Freeland warns of Russian propaganda after Putin comments on Hunka invite
Global News
The invitation to Parliament led to the resignation of Antony Rota as House Speaker, who has now been replaced by Greg Fergus, the first Black Speaker in Canadian history.
Russia is “weaponizing” the mistake of inviting and honouring Yaroslav Hunka to Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland warned Thursday.
She told reporters that Canada needs to push back hard against Russian President Vladimir Putin after he commented on the House of Commons’ standing ovation for the Ukrainian man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War.
Putin said Thursday that the standing ovation for Hunka, who fought for the Wafen-SS unit against the Russians, was “disgusting” and it shows that Russia was right to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, the ongoing reason Russia has given for its invasion of the country.
“He lumped them together. This only confirms our thesis that one of our goals in Ukraine is denazification.”
Putin said that if Rota was unaware that Russia fought against the Nazis in World War II, then he is an “idiot.”
When asked about Putin’s comments, Freeland said Thursday that while Canada can’t change the fact that Rota made a mistake inviting Hunka, “we can decide how effective Vladimir Putin is at weaponizing that mistake.”
“I would urge all of us to understand that Russian propaganda is real,” she said. “We need to push back very, very hard against everything that Vladimir Putin says and does.”
The invitation of Hunka to Parliament led to the resignation of Rota as House speaker, who has now been replaced by Greg Fergus, the first Black Speaker in Canadian history.