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[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago

I still really want to know how this even happened. It's disgraceful, and makes Canada as a whole look bad. Who first brought up this guy's name as a potential invite? Did no one check his background, or was it intentional?

[-] BaconIsAVeg@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

There's absolutely zero evidence that anyone knew before he was invited. And after it was revealed, not one political figure in Canada has said something along the lines of "good people on both sides".

As a Canadian sure it's a guff, and the guy paid a price for his mistake and didn't fight it, but compared to America I'll take shit like this 8 days a week.

[-] Fhek@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Yeah I’m sure the speaker couldn’t wait to be ridiculed and resign. Intentional career highlight for sure.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

I'm also wondering what was going through the veterans mind. Did he just think the world was now honouring nazis? Did he think they knew or didn't know? Why didn't he decline??

[-] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Canada has a long history of accomodating nazis.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago

How did the decision makers who set this stunt up think it was going to play out?

[-] Tosti@feddit.nl 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Well when you support Nazis, is it really that surprising that people would call you out for supporting Nazis?

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure the being called out part isn't the bit he was confused about.

[-] Tosti@feddit.nl 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Everything stops after that right? There can be no saving grace for someone who was in the SS.

There are some rare cases where where individuals would breifly join SS divisions, specifically to fight the Soviets rather than due to alligence to the Nazi ideology. Larry Throne is a notable example. The First Galician seems to have had a significant number focused on fighting the Soviets in a similar matter, although elements of the division did commit atrocities in Poland. Canada's 1986 investigation into the division after the war concluded that there wasn't sufficient evidence to condem the whole group

Of course, "not found guilty" doesn't mean innocent. My point is purely addressing the, "There can be no saving grace for someone who was in the SS." I still think this is a ridiculous situation, that he should not have been invited unless they can confirm with great certainty that he was not a supporter of the Nazi ideology and did not commit any crimes. If they can't even check what division he served in, clearly anything more is outside their ability. Hopefully he is investigated properly given the spotlight, and extradited if needed.

Edit: Worth noting that this was a Ukranian division after the Holodomor. Its no wonder that many would be willing to join a war against the country that had murdered millions of their people already. For scale, its estimated that the Holodomor killed 3-5 times as many as the holocost in Ukrane.

[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 year ago

Honestly if you signed up with the SS specifically to fight the Soviets, that is actually worse.

[-] sun_is_ra@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The news is true:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/25/canadas-house-speaker-apologises-after-praising-ukrainian-veteran-who-fought-for-nazis

What happened is that this man was presented as Ukrainian war veteran

Canada has become embroiled in an escalating political controversy after members of its House of Commons were encouraged to join in a standing ovation for an individual who fought in Ukraine with a Nazi military unit accused of war crimes during the second world war.

The ovation took place shortly after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, delivered an address to the parliament on Friday, when the assembly’s speaker, Anthony Rota, called lawmakers’ attention to 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, whom he described as a “war hero” who fought for the First Ukrainian Division.

But later according to Rota, he learned about his Nazi history. That eventually led to Rota's resignation

At the weekend, Rota issued a statement apologising for what occurred. “In my remarks following the address of the president of Ukraine, I recognised an individual in the gallery. I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so,” he said.

[-] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Woops, but WTF. How does anyone screw up that bad?

Guess they believed Putlers storyline about Ukraine being full of Nazis.

[-] prenatal_confusion@lemmy.one -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The story of fascist Ukraine is bullshit, but there is some right wing populism potential in the government and some people there. But show me a country that doesn't have that problem

Then there is the normalization of nationalism, also pretty normal whilst being attacked as a country.

But the asow brigade for example are an extreme right militia group. And they are national heroes now. Not good!

[-] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

I thought that is what I said.

[-] marx_mentat@hexbear.net 0 points 1 year ago

Kind of shocked their were consequences for this tbh. I just assumed being aligned with nazis was the norm for western powers now.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Maybe they were hoping corporate media wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t cover it, and that social media algorithms would squelch it if anyone outside corporate media noticed it. Maybe the lower house speaker was the designated fall guy as a plan B.

[-] CA0311@hexbear.net 12 points 1 year ago

it took 2 days for it to get picked up by msn, all the articles about it are from sunday morning, it happened on friday and i was already seeing people online talking about it then. anyway, guy still gets to be in parliament he only resigned as speaker lol

[-] Akasazh@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

What have you been smoking?

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago

His name is "marx_mentat" and he's from Hexbear, so I think "Russian propaganda" is an obvious answer. If you believe (or pretend to believe) the Russian claim that Ukraine is run by Nazis then western support for Ukraine is trivially spun as support for Nazis.

[-] krolden@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

You're from kbin so you must believe pee pee poo poo

[-] maegul@lemmy.ml -4 points 1 year ago

That’s what’s funny about the incident … whatever you want to think about claims from far leftists or tankies that there is actually a problematic facism presence in Ukraine … this happens where we can only ask “how in the world” while the tankies or whatever are just like “yep told you” and we’ve got pikachu face.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago

It’s not just a Ukrainian & Canadian problem. Gabriel Rockhill: The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It

[-] spitz@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Has Jon Stewart apologised for his publicity stunt involving Ihor Halushka?

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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