Anthony Rota, the speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, said he would resign on Tuesday after days of pressure over a guest speaker invited to the lower house of parliament for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Ottawa last week.
Rota told MPs he had made a mistake in inviting a 98-year-old ex-soldier, Yaroslav Hunka, to last Friday’s session.
It soon emerged that Hunka, who received two standing ovations, had served in one of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen-SS units during the Second World War. Russia described the incident as outrageous.
Rota had publicly praised Hunka during the session, calling him a war hero.
“This public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities, including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world … I take full responsibility for my actions,” said Rota, a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party.
He said his resignation would take effect on Wednesday and that a deputy speaker would serve in his place until a replacement is found. Rota also expressed ‘deep regret for my mistake’ and said the ‘initiative was entirely my own’. Hunka lives in Rota’s constituency.
Russia quick to condemn and seek to capitalise on mistake
Hunka had been presented as a member of the First Ukrainian Division, but this division was also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division or the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
These volunteer fighters formed “a Nazi military unit whose crimes against humanity during the Holocaust are well documented,” according to the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Several Canadian politicians had called on Rota to resign, and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly added her voice to the chorus on Tuesday.
“What happened on Friday is completely unacceptable,” she told reporters at Parliament Hill. “It was an embarrassment to the house and to Canadians, and I think the speaker should listen to the members of the house and resign.”
The gaffe played into Russia’s hands, given its claims that its reason for invading Ukraine last year was an attempt to ‘denazify’ the country.
The furore also distracted from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s first personal visit to Canada since the war began, which was scheduled to coincide with his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly and then on to the White House last week.
Opposition Conservatives in Canada accused the government of failing to properly vet Hunka, but Trudeau’s government responded that it had received no advance warning.
