Canada’s far-right foreign interference crisis
Forgotten and overlooked as Canadians obsess over faltering China
NG WENG HOONG, October 3, 2023, Tuesday
For over two years, Canadians have been raging against foreign interference in their country’s politics. Having sold “foreign” as Chinese, the storytellers are now stunned by Canada’s seemingly sudden quarrel with India over the long-festering issue of Khalistan even as they remain silent on Canadians’ 156-year-long meek submission to the United States’ deep historical meddling in their affairs. The omission of the U.S. and India (and a few others too) from the discourse has exposed Canada’s conflicted position on foreign interference as discussed in part 1 of this commentary.
Part 2 here examines the significance of the Yaroslav Hunka affair, the forgotten European legacy of the Mulroney-Schreiber scandal, and the overlooked influence of Sun Myung Moon. There is a strong argument for these three cases to be added to the public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian politics. But Canada’s political establishment and its foreign-influenced media will not have the courage to go there.
Canada’s Overlooked Foreign Influencer
One of the strangest recent stories in world politics involves the July 8, 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by a lone gunman in Tokyo. Initially, Tetsuya Yamagami, who opposed Abe’s right-wing politics, was suspected of having Chinese or Korean ties (1).
The BBC’s Tokyo correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, (2) a veteran Japan hand, immediately offered four other possible motives that Yamagami could be:
- linked to the Yakuza, Japan’s famously violent organized crime gang;
- a fantasist who wanted to become famous by shooting someone famous;
- a right-wing extremist who felt Abe wasn’t sufficiently right-wing, or
- an outcast who blamed Japanese society for his downtrodden status as an unemployed 41-year-old who failed in the navy after serving just three years.
Wingfield-Hayes was completely off the mark, but the BBC wasn’t the only one to miss the real story. Who would have guessed then that Abe was murdered for his ties to the Unification Church, whose followers are best known as Moonies, named after its late South Korean founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon?
Until Abe’s assassination, few people were aware of the church’s deep reach into Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Probably just as few in the West today know or care about the church’s influence over the Conservative movement in the United States and Canada.
Yamagami blames the LDP for his descent into poverty after his mother gave away more than 100 million yen, (3) possibly the family’s entire fortune, to the Unification Church. (US$1=145 yen). The Moonies’ grip over Japan’s main political party and the country’s longest-serving prime minister came as a shock to most people.
“Disclosures of connections between the party and the church have been especially damaging,” reported the New York Times (4).
“Japan’s often quiescent news media has dug into the church’s business in Japan and the connections between politicians and a group accused of preying on vulnerable people, including Mr. Yamagami’s mother, for its financial gain.”
The church doesn’t seem fazed as it had dealt with similar complaints during Moon’s early expansion into the U.S. in the 1970s. Initially dismissed as a cult leader and crackpot for claiming to be Jesus’s reincarnation, (5) he prevailed by winning over America’s conservatives. His church gained their trust by combining its fervent anti-communist messaging and neo-Christian religious beliefs with a successful business empire. Moon gradually neutralized his critics and a hostile press by assembling his own network of conservative newspapers around the world, including the Washington Times that the church acquired sometime in the 1970s.
In 1995, the Unification Church gained establishment acceptance when President George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, (6) spoke at its Global Family Festival in Tokyo. Mrs. Moon, who also spoke at the event, declared that her husband was going “to save the United States, (7) which is in decline because of the destruction of the family and moral decay.”
As an outsider who spoke little English, Moon has proved to be the ultimate foreign infiltrator in the politics of the U.S. and Canada. His influence over the Conservative flock, built over more than four decades in North America, remains strong long after his death in 2012. The secret to his enduring success is that hardly anyone talks about him now. His ideas and influence are so infused into the Conservative movement that they are hardly considered foreign.
Late last year, as China interference fears swept across Canada, The Tyee, an online media, published an analysis of the deep ties between the Unification Church and Stephen Harper, (8) Canada’s prime minister from 2006 to 2015. Contributing editor Michael Harris examined Harper’s role in bridging Canada’s “right-wing politics and messianic religion” that included his delivering “many addresses over the years to gatherings of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), the political arm of Unification Church.”
Harper is in good company with other prominent conservatives in supporting the church. Donald Trump, the former U.S. President who follows the church’s theo-con agenda, and three former U.S. Republican vice presidents — Dan Quayle, Richard Cheney, and Mike Pence --- have spoken at UPF events which have been attended by former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.
Harris described Harper as “still a powerful mandarin in the Conservative party” who “goes far to make common cause with the Unification Church.”
Harris’s insightful article included an interview with Stephen Kent, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and an authority on cults.
Canada’s 22nd prime minister is described as being aligned with “an organization founded on religious revelation rather than democratic debate.” Global problems “will have religiously based solutions.”
It raises some interesting questions about Harper and his creation, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). How deeply has he been channelling Moon’s ideology through Canada’s official opposition and second-largest political party? Is the CPC, which has nearly 679,000 members, (9) a vehicle for Moon’s continuing influence in Canada?
Harris’s analysis of Abe’s assassination should have ignited a media frenzy to rival the China interference story. Instead, it has been greeted by absolute silence. None of Canada’s mainstream media has followed up on Harris’s piece.
In Japan, the government is now looking to dissolve the church (10) which claims to have 100,000 active members. The public may have been shocked by the extent of its hold on Japanese politics (11) but whether dissolution will spell the end of its influence is a separate matter.
Moon, the stealth operator, both in life and death, has succeeded where the Chinese government has failed. In the area of soft power, China has been badly exposed, evidenced by its plunging popularity (12) in many countries over the past decade. It is a long way from being the great influencer (13) of public opinion and manipulator of elections that Canadians have been led to believe. But for many in the Canadian political and media establishments, the focus on China as an overwhelming threat is always a winning bet.
The Media As Player
Who determines what or who constitutes a national security threat? This is a key question at the heart of the foreign interference discourse.
David Johnston, the distinguished Canadian who was once Governor General (2010-2017), lasted just over three months in his role as special rapporteur to investigate foreign interference in Canada’s politics. It came after years of sensational media reporting that China had thoroughly infiltrated Canada, captured its elite in government, business, and society, and interfered with the country’s elections.
