Orphaned Children, Holocaust Survivors Among The Rescued From Jewish Ukraine

The View From Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Wednesday, “the thing that has really had an impact that I think we can all conclude surprised Vladimir Putin, was that we are so united, we are so firm,” referring to the enactment of financial and trade sanctions on the regime and many countries shifting their defense and energy strategies to neutralize his expansionist goals. Later the same day Trudeau spoke with President Zelenskyy, and “commended President Zelenskyy’s outstanding bravery and front-line leadership, calling it inspirational for Canadians and people around the world”, according to an official statement.

“President Zelenskyy thanked Prime Minister Trudeau for announcing meaningful and punitive sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs in Russia who are directly responsible for this unprovoked invasion or help support it. The President also welcomed Canada’s timely announcement of further military support.”

Liberal MPs on the Commons immigration committee voted against a motion on March 1 to drop visa requirements for Ukrainians seeking sanctuary. Nonetheless, the motion passed as the opposition Conservatives, the far-left NDP, and the Quebec separatist BQ voted in favour.

Tory MP Melissa Lantsman pestered the Trudeau government asking “Why is the ambassador still in Canada?” after the Russian Embassy issued a statement citing “Goebbels-style western propaganda” that “cannot be trusted” to describe the “special military operation (whose) strikes are targeting military facilities only, being carried out exclusively with high-precision weapons…”

It also stated, “ The Armed Forces of Ukraine, Nationalist and neo-Nazi groups use civilian infrastructure and population as human shields. ” 

The Trudeau government is still mired in controversy after the brief invocation of the Emergency Act and fiscal confiscations to thwart a truckers’ protest in Ottawa, in addition to violence towards protesters. It was further assailed after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland posed with a scarf that some see as a far-right nationalist symbol at a pro-Ukraine rally in Toronto last Sunday. The red-and-black design reflected the historic colors of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist partisan militia during the Second World War. 

A faction led by Stepan Bandera, who fought the communist Russians for the freedom of Ukraine, frequently worked with the Nazis. Banderists directly murdered thousands of Jews, and an estimated 100,000 Poles, during the Holocaust. (In the current war, Putin has perpetuated the painting of Ukrainian nationalists as “Nazis”. Many forget that Stalinist Russia was allied with Hitler in the invasion of Poland in 1939, where the country was dismembered and despoiled.)  

The sensitivity regarding Freeland is her maternal grandfather, Mykhailo Khomiak, who changed his name to Michael Chomiak upon emigrating to Canada after WWII.  The Nazis shut down a Jewish publisher in Krakow and transferred his equipment for the use of the leading pro-Nazi newspaper in Poland, Kravivski Visti. Khomiak/Chomiak became editor of the antisemitic rag from 1940 until March 1945, when Hitler’s Third Reich finally crumbled under the Allied advance.  

CIJA defended Freeland in a tweet, calling her “a strong friend and ally of the Canadian #Jewish community and Israel. Accusations that she is sympathetic to ultranationalist groups are false. We must reject disinformation, #StandWithUkraine, and remain united in our support of the #Ukrainian people.”