Liberal Party member suggested erasing the memory of the Hunka incident

Despite the resignation of Anthony Rota, who invited an SS veteran to the Canadian Parliament, the standoff between the Liberal Party and opposition forces has not subsided. The proposal by House of Commons member Karina Gould to erase information about the incident from Hansard is another cause for heated debate.

How's that?

Hansard is the traditional name for transcripts of parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, including Canada. It is the official record of government proceedings, which is publicly available and anyone can read it.

From that transcript, Gould suggested erasing the moment honoring Hunka on Sept. 22. Rota's Liberal colleague noted that what happened was a mistake, and no one present realized the seriousness of what was happening. She called the situation with the salute to the SS veteran "deeply embarrassing".

How common is this practice?

It should be noted that in practice, transcripts are sometimes corrected after the fact — if they contain errors or inaccuracies. In the opinion of sociologist Darrell Bricker, the deletion of a reference to someone from Hansard can be regarded both as a punitive measure (as if the person is being erased from history) and as manipulation of information.

Political analyst Lori Turnbull found such a suggestion disturbing. She recalled that the incident honoring Hunka caused the Speaker of the House of Commons to resign. And it is important that a record of the reasons for this non-routine event be kept in Hansard.

How did the opposition react?

Gould's proposal was sharply criticized by representatives of the opposition parties. Conservative Marty Moranz spoke out against the decision, responding with a quote attributed to philosopher George Santayana: "It goes without saying those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it".

His party colleague Melissa Lantsman (and also Jewish, like Gould) got into a fierce argument with Karina Gould:

"She tried to strike it from the historical record of this House as if it never happened. A descendant of Holocaust survivors distorting the Holocaust. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Michael Mostyn, director of the Canadian-Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada, said he understands the rationale behind Gould's proposal, but believes that option is flawed:

"The world knows it happened. The prime minister has spoken about his fear that this will be used as Russian disinformation. It would be even worse if we attempted to expunge this from the record because it did happen.."

In the end, the MPs agreed that Gould's idea was unacceptable. At the end of the meeting, the government adopted a proposal by the leader of the Bloc Quebecois Yves-François Blanchet: to express regret for what had happened and to withdraw the tribute paid to the SS veteran.

What about the liberals?

Karina Gould herself eventually agreed with the parliament's final decision, but said that she did not regret her proposal, because it had encouraged the MPs to discuss it. After all, that's exactly what parliament is for. "That’s what politics and democracy is about," Gould concluded.

Prime Minister and part-time Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau issued a public apology for the incident on Wednesday, September 27:

"On behalf of all of us in this House, I would like to present unreserved apologies for what took place on Friday, and to President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian delegation for the position they were put in. For all of us who were present to have unknowingly recognized this individual was a terrible mistake, and a violation of the memory of those who suffered grievously at the hands of the Nazi regime."

It seems that this is where the incident finally came to its logical conclusion.