Johnston’s appointment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 15 was predictably criticized by the opposition Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) and Bloc Quebecois. (14) Predictably too, the New Democratic Party, led by the rubbery Jagmeet Singh, went from singing Johnston’s praise (15) to leading the call for his resignation (16).
Yet, Canada’s political parties are not the real drivers of the interference file given their natural deep division over this and other issues. The mainstream media has emerged as the most prominent player in galvanizing and directing public opinion in the fear-mongering department.
In selling interference as a Chinese phenomenon, the country’s noisiest opinion makers have abandoned their ideological divide and any pretence at balanced reporting. Terry Glavin (17), Andrew Coyne (18), Warren Kinsella (19), Brian Lilley (20), Campbell Clark (21), Don Martin (22), Carson Jerema (23), and Chris Selley (24), among others, and the editorial boards of the Globe and Mail (25), Toronto Star (26), Toronto Sun (27), and Ottawa Citizen (28) have attacked Johnston’s suitability and competence on account of his past ties with China, the Trudeau family, and the ruling Liberal Party. As the convergence intensified to the death of independent thinking, Canada’s media outlets resorted to citing and praising each other in an open orgy of groupthink. Their single-mindedness in these attacks bears all the characteristics of a lynch mob. Clearly, Trudeau had underestimated Johnston’s and his own vulnerability in the cauldron of Canada’s red-hot anti-China mood.
Johnston’s first report (29) released in May, identified flaws in how vital intelligence was not shared among security agencies, which left political decision-makers unaware of potential threats, particularly from foreign sources. It exposed festering problems within Canada’s security establishment, the legacy of decades of cultural inbreeding and turf-guarding among agencies.
His report also criticized the media’s focus on selectively leaked files, allegedly from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and reporters’ failure to understand and provide context. Johnston observed:
- “It is important to review the materials…carefully and in context.”
- “In the context of all relevant intelligence, the specific instances raised are less concerning than some media reporting has suggested, and in some cases tell a different story from what has been reported to date.”
- “When viewed in full context with all of the relevant intelligence, several leaked materials that raised legitimate questions turn out to have been misconstrued in some media reports, presumably because of the lack of this context.”
Predictably, the media criticized Johnston’s criticism of their reporting. How dare anyone question their perfectly constructed narratives and impeccable editorial process? Subsequently, their coverage of his report, parroted by the Conservative Party, consisted mostly of criticisms and numbing repetitions of stories about Johnston’s close ties with Trudeau (30), the Liberals (31) and, of course, his past dealings with China. From the mob’s perspective, anyone who has ever promoted close ties with the world’s fastest-growing economy over the past 40 years must surely be a stooge of Beijing.
The Media’s Selective Memory
There is a huge irony to the media’s demonization of the former Governor General. Those casting stones now fail to mention that the same David Johnston helped the ruling Conservative Party in 2008 avoid a potentially devastating scandal involving foreign agents interfering in Canadian politics for at least three decades from the 1970s.
In 2008, Johnston wasn’t called special rapporteur. He went by “independent advisor”, appointed to help investigate the “financial dealings” between a German arms dealer and a former Canadian prime minister that were the tip of a financial iceberg of dubious foreign money flowing into Canada.
Starting from the 1980s, well-connected Canadians secured key roles to promote murky multi-billion-dollar schemes from Europe involving the sale of Airbus planes (32) to Air Canada, the proposed manufacture of light armoured vehicles in Nova Scotia, (33), and the purchase of helicopters (34) by the Canadian Coast Guard.
The seeds of these schemes were planted by a shady German arms dealer, Karlheinz Schreiber, (35) who came to Canada in the early 1970s. As a prominent lobbyist for European aviation and defence companies, he helped raise funds (36) for Germany’s ruling CDU party under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and boasted close ties with the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party that governed the German state of Bavaria.
With a keen nose for deals, Schreiber arrived in Alberta in 1974 to sniff out the province’s conservative politicians aggrieved with the federal Liberal Party government. He ingratiated himself with the core of the Progressive Conservative Party (PCP), the predecessor to today’s Conservative Party of Canada. He took up Canadian citizenship in 1982, in time to play a pivotal role in Canadian politics by financing rising star Brian Mulroney’s challenge for the PCP leadership.
“In 1983, Schreiber paid to send delegates who would vote against Joe Clark at the Progressive Conservative leadership convention in Winnipeg; Mulroney went on to become PC leader,” according to the National Post (37).
The following year, the energized PCP won the federal election with a crushing majority, the biggest in Canada’s history that made Mulroney Canada’s 18th prime minister. Ten years after arriving in Canada as an openly-avowed agent of foreign influence, Schreiber had succeeded as a kingmaker in his adopted homeland.
In 2007, Schreiber was given the platform to boast about the success of his foreign interference operations in Canada. He told the House of Commons ethics committee that he had used money given by German political and business interests to influence the outcome of the PCP leadership contest. There were no angry protests or outcry of foreign infiltration from Parliament, the RCMP, the CSIS, or Canada’s famously xenophobic media.
“Karlheinz Schreiber said…for the first time that foreign interests and money were involved in the campaign to unseat Tory leader Joe Clark at the 1983 Progressive Conservative convention,” according to the Globe and Mail’s Brodie Fenlon (38).
“The money he used to help arrange and pay for jets that transported anti-Clark delegates from Quebec to the convention in Winnipeg came from himself; the late Franz Josef Strauss, the chairman of Airbus Industrie; and probably from Mr. Strauss’s political party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).”
Mentor to Schreiber, Strauss was head of the CSU from 1961 to 1988 as well as president of Germany’s Bavaria state from 1978 to 1988. Combining those positions with his chairmanship of Airbus, Strauss was a truly powerful international leader of his time with access to both enormous political and financial resources.
Once Mulroney became prime minister, Schreiber and his friends wasted little time in marketing Strauss’s Airbus planes and MBB helicopters to Canada. For his success, he earned a total of at least $24 million in commission from Airbus and Thyssen that he ploughed back into Canada to continue expanding his influence operations.
Reuters (40) observed: “The affair is one of the great mysteries of Canadian politics and efforts to uncover what happened have generated allegations of skullduggery and influence-peddling that involve senior officials and politicians.”
