BR-_trHY
Liberal chief government whip, Steve MacKinnon, when asked why Justin won’t show up in the House to answer to what has been going on said that all Canadians know that Justin has a certain rhythm to his appearances.
I see.
Maybe I’m not reading the right info but I’d like more details about the history of Ukrainian soldiers in the Second World War. To me, it’s understandable that, immediately following Stalin’s Holodomor, that Ukrainians would be willing to fight for whoever, as long as they were killing Russians.
Fighting for the Nazis is bad, I get that. But I think there’s historical nuance that we’re missing.
http://espritdecorps.ca/history-feature/whitewashing-the-ss-the-attempt-to-re-write-the-history-of-hitlers-collaborators The one good thing about the Nazis is that they were great record keepers . They keep detailed lists of how many men, women and children that were shot listed by time and day and which unit ( huge buildings in Gemany house these records), I used them to track a German airmans death from a pay book I got from a veteran.). If Galicia units were just fighting Russians that would have been accepted by most considering the past atrocities committed on them by the Russian but what condemns them is the extra activities they participate in. You would have a better chance of finding a bag of chicken teeth then finding members of the SS, Einsatzgruppen and police battalions who did not have blood on their hands. But I am rambling so I shall leave it here.
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/reserve-police-battalion-101
This crossed my mind too. The Nazis kept extremely good records so finding info on the unit was probably not too difficult.
It would have taken a few calls/emails to an archive/museum/ gov’t department and a knowledge of the language, then a bit of back and forth since the records are probably not digitized, but someone could have got the details with a bit of time and effort.
I did stuff like this all the time pre-internet. Calls and faxes, jurisdictional time differences can draw out the process but the info can be found.
They’re all just as guilty as Rota?
How do you tell that Hunka was a Nazi?
The Speaker calls your attention to someone whom he should have vetted. You have 5 seconds to determine that this man was a Nazi before you stand an applaud, or stay seated.
I recently saw a story about the Victoria Cross, told by Jeremy Clarkson. One of the VC recipients was a Major Cain. Clarkson married one of Major Cain’s daughters. She didn’t know her dad was awarded the VC until after Major Cain died.
I mention this to illustrate how do we know what people did in WW2.
Again, how were the MPs supposed to know Hunka was a Nazi?
Note that in his resignation speech that Rota still only took responsibility for RECOGNIZING him. I still don’t think it is clear who INVITED him. Even if Rota, why was a Nazi allowed into the HOC. I also still don’t think it is clear whether he was or should have been vetted.
Looks like there were some “important” discussions held last night. I wonder what they were all about.
“Important” discussions: say very little, and play for time.
Justin just apologized on “behalf of all parliamentarians”. That is the best he can come up with after 5 days, I guess. Waiting for the abortion card to be dropped.
Martin,
Par for the course. It takes that much time for his brain to shift out of neutral…
You know the Liberals are panicking and on the verge of implosion when they send out senior cabinet members or the PM to flap their arms about abortion. Paul Martin flapping, red in the face, raging about abortion. You just knew they were going down. Ignatieff – it was demeaning and you could tell he knew it.
So happy to see that Trudeau has “apologized”. He didn’t, really. What he said was “the Speaker was solely responsible for the invitation and the recognition of this man”.
I had no idea the Speaker was so talented. Not only did he send out a personal invitation to Mr. Hunka, he personally took care of the security clearance and vetting. Then he hunkered down and wrote the speech, keeping its contents to himself the whole time. Very impressive!
Interestingly, as he read the speech, he got to the part about “fought against the Russians”. There is a noticeable pause from Rota at that point, – the proverbial light bulb going off – as he realizes who fought against the Russians in WW2.
God help us all.
Just watched Goold(sic) continue to pile on Rota on P and P. At what point does he just tell these people to all go eff themselves(unless there were considerations for him to endlessly eat shit).
Trudeau apologized on Wednesday only after plan A (pretend it never happened) didn’t work, and plan B (get all record of it removed from Hansard) didn’t work.
His ‘government’ colleague, Jagmeet Singh, called on Trudeau to present a plan for how the government intends to fix the damage done to the country’s reputation.
Mr Singh could start by voting against Trudeau and triggering an election. But since Singh won’t, perhaps he’ll advise Justin to get a completely new set of socks.
Rumour has it that Telford is busy phoning world leaders to see if anyone would like a Justin visit. No takers so far. Leaders are unwilling to risk local crowds chanting “Nazi, Nazi” wherever Justin makes a public appearance.
Looks like Trudeau has resurrected plan A, don’t speak about it, pretend it never happened, and it will go away.
“Liberal caucus sources have told CBC News that Trudeau told MPs that they should avoid speaking to the press about Hunka’s invitation and the subsequent fallout, and that the media frenzy would die down if they stayed tight lipped.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/yaroslav-hunka-fallout-1.6979628
Perhaps Trudeau will rehire Laith Marouf but as a history teacher?
The whole lot of the Parliamentarians should be ashamed. The Governor General should dissolve Parliament. What I don’t get is how everybody stood and cheered, including Zelenski and Freeland. I excuse Trudeau for being a moron and probably not realizing what was happening, but the man was introduced as a Ukranian Canadian who fought in ww2 against the Russians. Are these people not educated? Shouldn’t your spidey senses somehow been tingling? You’re trying to tell me that Freeland doesn’t know what the First Ukrainian Division is? Poor Zelenski, being put in the spot where he probably knows that he’s cheering an actual Nazi. What in holy hell has Trudeau allowed?
Warren,
We are ready for war against NATO.
Medvedev: “In light of NATO’s plans to supply more weapons to Ukraine, it seems that Russia will soon have no other option but to engage in a direct conflict with NATO, which has become an overtly fascist bloc similar to the Hitler Axis, albeit larger in size,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. [Total bullshit.]
Beyond marvellous! Finally, the long overdue showdown between good and evil. Can’t wait for Canada to get in. If they’re willing to take me at 62, I’ll be signing up in a New York minute. And if I get blown away, well that’s life for you.
No Justin tomorrow. Chicken shit.
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/itineraries/2023/09/27/prime-ministers-itinerary-thursday-september-28-2023
Martin,
Didn’t you know? It’s primal scream therapy tomorrow in front of a huge mirror: he will look at himself straight in the eyes and repeatedly yell, at the top of his lungs, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!!!!!
The Canadian government is so incompetent that I can’t say I’m surprised. The prime minister is incapable of taking responsibility for his failures, and aside from President Zelensky, I really don’t know who he can consider a close ally. If he were a CEO, he would have been removed long ago.
The speaker is supposed to be impartial. Why, oh why did he decide to invite Hunka, and to honour him at Justin’s photo op with Zelensky?
Did the PMO really not know of Rota’s plan to honour Hunka?
I think Rota should resign from Parliament.
Some of the ridiculous Tru-anon bots are blaming Mulroney that he is here. Seriously. I guess they couldn’t blame Harper. At least it is original.
The Liberals have been conjuring Neo-Nazis since the 90s, mostly to invent alleged connections to to conservative politicians. Warren would be able to provide numerous, first hand examples. Who would have the Liberals would bring a real Nazi into Parliament?
Conjuring being the key word here. This is a bit of a teaching moment for the Tru-anons. When everyone is a Nazi and the term gets dumbed down, the next thing you know you are actually allowing one in the HOC. And Putin doesn’t have to rely on fake news in his propaganda war claim that he is fighting Nazis in Ukraine, he just has to run tape from CPAC. He can then run Goold’s(sic) Orwellian attempt to erase history. Note that there is no tape on the HOC site for 22/9.