Canadian MP won't condemn honouring of Hunka or 2007, 2010, 2021 honourings of Nazi SS division
MP Yvan Baker can be seen on the far left of the screenshot, attending the UCC Toronto’s 2021 Remembrance Day event, which contained the honouring of the Waffen SS 14th Division. Source: A Kontakt TV video
Written by: Aidan Jonah
An investigation by The Canada Files has found that Liberal MP Yvan Baker has not publicly condemned Canadian parliament’s honouring of Ukrainian Nazi, Yaroslav Hunka, nor provided an apology for applauding him.
An opportunity to take either of these actions came when The Canada Files reached out with a question and request for comment, which MP Baker did not take.
In previous coverage, The Canada Files found that MP Yvan Baker had attended a 2021 Remembrance Day event held by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress’ Toronto branch, which contained the honouring of Waffen SS 14th division, without condemnation from him. MP Baker did not respond to TCF’s request for comment and questions for that article.
Yet Baker’s lack of condemnation for the honouring of a Nazi SS division is a feature, rather than a bug.
Baker, the UCC and the honouring of Nazis
The UCC itself was as formed in 1940 on the initiative of the Canadian government, bringing together a collection of outright fascist, monarchist and far-right Ukrainian Canadian groups, to serve as a counterweight to the pro-socialist Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (which would soon afterwards have its assets stolen by the Canadian government and given to the UCC). The UCC would go on to campaign “to have Canada accept members of the Waffen-SS’s Galicia Division” and “represented Waffen SS members who came to Canada after World War II.” Canada would, from 1947 on, actively seek out European Nazi SS veterans to import into Canada and pull the supposed restriction on Nazi volunteers from immigrating to Canada in 1950.
MP Baker’s connection to the UCC Toronto branch is far deeper than expected. Baker was their Vice-President of External Affairs between 2005 to 2008, according to archived versions (2006, 2007) of UCC Toronto’s website.
In January 2007, amidst Baker’s role with UCC Toronto, the branch held an event honouring Waffen SS 14th division veterans including Jaroslav Hunka, the very person whose honouring by Parliament triggered Nazigate. This honouring was done with attempted obfuscation, by honouring Waffen SS 14th Division’s direct successor the 'First Division of the Ukrainian National Army', which was created in 1945 on Nazi Germany's direct orders. No condemnation came from Baker.
By the summer of 2010, Baker had become President of the UCC Ontario Provincial Council. On November 11, 2010, the federal UCC put out a statement stating that the Waffen 14th SS Division was among those who “sacrificed and risked their lives for peace and freedom around the world,” again seeking to obscure this honouring by praising the Nazi division’s direct successor, created by Nazi Germany, the 'First Division of the Ukrainian National Army'. In the context of Rememberance Day, the Waffen SS 14th Division fought as part of the Nazi Germany army against the Soviet Union, which shared with Canada a joint enemy during WWII, the Fascist Axis powers. Baker said nothing in opposition to this honouring.
Then in 2021, MP Baker attended the UCC Toronto branch’s Remembrance Day ceremony, led by his former fellow VP and now UCC Toronto President, Petro Schturyn. At this ceremony, the Waffen 14th SS Division was honoured again with the attempted obfuscation of holding up the flag of the Nazi division’s direct successor, the 'First Division of the Ukrainian National Army', created by Nazi Germany. Yet again, no condemnation came from MP Baker, even when The Canada Files reached out for comment and with questions for the first article this year.
On September 22, the day that Canada’s House of Commons Speaker honoured Yarsolav Hunka and Canada’s parliament honoured him by giving him a standing ovation, MP Baker, who was a VP of the UCC Toronto branch which honoured Yarsolav Hunka among other Nazi veterans back in 2007, joined in this standing ovation.
It has been nearly one month since the Nazigate scandal began after University of Ottawa professor Ivan Katchanovski found, on September 23, that Hunka had volunteered for the Waffen SS 14th Division. While the former House of Commons (Canadian parliament) Speaker Anthony Rota was pressured into resigning from the role, MP Baker has not said a word about the honouring on social media, choosing to not publicly condemn Canadian parliament’s honouring of Hunka, or to provide an apology for applauding him.
When reached out to by The Canada Files for this article, MP Baker again did not respond to our question or request for comment. Both the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) declined to comment, instead deferring comment to MP Baker’s office.
Glenn Michalchuk, President of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, said:
“It is important to note Mr. Baker's connection and role in the UCC and the fact that historically the UCC has not condemned the admission of war criminals into Canada.
Thus, it is no surprise that he has not been critical of his, and Parliament's, shameful acknowledgement of Yaroslav Hunka. Mr. Baker, given his connection to the UCC, would have known that Mr. Hunka was involved in active support of German Nazism. It is also no surprise that he, and the UCC, are on record of having honoured this activity in the past.”
The Press Office of Russia’s embassy in Canada argues that:
“It’s [this story] a litmus test. That shows a decades-long policy of impunity for the Nazi collaborators hiding in Canada and their supporters. The fact that people who are known to support Hunka and such fail to repent and apologize and comfortably continue to keep their political positions is detestable. It seems they believe that time and silence will help them politically survive. And it’s up to Canadian civil society not to let this to be forgotten.”
Michalchuk said that after Nazigate:
“Canadians need to demand a full accounting of MPs such as Mr. Baker as to their personal support and connections to organizations which have played the role of revising the historical record on Nazi fascism and its implications to the neo-nazism of today.
Mr. Baker and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress need to be held accountable for their actions past and present. Any government funding provided to the UCC and its affiliated organizations should be immediately suspended.”
Note: The Canada Files will update the article if the Green Party of Canada, the Bloc Québécois, the People’s Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada and/or the New Democratic Party of Canada respond to our requests for comment.
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Aidan Jonah is the Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a socialist, anti-imperialist news outlet founded in 2019. Jonah has broken numerous stories, including how the Canadian Armed Forces trained neo-Nazi "journalist" Roman Protasevich while he was with the Azov Battalion, and how a CIA front group (the NED) funded the group (URAP) which drove the "Uyghur genocide" vote in parliament to pass in February 2021. Jonah recently wrote a report for the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in September 2021.
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