The lawmaker who presides over the lower house of Parliament Canada apologized on Sunday 24, after declaring that he had learned that the man he had honored during a visit by the delegation of Ukraine served in a notorious military unit Nazi during the World War II.

Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, Anthony Rota, honored Yaroslav Hunka, 98, of North Bay, Ontario, Friday (22) during the Ukrainian President’s visit Volodymir Zelensky. After Zelensky’s speech in Parliament, in which he thanked Canada for its support in Ukrainian War Against the RussiaRota presented Hunka as a war hero “who fought [pela] Ukraine’s independence from the Russians and continues to support the troops today.

“He’s a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” Rota said. But on Sunday, Jewish groups condemned the honor, saying Hunka had been a member of a Waffen-SS unit made up of ethnic Ukrainians. Heinrich Himmler, one of the leading members of the Nazi Party in Germanyformed the Waffen-SS, which was involved in mass shootings, anti-partisan warfare, and providing guards to Nazi concentration camps.

“The fact that a veteran who served in a Nazi military unit was invited and received a standing ovation in Parliament is shocking,” said the Simon Wiesenthal Friends Center for Holocaust Studies. “At a time of rising anti-Semitism and distortion of the Holocaust, it is incredibly disturbing to see the Canadian Parliament stand up to applaud an individual who was a member of a unit of the Waffen-SS, a Nazi military branch responsible for the murder of Jews and others and which was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials.

Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organization, has demanded an apology and an explanation for how Hunka was invited to the Canadian Parliament. Rota apologized Sunday for the incident and said he accepted “full responsibility.”

“In my comments after the Ukrainian president’s speech, I paid tribute to a person present at the podium. I later learned more information that makes me regret my decision to do this,” Rota said in a statement. “I particularly want to extend my sincerest apologies to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. accept full responsibility for my actions.

Rota added that none of his parliamentary colleagues or members of the Ukrainian delegation participated in the invitation and recognition of Hunka. Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, spokesperson for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, issued a statement Sunday calling Rota’s apology “the right thing to do.”

“No notice was provided to the Prime Minister’s Office, nor to the Ukrainian delegation, regarding the invitation or recognition,” the statement said. “The Speaker of the House had his own number of guest seats for Friday’s speech, which was determined solely by the President and his Cabinet.”/Washington Post.