The call to remove a monument to the Waffen SS in a private Oakville, Ont, cemetery has been renewed, especially since there is evidence that the site has been visited recently by racist admirers.
A photo shared on social media showed four men, whose faces were obscured, laying flowers at the monument. The logo of Active Club Canada appears in the corner of the photo.
The Anti-Defamation League has described the organization as a “network of localized white supremacist crews.” The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has said the Active Club is a recruiting front for a racist, skinhead gang.
The Globe and Mail first reported that neo-Nazis had visited the Oakville site.
The existence of the Waffen SS monuments was thrust into the spotlight in late September, when the House of Commons honoured Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old veteran of the division during a visit of Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky. The Waffen SS was founded by Heinrich Himmler in 1943 and soldiers swore an oath to Hitler.
Since that incident, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, who spearheaded the standing ovation, has resigned his position.
There have also been demands to fully declassify the reports of the 1986 Deschênes Commission, which investigated how alleged Nazi war criminals arrived in Canada. One volume of the commission is redacted and the second volume, which contains suspected war criminals’ names, has never been released.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Oct. 4 that the situation is now being studied.
“There are top public servants looking very carefully into the issue, including digging into the archives,” said Trudeau. “We’re going to make recommendations.”
(The entire SS was declared a criminal organization by the International Military Tribunal during the Nuremberg trials after the war. The Deschênes Commission concluded, in a decision that was disputed at the time by Jewish groups, that membership in the Waffen SS was not a war crime).
The controversy has also brought national attention to two monuments to the Waffen SS-Galicia located in private Canadian cemeteries, one in Edmonton and the other in Oakville, an affluent city just west of Toronto.
Rabbi Stephen Wise, of Oakville’s Shaarei-Beth El Congregation first learned about the monument, located in in St. Volodymyr Cemetery, when it was vandalized in 2020. Someone had written ’Nazi War Monument’ on it.
“The conversation has changed because it’s now in the open that is clearly a Nazi monument,” Rabbi Wise said in an interview with The CJN.
“Last time (in 2020) there was discussion that part of the war the Ukrainians were fighting with the Nazis, and part of the war they were fighting with the Russians…. there was some grey area. I think there’s no longer a grey area,” he said.
“If white supremacists are going to see it as a shrine, that gives even more ammunition to the average Canadian that this monument does not belong on Canadian soil.”
The cemetery holds the graves of soldiers who fought with the Waffen SS, and those should remain undisturbed, Rabbi Wise.
“But that specific memorial for a Nazi division could be removed without desecrating the cemetery or the lives of the people who died,” he said.
A few years ago, the local MPP brought Rabbi Wise, leaders of the Ukrainian community and the co-ordinator of the cemetery together for discussions about the monument and to generally improve relations between the two groups.
Closer ties were formed, Rabbi Wise said. At the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, members of the Jewish community including himself, went to an Ukrainian church and joined public prayers for peace, he said.
However, nothing has changed regarding the monument.
West Oak Memorial Gardens, which manages the St. Volodymyr Cemetery, did not return The CJN’s call for comment.
Rabbi Wise says he would be concerned no matter where the monument was located.
“I don’t think it poses a threat… we’ve never felt unsafe. It’s a larger issue of a Nazi monument exists in Canada and it should be removed.”
The controversy has also brought attention to other members of the Waffen-SS, including Peter Savaryn, chancellor of the University of Alberta from 1982-1986. Savaryn, a lawyer who also served as vice-president of the Progressive Party of Canada, died in 2017
Governor-General Mary Simon apologized yesterday for awarding the Order of Canada to Savaryn.
“It is with deep regret that we acknowledge that Mr. Peter Savaryn was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1987 and we express our sincere apology to Canadians for any distress or pain his appointment may have caused,” read a statement from the Governor-General’s office.
“The Chancellery is committed to working with Canadians to ensure our honours system is reflective of Canadian values. Historical appointments to the Order of Canada reflect a specific moment in time and would have been based on limited information sources available at that time.”
The Order of Canada can not be retroactively revoked from a person who has died, the office said.
Savaryn also received the Golden Jubilee (2002) and Diamond Jubilee (2012) medals, “which are currently under examination.”
Last week the University of Alberta returned a $30,000 endowment fund that was named for Hunka. It said is it reviewing its naming and endowment policies.
The Peter and Olya Savaryn Award, established in 1997, supports a range of scholarly and educational projects in Ukrainian studies at the university. The university did not respond to The CJN by deadline about the Savaryn award.
