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Canada’s University of Alberta has won a legal battle to dissolve a research trust named after Ukrainian SS veteran Yaroslav Hunka, whose standing ovation in the Canadian parliament from lawmakers, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky sparked an international scandal.

The controversy erupted during Zelensky’s 2023 visit to Ottawa, when then-House Speaker Anthony Rota introduced Hunka, who served in the Waffen-SS Galicia Division during World War II, as “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero” to rapturous applause from the packed parliamentary chamber.

[…]

Shortly after the scandal erupted, the University of Alberta acknowledged that it administered a research fund named after Hunka, a CAD30,000 ($21,500) endowment established with a donation from his son to support research into the history of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. It had remained largely obscure until the scandal, with no known beneficiaries.

The school apologized and announced plans to shut down the fund, but Hunka’s family opposed the move, arguing that his Waffen-SS service had been disclosed when the donation was made and that the university knew of his wartime record when it accepted the money. Citing a former university official, the family also noted that nine other university endowments were associated with Galicia Division members and, to their knowledge, had not been terminated.

  • goferking (he/him)
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    3 days ago

    The school apologized and announced plans to shut down the fund, but Hunka’s family opposed the move, arguing that his Waffen-SS service had been disclosed when the donation was made and that the university knew of his wartime record when it accepted the money. Citing a former university official, the family also noted that nine other university endowments were associated with Galicia Division members and, to their knowledge, had not been terminated.

    Jfc