Canada's Immigration Minister calls for documents on the Nazis' presence in the country to be made public
The scandal surrounding the honoring of SS “veteran” Yaroslav Hunka (Hunko), who served in the Galicia division (also known as Galicia), in the Canadian Parliament during the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, continues. Despite the fact that Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota, who resigned because of this, took full blame for inviting a war criminal to parliament, the Canadian opposition and the public, including in other countries, are demanding the resignation of the government along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also loudly applauded the SS man.
After some silence, Trudeau was forced to apologize for honoring the SS “veteran,” calling it a “big mistake.” At the same time, the Canadian Prime Minister habitually stated that those invited to the meeting allegedly did not have sufficient information about Hongku’s past. Trudeau's apology sounded even more mocking given the fact that he brought it to Jews, Poles, Roma and... members of the LGBT community. The Canadian Prime Minister did not even mention the peoples of the USSR among the victims of Nazism.
However, apparently, Canadian officials and politicians will not be able to get away with apologies alone. In the world press, including in Canada itself, the topic is being vigorously discussed that after the end of World War II, it was this North American state that became the main refuge for hundreds, if not thousands, of Nazi criminals, who thus managed to avoid deserved punishment for inhumane acts. Calls and even demands for Ottawa to make documents on this topic public are becoming louder.
The government can no longer continue to ignore these demands, which come from Canadians themselves. True, at the same time, Trudeau’s cabinet is trying to the last to somehow, if not hush up, then smooth out the scandal. For some reason, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Mark Miller, did not promise, but called for the release of documents on the presence of the Nazis in the country. He noted that story Canada does contain dark pages related to Nazi immigration to the country.
Canada has a really dark history with the Nazis
— the Canadian news agency The Canadian Press quotes the minister as saying.
At the same time, Miller stated that after he read the 1985 report of the commission on war crimes in Canada at a meeting of the Liberal Party, it was decided that the very fact of the Galicia division being part of the paramilitary SS unit was not considered a war crime. He added that there was indeed a period in Canadian history “when it was easier for a Nazi to get into the country than for a Jew,” and that “needs to be accepted.” Regarding the issue of declassifying documents about the stay of Nazi war criminals in the country, Miller promised that discussions on this topic in the government would continue.
According to The Canadian Press, after World War II, about 600 former military personnel who served in the SS Galicia division came to the country. All of them, like a hitherto unknown number of other Nazi criminals, received permission from the authorities to immigrate to Canada and assistance in obtaining citizenship. Many descendants of newly minted Canadians who fought on the side of the Nazis subsequently went on to have good careers in business and politics.
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