Scandal builds at University of Alberta over Nazi endowments

 

The fallout from the Canadian Parliament’s decision to honour a Ukrainian Nazi veteran continues to expand.

Anthony Rota, the former speaker of the House of Commons and the designated ‘fall guy,’ resigned from his position at the end of September. However, one would have to be quite credulous to place the blame for Hunka’s honouring solely on Rota.

The entire House of Commons applauded a man who was introduced as having fought against the Russians during the Second World War. Pleading ignorance is not good enough. We can expect our MPs to have a basic familiarity with 20th century history. Ordinary Canadians do. That is why the scandal has provoked such indignance from the Canadian public.

Furthermore, the argument that the Prime Minister’s Office would not vet a guest of honour during a foreign president’s visit—especially a guest who was applauded twice—is not compelling, to say the least.

Many understand that the House of Commons’ decision to honour Yaroslav Hunka should not be treated as a one-off lapse in judgement. Rather, it was a shocking public exposure of the deep-rootedness of World War II revisionism in Canada, which is far more widespread than one official’s ill-advised invite to an old man in his riding.

Several subsequent events have confirmed this reality. Many of them centre around the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS).  (more...)

Scandal builds at University of Alberta over Nazi endowments