Written by by OLIVER JJ LANE at breitbart.com
The fact the entire Canadian Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were blindly led into giving a standing ovation to a former Waffen-SS volunteer demonstrates there is evidently a “large knowledge gap” in the West about its own history, but using this as a learning experience could bring some positive results, a Polish government minister told Breitbart News.
Applauding a former Nazi volunteer soldier in Canada’s Parliament is embarrassing but can be a learning experience to help Canada become a better ally to Poland, Secretary of State of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arkadiusz Mularczyk told Breitbart London in the wake of the Canadian Parliament Speaker Anthony Rota stepping down over the scandal.
Rota had introduced Second World War-era Waffen SS soldier Yaroslav Hunka, who is now a 98-year-old Canadian resident, to the Parliamentary chamber on Friday during a special session attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Introducing him as a “Ukrainian hero, Canadian hero” who “fought [for] Ukrainian independence against the Russians”, the chamber gave two standing ovations to Hunka.
The applause was despite Ukraine and its history of conflict being foremost in the minds of many today and that Russia fought with the Western Allies against Nazi Germany to 1945 being, at least until recently, common knowledge.
Secretary of State Mularczyk said it was a disgrace that Canadian Parliament officials weren’t “aware of the historical facts concerning the Waffen-SS” and weren’t briefed is a “disgrace”, and that the episode clearly demonstrates there is a “large knowledge gap concerning the Second World War”.