‘Indifference and Inaction’ Over History of Nazis in Canada Led to Latest Debacle: Former Justice Minister

‘Indifference and Inaction’ Over History of Nazis in Canada Led to Latest Debacle: Former Justice Minister
Former Minster of Justice Iriwin Cotler is seen in Montreal, Quebec, on April 14, 2017. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
Matthew Horwood
Updated:

The accidental honouring of a Nazi unit veteran in the House of Commons was caused by Canada’s “indifference and inaction” over its history with Nazis, according to a former federal justice minister.

“This was a failure here. Indifference and inaction by successive Canadian governments—the result being that we became a sanctuary for Nazi war criminals—and no accountability then ensued,” Irwin Cotler told CTV News in an interview on Oct. 1.

During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament in Ottawa on Sept. 22, House Speaker Anthony Rota recognized Yaroslav Hunka as a “veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians,“ and a ”Canadian hero.”

The parliamentarians who applauded Mr. Hunka later became aware that during World War II he fought with the 4th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a military wing of the Nazi Party. Mr. Rota later resigned as House Speaker over the incident.

According to the Canadian military magazine Esprit de Corps, an estimated 2,000 members of the 14th SS Division Galicia, which Mr. Hunka fought for, arrived and settled in Canada in the 1950s. The unit had changed its name to the First Division Ukrainian National Army in order to hide its Nazi past, and Canadian immigration officials did not look deeply into the unit’s history.

Mr. Cotler said at that point in Canada’s history, it was “easier to get into Canada if you were a Nazi than if you were a Jew.” The former justice minister said the mishap with Mr. Hunka was the result of Canada’s “unconscious internalization” of former Nazis settling in the country.

“We never realized the extent to which there had been a penetration here in Canada of suspected Nazis, and we never realized the extent to which justice was not done,” he said.

Call to Unseal Records 

Following the incident in Parliament, there were calls from several Jewish groups to unseal portions of the report from the 1985 Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals, which examined 800 cases of people suspected of committing war crimes and then escaping to Canada following World War II.

The Commission found that while hundreds of former members of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division were living in Canada by the mid-1980s, membership in the division did not itself constitute a war crime.

Mr. Cotler, who served as chief counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress during the Deschênes Commission, said he also wants to see those portions unsealed. Mr. Cotler said the Canadian government could unseal the records without necessarily compromising confidentiality in some instances.

“As it has always been said, sunlight is the best disinfectant, and we need to be fully transparent, so that we can bring about the necessary understanding of what, in fact, took place,” he said.

Mr. Cotler said the “necessary justice” around Nazis in Canada has been “lacking,” and unsealing the Deschênes Commission would allow for the historical record to be corrected.

“That we can go forward in terms of pursuing justice, and not having situations like what occurred in the Canadian Parliament, where we inadvertently end up indulging the falsity of history,” he added.