WARMINGTON: Putin makes Canada's embarrassing 'Nazi in parliament' story worldwide news

Article content

Just when embarrassed Canadians were starting to forget a former Nazi unit soldier getting a standing ovation in the House of Commons, along comes Vladimir Putin telling Tucker Carlson it’s one of the reasons Russia remains at war in Ukraine.

This was big news last September in Canada but what no one saw coming was that the Jaroslav Hunka affair would end up highlighted to the whole world in what is being called the most-watched interview of all time.

In fact, Putin used the incident in Parliament with the 98-year-old former Waffen SS soldier – invited by Speaker of the House Anthony Rota to attend the address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – as one of his justifications for continued prosecution of bloody war in Ukraine.

While saying he understands Ukrainians are entitled to be a “separate people,” he believes “not on the basis of Nazism.”

When independent journalist Carlson challenged Putin by saying, “Hitler has been dead for 80 years,” the long-serving Russian leader called Carlson’s question “pesky and subtle” while seizing the moment to add his version of history to an already lengthy 30-minute history lesson on Russia.

“You say Hitler has been dead for so many years,” Putin said through a translator. “But his example lives on. The people who exterminated the Jews, Russians and Poles are still alive. And the president, the current president of today’s Ukraine, applauds him in the Canadian Parliament … can we say that we have completely uprooted his ideology?”

He was referring to Hunka being cheered by members of Parliament.

“The Canadian parliament introduced the man who, as the speaker of the parliament said, fought against the Russians during World War Two. Well, who fought against the Russians during World War One? Hitler and his accomplices,” said Putin. “And it turned out that this man served in the SS troops.”

Putin made the point that Hitler’s “SS troops consisted of Ukrainian nationalists who did this dirty work” and “the President of Ukraine stood up with the entire Parliament of Canada and applauded this man. How can this be imagined?”

It did happen and MP Rota was the fall guy.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who Friday told The Canadian Press that Putin “will use whatever propaganda he can” to try to justify the war, did apologize to Zelenskyy in September for the terrible misstep. But when the dust settled, it was Rota taking the blame.

Rota resigned as the speaker for being the one who invited Hunka, a constituent from his Nipissing riding. Even Friday, just 16 hours after the Carlson interview dropped on Elon Musk’s X platform, the Prime Minister’s office re-iterated that Trudeau played no role in the invitation to Hunka.

“The Prime Minister had no knowledge of this individual before the independent recognition by the former Speaker of the House of Commons,” spokesperson Mohammad Hussain said.

“Last September, there was a community event with the President of Ukraine in Toronto with over 1,000 people invited. Hundreds of Canadians were invited upon the recommendation of groups like the Ukrainian Canadian Congress,” Hussain said. “The individual in question’s name was submitted by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. The individual did not attend. Knowing what is known now – the individual shouldn’t have been invited.”

While Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre showed an actual invitation from the PMO, the Trudeau government was still insisting on Friday that the Prime Minister knew nothing about it.

Whether this was all an accident or a misunderstanding, it’s a moot point now that Putin has chosen to exploit it.

I was surprised about how little mainstream media coverage this received. But it’s hard to ignore Putin utilizing a Canadian story to justify his war.

“What we see happening today, that is what de-Nazification is in our understanding,” said Putin. “We have to get rid of these people who maintain this concept and support this practice to try to prevent it.”

Whether or not you agree with Putin, one fact that is indisputable is that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are reported to have died or been wounded in this deadly conflict.

jwarmington@postmedia.com