Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded October 4th, 2023.
News of the Canadian Parliament’s recent celebration of the career of veteran 14th Waffen SS Division ‘Halychyna’ soldier, Yaroslav Hunka has now circled the globe, projecting in glaring relief the stark contrast between this nation’s public pronouncements of principles, and the base reality of its actions.
But more than shining light into the shadowed corners of Canada’s past, the Nazigate Affair reveals too extant fascist sympathies of the country’s leaders in government, business, and the media – where even now the chorus of denial and pleas of ignorance -reminiscent of those heard in Nuremberg – serve to obliterate the memory of the murdered, muting the voices of those massacred in Ukraine in their tens of thousands by Hunka’s brothers in arms.
As at Babi Yar, where the bodies of the dead were disinterred the burial pits and burned, their ashes spread across the verdant fields around Kyiv to better conceal from the World the atrocities conducted there, another “scattering” is being conducted for the same purpose. This time, those throwing ashes in the eyes of History are doing so from the Parliament. Like our government leader of the House of Commons, Karina Gould, who responds to the indignation and disgust of her fellow citizens, and that of those elsewhere made aware of hers and her colleagues egregious behaviour, saying,
“Like all MPs, I had no further information than the Speaker provided… As a descendant of Jewish Holocaust survivors I would ask all parliamentarians to stop politicizing an issue troubling to many, myself included.”
Troubling indeed.
Glenn Michalchuk is President of both Peace Alliance Winnipeg, and the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, or AUUC. He’s been active in the peace movement for forty years, going back to Ronald Reagan’s Dirty Wars in Latin America.
And; Alex Boykowich is a third-generation Ukrainian-Canadian, president of the Edmonton Branch of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians, and active member of the Edmonton Peace Council and the Communist Party of Canada.
Today, the Ukrainians in Canada: The tale of a people divided in two nations with Glenn Michalchuk and Alex Boykowich.
Song: Work for Peace
Artist: Gil Scott-Heron
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
