There has been a great deal of reporting about parliament celebrating a World War II Nazi soldier. But even though he was praised specifically for fighting Russia the media has ignored the horrors inflicted by the Nazis on Russians.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent speech to Parliament, 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka was labeled a “hero” by the Speaker of Parliament for fighting Russia. In subsequently justifying his embarrassing presentation of the 14th Waffen SS volunteer, Anthony Rota noted, “my intention was to show that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is not a new one.” For Rota the Nazi bit was an aside, or as Caitlin Johnstone opined, “Nobody Who Fought Against Russia Could Possibly Be Bad!”
This idea isn’t new. The mid 1980s federal government-appointed Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada came to a similar conclusion. In justifying a do-nothing approach to Canadian former Waffen SS members — who swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler and were part of an organization deemed criminal by the Nuremberg Tribunal — the commission noted that the division’s soldiers volunteered “not because of a love of the Germans but because of their hatred for the Russians and the Communist tyranny.”
What the Nazis did to Russians during World War II was horrific. According to official statistics, 11 million Russian/USSR military personnel and 16 million civilians were killed. The siege of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) was ghastly. As a result of one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, around 1.5 million died.
In a statement pointing out there are over 200 000 Canadians of Russian descent and that almost all Russians “lost at least one relative in combating Nazism”, that country’s ambassador noted, “I strongly believe that despite deep disagreements between Moscow and Ottawa on the current geopolitical situation, the Government and the Parliament of Canada must find courage to apologize directly to all Russians and the Russian Canadian community for the disgraceful incident the whole world was watching on September 22.”
Another important omission from the discussion is Canada’s long-standing belligerence towards Russia. As part of its ties to the British empire, Ottawa has been in a near state of war with Russia for over a century and a half. (more...)
Russophobia a 150-year-old official Canadian passion
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