Canadian House Speaker Anthony Rota resigns after Nazi honour controversy

Following a firestorm of criticism and calls for him to step aside, Speaker of the House Anthony Rota has resigned after he paid tribute to a Ukrainian-Canadian who fought with the Nazis during a special session of parliament last week to hear from Ukraine’s president.

It’s an incident that has put the global spotlight on our country for all the wrong reasons.

Canada’s parliament rising in unison to cheer and clap for a member of the Waffen SS was an embarrassing moment for our nation, and a painful one for Jewish communities from coast to coast.

After apologizing yesterday, Rota was still facing mounting criticism and calls for him to resign for inviting Yaroslav Hunka to the House of Commons. So today, he did.

For more, we spoke to Gustavo Rymberg, the CEO of the Hamilton Jewish Federation.