Liberal Party member suggested erasing the memory of the Hunka incident
A proposal to remove a reference to honoring an SS veteran in parliament has sparked opposition outrage.
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.
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