We have all heard about fugitive Nazi war criminals, escaping post-war Europe, finding sanctuary in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay or some other South American nation. You could be forgiven for thinking that coddling Nazi mass murderers is somehow endemic to the Hispanic condition.

However, that stereotype is incorrect. Providing sanctuary for Nazi criminals however, is not something unique to the Latin temperament. The country in the Americas that has consistently welcomed Nazis, and assisted in rehabilitating their doctrines, is north of the equator – predominantly Anglo Canada.

In September this year, the Canadian parliament gave a rapturous ovation to Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka. Who is he? Now 98 years old, Hunka was a member of the Waffen SS, specifically the First Ukrainian Division. This unit, originally known as the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division, was mostly made up of ultranationalist Ukrainians who fought alongside Nazi German troops in World War 2.

Motivated by the racist ideology of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, this division – also known as 1st Galician – committed numerous atrocities against Jews, Poles, Russians and other minority groups. Condemned as a criminal organisation at the end of World War 2, the veterans of the Galician division escaped justice in Europe. Thousands of them found refuge in Britain – and Canada. In fact, Canada is the largest recipient of fleeing Nazi war criminals on the American continent.

The fact that Hunka was officially invited to attend the official address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Canadian parliament, exposes the dark side of Ukrainian ultranationalist criminality.

There is one positive side to this story. As Jeremy Appel notes, the international community has asked serious questions regarding Canada’s disturbing record in rehabilitating Ukrainian ultranationalism. Nazi war criminals like Yaroslav Hunka, are not exactly isolated strangers in the wider Ukrainian-Canadian community.

I seem to recall the almighty tsunami of outrage by the Israeli and European governments in response to antisemitic remarks by Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with senior European politicians, denounced what they saw as a repeat pattern of antisemitism on the part of Abbas. They also condemned what they viewed as the Palestinian authority’s footdragging when it comes to confronting antisemitism in its own ranks.

The Canadian government, in its turn, forcefully denounced Abbas and the Palestinian authorities for their perceived antisemitism.

If that is the case, what would the international community, and Tel Aviv’s supporters, make of Ottawa’s longstanding policy of cultivating, rehabilitating (and now applauding) East European Nazi collaborators? The latter are responsible for the mass murder of thousands of Europeans Jews. After the war, Ottawa, in cooperation with the UK, overlooked the racist criminal past of Ukrainian Nazi collaborator veterans, and provided them with sanctuary.

Ali Abuninah, writing about this topic in Electronic Intifada, notes the rank hypocrisy of those whose current silence on the issue of Canadian sanctuary for Nazi war criminals is deafening:

One might think that the members of this chorus truly care about preserving the memory of the victims of the Nazis, and even take seriously their regular invocation of such slogans as “Never Again.”

But that would be a mistake.

After World War 2, with the Cold War in full swing, thousands of Eastern European Nazi collaborators, including Ukrainian members of the Waffen SS Galician unit, were provided sanctuary in Canada. There, they established vibrant communities, with newspapers, churches, schools, sports clubs – and were a reliable anticommunist bulwark against the Canadian labour movement and trade unions.

Waffen SS veterans, such as the Ukrainians who fought in the 1st Galician division, were given refuge in Britain after the war. The UK government at the time regarded these former SS members as ‘good stock’ who were racially acceptable, and would provide bodies for labour shortages. In the 1950s, Hunka and thousands of his colleagues moved to Canada.

In Canada, these Ukrainians set up the Ukrainian Cultural Congress (UCC), an umbrella organisation dedicated to, among other things, promoting a sanitised version of the Galician division’s record. The mass killings of Jews, Poles and Russians was basically forgotten, and the Ukrainian SS members were portrayed as simple patriots driven into the arms of the Nazis by Stalinist repression. So, the excuse is – ‘the Russians made me do it’.

The Ukrainian nationalist lobby, which provided the recruits for Himmler’s Galician unit, saw Jewish Bolshevism as the main enemy to be confronted. I am certain there was a German politician who said the same thing, and targeted European Jews as the existential threat facing western civilisation. Himmler himself inspected the ranks of the Ukrainian Waffen SS soldiers, solidifying his control over the Eastern European collaborators.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with the Canadian political establishment, apologised for inviting and applauding Hunka. The Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, resigned his position in the wake of the scandal. This incident is being summarily dismissed as a PR gaffe. That is a pathetic attempt to trivialise a serious issue.

It is hardly a mistake when current Canadian deputy PM, Chrystia Freeland openly boasts of her grandfather’s role in recruiting for the Ukrainian Waffen SS division. It is hardly Russian disinformation to point out Ottawa’s deliberate cultivation of a haven for Ukrainian war criminals.

Canada’s willing reception of Waffen SS veterans exposes the moral bankruptcy of Ottawa’s foreign policies. Their scarcely credible claims of fighting for democracy and freedom stand exposed as deceptions. It is high time for Trudeau and Freeland to face the consequences of their actions. The next time you are looking for Nazi refugees, don’t only look at South American nations – cast your view at a nation further up north.