There is a continued controversy surrounding a newsworthy monument located here in Oakville. Now, white supremacists have visited Oakville to see the monument, and we at Oakville News would like to provide some background and deeper insight into the situation.
Globe and Mail reporter Marie Woolf has uncovered social media posts showing members of Active Club, a fitness and readiness organization for white men, paying homage to the members of the 14th Galicia Waffen SS at the monument to the unit in the St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville.
Here is a post that appears on the public Telegram channel operated by Active Club.
Yaroslav Hunka is a hero.
There has recently been a "controversy" in Canada regarding this man. Yaroslav fought what was fundamentally a Nationalist struggle.
He fought for his people against the Bolshevik menace which perpetrated the Holodomor and so many other atrocities against not just his people, but all of our people. He fought to keep the sadistic and jealous hordes of spiteful mutants who have historically repleted the ranks of Communism and other far-left movements from our civilizational heart of Europe.
After the war he found his way from Europe to Canada, as all of our ancestors did at one time or another, and settled into his new life, paying his taxes, committing no crimes, and by all accounts being well regarded by his local community.
A few weeks ago, at the age of 98, he was brought to parliament to, as he thought, simply sit in a session. With no prior warning for Yaroslav himself the Speaker of the House recognized him and led the chamber in a standing ovation in recognition of his efforts on behalf of his people.
For the first time in decades at least, someone received a standing ovation in Canadian Parliament who truly deserved it. A Nationalist veteran who fought the forces of the left.
Upon learning this fact our political prostitutes wasted no time in denouncing, our controlled media wasted no time in slandering, this 98 year old war hero. He is now being hounded by governments and slimy journalists, his final days on earth are being spent trying to hide from leftist scum.
In honour and thanks of Yaroslav, and all the men from his division who fought to protect Europe and the very concept of civilization itself from the Asiatic-Communist pestilence which spewed forth in savage waves from the gutters of humanity, Active Club Canada laid flowers and paid respect to a monument dedicated to Yaroslav Hunka and his fellow Ukrainian Nationalist comrades from the 14th Grenadier Division (1st Galician).
Oakvillenews.org has addressed the issue of this monument in earlier articles. Regardless of the motivations of young Ukrainians like Hunka for joining the unit, which we acknowledge may have been driven by the atrocities committed by the Soviets, it's important to note that it was a Nazi unit.
It is understandable that members of the unit and their descendants would want to emphasize the anti-Soviet motivation of its members and to frame their actions as a fight for their homeland.
As we have said in our recent coverage, there is some ambiguity here, but it is indisputable that the unit was associated with Nazism and with the anti-semitic racism and actions of its adherents. Membership required an oath of loyalty to Hitler.
Himmler, who founded the unit to help hold off Russian resistance to the German advance, celebrated having purified of Jews the Galicia area where the unit was recruited.
We are not seeking to condemn possibly misguided young men in a heated time seeking to avenge the repression of their country, unless they actively engaged in other than military action on behalf of their country: that is unless they committed war crimes.
Many Germans and Italians who fought for their countries, for example, have immigrated to Canada and become exemplary citizens. Indeed a Ukrainian who served in this unit became chancellor of the University of Alberta and was awarded the Order of Canada.
The unit has faced legal scrutiny in Canada three times and its members absolved of war crimes. A letter from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress to the Ottawa Citizen describes this and emphasizes how tarring Ukraine with the Nazi brush plays into Russian propaganda seeking to justify the unprovoked aggression currently being perpetrated on Ukraine.
Merely joining your country's army is not a war crime in and of itself. That is the argument for the existence of the memorial, which commemorates sacrifice and defence of the homeland. It is the argument that allowed members of this group to immigrate to Canada when other SS veterans were refused.
But we do not have public monuments in Canada to the military units of our enemies. Unfortunately, the homeland defence was on behalf of the Nazis in a unit raised by Heinrich Himmler with a view to being deployed against the Russians who were our allies in the battle against Hitler.
The monument is now being used as a prop by people who use the racist and intolerant language of the Nazis: "leftist scum", and "Asiatic-Communist pestilence." This is not much different from the language Himmler, who founded the unit, used to describe the Jews: "vermin." Because the monument is on private property, no one can compel its removal.
Any illusion that the Nazis were going to liberate Ukraine from the Russians was soon dispelled, as once they were in control they quickly parcelled out the country to Poland and Romania.
Hunka and his comrades were in a Nazi unit. The presence of the monument plays into the hands of neo-nazi and white supremacists of the type represented by this post and the photographs, showing members of the group in front of the monument and the flowers they have laid there.
The monument remaining in place provides continued support for these hateful and intolerant ideologies. If those who placed it and maintain it in the cemetery wish to maintain the narrative that the members of the unit were not acting in support of the Nazis of World War II they need to take the necessary steps to ensure that the monument is not appropriated by those who embrace these odious philosophies today.
We think that means the monument must be removed and destroyed. At the very least, there should be a permanent indication that the monument commemorates young men who, while wishing to free their country, were drawn into a deep evil, for which the survivors and their descendants continue to work to atone.
Doing otherwise gives comfort to white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Canada, and doubles down on the free propaganda assist Canada inadvertently gave the Russians in their justification of their invasion of Ukraine.
All of this is a distraction from the need for Canada to show and deliver unalloyed support for the Ukraine in its self-defence against the unprovoked attack by Putin's Russia. As a liberal democracy, Canada must defend the rights of sovereign countries against aggression. The fight for liberal democracy in the face of authoritarianism is being waged on an axis running through Russia and China, and Ukraine is on the front lines.
Ukraine today is a democracy and these reflections on its past are irrelevant to the current struggle. Germany, where Nazism was born, is on our side in that struggle and is a member of NATO. We would not hesitate to support it if it were attacked. Any Nazism in Ukraine's past was imposed upon it from the outside. If we can move past Germany's past, surely we can move past Ukraine's.
We have reached out twice to the St. Volodymyr Cultural Centre for comment, but as of now, we have not received a response. We hope they deal with this distracting issue in support of Ukraine's fight for freedom and democracy.