Astonishingly, although Mulroney would later admit to accepting cash payments in envelopes from Schreiber, police said they were unable to find anything illegal. The full extent of the Mulroney-Schreiber relationship (41) remains shrouded in secrecy to this day. What other deals (42) were proposed or attempted, the amount of foreign money brought into Canada, and how many Canadian officials (43) were associated with Schreiber’s network may never be known.
The secrecy and the fact that there has been little political fallout, particularly for the Conservatives, owed in no small part to David Johnston. He was the University of Waterloo president and vice-chancellor when the Mulroney-Schreiber relationship became openly toxic in early 2006. The German arms dealer told the CBC’s Fifth Estate (44) on February 8 that he had paid the former Canadian prime minister $300,000 in cash, contradicting Mulroney’s earlier denials that he had any dealings with Schreiber.
Stephen Harper had just led the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) to a narrow victory in the January 2006 election and desperately needed to survive as prime minister of a minority government. Ironically, the CPC had won by successfully portraying the previous Liberal government as corrupt. Harper could not afford to have the growing stench of the Mulroney-Schreiber rot on his hands.
In March 2007, the rot exploded into a full-blown crisis when Schreiber sued Mulroney for allegedly not “performing” his end of a supposed bargain after having been paid by the German lobbyist. Schreiber wasn’t just aggrieved. He was fighting to remain in Canada after his arrest in 1999 on the request of the German authorities who had sought his extradition (45) to Germany. He was to face charges of tax evasion, fraud, breach of trust, and bribery that were tied to Kohl’s CDU-led government. Schreiber’s lawsuit opened the possibility that he was going to reveal serious dirt, and potentially drag the Harper government, the Conservative party, and Canada’s political system into an unprecedented influence-peddling scandal spanning the previous two decades.
On November 13, 2007, Harper announced a public inquiry (46) that he said would “address Canadians’ interest, not those of the various parties, whether Mr. Schreiber, Mr. Mulroney or political parties.” A day later, he announced the appointment of legal academic David Johnston (47), followed by that of Manitoba judge Jeffrey Oliphant (48) in June 2008 to do the job.
Although Johnston was given the title of independent advisor, he was never independent enough to set the scope and course of the inquiry.
Harper was in charge of that script. It eventually became apparent that the purpose of the inquiry was not to uncover the truth but to contain the scandal.
Harper told Johnston to make recommendations for “an appropriate mandate for a public inquiry” focused specifically on the allegations of “the financial dealings between Mr. Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney.”
Johnston complied, and then some, as made clear in his report, (49) submitted on January 9, 2008.
On page 4, Johnston instructed the inquiry’s soon-to-be-appointed commissioner that there would be no “wide-ranging, unfocused inquiry into all of the matters that Messrs. Schreiber’s and Mulroney’s names have been associated with all these years.”
Johnston further lightened the severity of the scandal by describing it as not a “cataclysmic event such as a mine collapse, an airline crash or a train derailment.”
In his reckoning, the damage to Canada’s democracy and political integrity ranked lower in importance than a train derailment. In other words, don’t take this inquiry too seriously.
Oliphant’s work was thus cut out for him months before he was named the inquiry’s commissioner in June 2008. Specifically, he was “barred from revisiting allegations (50) that Mulroney and Schreiber were involved in a kickback scheme at the time of Air Canada's $1.8-billion purchase of Airbus jets in 1988.”
There would be no delving into systemic or institutional issues that could lead to wider questions about the possibility of decades of foreigners from Europe using their dirty money to influence Canada’s political process. It was imperative that the commissioner understood this part of the job description. Harper’s next task was to find the right man for the job.
It seems a coincidence that Oliphant was also a Progressive Conservative supporter (51) who had been appointed (52) a Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba, and later, Associate Chief Justice, by a certain Brian Mulroney when he was prime minister.
To no one’s surprise, Oliphant’s finding hewed closely to Harper’s dictate and Johnston’s terms. With the publication of its report in May 2010, the scandal was considered officially closed.
The main characters in the long-running soap came out pretty well.
Mulroney suffered reputational damage but escaped criminal punishment, and even kept the $2.1 million in damages (54) that he had earlier won from suing the RCMP for libel. Schreiber lost his extradition battle but was given a relatively lenient six-and-half-year jail sentence (55) in Germany. Airbus, Thyssen, and the Canadian officials involved in their deals were hardly troubled beyond a mild bout of embarrassment. The Conservatives more than survived the fallout as voters rewarded Harper’s skilful handling of the scandal with a coveted majority government in the 2011 federal election. Johnston landed the plum job of Governor General (56).
In announcing (57) the new Governor General, Harper was effusive: “David Johnston represents the best of Canada. He represents hard work, dedication, public service and humility. I am confident he will continue to embody these traits in his new role as the Crown’s representative in Canada.”
Johnston proved to be a hugely popular choice for arguably the country’s most prestigious public office appointment. On merit alone, almost everybody agreed he was well qualified with his outstanding record of public service.
But he also had a huge edge over other potential candidates in the aftermath of the Oliphant Commission.
Johnston had helped prevent the Mulroney-Schreiber scandal from potentially blowing up Harper’s fledging Conservative Party and shaky minority government
“Whatever we paid him for this, it wasn’t enough,” a relieved and gratified Harper said (58) upon receiving Johnston’s report in 2008. (For a study in contrast, Harper has said nothing to defend his one-time saviour from the recent public humiliation suffered as the special rapporteur for the Trudeau government).
Columnist Rick Salutin (59) was cutting: “David Johnston's selection as Governor-General may be the first time the post went to someone after what can be seen as an audition. I mean his role in setting the terms of a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair.”
The Consequences, 15 Years Later
Fifteen years after Johnston had stifled the Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry, Canada is paying the price, especially with foreign interference all the rage today.
Norman Spector, a one-time Mulroney loyalist, was an early skeptic of the Harper government’s desire to find out the truth. In February 2008, CTV News (60) reported Spector expressing doubts “that Prime Minister Stephen Harper really wants to get to the bottom of the so-called Mulroney-Schreiber affair.”
The late Rafe Mair (61), a columnist at The Tyee, was another critic with a list of hard questions for the prime minister. Naturally, they remain unanswered.
