Peter McFarlane’s new book exposes the ignored and little-known history of Ukrainian Nazis settling in Canada after WWII
A few days before Remembrance Day, November 11, 2024, the Government of Canada announced that it would not release the portion of a report produced by the Commission of Inquiry into War Criminals in Canada (Deschênes Commission) that names 900 Canadians accused of war crimes committed on behalf of the Nazis. Canada admitted these people and others after the Second World War, including many former members of the Ukrainian Waffen-SS Galizien division.
We then learned that it was Global Affairs Canada that prevented Library and Archives Canada from granting an access to information request to make these names public. According to a Library and Archives spokesperson, the decision to keep the list sealed “was based on concerns regarding risk of harm to international relations.” The Globe and Mail, which along with others filed the access to information request, explained the decision this way: “Global Affairs has repeatedly warned about Russian President Vladimir Putin using disinformation to justify his invasion of Ukraine.”
Should we remind Global Affairs Canada that during the Second World War, these 900 people were fighting for the Nazis, and therefore against our parents and grandparents? Do we have to inform them that 1.2 million Canadians fought against the Nazis, 45,000 of whom never returned?
Fortunately, there are authors and journalists who are keeping a close eye on things, one of whom is Peter McFarlane, author of the excellent new book, Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today.
McFarlane’s starting point is the double ovation the Canadian Parliament granted former Waffen-SS Galizien member Yaroslav Hunka in September 2023—a shining case of official amnesia. But above all, it was the hearty applauding Chrystia Freeland, then serving as deputy prime minister and minister of finance, whose grandfather, Mykhailo Chomiak, was a Nazi collaborator. Though Freeland can’t be held responsible for her grandfather’s crimes, she could at least recognize them and distance herself from them, which she has never done. (more...)
Canada and Ukraine: the careful suppression of a shameful history
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