Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been accused of lying to the public over his and his government’s insistence that they were unaware that a Ukrainian man who fought for the Nazis was invited to parliament, with it now being revealed that Trudeau’s office was not only aware of the planned attendance of the Waffen SS soldier but had also invited him to another event the very same day.
In the wake of one of the largest political scandals in modern Canadian history, Trudeau and his government have attempted to claim that they were unaware of plans to host Hunka in the parliament, placing the blame entirely upon the since-ousted Speaker of the House Anthony Rota. Trudeau, government ministers, parliamentarians and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had given multiple standing ovations to Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian who fought in the Galicia Division of the Waffen-SS during the Second World War on behalf of Nazi Germany.
However, despite Rota falling on his sword, accepting entire responsibility and resigning, a freedom of information request from Rebel News has revealed that Trudeau’s government appeared to have had prior knowledge of Hunka’s attendance and had also invited him to attend a reception with President Zelensky on the evening following the Ukrainian leader’s appearance in the Canadian Parliament.
“The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, is pleased to invite you to a special event,” the invitation to Hunka from the Office of Protocol of Canada read according to the news outlet.
Acknowledging the veracity of the letter sent to Hunka, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday per the National Post: “Last September, there was a community event with the President of Ukraine in Toronto with over 1,000 people invited. Hundreds of Canadians were invited.”
The statement added that the “individual in question’s name was submitted by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress” and that “knowing what is known now — the individual shouldn’t have been invited.” According to the PMO, Hunka ultimately did not attend the second event with Zelensky.
Following the admission, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused Trudeau of lying to the public about not having knowledge of Hunka’s past before giving him multiple standing ovations in the House of Commons.
“Justin Trudeau is a hypocrite, he is a fake, he embarrassed us all around the world with this incident, and then he lied about it to cover it up and threw a colleague under the bus to take the blame. Justin Trudeau is not worth the cost, he is not worth the embarrassment. After eight years, it’s time to fire him”, Poilievre said on social media.
Although Hunka’s unit among others was officially banned from immigrating to Canada, he, alongside around 600 other members of the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division were granted a cabinet-level exemption in 1950 to move to Canada by the then-Liberal government of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent.
The Nazi division in which Hunka served was largely made up of Ukrainian volunteers, who joined the Nazis in fighting the Soviet Union, which was allied with Western powers during World War II. The Galacien Division has been accused of multiple atrocities, including the massacre at the Polish village of Huta Pieniacka, which served as a shelter for hundreds of Jews during the war.
Hunka’s history of fighting for the Nazis was not a secret at the time when he was invited to the Canadian parliament. Indeed, he previously wrote about his decision to join the division and published pictures of his training.
Astonishingly, the celebration of Hunka by Trudeau is not the first scandal to befall his government over ties to Ukrainian Nazis. Trudeau’s Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, has previously been reported to have tried to cover up the fact that her Ukrainian grandfather, Michael Chomiak, served as a Nazi propagandist during the war, despite claims from her office that such assertions were Russian disinformation.
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