The criticisms against Johnston started to fly after he was named Governor General. In a Globe and Mail opinion piece in 2010, Spector asked six questions (62) pertaining to the Airbus deal, including why Johnston blocked Oliphant from inquiring about the transaction that had references to political donations, Schreiber’s payment of commissions to “Canadian friends”, and a Swiss bank account. Those questions remain valid. They now take on renewed urgency in light of an upcoming inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian politics.
From the time the scandal broke into public consciousness in 2006 and throughout the course of the inquiry, the foreign interference angle was under-played, under-reported, and under-appreciated. Foreign interference was never an issue in this story and remains so to this day. Long before China’s emergence as villain-in-chief, Europeans had already booked the inside track alongside Americans to interfere in Canada’s political process.
But since the protagonists were European and American, their interference, in Canadian eyes, never qualified as “foreign”. The Mulroney-Schreiber affair is still remembered as a larger-than-life influence-peddling exercise but it will always be spared the nationalistic, xenophobic, and racist undertones that drive the China threat stories today. Even critics like Spector, who regularly tweets about Chinese interference today, had never portrayed Schreiber as an unsavoury European or a foreigner.
The United States (63) sets the gold standard as its interference is deep-rooted, protracted, and accepted, going back even before Canada’s birth in 1867. China and India are the Pacific newbies trying to lighten the Atlantic colonial grip on Canada.
Europe’s Locked-In Interference In Canada
After Schreiber faded away, Europe’s political influence over Canada settled into a quiet and more effective phase. Although he had brought unwelcomed attention with his antics, Schreiber deserves enormous credit for linking up Canada’s fledgling new Conservatives with the so-called emerging centre-right movement in Europe of the 1980s. The Cold War was still in the balance, and Conservatives were looking to regroup, reposition, and consolidate their ideology on a global basis.
In 1983, Conservatives led by European leaders formed the International Democratic Union (IDU) (64) in London, U.K. “to learn from each other, act together, establish contacts and speak with one strong voice to promote democracy and centre-right policies around the globe.” This mission statement has foreign interference written all over it.
The leading Conservative of that era, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was the prime mover, who persuaded then U.S. Vice-President George Bush Senior, Paris Mayor and later President of France Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and other top leaders from Europe, the U.S., and Canada to sign up.
One of the participants and signatories of the IDU’s founding Declaration of Principles (65) was Franz-Josef Strauss (66), the all-powerful CSU party boss and president of Germany’s Bavaria state till his death in 1988. He was also Schreiber’s mentor and patron who encouraged the lobbyist to launch his influence operations in Canada. An interesting choice of location.
Strauss was an officer and soldier who fought in Hitler’s Wehrmacht (67) unified armed forces during WW2. Not only did the Americans apparently clear him for his role in the war, they hired him as a translator and helped set him up for a key role in post-war Germany. But Strauss remained loyal to his war colleagues, writing fondly (68), in 1957, “about the achievements of the Waffen associations deployed at the front SS” and “my respect for the German soldier of the last world war.”
The Waffen name would end up haunting Canada. Repeatedly.
Had he not messed up, Mulroney might have ended up as a senior statesman in the IDU. Instead, it is his protégé and saviour, Stephen Harper, who now has that influential role. In 2018, Harper was unanimously elected chairman of the IDU, catapulting him to the helm of the global Conservative polity and fraternity. The organization, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this June, represents conservative parties in 65 countries. Its headquarters in Munich, Germany is the stronghold of Bavaria’s conservatives from where Schreiber built his political connections and lobbying career through the Christian Social Union (CSU) which has ruled the state for almost the entire post-war period since 1946.
In accepting the IDU chairmanship, Harper said (69): “The values our parties share are not only the basis upon which jobs and prosperity are created, but are also central to peace and global security. I look forward to working with IDU Leaders and members globally to strengthen relationships, advance our political values and share best practices for campaigning and governing.”
This is a declaration for foreign interference in the affairs of countries that, rightly or wrongly, do not share the IDU’s political values. In 2003, the world was treated to the neo-conservative method for advancing their “global values” and “global security”. Using concocted “evidence” that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, U.S. President George W. Bush launched his “pre-emptive strike” war that destroyed Iraq and destabilized the Middle East. Saddam was a murderous dictator himself, but the Arab world would not forget the deceit, the lies, and the scale of destruction that followed.
Harper and his then-opposition Canadian Alliance Party (70), and the U.S.-owned neo-conservative newspaper, the National Post, were among the most enthusiastic supporters of the war that directly killed some 300,000 Iraqi civilians (71). One of the paper’s advocates of this form of foreign interference was Andrew Coyne (72), who is now at the Globe and Mail righteously denouncing foreign interference and cheerleading the mob’s new focus on China. His colleague in 2003, Jonathan Kay (73), according to The Maple, “takes the position that the invasion is justifiable as long as the Americans commit to sticking around and playing ‘the role of policeman and nation-builder for many years’.”
None of these war advocates have been held to account for their support of the genocidal foreign interference that befell Iraq and Afghanistan.
To be fair, European far-right interference in Canadian politics predates Schreiber and the IDU.
Over the years, there have been occasional reports of Canada admitting Nazis, war criminals, and far-right elements from Europe after the Second World War. The bonds between the Europeanists and their Canadian enablers remain strong.
In 1986, the Mulroney government set up a commission under Judge Jules Deschênes to investigate the immigration of Hitler’s soldiers into Canada, including Ukrainian members of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, or the First Galician. The commission’s conclusion, like Mulroney’s legacy, has been controversial and secretive. Inexplicably, Deschênes decided that he would not reveal a major part of his findings, declaring that part 2 of the report “is destined to remain confidential. (74)”
But that did not stop him from concluding on page 12, points 58 and 59:
“Charges of war crimes of Galicia Division have never been substantiated, either in 1950 when they were first preferred, or in 1984 when they were renewed, or before this Commission.”
“Further, in the absence of evidence of participation or knowledge of specific war crimes, mere membership in the Galicia Division is insufficient to justify prosecution.”
Intriguingly, Deschenes implicated the Canadian governments of the post-war period, raising the question of complicity among decision-makers in Canada. Did Nazi sympathizers in the Canadian government influence policymakers to shelter Hitler’s boys into the country, and to downplay their presence?
