by Margaret Kimberley, published on Black Agenda Report, September 27, 2023
The Canadian government turned what should have been an ordinary photo opportunity with Ukraine’s president into a political debacle when a Ukrainian Nazi collaborator was honored in parliament. Now Canada’s history of admitting Ukrainian SS volunteers is facing new scrutiny as Russia gains the upper hand in the proxy war with the west.
There is something especially satisfying when one’s opponents help make a case for something they have denied. Recently the Canadian government did just that. Their effort to prop up the failing Ukraine proxy war instead exposed that country’s Nazi past and present.
Ukraine has been a divided nation ever since its founding as a state after World War I. Its population is divided by language with Ukrainian and Russian speakers, with some favoring its status as a Soviet republic while others were vehemently opposed. So strong was that faction that there were many Ukrainians who actively collaborated with German occupation forces during World War II.
That history is well documented and is only denied by rank political cynicism which seeks to justify a proxy war which is trending in Russia’s favor. Unfortunately the U.S. and its happy vassal allies, like Canada, are trying to keep up the charade as long as possible, no matter the cost to the people they claim to be helping.
Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky’s recent visits to the U.S. and Canada were replete with calls to never give up and to defeat Vladimir Putin and to give Ukraine an endless supply of weapons and money. The Canadians were so eager to impress that they revealed a truth they had been denying.
It should have been enough to have Zelensky address their parliament, but they couldn’t leave well enough alone. They somehow felt compelled to add a special guest, 98-year old Yaroslav Hunka, who was introduced as “…a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians…”
An important part of the war propaganda surrounding Ukraine has been to deny that people such as Hunka even exist or that they fought alongside the Germans we are otherwise told to revile. For Canada that also means denying that they brought those forces to emigrate after the war.
Instead of just introducing Zelensky and swearing to defend him no matter what, the Canadian parliament gave Hunka two standing ovations. It was later reported that Hunka served with the First Ukrainian Division, also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was under German command. We are told that these units embody the worst evils committed in modern history. Of course, Germany didn’t have a monopoly on evil or genocide but the narrative of a uniquely evil nation is deeply embedded in western consciousness and the fallout from the incident was both funny and sad.
After Hunka’s history was revealed the amateurish nature of Canadian and all western foreign policy couldn’t be hidden either. The Speaker of the parliament apologized profusely and then resigned. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted to being embarrassed although he felt compelled to add nonsensical warnings against Russian propaganda when his government’s farce was one of its own doing.
Canada is happy to be a U.S. partner in crime. If they’re told to recognize a fake president of Venezuela they do it. If they’re told to arrest the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei and create an international incident they will do that too. If the U.S. decides on another occupation of Haiti then Canada is on board with that too.
As for honoring a Ukrainian who served the Nazis, they are more than willing because that is what they’ve been doing since 1945. There is a large Ukrainian population in Canada who were welcomed with open arms, just as Hunka was. The Canadian government admitted more than 2,000 members of the Galician Waffen SS. In fact, showing an SS tattoo was a means of entry to Canada as it was eager to enhance its anti-left bona fides. some of these men were recruited to work in mining and undermine left wing union activity. Canada’s Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, is the grand-daughter of Ukrainian collaborator and propagandist Michael Chomiak.
Of course Canada shares the US history of being a white supremacist colonial state. So much so that they sometimes slip up and ruin their fine tuned image as a nicer version of the U.S. and end up showing their true colors.
The entire incident is an indication that the war they pledge to win isn’t going their way. The U.S., Canada and the rest of the collective west are now caught in a trap of their own making. They have stuffed blue and yellow flags down our throats, taken billions of dollars and euros and pounds that their people need, censored countless individuals and platforms, and even blown up the Nordstream pipeline. But now the game is up and they don’t know how to face their defeat. Instead they found an old Nazi and gave him applause, a sure sign of panic.
But they have done something even worse. Some Ukrainians, like Zelensky’s grandfather, defended the USSR and fought with the Red Army. Any Ukrainian on the other side was a German collaborator. Canada forgot that millions of people haven’t been fooled by heavy handed propaganda that seeks to change historical memory. The Soviet Union played the biggest role in Germany’s defeat, a simple fact which is ignored or disappeared or in the case of the proxy war turned into a perverse retelling of history which requires a willingness to take part in a shameful lie.
The backpedaling and apologizing is undeniably enjoyable to watch. Yet Canada revealed another frightening truth. The collective west is desperate and may do more than sabotage a pipeline. Russia is in no mood to back down after having been lied to about the Minsk Accords and a tentative peace plan early in this conflict. A public relations debacle is not the worst thing they can do. Canada and the U.S. and their friends may convince themselves that escalation is their way out. Foreign policy amateurism may lead to something far worse for humanity.
*Featured Image: Yaroslav Hunka, center front row, with his Waffen SS unit. Volodomyr Zelensky and Justin Trudeau applaud him in Canada’s parliament. (Image: Zero Hedge)
Margaret Kimberley is the author ofPrejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley(at)blackagendareport.com.