Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky's trip to Canada last week ought to have been triumphant moment for both countries.
Instead, it has turned into a fiasco. In the midst of Zelensky's address to Canada's House of Commons in Ottawa, Speaker Anthony Rota acknowledged in the gallery a 98-year-old man named Yaroslav Hunka who he described as "a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero."
The problem is that Hunka served in the Waffen-SS during WWII. So Zelensky, Prime Minister Trudeau and every other MP unwittingly gave a Nazi a standing ovation. Earlier today, Rota resigned as Speaker.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre blamed Trudeau for the fiasco stating, “Canada’s reputation is broken. This is by far the biggest hit Canada’s diplomatic reputation has ever taken in its history, and it happened under Justin Trudeau, his watch.”
The problem is Poilievre and the Tories applauded Hunka just the same as Liberal MPs as well as MPs from the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. No one covered themselves in glory. Government House Leader Karina Gould, whose grandparents survived the Holocaust, applauded Hunka too as unknowingly as everyone else who was assembled until Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies brought it to light.
While Canada and Ukraine recoiled in embarrassment, Russia and India wallowed in delight. Of course, Russia has been trying to paint Zelensky, who is Jewish, as a Nazi. Now that Zelensky inadvertently saluted a Ukrainian Nazi, the Russians will be playing that image on state TV with their Republican apologists in the United States amplifying that image for the duration of the war, not to mention Russian online propaganda machine.
As for India, its ire is directed at Canada. It was only last week when Trudeau publicly accused the Indian government of killing a Canadian citizen of Sikh heritage on Canadian soil last year. Needless to say, the Indian press is having a field day with Trudeau over this incident. That doesn't make Trudeau's allegation false, but it certainly complicates matters.
The fact remains that Russia invaded Ukraine and Ukraine is defending itself with help from the West. No amount of Russian propaganda nor indignation from India against Canada can change this fact.
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