Instead of settling the controversy, the Deschenes Commission has ensured its longevity with its debatable findings and confidentiality. It is worth noting that Schreiber was at the peak of his influence operations in Canada when the commission undertook its investigation. Here are some questions to add to the upcoming inquiry on foreign interference:
Did Schreiber, as Strauss’s representative in Canada, make contact with the former soldiers of the Waffen’s Galicia division in Alberta? Did Strauss dispatch Schreiber to Alberta in the knowledge that his former war colleagues were settled there and may have secrets that needed to be kept secret? What role have they played in infusing far-right ideas into Canadian and Albertan politics?
In 1997, the Jewish News of Northern California (75) reported: “The Canadian government, with British complicity, admitted more than 2,000 members of a notorious Ukrainian Waffen-SS division in 1950, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has charged.”
The issue made a sensational return to Canada on September 22, when a surviving 98-year-old member of the Galicia division was invited to Parliament on the occasion of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Canada. MPs from all of Canada’s parties, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gave Hunka a standing ovation. The Ukrainian leader, who praised Canada for always being on “the bright side of history”, applauded Hunka for fighting Russia during WW2.
“Yaroslav Hunka was honored during a session in which President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine addressed the lawmakers to thank them for their support since Russia invaded his country,” according to Forward magazine (76).
After Jewish groups exposed Hunka’s background and others slammed Canada for failing to vet its “heroes”, Trudeau apologized while House Speaker Antony Rota resigned.
The Globe and Mail (77) and Global News (78), two leading campaigners framing interference as a China thing, reported Hunka’s parliamentary deification but failed to connect the event as being part of the long history of European far-right activism in Canada. The usually-rabid National Post offered two commentaries by Tristin Hopper who confirmed Canada’s status as a Nazi haven (79) and “long history of soft-pedalling (80) the Ukrainian Waffen-SS Galicia Division”.
Hopper, a China interference narrator, made two important observations that underline the extent of the capture of Canada’s elite by the European far right:
“Pierre Trudeau once said he intentionally didn't prosecute Nazi war criminals living in Canada lest it inflame European expat communities.”
“(Former foreign minister) Chrystia Freeland, has also played the “disinformation” card whenever Russia has pointed out that her own family tree contains a Ukrainian collaborator.”
But Hopper himself missed the big picture. How did he not recognize foreign interference when it just smacked him in the face? Having accused Canada of soft-pedalling its Nazi links, he fell short of demanding a public inquiry into the country’s history of importing and protecting far-right extremists from war-time Europe. The fact that members of Hitler’s army (81) have lived undetected in Canada for decades and are being feted by the political establishment shows a high degree of acceptance of European extremism by the Canadian establishment.
Seven months before the Liberal Party’s Hunka fiasco, members of the Conservative Party (82) and the Calgary Petroleum Club (83), which represents the elite of Alberta’s powerful oil industry, separately hosted a well-known member of Germany’s far-right movement. Christine Anderson (84), a senior member of the Alternative for German (AfD) (85) party known for downplaying Germany’s Nazi past, and espousing nativist and anti-immigrant views, was in Canada to support anti-government protestors.
During her visit, Anderson interfered in Canadian politics when she openly supported (86) the Diagolon extremist group (86) and the Freedom Convoy protestors who had severely disrupted the economies of several major Canadian cities in early 2022.
The office of CPC leader Pierre Poilievre issued a statement criticizing both his MPs and Anderson’s visit while describing her as holding “racist, hateful views” that “are not welcome here.” The three MPs who met Anderson were let off with a scolding and nothing more.
Poilievre, as with the rest of the Canadian establishment and the media, failed to condemn Anderson’s actions as foreign interference by a Member of the European Parliament.
The party’s foreign affairs critic Michael Chong, who has been so forcefully patriotic about defending Canada from foreign interference, apparently said nothing. Perhaps, he saw nothing foreign about the AfD’s active participation in Canadian politics.
The New Globalist Right Under Stephen Harper
Was this Stephen Harper’s (87) coming-out party?
On July 6, the IDU chairman proudly advertized his association with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s openly racist (88) and anti-Semitic (89) prime minister. Harper immortalized his historic meeting with Europe’s most aspiring authoritarian in Budapest with a declaration for “the importance of centre-right parties strengthening their collaboration.”
Orban’s opposition to racial mixing, especially between white Hungarians and “non-Europeans”, immediately disqualifies him as centre-right. He is outright far-right. Further enhancing his neo-fascist, authoritarian credentials, Orban has been increasingly running the country by decree (90), clamping down on free speech, violating the human rights (91) of women, ethnic minorities, LGBTI people, refugees, and migrants, and sanitizing Hungary’s anti-Semitic past, including the country’s outsized role in the Holocaust.
Beyond seeking an anti-Russia alliance, what does Harper see in the man that he so covets Orban’s comradeship and Hungary’s endorsement of the IDU? Will the meeting of these two “centre-right” politicians mark the emergence of a new Europe-based far-right movement under the stewardship of a Canadian?
Add Harper’s open courtship of Orban to his strong ties with the Moonies’ Unification Church and support for Bush’s illegal war on Iraq, Canadians, especially moderate Conservatives, should be deeply worried. These are not one-off acts as they underline a pattern of worrying behaviour spanning decades. Canadians need to know if their country’s most influential global figure is pushing them towards a fantasy pan-European society under an alien Orban-Moonie system of authoritarian governance. Might a future Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre be taking instructions from Chairman Harper overseeing the interference of Canada from the Bavarian headquarters of a new pan-European Fatherland?
China’s attempts to influence and interfere in Canada’s politics have been all too real, but have yielded modest results at best. China’s methods have been badly undermined by its failed wolf-warrior diplomacy, and the growing vigilance and suspicion of countries that it is targeting. The Chinese model of development is harsh and unfree. It is unattractive even to many of its own citizens, both rich and poor, who are clambering to flee. Its economy has peaked to expose the innate totalitarian nature of the country’s Maoist-Leninist-Marxist foundation.
While Canadians have been led to obsess over a slowing China, the unresolved events of past decades that gave us Yaroslav Hunka, Karlheinz Schreiber, and Hardeep Singh Nijjar (92) point to more powerful, deadlier, and less visible foreign interference currents at play for much longer than the establishment and media have let on. Perhaps, it’s all intended, which is what a thorough truth-seeking inquiry should endeavour to clear up.
