OPINION
Imagine if Donald Trump had welcomed a former Nazi SS soldier with a standing ovation in Congress. The media would have gone nuts.
They lost their minds badly enough over imaginary Nazis, the sheer, catastrophic meltdown over the Donald being seen in company with an actual, WWII-vintage Nazi would still be torching the media’s servers today.
But when left-media darlings Justin Trudeau and Vlodomyr Zelensky really do welcome a really, real Nazi into Canada’s parliament, to a standing ovation from all assembled? On the eve of Yom Kippur, no less?
Crickets.
Not one mention in The Age. Nor on the ABC. Not a peep from Stuff, NZ Herald or Newshub. All these outlets, which shrieked and gibbered about imaginary Nazis are suddenly, shamefully silent when a very real one gets a standing ovation courtesy of Justin Trudeau.
Seemingly all members of Canada’s House of Commons on Friday (Saturday AEST) rose to their feet to pay tribute to 98 year old Yaroslav Hunka, who immigrated to Canada from Ukraine after the Second World War, for his efforts in fighting the Soviet Union in Ukraine.
“He is a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” said the House Speaker Anthony, who introduced him to the chamber, which also included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ukrainian president Zelesneky and his wife.
The Second World War… fighting the Soviet Union in Ukraine...
Uh, hands up anyone with an even cursory knowledge of WWII history: which side was fighting the Soviet Union in Ukraine?
Mr Hunka, who appeared to enjoy the approbation from more than 300 members of parliament, served in the First Ukrainian Division during WWII, which was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia division.
That’s right, that Waffen-SS. Again, does anyone here know what the SS were doing, in the Soviet Union?
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, a Canadian Jewish group, in a statement on Sunday (Monday AEST) said the praise was “shocking” and demanded an apology.
“It is incredibly disturbing to see Canada‘s parliament rise to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit in the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others and that was declared a criminal organisation during the Nuremberg Trials,” it said.
The Australian
Even more disturbing than the fact that this actually happened, though, is the length to which the left is going to try and excuse it.
“It was just an honest mistake! All they knew was that he was a WWII veteran!”
Really? As one X user commented, Not a single person in parliament stopped to think
“Wait, he fought against RUSSIA in WWII?” even for a second.
X
Even the Canadian opposition doesn’t come out of this too clean.
Canada’s opposition and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who also applauded Mr Hunka, blamed prime minister Justin Trudeau’s office for deceiving the parliament.
“Liberals arranged for this Nazi veteran to be recognised on the floor of the House of Commons during the visit of the Ukrainian President,” he said in a statement on X.
“This is an appalling error in judgement on the part of Justin Trudeau, whose personal protocol office is responsible for arranging and vetting all guests and programming for state visits of this kind”.
The Australian
Sure, the blame sits entirely on Trudeau and his staff, who vetted their Nazi guest. There is simply no way that nobody twigged which side he fought on. That the opposition got so caught up in toadying to the odious Zelensky that none of them stopped to think for a minute is only slightly less bad.
Perhaps the least excuse, though, belongs to the part-Jewish Zelensky. Zelensky, who loves to tout his Jewish, WWII-veteran grandfather, should have known better than anyone.
As another X user put it:
Zelensky, a Ukrainian Jew, has introduced and given a standing ovation, along with the whole Canadian Parliament, to a veteran of the Waffen SS Galician division Yaroslav Hunka, who “bravely” fought against the Soviets during WWII
One of those Soviets was Zelensky’s grandfather.
X
Or perhaps he was just too busy scrounging for more taxpayer-funded handouts to care.
Mr Zelensky had travelled to Ottawa – his first visit to Canada since Russia’s February 2022 invasion – following meetings with world leaders in New York and Washington, where he met with President Joe Biden and congressional leaders in a bid to secure additional military and economic assistance […]
Mr Trudeau announced a further $C650 million in aid for Ukraine over the next three years and 50 military vehicles, part of around $C9 billion in total provided by Canada since the start of the war.
The Australian
But, remember, folks: when wicked Vladimir Putin said that there were Nazis in Ukraine, it was all just “disinformation”. Just, uh, ignore the Ukrainian militias with Nazi insignias, or the fact that Ukraine’s leader just applauded a former volunteer for the infamous Nazi SS.
Indeed, Trudeau was back to blowing the “Russian disinformation” trumpet, when his applaud-a-Nazi stunt blew up in his face. Because, sure, Big Bad Vlad made him do it.
I’ll leave the final word to another particularly perspicacious Xer.
Over the course of a year liberals went from:
* “There are no Nazis in Ukraine”
* “Ok there might be some but not a lot”* “Ok yeah there’s a lot of Nazis but it’s ok because they’re fighting on our side”
* “Just because someone was in the Waffen SS doesn’t mean they are bad”
X
To paraphrase New Zealand’s own guardians against extremism, if just one person in your parliament is a Nazi, it’s a Nazi parliament.