David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Published Sep 26, 2023

Poland’s Education Minister says he has taken steps toward eventually extraditing a Canadian man who served with a Nazi SS unit and who was last week honoured by the House of Commons.

Przemyslaw Czarnek announced Tuesday that he was taking the action “in view of the scandalous events in the Canadian Parliament which involved honouring a member of the criminal Nazi SS Galizien formation. I have taken steps towards the possible extradition of this man to Poland.”
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The news comes as the largest veteran’s organization in the country, the Royal Canadian Legion, is calling for new measures to be put in place to prevent a repeat of the incident in which MPs gave 98-year-old Waffen SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka two standing ovations last week in the Commons.

Hunka volunteered to fight for the 14th Waffen-SS Division Galicia, a Nazi military unit that recruited Ukrainians. The division has been accused by the Poles of participating in war crimes.

Hunka was being honoured during a visit to Canada by Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskyy. The honours on Friday for Hunka of North Bay, Ont., sparked anger on social media and calls for the resignation of House of Commons speaker Anthony Rota.

Rota had invited Hunka to the Commons, calling him a Canadian and Ukrainian hero and he thanked him for his military service.

After the event Poland’s government joined with Jewish groups in demanding an apology from the Canadian government.

Rota issued an apology Sunday, stating he alone is to blame for his remarks and the harm caused the Jewish community. He did not name Hunka in his apology. The Canadian government has not apologized. Rota resigned Tuesday because of his role in the debacle.
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It is unclear whether Poland’s education minister would be successful in eventually extraditing Hunka.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani said Tuesday that he can’t comment on Czarnek’s statement. No extradition request has been submitted yet and no one from the Polish government has contacted him, Virani added.

Hunka, who has not yet commented on the growing controversy, acknowledges he fought with SS Galicia but Czarnek has not outlined any specific links to alleged war crimes.

Poland and Jewish groups have denounced the Waffen-SS Galicia Division for its role in killing civilians and involvement in massacres during the war in Poland. The division was also used by the Nazis to crush national uprisings and hunting down partisans in Slovakia and the former Yugoslavia, again prompting allegations of war crimes.

After the war, the International Military Tribunal declared the SS to be a criminal organization. That included the units of the Waffen SS such as the Galicia division.

In the 1980s, an examination of war criminals in Canada found there were 600 former members of SS Galicia Division still living in Canada. Justice Jules Deschenes, who headed the commission, concluded that membership in the division did not itself constitute a war crime.
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The country’s largest veterans organization, the Royal Canadian Legion, has called for measures to be put in place to prevent the honouring of individuals such as Hunka.

“We agree with the Prime Minister that this is a profoundly embarrassing situation,” said Nujma Bond, communications manager at the legion. “This was preventable, and we expect to see new measures such that a shocking scenario like this does not occur again.”

Almost 42,000 Canadians were killed during the Second World War fighting both Nazi and Japanese forces.

In addition, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre declined to apologize for his standing ovation for Hunka. Eyre, the country’s top general, has faced criticism on social media for his actions and can be seen in video footage right near Hunka, smiling and clapping.

Asked about whether Eyre would apologize, the National Defence media relations branch sent an email noting that Rota apologized for his recognition of Hunka. The statement added that the decision to recognize Rota “was made independently within the Speaker’s office, without the involvement or awareness of people in attendance, including DND/CAF members present.”

“The DND/CAF continues to take a strong stance against all forms of hate, which are completely incompatible with its values and culture,” the email noted.