"Do we have a clear expression of CAF policy toward this group [the Azov Battalion]?"
"This may or may not prompt questions, but
we need to be ready and not come across as being taken by surprise.”
Chris Henderson, then assistant deputy minister for public affair
"In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated
by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West,
to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination and instruction
in irregular warfare."
Soufan Report
“Given the fact that the [Latvian SS] fought for a victory of the Third
Reich, the most genocidal regime in history, and that among those
serving in it were active participants in the mass murder of Latvian
Jewry, as well as of German and Austrian Jews deported by the Nazis to
Riga, such comments are incomprehensible, let alone deeply offensive,
coming from a senior minister of a country with full membership in the
European Union and NATO."
Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
|
A news broadcast by German ZDF station showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion with nazi symbols on their helmets. Photo by Files /ZDF station |
Once
again the Canadian Armed Forces' top brass has been revealed to be
strangely oblivious to the fallout of matters they engage in without due
thought to appropriate behaviour and their consequences. The Canadian
public has been treated to a full-throated cry of desperation from
female CAF members who have suffered sexual harassment and violence and
when they bring the situation to the attention of military authorities,
the issue is set aside, the victims of sexual violence left to steam in
frustration, their abusers free to continue their upward trajectory
toward leadership.
More
latterly, the public has been reminded once again of the unsavoury
contacts the Canadian Armed Forces leadership, along with government
diplomats engage in through casual and personal contact with
self-declared admirers of fascism and neo-Nazis abroad. Canada has a
'special' relationship with Ukraine through Canada's membership in NATO
which has pledged to protect Ukraine from the intentions of the Kremlin
to re-forge a union with Ukraine which the current government of Ukraine
has no interest in and which Moscow has pursued with a vengeance.
Another
factor in Canada's commitment to military partnership with Ukraine is
the lobbying presence of large number of Ukrainian-Canadians urging a
more firm alliance between Canada and Ukraine. An incidental but telling
issue took place a few years ago when the Russian Embassy in Canada
brought to the light of day, Canada's then-minister of Foreign Affairs
and currently deputy Prime Minister and heir apparent to head the
Liberal government's Ukrainian heritage. Chrystia Freeland's
grandfather, it was revealed, was an ardent Nazi collaborator as the
editor of a Ukrainian newspaper during WWII.
In
his newspaper, Nazi propaganda found its place, along with vicious
anti-Semitic sentiments; in no small measure doing his part in aiding
and abetting fascist Germany in its dehumanization of European Jewry on
their way to total genocide. So the Ukrainian community in Canada, has
great influence in the country. However, since Canada is a country
comprised of immigrant populations, a great congregation of people from
all over the world, so too do Chinese-Canadians, Indian-Canadians,
Italian-Canadians and other ethnic/cultural groups have influence, as
they should, as Canadians.
In
the latest revelations it would appear that Canadian officials and
members of the military met with and were briefed by leaders from the
Ukrainian Azov Battalion; neither the officers nor the diplomats
involved voiced any objection to the meeting although they were briefed
befirehand that they would be meeting with overt Nazi sympathizers.
Photographs were taken of the meeting, which were used for propaganda
purposes by the Azov Battalion online, stating that the Canadian
delegation had expressed "hopes for further fruitful cooperation".
The
Canadian Forces have decided, as a result of public embarrassment when
an Ottawa newspaper revealing the unsavoury aspects of CAF interactions
with foreign military forces, to mount a review of the issue. A review
undertaken in response to the latest revelations of Canadian diplomats
and military personnel meeting with Azov Battalion members while in
Ukraine; a decision that arrived just as a Jewish group in Ukraine
circulated a new
video of Ukrainian paratroopers singing a song to honour Stepan Bandera
who was an infamous anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator whose group was
linked to the mass murder of over 100,000 Jews and Poles during the
Second World War.
These
new revelations fold neatly into the near past when senior Canadian
Forces leaders took a pass on condemning glorification of Nazi
collaborators in Latvia and Ukraine, where Canadian troops are
conducting
training sessions. The Latvian Minister of Defence Artis Pabriks
publicly
praised members of the Latvian SS who fought for the Nazis, proudly
stating them to be
"the pride of the Latvian people and of the state" and that his country would not
"allow anyone to discredit their memory".
As a friend of Pabriks, then-defence
minister Harjit Sajjan refused to comment, much less to condemn
glorification of the SS unit. Canadian generals saw no reason to break their silence, at the 2019 event and declaration.
The Latvian SS included personnel who took part in the wholesale murder of
Jews during the Holocaust. Members of the unit were among
the last defenders of the Nazi regime in Berlin.
|
Members of the Azov Battalion attend a protest
against local elections in separatist-held areas of eastern Ukraine in
Kyiv on May 20, 2016. Reuters
|
Just
coincidentally, as though underscoring the lax attitude and moral and
ethical failings of the military hierarchy in Canada and government
leaders disinterestedly overseeing their conduct in such matters,
Canada’s training mission to Iraq was brought under scrutiny when it was
revealed that Canadian soldiers complained in 2018
to their commanders that among the Iraqi troops they were training were
war
criminals who enjoyed sharing videos of their atrocities, including
executing prisoners and raping a woman to death.
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