House Speaker Resigns After Recognizing Former Nazi Soldier
House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota resigned this week after he invited Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian former member of the Waffen SS—a Nazi paramilitary organization—to be honoured in the House of Commons. In a now-infamous moment, the entire House gave a standing ovation to Hunka, who was identified by Rota as a “hero who fought the Russians.” Within minutes, however, members of the public identified the 98-year-old as a former member of the 14th Waffen SS Battalion, a Ukrainian division of the infamous force that pledged personal loyalty to Adolf Hilter. The “Russians” Hunka fought were, in fact, ally-aligned Soviet soldiers.
The moment took place after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is of Jewish descent, addressed the House of Commons. Significantly, Vladimir Putin has attempted to justify his invasion of Ukraine by accusing the Ukrainians of sympathizing with Nazism. After receiving pressure from every recognized Party in the House of Commons in the days following the incident, Rota announced his resignation.
The Significance: The Speaker of the House of Commons is a powerful office. The Speaker has authority not only to act as a referee in the House of Commons, but also to rule on important issues such as the legitimacy of motions or the rights of Parliamentarians. Because of this, the resignation of the Speaker is a serious political development.
Despite some managerial flaws, Speaker Rota demonstrated a willingness to hold his Liberal colleagues to account. Throughout his tenure, he ruled against the governing Liberals—including ruling against an initial attempt at a Parliamentary vaccine mandate and fighting his own Party in court over documents related to the Winnipeg Lab. Rota’s resignation provides the Liberals with an opportunity to install a more partisan speaker.
More importantly, this scandal has two significant lesions: First, teach your children history. Even a cursory understanding of world history would have equipped the staff responsible for vetting Hunka with the knowledge that a Ukrainian fighting the Russians in World War II would have, at the very least, been allied with Hilter’s Germany. The belief that anyone fighting the Russians in any period must surely be a “good guy” shows an alarming level of historical ignorance.
Second, that the Liberals’ immediate response to the incident was to attempt to strike the event from the record is very telling. Not only did they try to strike the words honouring the SS soldier from the record, but they also tried to delete the footage itself. Member of Parliament Marty Morantz, a member of the Jewish Community, denied unanimous consent for the motion on behalf of the Conservatives, pointing out that removing the unpleasant parts of history is no way to learn from it.
It is not surprising, however, that a progressive-liberal mindset which sees tearing down statues and changing place names as a legitimate response to complicated history would also think that the best way to respond to this scandal would be by pretending it never happened.
Read More: John Paul Tusker CBC Anthony Rota resigns as Speaker after honouring Ukrainian veteran who fought with Nazi unit
Muslim Association of Canada demands apology from Trudeau over anti-parental rights statements
The Story: The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) is demanding an apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his statement characterizing the recent pro-parental rights “Million Person March” as hateful and transphobic. The MAC is also demanding apologies from school board officials, politicians, and union leaders who they believe have been unfair in their criticisms of the Muslim-lead multi-faith protest.
The MAC is the largest grassroots Islamic organization in the country serving over 50,000 individuals each week through various branches and has previously found itself allied with Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party on political issues such as immigration. As of this writing, the Prime Minister has not apologized.
The Significance: The worldview of left-wing Canadian political leaders is an anti-theistic, incongruous mess. The new anti-God “Woke Religion” requires them to simultaneously believe that Muslims are oppressed because of their minority status in Canada, yet that Muslims are also bigots for their religious beliefs on things like marriage and biological sex. For a long time, this incongruity has caused tensions that have remained hidden and have only surfaced now that Leftists are actively pushing for the indoctrination of children.
This conflict signifies two things: First, that the Left’s political beliefs are incompatible with any honest theistic worldview. Second, that Trudeau’s days as Prime Minister are likely limited. Poll numbers will rise and fall, but people of sincere religious belief, including the thousands of Muslims Trudeau has relied on to win in close races, will remember the insults spewed at them by the Prime Minister and his allies.
Read More: Jonathan Van Maren, The Bridgehead, “Canadian Muslims are demanding an apology from Trudeau after slander of parental rights protests”
Alberta School Trustee Disciplined for Anti-Pride Social Media Post
The Story: Red Deer Catholic Schools Trustee Monique LaGrange has been censured by her own board after a social media post comparing German children waving Nazi flags to modern children waving Pride flags. According to her lawyer, LaGrange has been barred from speaking on behalf of the school board or attending public events and will no longer serve on Board committees. She has also been ordered to undergo 90 days of mandatory “sensitivity training.” LaGrange has refused to apologize for the post.
