Trudeau government to consider revealing names of Nazis admitted into Canada after WWII

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that "top public servants" are examining the extent to which Nazis – largely members of the Waffen-SS – who were welcomed to Canada following the Second World War. 

But he declined to say whether his government would reveal that information. 

"There are top public servants looking very carefully into the issue, including digging into the archives," Trudeau told reporters. "We're going to make recommendations."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller said any examination would be a "careful process."

Trudeau made the comments amid continuing outrage that his government invited Yaroslav Hunka to Parliament during a highly publicized speech from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hunka, a former member of the 14th Waffen-SS division was praised by then-House of Common Speaker Anthony Rota as a "Canadian hero" before the Nazi veteran received a standing ovation from every Member of Parliament present. 

Rota was forced to resign over the incident and Trudeau contended that the idea of inviting Hunka to the event was entirely the Speaker's. Trudeau refused to offer a personal apology but instead offered his regrets that the incident might have offended "2SLGBTQI+ people."

Under the direction of former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the Deschenes Commission already examined Canada's shady past with regard to allowing in former Nazis – many who were presumably war criminals due to their association with an infamous Waffen-SS unit – into Canada. The second part of their report included the names of many Ukrainian expatriates in Canada who have Nazi ties, but it was heavily censored.

Canada also honored another veteran of the 14th Waffen SS division when the governor general bestowed the medals for Queen Elizabeth II's golden and diamond jubilees on Peter Savaryn — a former chancellor of the University of Alberta and president of the Ukrainian World Congress. He was also awarded the Order of Canada in 1987. Current Gov. Gen. Mary Simon apologized Wednesday for that honor. Savaryn died in 2017.

But any examination of Canada's links with former Nazis is potentially fraught with difficulty for the Trudeau government. Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland long defended her maternal grandfather, Michael (Mykhail) Chomiak, who was the editor-in-chief of a virulently antisemitic newspaper in Cracow, Poland. The outlet was financed and supervised by the Nazi occupiers.

Despite knowing about her grandfather's work as a Nazi propagandist, Freeland chose to insist the story was "Russian disinformation" and fake news.

Chomiak came to Canada in 1948 and died there in 1984. 

As the editor of Krakivski Visti (Cracow News) from 1940 to 1945, he consistently  "glorified German aggression, praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi governor-general of Poland, Hans Frank, stirred up hatred against Poland's vulnerable Jewish population and demonized Poles and Russians," according to a blog from the Times of Israel.

After the massacre of at least 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar by SS Einsatzgruppen death squads, Krakivski Vesti commented that nearby city of Kiev was free of Jews. "There is not a single one left in Kiev today, while there were 350,000 under the Bolsheviks," adding that he had "got their comeuppance" and that Kiev was now "beautiful, glorious."

Freeland also posed for pictures with Ukrainian extremists and wore a scarf with the black and red colors associated with Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

Freeland began her journalism career as a reporter for The Ukrainian News, which reportedly supported Nazi-style youth camps and sold books whitewashing the history of the 14th Waffen-SS division.