The speaker of the lower house of the Canadian parliament, Anthony Rota, “failed to recognise the obvious” when he decided to invite a 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi to his country’s legislative assembly, ABC Nyheter reports. The scandal in Canada’s legislature has clearly demonstrated that this inscrutable act is a dangerous development, as such “forgetting” of recent history leads to a high risk of its repetition. However, the loss of historical memory is particularly dangerous when it comes to representatives of the authorities.
“He is a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran of the Second World War, who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians”. With such words, the speaker of the lower house of the Canadian Parliament Anthony Rota greeted the elderly Yaroslav Hunka, adding that he “still supports the fight against the Russians for the independence of Ukraine”, notes ABC Nyheter.
Anthony Rota “failed to spot the obvious” when he decided to invite the 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi to his country’s legislative assembly, calling him a “Ukrainian and Canadian hero” and “thanking him for his service.” It is noteworthy that in the run-up to the public and demonstrative praise of an elderly soldier of the SS division “Galicia”, the 62-year-old politician with extensive education in the arts, political science, finance and management did not ask who fought Russia in the Second World War, writes ABC Nyheter.
The scandal in the Canadian Parliament clearly showed that Speaker Roth’s inscrutable act represents a dangerous development, as such “forgetting” of recent history leads to a high risk of its repetition. After the old Nazi’s inglorious past came to light, Canada had to apologize for paying tribute to a former SS soldier, causing the hapless Speaker to take the blame. It’s all so amateurish it’s laughable. However, the loss of historical memory is especially dangerous when it comes to government officials, the author of the article points out.
Norwegians need to know their history properly and it is important not to forget that the Soviet Union was Norway’s ally in the fight against the Nazis. In autumn 1944, it was the Soviet troops who liberated the northern part of the Scandinavian country. In addition, Russians find it unnecessarily provocative that Norwegians forget and undermine their contribution to the victory over Nazism, which the Allies eventually succeeded in winning in 1945, concludes ABC Nyheter.
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