Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a formal apology in response to an incident where the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, praised a Nazi veteran, Yaroslav Hunka, in the parliamentary chamber while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in attendance. Trudeau stated that Ottawa had already initiated diplomatic communications with Kyiv and President Zelenskiy to extend their apology.
Rota, who publicly acknowledged and lauded Hunka as a hero in the House, resigned from his role as speaker the following day, taking sole responsibility for the incident. Hunka, aged 98, was a Polish-born Ukrainian who had served in one of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS units during World War II before emigrating to Canada. The episode has been seized upon by Russia, which argues that it supports their claim that the war in Ukraine is aimed at “denazifying” the country, a contention that Kyiv and Western allies firmly reject as baseless.
Trudeau, addressing the House, expressed remorse on behalf of all members, stating, “For all of us who were present to have unknowingly recognized this individual was a terrible mistake and a violation of the memory of those who suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazi regime.”
The Kremlin had called for the entire Canadian parliament to denounce Nazism publicly, and Trudeau responded by calling it troubling that Russia was politicizing the error for propaganda purposes. He emphasized that such actions should not distract from the true goals and principles for which Ukraine is fighting.