The Significance: Regardless of the wisdom of her comparison, one thing is clear: LaGrange has been disciplined by her Board for daring to suggest that the open celebration of sexual sin is anything other than perfectly virtuous. Although a measure of religious liberty mercifully remains intact, the boundaries of acceptability are closing-in on proponents of sexual morality. This contraction of acceptable speech has a pronounced effect on Christians in public positions, causing some to lose their jobs and others to self-censor. With the understanding that defending truth may come at significant professional and relational cost, Christians should refuse to abandon their role as salt and light, instead embracing every opportunity to “suffer for righteousness’ sake” (1 Pet. 3:14).
In the words of JC Ryle, “the Lord Jesus calls those blessed, who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He means those who are laughed at, mocked, despised, and ill-used, because they endeavor to live as true Christians. Blessed are all such! They drink of the same cup which their Master drank. They are now confessing Him before men, and He will confess them before His Father and the angels at the last day. ‘Great is their reward.’” Our readers may soon be asked to abandon professional dreams for Christ’s sake. If you are, remember: the rich rewards of Heaven are far better than the empty applause of men.
Read More: Anthony Murdoch, LifeSiteNews, “Canadian Catholic school trustee silenced, forced to undergo ’sensitivity’ training for opposing LGBT agenda”
Over 4,000 Trans-Affirming Mastectomies Performed in Canadian Hospitals
The Story: According to a National Post report analyzing Canadian hospital data, the number of trans-affirming breast removal surgeries performed in public hospitals has risen sharply since 2018—going from 536 in 2018-19 to 985 in 2022-23, for a total of 4,071 over the last five years. The analysis also shows that 602 of the surgeries were performed on patients 18-years-old or younger, with the youngest patient being just 14-years-old. The data is only collected from public hospitals and excludes all private clinics and all hospitals in the Province of Quebec, meaning that the actual number of trans-affirming surgeries is potentially much higher.
The Significance: Although the numbers reported in the National Post report are jarring, they should not be surprising to those who have watched the momentum of the transgender movement over the last five years. Regardless, the tragedy remains: thousands of Canadian women and girls have fallen prey to the cultural lie that faux-manhood is better than real womanhood, and have hired highly-paid specialists to remove their breasts in an intentional effort to subvert God’s good design for womanhood.
Of particular significance in this story is the unsurprising failure of private gender surgery clinics to report medical data. Despite the insistence of many Canadian politicians that permitting private healthcare delivery for positive things like MRIs would be immoral, private clinics across the country are removing children’s breasts and performing abortions without a response or even having to publicly report how often those procedures are conducted. Only a truly decadent society would ban private healthcare innovation for cancer treatment while encouraging private profit on procedures that destroy the bodies of young girls and end the lives of preborn children.
Read More: Sharon Kirkey, National Post, “Hundreds of trans teens under 18 have had breasts removed in Canada, new data show”
Quick Hits:
Liberals move towards citizenship at the click of a button.
Minister of Immigration Marc Miller has stated that the Liberals are considering a move to replace in-person citizenship ceremonies with a click-to-sign online option. This should surprise nobody as the Liberals have consistently removed any sense of national identity and pride in Canada. The most recent examples were removing the Christian imagery on the Canadian Royal Crown heraldic emblem, and the replacement of historic images on our passports with meaningless shapes, colours and images that have no direct connection to anything Canadian. Replacing the momentous occasion of becoming a Canadian citizen with the same process by which people click agree on their latest iPhone update is just the next example of a Canadian government that seems to have lost all interest and pride in being Canadian.
Read More: Quinn Patrick True North News Immigration minister recommends ‘one click citizenship’ instead of traditional oath.
Saskatchewan will use Notwithstanding Clause to defend parental rights: After a judge granted an interim injunction by taxpayer-funded UR Pride and Egale Canada against the Saskatchewan government’s parental rights policy, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe followed through on the promise he made last week to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause if needed.
Moe announced that he will be recalling the Legislature early to pass the necessary legislation, thereby removing the power of the court to interfere in the democratic will of the province. This is only the most recent in a growing number of invocations of Section 33 by conservative leaders responding to judicial overreach.
Read More: Christopher Oldcorn, Western Standard, “Moe recalls legislature to use ‘notwithstanding clause’ over pronouns policy”
