Someone in the govt got a old Ukranian dude to speak to the parlement, and they all applauded him for fighting Russia in WW2, forgetting that the people who faught Russia in WW2 were the Nazis.
They had accidentally invited a literal Nazi to speak, and applauded him for it.
Canadian here. Minor correction: he didn’t speak, but he was invited as a Ukrainian “hero” by the speaker of the house (a member of the sitting elected party). He was applauded - twice - for his “service”. Including by Ukrainian president zelensky.
The only ‘defense’ I can offer is that our prime minister had no input on the matter, and Hunka’s Nazi service came out after the fact. Canada does not support fascism or Nazism…
But it’s a bad look, no matter how you cut it…
Having no input on a Nazi guest in your house is the opposite of a good thing. Silence is complicity.
I agree that silence is complicity, but that only applies if you know there’s something worth being silent about, no?
In this case, the PM had no input because the speaker doesn’t have to ask permission to invite people from his constituency. So it falls to the speaker to validate his invitees. As such, PM has no input, but also no more fault than anyone else told to clap for the “Ukrainian hero” in this scenario… Is my understanding
“Sir we invited an Ukranian war hero, is that ok?”
What was he supposed to do, order a quick background check on that old dude before applauding?
No, that’s not it, in Canadian Parliament it is the speaker of the house who has ths sole responsibility for both inviting guests to the gallery and for recognizing them in the official remarks. Other members of the house and government weren’t even given notice the guy would be there. The speakers office arranges guest vetting, but it is only a security vetting not a political one. That is the PPS and RCMP decide if the 98 year old, legal Canadian immigrant is likely to put the house and guesses physical danger, they don’t consider at all if the guest will cause a political headache.
So the fallout is that the speaker (who in fact was solely responsible for what happened) has resigned, and the PM has offerd an official apology on behalf of all Canadians. There could be more political fallout domestically, as the opposition parties are misleading Canadians and stoking ignorance of our procedures to paint the government as responsible , which I emphasize again, they were not.
Hunka’s Nazi service came out after the fact.
He fought Russians in WW2. Wonder which army he belonged to…
the people who faught Russia in WW2 were the Nazis.
Not all of them though. Division of Poland and Winter War come to mind.
It wasn’t acidental btw. His own granddaughter posted that he met with Zelensky and Trudeau before. Also he lived in Canada for long, all of them were one short inquiry of getting to know who he is, and that’s why they have assistants etc. Sure, the western politicians have mostly shit for brains, but not one of 300 people even said “wait a minute”.
