IN-DEPTH: How Did Former Nazis End Up in Canada?

German troops parade in front of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Generals after entry into Warsaw on Oct. 5, 1939. (Keystone/Getty Images)

On Sept. 22, MPs gave a standing ovation in the House of Commons for Ukrainian-Canadian Yaroslav Hunka, who was introduced as “a Canadian hero” by House Speaker Anthony Rota and thanked for his military service.

A firestorm erupted a few days later after it emerged that Mr. Hunka was a former member of the Waffen SS, a Nazi division accused of war crimes during World War II.

The incident, which has now taken centre stage in Canadian politics, happened during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Parliament as Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on.

Mr. Rota apologized following the incident on Sept. 24, saying the decision to recognize Mr. Hunka was “entirely my own” and extended his “deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world.” He added that before recognizing Mr. Hunka in Parliament, he had not been aware of his connections to the Nazi regime.

After calls for his resignation began to mount, Mr. Rota announced on Sept. 26 he would be stepping down, effective the following day.

Beside the fact that MPs say Mr. Hunka should not have been honoured in Parliament, many MPs are also questioning how a former member of the Waffen SS member was able to slip past the vetting process and receive roaring applause from Canadian politicians.

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It is well known that many Nazis came to Canada after the war, and this latest incident begs the question of how it happened that a democracy like Canada, which fought alongside the Allies against the Nazi regime, could have allowed former Nazis to immigrate to the country.

4th Waffen Grenadier Division

From 1932 to 1933, Ukraine’s population was decimated by a famine that was exacerbated by policies implemented by the Soviet Union. The Communist Party’s decision to collectivize agriculture led to a drop in food production in Ukraine, leading to the deaths of up to 5 million Ukrainians in a famine known as the Holomodor.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, they were greeted as liberators by some Ukrainians, who believed the fascist country would be a natural ally in Ukraine’s quest for independence. While the Ukrainians’ new occupiers continued to brutalize them, by 1943 the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists had organized a multinational force to fight on behalf of the retreating Nazi army.

Flight Lt. Panchuck, a Royal Canadian Air Force officer, was instrumental in bringing over 30,000 Ukrainian refugees to Canada after the war. He propagated a “positive narrative” that portrayed the unit as victims who had been forced to fight against the Soviets against their will, according to Esprit de Corps. He made no mention of the group’s connections with the SS.

While being held in a camp in Italy in the last days of the war, the 14th Waffen SS Division Galicia had likewise changed its name to the First Division Ukrainian National Army in order to hide its Nazi past.

While the Canadian government didn’t look deeply into the unit’s background, many in the British government knew its members had connections to the Nazis. A report from Britain’s Under-Secretary of State noted that because the unit was an SS division, technically, “all of its officers and senior NCOs are liable for trial as war criminals.” One British bureaucrat said in 1948 that the country was hoping to “get rid of the less desirable” Ukrainian prisoners of war by sending them either to Germany or Canada.

Some members of the Canadian-Ukrainian community were also aware of the unit’s past, and the Association of United Ukrainians in Canada launched a campaign to stop the former Nazi collaborators from arriving in Canada.

“Ukrainian Division (Galicia) was part and parcel of the Hitler army. It was against them that our Canadian boys fought on the battlefields of Italy. Many a Canadian son remained over there, shot by the VERY ONES that Mr. Panchuk would wish your Department to bring to Canada,” the association wrote to Canadian immigration officials, according to Esprit de Corps.

Ultimately, Lt. Panchuck’s campaign was successful and 2,000 members of the 14th SS Division Galicia arrived and settled in Canada in the 1950s.

Deschenes Commission

In 1985, then-prime minister Brian Mulroney called for a royal commission to determine whether Canada had become a safe haven for war criminals. The Deschenes Commission subsequently found there were about 600 former members of the Waffen-SS Galicia Division living in Canada at the time, but that the country did not have the legal means to prosecute them.

A heavily redacted document was later released through an access to information request, and it revealed that members of Nazi-sponsored Ukrainian police units who murdered Jews later became members of the Galicia Division. The Canadian government was aware of the report but chose not to publish it.

As a result of the Deschenes Commission, the Canadian Criminal Code was amended in 1987 to allow suspected Nazi war criminals living in Canada to be tried. Prosecutors later pressed charges against at least four men on allegations of participation in Holocaust-related war crimes, but one case ended in acquittal, two cases were dropped when prosecutors had trouble obtaining overseas evidence, and the fourth case was stayed due to the defendant’s health.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 26 to indicate that House Speaker Anthony Rota resigned.