But such an inquiry won’t happen given the partisan and prejudiced mood of the times.
Canadians will eventually wake up to the harsh truth that their vast country with its huge resource base, relatively small population, and middling economy has always been the target of foreign interference. Canada was born into the yoke of foreign interference and will stay yoked. In an increasingly resource-constrained, geopolitically unstable world, the interference can only grow.
The U.S. and Europe will remain Canada’s core interferers defending their turf against latecomers China, India, and others nibbling at the fringe. This will be the second finding of an objective and thorough inquiry. For the first finding, see Part 1 (92).
FOOTNOTES
1. https://newbloommag.net/2022/07/09/abe-taiwan-reactions
Brian Hioe, July 9, 2022. The romanticization of Shinzo Abe in Taiwan should not surprise
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62074223
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, BBC News, July 8, 2022. Shinzo Abe death: Shock killing that could change Japan forever
3. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14669722
The Asahi Shimbun, July 14, 2022. Relative: Mother of Abe murder suspect donated 100 million yen
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/world/asia/shinzo-abe-funeral-unification-church.html
Motoko Rich and Ben Dooley, New York Times, September 24, 2022. Why Japan is angry about a state funeral for an assassinated leader
5. https://www.npr.org/2012/09/02/159032325/rev-moon-a-savior-to-some-lived-a-big-dream
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR, September 2, 2012. Rev. Moon, a ‘savior’ to some, lived a big dream
6. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/15/world/bushes-speak-at-tokyo-rally-of-group-linked-to-moon-church.html
Andrew Pollack, New York Times, September 15, 1995. Bushes speak at Tokyo rally of group linked to Moon church
7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1995/09/15/bush-stresses-family-in-tokyo-speech/4db30fb7-9bd9-458e-86d7-917f38bd391f
Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post, September 15, 1995. Bush stresses family in Tokyo speech
8. https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/10/03/Why-Stephen-Harper-Tight-Moonie-Church
Michael Harris, TheTyee.ca, October 3, 2022. Why is Stephen Harper so tight with the ‘Moonie’ Church?
9. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/conservative-party-says-nearly-679-000-members-eligible-to-vote-for-new-leader-1.6007791
Spencer Van Dyk, CTV News, July 29, 2022. Conservative party says nearly 679,000 members eligible to vote for new leader
10. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/04/japan-may-seek-to-dissolve-moonies-church-in-wake-of-shinzo-abe-killing#:~:text=Japan's%20government%20may%20ask%20courts,according%20to%20multiple%20local%20reports
Justin McCurry, The Guardian, September 4, 2023. Japan may seek to dissolve Moonies church in wake of Shinzo Abe killing
11. https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/10/20/the-unification-church-splinters-japan
Yoshihide Sakurai, Hokkaido University, October 20, 2022. The Unification Church splinters Japan. At least 180 out of 379 LDP lawmakers in Japan’s National Diet have ties with the Unification Church
12. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/27/china-faces-faltering-global-image-survey-finds
Erin Hale, July 27, 2023. China viewed poorly by two-thirds of people in 24 countries. Pew Research Center study shows negative views of China across the world, especially in high-income countries.
13. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-should-see-china-as-a-threat-or-enemy-most-canadians-say-survey-1.6308905
Hayatullah Amanat, CTVNews, March 10, 2023. Canada should see China as a ‘threat’ or ‘enemy’, most Canadians say: survey
14. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/special-rapporteur-david-johnston-criticism-1.6781072
Jessica Mundie, CBC News, March 16, 2023. Opposition leaders question ties between PM and special rapporteur, repeat calls for public inquiry
15. https://www.cp24.com/news/ndp-praises-david-johnston-as-tories-bloc-bemoan-interference-watchdog-appointment-1.6316327?cache=y
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press, March 16, 2023. NDP praises David Johnston as Tories, Bloc bemoan interference watchdog appointment
16. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/singh-calling-for-foreign-interference-special-rapporteur-johnston-to-step-aside-1.6418058
Rachel Aiello, May 29, 2023. Singh calls for foreign interference rapporteur Johnston to step aside
17. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/david-johnston-the-right-man-to-whitewash-chinese-interference
Terry Glavin, March 22, 2023. David Johnston the right man to whitewash Chinese interference
18. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-david-johnston-is-a-man-of-high-integrity-but-as-rapporteur-we-should
Andrew Coyne, March 16, 2023. David Johnston is a man of high integrity. But as rapporteur? We should be in high dudgeon
19. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/kinsella-david-johnston-should-have-refused-special-rapporteur-gig
Warren Kinsella, March 18, 2023. KINSELLA: David Johnston should have refused ‘special rapporteur’ gig
Brian Lilley May 19, 2023. Poilievre's right, PM gave Johnston 'fake job' on China
21. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-there-has-to-be-a-big-broad-inquiry-on-chinas-election-interference
Campbell Clark, March 16, 2023. There has to be a big broad inquiry on China’s election interference now
22. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don-martin-david-johnston-s-reputation-is-but-a-smouldering-ruin-1.6410388
Don Martin, May 23, 2023. David Johnston's reputation is but a smouldering ruin
23. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/david-johnston-terrible-special-rapporteur-chinese-interference
Chris Selley, March 16, 2023, David Johnston a terrible choice for 'special rapporteur' on Chinese interference
23. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/carson-jerema-trudeau-family-friend-david-johnston-not-the-man-to-restore-election-confidence
Carson Jerema, National Post, March 15, 2023. Trudeau 'family friend' David Johnston not the man to restore election confidence
24. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/david-johnston-terrible-special-rapporteur-chinese-interference
Chris Selley, March 16, 2023. David Johnston a terrible choice for 'special rapporteur' on Chinese interference
25. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-david-johnston-is-an-honourable-man-and-the-wrong-choice-to-head
Globe and Mail’s Editorial Board, March 17, 2023. David Johnston is an honourable man — and the wrong choice to head Trudeau’s foreign interference probe
26. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/david-johnston-s-mission-impossible-role/article_d31e2e89-ec6f-5093-a085-3255f7f4b274.html
The Toronto Star Editorial Board Friday, March 17, 2023. David Johnston’s Mission Impossible role
27. https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-problems-with-pms-eminent-rapporteur
Toronto Sun Editorial, March 16, 2023: Problems with PM’s ‘eminent rapporteur’
28. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/editorial-david-johnstons-appointment-only-delays-china-probe-further
Ottawa Citizen's Editorial Board, March 18, 2023. David Johnston's appointment only delays China probe further
29. https://www.canada.ca/en/democratic-institutions/services/reports/first-report-david-johnston-independent-special-rapporteur-foreign-interference.html
David Johnston, May 23, 2023. First Report, Independent Special Rapporteur on Foreign Interference
30. https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/trudeau-and-johnston-bragged-about-being-friends-for-years
Brian Lilley, May 25, 2023. Trudeau and Johnston bragged about being friends for years
31. https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/david-johnston-stands-up-liberal-elite
Diane Francis, May 24, 2023. David Johnston stands up for the Liberal elite
32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_affair
The Airbus Affair: Allegations of secret commissions paid to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and members of his ministry for Air Canada’s purchase of a large number of Airbus jets
33. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/notes-suggest-doucet-pressed-for-bear-head-deal-while-in-government-1.807144
CBC News, May 5, 2009: Notes suggest Doucet pressed for Bear Head deal while in government: Former Mulroney aide made phone calls in 1987.
