Sep 26, 2023 at 9:11 PM Update: 20 minutes ago
Anthony Rota is stepping down as Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons. He came under fire after he invited a 98-year-old war veteran to parliament. But it turned out that he had collaborated with the Nazis and had been in the SS.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a guest in Canada’s parliament. In honor of this, Rota invited the Ukrainian-Canadian Jaroslav Hoenka.
Rota praised Hoenka as a “Canadian hero”, after which parliament gave him a standing ovation. The incident sparked outrage from Jewish organizations, the Polish government, WWII veterans and members of the Canadian cabinet, among others, who called on Rota to step down.
The incident is painful because it fits into Russian claims that the country is fighting Nazis in Ukraine. The Kremlin insists that “denazification” is one of the goals of the invasion. Zelensky himself is Jewish and has lost family members to the Holocaust.
Rota previously apologized, but resigned after much criticism of his stay.
Image: AFP
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2023-09-26 19:11:23
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