Rob Schneider cancels Canada trip after Trudeau, Parliament honour 'one of Adolf Hitler's Nazi SS soldiers'

On Sunday, comedian Rob Schneider announced that he had chosen to cancel his upcoming trip to Canada after of Parliament's decision to honour a man who fought with the 14th Waffen SS, a Ukrainian Nazi unit, in World War II.

During President Volodomyr Zelensky's visit to Ottawa on Friday, 98-year-old veteran Yaroslav Hunka was praised for "fighting for Ukraine independence against the Russians" and received a standing ovation from the House of Commons. 

"I just canceled my trip to Canada," Schneider wrote in a post on X. "I just can't."

He deemed Parliament's actions to be "beyond the pale," and slammed the prime minister, saying, "Trudeau's tyranny against peaceful trucker protesters seems insignificant to this despicable and outrageous act of honoring of one of Adolf Hitler's Nazi SS Soldiers by the Canadian Parliament."

News of Hunka's alleged allegiance to the Führer began to emerge on Saturday, and before long the story had spread across social media.

Schneider, who is half Jewish, expressed his frustration with the ignorance displayed by Canadian politicans.

"Don't you stupid f#cking Canadians know this assh@le fought for the Nazis?!" he wrote. "Not what we call Nazis today. Like, the real Nazis! This guy fought for Hitler! Not like what we call people Hitler today. Thee Hitler! Like in actual Adolf Hitler."

According to B'nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn, the 14th Waffen SS, also known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Schutzstaffel, was made up of volunteers who "dreamed of an ethnically homogenous Ukrainian state and endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing."

Speaker Anthony Rota quickly issued an apology, but that did little to quell the backlash.

On Monday, Rota acknowledged that he had made a mistake, but noted his intentions were simply to point out that the war between Ukraine and Russia is "nothing new."

"We've subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decison to recognize this individual," Rota said. "I wish to apologize to the House, and I'm deeply sorry that I have offended many with my gestures and remarks."

Rota went on to take full responsibility for the decision to host Hunka, claiming that nobody in the House, nor the Ukrainian delegation, was made aware beforehand.