Ukrainian vet debacle reignites call to remove controversial Oakville monument

Rabbi Stephen Wise, whose congregation is in Oakville, and B'nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn stand next to a memorial for the members of the SS 14th Waffen Division at Oakville's West Oak Memorial Gardens. The two men have been working together for years to try to get it removed. (B'nai Brith Canada photo)

An Oakville cemetery is once again facing calls to remove a monument that pays tribute to a Ukrainian unit that was recently thrust into the spotlight when controversy erupted over a decision to honour one of its veterans in the House of Commons.

The monument in question is located within West Oak Memorial Gardens, a 100-acre cemetery at 1280 Dundas St. W. that is owned and operated by St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery. In 1988, a large statue commemorating what is known as the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army was erected at the burial ground, which is the largest Ukrainian cemetery in Canada.

Yaroslav Hunka, the 98-year-old Ukrainian man at the centre of this controversy, served in that military unit, which was founded in 1943 and is also known as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division and the SS 14th Waffen Division. This unit was a Second World War Nazi German military formation made up of mostly Ukrainian volunteers and fought in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and the former Yugoslavia. It was disbanded in 1945.

READ MORE: How was veteran Yaroslav Hunka's military unit linked to the Nazis?

In a statement, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) for Holocaust Studies reaffirmed its "longstanding" opposition to the presence of “monuments and memorials to Nazi collaborators,” saying that "such monuments have no place in our society" and are an “affront to the memory of the Holocaust.”

“The monuments to the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division in Oakville and Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Edmonton distort the Holocaust while glorifying the memory of individuals who participated in crimes against humanity,” Dan Panneton, the international Jewish human rights organization’s director of allyship and community engagement, said in a statement provided to CP24.com.

“The reaction to recent events in the House of Commons clearly demonstrates that Canadians are not interested in being associated with this history, and that such monuments have no place in our society.”

National Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada has also long advocated for the removal of this monument.

“It is shameful that some are again attempting to justify the glorification of a Waffen SS unit through a memorial in an Oakville cemetery,” CEO Michael Mostyn wrote in a statement.

“B’nai Brith Canada has been directly involved in this issue for years and is extraordinarily disappointed that, despite assurances given to the Jewish community, nothing has changed. It’s past time to remove this cenotaph.,”

Oakville’s mayor Rob Burton along with Oakville North-Burlington representatives MPP Effie Triantofilopoulos and MP Pam Dankoff have all previously expressed the desire to remove this statue, which in June 2020 was vandalized with the words "Nazi War Monument."

Almost 850 people signed a petition that was created that summer to take it down.

The issue has gained renewed attention after House Speaker Anthony Rota invited Hunka to be honoured in parliament during last week's visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, apparently unaware of his past. Rota has since resigned from his post and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for the embarrassing incident on behalf of Canada on Wednesday.

CP24.com contacted West Oak Memorial Gardens for comment, but have not heard back.

With files from CTV News’ Daniel Otis.