34. https://web.archive.org/web/20090521075027/http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/moneytruthandspin/6.pdf
In 1984, a company owned by Schreiber and his Swiss accountant, Giorgio Pelossi, signs a secret contract with German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt Bolkow-Blohm (MBB) to sell helicopters to the Canadian government
35. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Schreiber
Karlheinz Schreiber
36. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/dodgy-deals-and-slush-funds-lobbyist-trial-could-embarrass-political-establishment-a-672504.html
Conny Neumann and Barbara Schmid, Der Spiegel, January 18, 2010. Lobbyist trial could embarrass political establishment
37. https://nationalpost.com/news/background-on-the-mulroney-schreiber-affair
National Post, November 28, 2007. Background on the Mulroney-Schreiber affair
38. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/foreign-interests-helped-unseat-clark-schreiber/article20406828
Brodie Fenlon, December 11, 2007. Foreign interests helped unseat Clark: Schreiber
39. https://nationalpost.com/news/mulroney-lawyer-asked-for-cash-for-airbus-schreiber
Jack Aubry and Juliet O’Neill, Ottawa Citizen, December 5, 2007. Mulroney lawyer asked for cash for Airbus: Schreiber
40. https://www.reuters.com/article/news-mulroney-1-col-idCAHAR35878420071213
David Ljunggren, December 13, 2007. Brian Mulroney says sorry for accepting cash
41. https://www.ctvnews.ca/tale-of-mulroney-schreiber-comes-to-inconclusive-end-1.517137
The Canadian Press, May 30, 2010. Tale of Mulroney-Schreiber comes to inconclusive end
42. https://macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/money-for-nothing
Andrew Coyne, April 22, 2009. Money for nothing?
43. https://macleans.ca/general/does-mulroney-take-us-for-fools
Andrew Coyne December 14, 2007. Does Mulroney take us for fools?
44. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-questions-raised-over-mulroney-s-ties-with-german-businessman-1.615664
CBC News, February 8, 2006. New questions raised over Mulroney's ties with German businessman
45. https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/sum-som-eng.aspx?cas=31340
Supreme Court of Canada, May 2, 2016. Karlheinz Schreiber v. Federal Republic of Germany, et al.
46. https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2007/11/statement-prime-minister.html
Statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, November 13, 2007
47. https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2007/11/prime-minister-announces-appointment-independent-advisor.html
Government of Canada, November 14, 2007. Prime Minister announces appointment of independent advisor
48. https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2008/06/prime-minister-harper-announces-commissioner-inquiry-dealings-between-right-honourable-brian-mulroney-karlheinz-schreiber.html
News Release, June 12, 2008. Prime Minister Harper announces commissioner for inquiry into dealings between the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber. Jeffrey Oliphant named commissioner.
49. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/pco-bcp/CP22-86-2008E.pdf
David Johnston, Independent Advisor, January 9, 2008. Report into the allegations respecting financial dealings between Mr. Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney
50. https://www.ctvnews.ca/tale-of-mulroney-schreiber-comes-to-inconclusive-end-1.517137
The Canadian Press, Sunday, May 30, 2010. Tale of Mulroney-Schreiber comes to inconclusive end
51. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-judge-known-for-separating-truth-from-theatrics/article4221422
Greg McArthur, July 11, 2008. A judge known for separating truth from theatrics. Oliphant was moderately active in Progressive Conservative circles.
52. https://macleans.ca/general/mulroney-inquiry-the-oliphant-in-the-room
Kady O'Malley, June 12, 2008. Mulroney Inquiry – The Oliphant in the room?
53. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/bcp-pco/CP32-92-3-2010-eng.pdf
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/bcp-pco/CP32-92-2-2010-1-eng.pdf
https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/bcp-pco/CP32-92-2-2010-2-eng.pdf
Oliphant Commission: Inquiry into Certain Allegations Respecting Business and Financial Dealings Between Karlheinz Schreiber and the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney”, May 31, 2010
54. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mulroney-deserved-libel-settlement-spokesman-1.960549
CBC News, June 2, 2010. Mulroney deserved libel settlement: spokesman
55. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/karlheinz-schreiber-gets-6-years-for-german-tax-evasion-1.2426291
CBC News, November 14, 2013. Karlheinz Schreiber gets 6½ years for German tax evasion
56. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/johnston-named-canada-s-next-governor-general-1.933359
CBC News, July 8, 2010. Johnston named Canada’s next governor general
57. https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2010/07/prime-minister-welcomes-appointment-david-johnston-governor-general-designate.html
Government of Canada, 8 July 2010. Prime Minister welcomes appointment of David Johnston as Governor-General designate
58. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/legal-scholar-creative-administrator---and-hes-good-in-the-corners/article4327171
John Ibbitson, Bill Curry, Jane Taber and Elizabeth Church, July 8, 2010. Legal scholar, creative administrator - and he’s good in the corners
59. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-new-g-g-hire-him-and-thank-the-others/article1386797
Rick Salutin, July 9, 2010. The new G-G: Hire him and thank the others
60. https://www.ctvnews.ca/spector-what-happened-to-schreiber-s-10-million-1.274934?cache=vpigvemdpalu%3FclipId%3D89926
CTV.ca, Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Spector: What happened to Schreiber's $10 million?
