“All of Canada is outraged”: Russian Canadians spoke about the scandal with the Nazi Gunko

The world continues to discuss the scandal with the honoring of 98-year-old Nazi Yaroslav Gunko from the SS Galicia division in the Canadian Parliament during the visit of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to Ottawa. Our compatriots living in Canada told MK about how the residents of the Country of the Maple Leaf received the ovation that local legislators gave the elderly SS man.

“The whole of Canada is outraged, there are thousands of responses to articles in the newspaper about this scandal,” says journalist Evelina Azaeva, who has lived in Canada for many years. — The Canadian people do not support Nazism and are very careful about the memory of those who died in both the First World War and the Second World War. Honors veterans. It is gratifying that the media behaved very honorably. The journalists clearly lost their nerve. Even such a “pocket dog” of the Canadian government as the CBC news portal published an article on the scandal in parliament, talking about the “Galicia” division. That these are SS men, cruel murderers. And that Canada accepted 8,000 of these criminals after the war. Also, an honest editorial appeared in the National Post, where it was noted that “Galicia” were Ukrainian volunteers, SS men who “committed heinous crimes,” killing Poles, Jews and Soviet partisans. And, again, that after the war they were sent to Britain, and then to Canada. The question of extraditing them was raised in the 80s and 90s, but the matter did not go further than talk. Although this issue was constantly raised by the Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization involved in the search for elderly Nazis. And now the Wiesenthal Center is outraged by what happened in parliament, as well as B’nai B’rith, another Jewish organization. They demand not only an apology, but also details of who invited the elderly SS man to parliament and why.

The newspaper also talked about the monuments to Shukhevych and UNA-UNSO, which continue to stand in Canada. (UNA-UNSO is an extremist organization banned in Russia. – Author). They were doused with paint more than once, the words “Nazis” were written on them, but, nevertheless, these monuments were not removed.

As Evelina says, a year ago another scandal related to the Nazis broke out.

— Radio Canada reported that instructors from the Canadian Ministry of Defense trained the Azov men. (The nationalist association “Azov” is a terrorist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation. – Author). The radio, followed by other media, reported in detail that the “Azovites” profess Nazism and use appropriate symbols. After looking at photographs of the Ministry of Defense from training, journalists noticed a swastika on the students’ bodies. As it turned out, they trained everyone indiscriminately. Officials were afraid of one thing – that the Canadian population might find out about it.

Our interlocutor believes that many Canadians understand perfectly well what is happening in Ukraine.

— People dig up information on the Internet and analyze what they read. Recently, a mass rally took place in Canada against financing of Ukraine. A lot of people came. And Zelensky, by the way, was greeted and escorted away with shouts: “Nazi, criminal!” Canadians are unhappy that we give money to Ukraine when our own people are sleeping on the streets and food banks cannot cope with the flow of people in need.

Evelina notes that the Polish Ambassador to Canada has now also demanded an apology for inviting a Nazi to parliament.

Our other interlocutor is Oleg, who has lived in Toronto for 12 years.

“I just talked about this with my Canadian friend, he believes that the incident with the Nazi Gunko was a stain on the reputation of Canada,” Oleg shares with us. — It turns out that the country at the official level shares the ideas of Ukrainian Nazism. Local politicians are now pretending to repent, saying they didn’t know who they were applauding. They say that they could not have imagined that the “Ukrainian partisan” who fought with the Russians fought on the side of Hitler. But many of my friends consider this hypocrisy. Politicians are actually worried now about their future careers. But only. The Canadian “higher-ups” making excuses is, of course, ridiculous. Traditionally, they talk about Russian propaganda.

Oleg says that everyone is now wondering who could have invited a Nazi to parliament.

“My colleagues, for example, point to Trudeau’s Deputy Prime Minister Christie Freeland. There is, of course, no evidence of this. But it is worth recalling that she has Ukrainian roots, she speaks fluently both Ukrainian and Russian. A year ago, she received the Order of Princess Olga, 1st degree, from Ukraine. Her maternal grandfather Mykhailo Khomiak was the editor-in-chief of the collaborationist Ukrainian-language newspaper Krakow News during the Nazi occupation. In March 2022, Christie Freeland took part in a march of Canadian Ukrainians in solidarity with Ukraine. In the photo she was holding a red and black banner. There was a scandal. And Christy removed this photo from her page, putting others where this banner was not present. Her spokeswoman wrote on social media: “We condemn all far-right movements.” Having called the noise raised on social networks “KGB propaganda”, what could we do without it?

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