Around 21 June, the words “Nazi war monument” were spray-painted on to a cenotaph commemorating soldiers in the 14th SS Division in Oakville’s St Volodymyr Ukrainian cemetery, roughly 40km (25 miles) from Toronto.
The 14th division was made up of Ukrainian nationalists who joined the Nazis during the second world war. Members of the division are believed to have murdered Polish women and children, as well as Jewish people. Because of their role in Ukrainian nationalism, however, the soldiers have been commemorated by at least two diaspora communities in Canada.
There are at least two other statues in Canada commemorating Ukrainians who fought alongside German forces. In Edmonton of Roman Shukhevych, a Nazi collaborator. There is also a second statue dedicated to the 14th SS Division in an Edmonton cemetery.
Two years ago, the city of Halifax removed a statue of Edward Cornwallis, a British general who offered a bounty for the scalps of the region’s indigenous Mi’kmaq people. And in Victoria, the city council voted to remove a statue of John A MacDonald, the first prime minister of Canada and architect of the country’s notorious residential school system.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/17/canada-nazi-monument-vandalism-hate-crime
No comments:
Post a Comment