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Some Parliament staffer fucked up...
All politicians rely on staffers to do stuff for them. From booking hotel rooms, calling journalists, finding a pizza place open at 3 AM all the way to filling up political rallies with random people so the place looks packed...
Political staffers are the ones who call local notables so the politician has someone to take pictures with when he visits the area... Local mayors, local athletes, local volunteers, successful businessmen; any sort of person whose name resonates for people in the area or who have something of a claim to fame.
To stand in the visitor's gallery, all those people needed a pass, a sort of invitation
Those invitations are made available to MPs of all parties who then ask their staffers to find people of some importance or repute to fill those seats, every MP jockeying to attract the most remarquable guest.
Political staffers then use whatever means to find those guests. Could be a post on their social media, could be reaching out to local staffers who know the MP's riding well enough, could be by calling the local Legion or the local newspaper...
What probably happened
A call went out for people to be guests at Parliament during Zelenskyy's visit, probably with a priority given to anyone who had a link to Ukraine... Ukrainian refugee, Ukrainian-Canadian, Ukrainian celebrity, Ukrainian athlete...
Maybe some guy called in saying that his 98 yo grandfather was a Ukrainian war hero who fought against the Communists.
Since that guy checked many boxes : Ukrainian, War Hero, elderly (because people love to applaud elderly people), immigrant who choose Canada, father, grandfather and great-grandfather of many Ukrainian-Canadian descendants... The staffer probably thought he/she just hit the ultimate jackpot.
Because most political staffers are marketing / communications people and not historians, they did not know and could not possibly know, because we don't teach history in Canada anymore, about the history of Ukraine during WWII and how partisans joined the ranks of the Waffen SS.
So, anyway, the staffer thinking the man was an incredible find told her boss, the MP who just trusted the staffer did his/her due diligence, probably was happy to tell his colleagues that maybe the House should "make a gesture" to recognize this war hero who choose Canada to raise a family, this man with this "incredible story".
Most political staffers are not usually mental giants, just very good at obeying orders and opportunistic in finding photo ops.
It is crazy how most people know virtually nothing outside their job, general knowledge about history or science is not as widespread as we would like to think. Yet those people manage to function in society and do pretty good for themselves while super knowledgeable people tend to struggle... Go figure...
So to expect a political staffer to know anything at all about World War II is asking for a miracle.
North Bay, Ontario
According to my research, Hunka lives in North Bay, Ontario, so the person responsible is probably a staffer working for the House of Commons speaker, Anthony Rota, who represents the electoral district of Nipissing—Timiskaming.
Of course Rota should have made his own inquiries, but at the same time, the goal of having political staffers is precisely so the Member of Parliament does not have to do everything himself.
Expect the resignation of a political staffer soon, I don't see how the staffer can avoid the responsibility for this blunder.
If the opposition can get over the fact that, they too, applauded with enthusiasm a former member of the Waffen SS and decide to avenge themselves, they can go after the House Speaker and say that this blunder demonstrates a lack of the qualities expected of the House Speaker and demand his resignation.
Time will tell if the Conservatives or others will find a way to minimize their own humiliation and decide to go after the Speaker.