61. https://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/11/26/MulroneyProbe
Rafe Mair, November 26, 2007, TheTyee Memo to the Mulroney ‘Probe’: Some vital questions that need answering
62. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/thanks-to-dr-johnston-airbus-became-airbust/article1386793
Norman Spector, July 9, 2010. Thanks to Dr. Johnston, Airbus became Airbust
63. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gilbert-mcmicken
The Western Frontier Constabulary, Canada’s first secret service, was established in 1864 in response to the American Civil War. The Americans’ Confederates operated a spy network in Canada to recruit Canadians and raise funds for the war.
64. https://www.idu.org/about/history
International Democratic Union: History
65. https://www.idu.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Minutes-London-1983.pdf
International Democratic Union’s founding meeting, London, U.K. June 24, 1983
66. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Strauss
67. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force).
68. https://www.spiegel.de/politik/eine-helle-freude-a-341d7b6d-0002-0001-0000-000046173314?context=issue
Der Spiegel, March 24, 1964. Konrad Adenauer, Franz-Josef Strauss say the Waffen-SS was a “troop like any other.”
69. https://www.idu.org/the-right-honourable-stephen-harper-elected-chairman-of-the-international-democrat-union
February 21, 2018. The Right Honourable Stephen Harper elected chairman of the International Democrat Union
70. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB104881540524220000
Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day, Wall Street Journal, March 28, 2003. Canadians Stand With You
71. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/iraqi
Brown University, updated March 2023. Costs of War: Iraqi civilians
72. https://www.straight.com/blogra/742576/harperism-author-donald-gutstein-replies-swipe-andrew-coyne
Charlie Smith, October 2, 2014. Harperism author Donald Gutstein replies to swipe from Andrew Coyne (who supported the U.S.-led attack on Iraq in 2003)
73. https://readpassage.com/20-years-ago-canadian-media-lined-up-to-call-for-war-in-iraq
Davide Mastracci, March 17, 2023. 20 years ago, Canadian media lined up to call for war in Iraq
74. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/bcp-pco/CP32-52-1986-1-eng.pdf
Jules Deschenes, December 30, 1986. Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals,
75. https://jweekly.com/1997/02/07/canada-admits-letting-in-2-000-ukrainian-ss-troopers
Tom Tugend, February 7, 1997. Canada admits letting in 2,000 Ukrainian SS troopers
76. https://forward.com/fast-forward/561927/zelenskyy-joins-canadian-parliaments-ovation-to-98-year-old-veteran-who-fought-with-nazis
Lev Golinkin, September 24, 2023. Zelenskyy joins Canadian Parliament’s ovation to 98-year-old veteran who fought with Nazis. Hunka was part of Hitler’s SS Galicia unit.
77. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-parliament-nazi-unit-veteran
Erin Anderssen, September 24, 2023. House Speaker apologizes after MPs honour man who fought with Nazi unit
78. https://globalnews.ca/news/9983103/anthony-rota-ukraine-nazi-unit-apology
Aaron D'Andrea Global News, September 25, 2023. Canada’s Speaker apologizes over tribute to man who fought for Nazis
79 https://nationalpost.com/opinion/first-reading-canada-has-long-been-slammed-as-a-haven-for-ex-nazis-like-yaroslav-hunka
Tristin Hopper September 26, 2023. Canada has long been slammed as a ‘haven’ for ex-Nazis like Yaroslav Hunka
80. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/canadas-soft-pedalling-ukraine-ss-galicia
Tristin Hopper, September 25, 2023. Canada’s long history of soft-pedalling the Ukrainian Waffen-SS Galicia Division
81. https://notesfrompoland.com/2023/09/26/poland-may-seek-extradition-of-ukrainian-nazi-ww2-veteran-hunka-from-canada
Notes from Poland, September 26, 2023. Poland may seek extradition of Ukrainian Nazi WW2 veteran Hunka from Canada
82. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pierre-poilievre-denounces-conservative-mps-meeting-with-far-right-german-politician-1.6288056
Glen McGregor, CTV News, February 25, 2023. Pierre Poilievre denounces Conservative MPs’ meeting with far-right German politician
83. https://globalnews.ca/news/9515358/far-right-german-politician-christine-anderson-calgary-white-hat-welcome
Adam Toy Global News, February 27, 2023. Far-right German politician Christine Anderson given Calgary ‘white hat’ welcome by supporters
84. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Anderson
Christine Anderson, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2019
85. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37274201
BBC, February 11, 2020. Germany’s AfD: How right-wing is nationalist Alternative for Germany?
86. https:// twitter.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1629237877510123520
Rebel News, February 24, 2023. German MEP Christine Anderson addresses criticism from Pierre Poilievre, posing with the Diagolon flag.
87. https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/what-is-the-diagolon-extremist-group-and-what-does-it-want-1.5785646
Christy Somos, CTV, February 17, 2022. What is the Diagolon extremist group and what does it want?
87. https:// twitter.com/stephenharper/status/1676948369888129030
July 6, 2023. IDU chairman Stephen Harper meet Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban
88. https://www.rferl.org/a/european-parliament-orban-racist-remarks/31966820.html
RFE/RL, July 30, 2022. European Parliament leaders condemn Orban for ‘openly racist’ remarks
89. https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-anti-semitism-problem-hungary-jews
William Echikson, May 13, 2019. Viktor Orbán’s anti-Semitism problem. Trump’s guest at the White House is no friend to the Jews
90. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/08/hungarys-new-state-danger
Lydia Gall, June 8, 2022. Hungary’s New ‘State of Dange’': Orban instrumentalizes Ukraine war to further consolidate power
91. https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/hungary/report-hungary
Amnesty International. Hungary 2022.
92. https://wengcouver.substack.com/p/how-serious-is-canada-about-combating
Ng Weng Hoong, July 23, 2023. How serious is Canada about combating foreign interference?