- When Zelensky visited the parliament last week, Rota praised an elderly immigrant from that country.
- Rota has been pushed to resign by several Canadian political parties.
- The main opposition Conservatives criticized the Trudeau administration for failing to thoroughly vet Hunka.
Following a public celebration of a Ukrainian veteran who fought for the Nazis during World War II, Anthony Rota, Canada’s Speaker of the House of Commons, resigned.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the parliament last week, Rota praised an elderly immigrant from that country who lived in his neighborhood as a hero. Since it was discovered that the veteran had served in a military organization with Nazi ties, he has, nevertheless, been under increasing pressure to retire.
Canadian Parliament
Despite Zelensky being Jewish and having lost family members to the Holocaust, Russia has charged the government in Kyiv with supporting Nazi ideas. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center called the incident a propaganda win for Russia and found it to be shocking and extremely upsetting.
Rota has been pushed to resign by several Canadian political parties. On Sunday, Rota expressed regret for his comments on Hunka and offered an apology.
He claimed to have learned new information as a result. The main opposition Conservatives criticized the Trudeau administration for failing to thoroughly vet Hunka, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau branded Rota’s comments disgraceful.
The second-largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world is located in Canada, and Zelensky thanked Ottawa for supporting Kyiv ever since Russian troops overran its borders in February 2022. To legitimize the war, Russia has labeled Ukrainian authorities “neo-Nazis” and said that doing so would “denazify” its neighbor.
Przemyslaw Czarnek, the minister of education in Poland, suggested that Hunka’s extradition might be sought and mentioned that he had already made procedures to facilitate Hunka’s potential extradition to Poland.
