Liberal MP Yvan Baker (left) and Lesya Voronyuk (right). Source: Baker and Voronyuk’s Facebook pages.

Written By: Marthad Umucyaba

Lesya Voronyuk, the founder of Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian World Embroidery) Day, claims that Liberal MP Yvan Baker cancelled her address to parliament and blocked her from speaking. On Facebook, Voronyuk alleged that her cancellation was for participation in the sale and distribution of the infamous t-shirt worn by Stepan Bandera, the Nazi ‘OUN-B’ leader. Banderite ideology is the prevailing ideology of the Nazi Ukrainian state post 2014 coup.

Yvan Baker has himself has many skeletons in the closet on this subject, and he has reason to want the closet to stay closed. Yvan Baker himself had roles in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) during outrageous commemoration of Nazi divisions at Toronto-level in 2007 and federal level in 2010, and was an attending MP at a commemoration of the Ukrainian Nazi division during the UCC Toronto branch’s 2021 Remembrance Day ceremony. Baker has still, to this day, never condemned parliament’s honouring of Ukrainian Nazi, Jaroslav Hunka.

Baker’s mother, Myroslavia Oleksiuk, was also a notable member of the UCC during her heyday and the co-founder of an infamous Banderite newsletter named E-Poshta. So, after the Hunka incident in parliament opened up a can of worms, MP Baker likely determined that the less attention towards Ukrainian Nationalists, and himself especially, the better.

The alleged cover-up

Lesya Voronyuk was very upset about her opportunity to speak in the Canadian parliament being cancelled. She complained that the World Embroidery Day event, including the speech, took three months to prepare, but that the speech was abruptly cancelled only three days in advance. She voiced her displeasure on Facebook in a long diatribe, which finishes with her lamenting about “Ukrainians [who] cancel their own Ukrainians.” Some of the points she made were very ironic.

Voronyuk pointed out that if Yvan Baker was going to cancel her over the Stephan Bandera t-shirt design, then the government of Ukraine itself was going to be a problem. In her own words, in the fourth out of five points that she made about Ukrainian society:

“We explained that in Ukraine, streets and other public spaces are officially renamed in honour of Stepan Bandera, so if a Canadian liberal, as well as some old Ukrainian organisations, are so worried, please keep an eye on the processes in Ukrainian society.”

In other words, she said if the government of Ukraine had to remove their open reverence for Stepan Bandera in order to make the Canadian government’s support of Ukraine look presentable and acceptable, then that should have been conveyed consistently from the beginning. And that’s a fair point to make. How are the Banderites supposed to know that they need to cover-up the Nazi ideology of the state, if that isn’t made clear by their sponsors from the very beginning?

Yvan Baker’s participation in Nazi front organisations

Yvan Baker is alleged to have “cancelled” Lesia Voronyuk in his capacity as a former leader in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Lesia Voronyuk mentions both the UCC and Yvan Baker in her complaint. Yvan Baker was Vice President of External Affairs of the UCC’s Toronto branch from 2005-2008. The year of 2007 during his tenure was notable. They commemorated and honoured the First Division of the Ukrainian National Army, which succeeded the 14th Waffen SS Division and was created under explicit orders from Nazi Germany. One particularly relevant Ukrainian Nazi, Jaroslav Hunka, was among those honoured then.

Baker then became President of the UCC Ontario Provincial Council in summer 2010, and the federal UCC honoured the division on Remembrance Day. When he moved on, and became a politician, now-Liberal MP Yvan Baker stayed silent as UCC Toronto honoured the First Division of the Ukrainian National Army, the explicitly Nazi division, ironically, on Remembrance Day 2021, with multiple Canadian War Veterans and active soldiers present. When The Canada Files reached out to MP Baker to ask if he condemned the honouring, he did not reply. MP Baker never condemned the honouring of Ukrainian Nazi, Jaroslav Hunka, by Canada’s parliament in 2023, and did not respond to a request for comment, for a TCF article revealing this.

So understandably, Liberal MP Yvan Baker might not feel that he will get away with honouring Nazi organisations, units, or figures for a fourth time. He might only feel lucky that he got away with it three times prior. The Canada Files did reach out to Liberal MP Yvan Baker, to confirm whether he did or did not block Lesya Voronyuk from speaking in the House of Commons, but no reply was given. MP Baker also never replied for comment on TCF EIC Aidan Jonah’s stories which mentioned or focused on him.

Baker’s Mother

The political perspective of one person responsible for his upbringing is notable. Yvan’s mother, Myroslavia Oleksiuk, in particular, was very vocal in denouncing Oakville Mayor, Rob Burton, for his condemnation of a Nazi monument dedicated to the 14th Waffen SS Galicia Division. She demanded an apology to the “Ukrainian Community” for condemning the 14th Waffen SS Galicia Division, stating the Galicia Division members in Canada are “innocent”.

Oleksiuk also founded ePOSHTA, a Banderite newsletter which even shared a 2002 reply letters to the New York Times that contained anti-Jewish and antisemitic rhetoric. The highlights of a 2002 E-Poshta reply letter by Askold S. Zolynskyj, then President of the Toronto-based Ukrainian World Congress, were the following quotes:

“When the Soviets were forced to retreat from the invading Nazis in June 1941, they slaughtered their prisoners. This was accomplished with the assistance of local Communists, primarily of Jewish ethnicity.”

“The man entrusted by Joseph Stalin to carry out this crime was a Jew, Lazar Kaganovich.”

“The Russians and the Germans were savage. But the Jews were the worst. They betrayed their neighbours and did it with such zeal!”

The rhetoric speaks for itself.

Closet Nazis in Canada

The inauguration of the far right from around the world has become a unique phenomenon, with the development of a NATO expansionist regime becoming a foregone conclusion. Every new right-wing faction is a new complementary component to the Canadian government, accompanied with a supporting far-right political position that colonial Canada will no longer tolerate opposition to.

Anti-Zionism, for example, could be on the path to becoming a “criminal offence”, the daily list of sanctioned Russians only increases, and the state media outlet CBC makes sure that the Russians have adopted the NATO party line in support of Nazi Ukraine before determining that they are entitled to their savings. The MEK, officially acting as mercenaries for Israel and NATO, seeks to be the proxies of Canadian elite aims who dominate their community, just as the Banderites are for Ukrainian Canadians, driving what will happen to “Iranian Regime” supporters and supporters of the “terrorist IRGC”.

Nazi ideology, at least for now, can’t be openly celebrated in Canada, and it’s generally denied and/or disguised. The closet Nazis governing the country still feel shame when an incident revealing their white supremacist outlook comes to light, as is shown with Yvan Baker’s alleged cancelling of Lesya Voronyuk. How much longer that lasts will be determined by the level of courage that the opposition to Nazism in Canada actually has, and whether they are willing to use maximalist tactics and positions to nip the “Closet Nazis in Canada” phenomenon in the bud.

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Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.

He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.

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