The Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons has issued an apology for commending an individual with a history of service in a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
The recognition of Yaroslav Hunka, aged 98, as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero”, took place during a session attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Speaker Anthony Rota expressed gratitude for Hunka’s service in a statement made before the Canadian Parliament on Friday.
Mr Rota took responsibility for what he described as an oversight, calling the initiative “entirely my own”.
“I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision,” he said in a statement issued on yesterday, offering his “deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world”.
Hunka’s wartime service is documented as a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, as pointed out by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group that called for an apology.
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