- September 25, 2023
After dust-up with India over Khalistani killing, Trudeau faces heat for honoring Nazi | India News – Times of India
The episode played out during the visit to Ottawa of Ukraine’s President Voldymyr Zelensky when Canada’s House of Commons gave a standing ovation to Yaroslav Hunka, who it was revealed was a Ukrainian veteran of the infamous 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Nazi SS.
The Speaker of the House Anthony Rota later tried to absolve Trudeau of any culpability by accepting “full responsibility for issuing the invitation and for the recognition in Parliament” and apologizing, but Canada’s opposition leaders revealed that Trudeau had meet with Hunka before honoring him and his office had failed to vet him.
“This is an appalling error in judgement on the part of Justin Trudeau, whose personal protocol office is responsible for arranging and vetting all guests and programming for state visits of this kind. Without warning or context, it was impossible for any parliamentarian in the room (other than Mr. Trudeau) to know of this dark past,” Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre tweeted, demanding Trudeau “personally apologize and avoid passing the blame to others as he always does.”
Canada’s Jewish community was also outraged. Saying it was “deeply troubled & disturbed that a Ukrainian veteran of the infamous 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Nazi SS was celebrated with a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament,” the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada said while the country Jewish community stands firmly with Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression, “we can’t stay silent when crimes committed by Ukrainians during the Holocaust are whitewashed.”
The gaffe came in the midst of the Ottawa’s ugly spat with India over Canada’s support for violent Khalistani separatists and Trudeau allegations of New Delhi’s hand in the murder of a Canadian Sikh militant glossed over in the western media as a saintly plumber and priest.
“This is the man who accuses us of Nijjar’s murder based on “intelligence”. This “intelligence” did not/could not identify the Nazi past of man Trudeau met personally & honoured as Canada’s opposition leader says in his tweet. Exposes the rotten underside of Trudeau’s governance,” sneered Kanwal Sibal, a former India foreign secretary who is tipped to be vice-chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Amid plummeting poll numbers, Trudeau was also hammered domestically with his critics pointing out that his supporters had used the term “Nazis” to describe striking Canadian truck drivers and parents protesting gender policies in schools.
“Trudeau has topped his previous record for embarrassing Canada on the world stage. Lauding a Waffen SS Nazi in the HiC makes his Mr dress up your in India look like a minor miscue. Hard to state how horrendous this f**k up is,” one critic tweeted.
