Saturday 18 July 2020

Police apologize for saying anti-Nazi vandalism was 'hate motivated'

https://twitter.com/DavidRayAmos/with_replies





Replying to @alllibertynews and 49 others
Stan Johnston
The Police sure don't help themselves. Not a lot of thinking at times.

David Amos

Content disabled
Reply to Stan Johnston: Methinks Chief Steve Tanner just figured out who rules the roost N'esy Pas?


 #nbpoli #cdnpoli


https://davidraymondamos3.blogspot.com/2020/07/police-apologize-for-saying-anti-nazi.html


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/monument-vandalism-nazi-1.5654169



Police apologize for saying anti-Nazi vandalism was 'hate motivated'

Investigation continues after spray-painting of memorial to controversial military unit


Adam Carter · CBC News · Posted: Jul 17, 2020 6:25 PM ET



The words 'Nazi war monument' are seen on a memorial to the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville, Ont. (Kontakt Ukrainian TV/YouTube)

Police are apologizing for saying they had launched a hate crime investigation into a vandalized memorial in an Oakville, Ont., cemetery that has been linked to the Nazis.

Halton Regional Police said last month someone had recently spray-painted a message on a monument at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery.

Investigators said it was being investigated as a "hate motivated offence." They did not share pictures or state what was painted on the memorial to avoid "further spreading the suspect's message."



But a report from Ukrainian Kontakt TV on YouTube shows it had been scrawled with the words "Nazi war monument."

Representatives for the cemetery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The memorial in question, which is in a private cemetery, is meant to commemorate the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army, which was first known as the Waffen-SS "Galicia" Division.

We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the Service in any way supports Nazism.
- Halton Regional Police
The unit was created by Nazi Germany from mostly Ukrainian volunteers in 1943 and 1944, according to a study. Its involvement in war crimes is still debated today. 

"It's ludicrous that it would be considered a hate crime to vandalize this monument," Moss Robeson, a self-described independent researcher on nationalist networks, told CBC News. 

Controversy about how police described the investigation grew after Robeson posted about it on Twitter in early July.



He says calling the vandalism a hate crime is "ridiculous." 

On Friday, Halton police walked back their original statement and apologized, saying the "initial information" indicated that the group being targeted was "Ukrainians in general," or members of this specific cultural centre.

"At no time did the Halton Regional Police Service consider that the identifiable group targeted by the graffiti was Nazis," police said in a news release.

"We regret any hurt caused by misinformation that suggests that the Service in any way supports Nazism."

Contrasting views

On Twitter, Chief Steve Tanner agreed with a post calling for the monument to be removed.

"I am personally shocked and surprised that such a monument existed at all," Tanner said.




Police said the investigation is ongoing, and they will provide an update at its conclusion.

In a statement, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies commended the police.
"Any monument which venerates soldiers who fought for Hitler's genocidal regime is nothing less than a blight and insults the memory of Canadian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice during WWII on behalf of the freedoms we all hold dear," said Rabbi Meyer H. May, executive director.

According to a study in the Kyiv-Mohyla Humanities Journal, the Galicia division was, after its creation, reformed with new recruits and soldiers from other units after it suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Brody in July 1944.

The study says there are "contrasting views" about the unit and that, over the last several decades, some have said it should be seen as a "tool of Nazi Germany" that committed violence against civilians. 

But that view has been rejected by British and Canadian investigative commissions.


'Personally repugnant'

In 1985, the government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney established a royal commission that, in part, looked at ex-members of the Ukrainian Galicia Division.

It concluded they should not be indicted as a group for their association with the Waffen-SS, and that no war crimes charges against any individual members could be substantiated.

The post-war military tribunal at Nuremberg declared the Waffen-SS a criminal organization, but with the caveat that that "this evidence was not relevant to every Waffen-SS division or every individual who had served in these forces," according to the study.

The Galicia division was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army before surrendering to the Allies at the end of the Second World War, according to the study.

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton says municipalities have no role in regulating the contents of private cemeteries.

"It is personally repugnant to me, I have family who died fighting Nazis," he said in a statement Friday. "If Ontario laws permitted me to have it removed, it would have been gone 14 years ago."

About the Author


Adam Carter
Reporter
Adam Carter is a Newfoundlander who now calls Toronto home. He enjoys a good story and playing loud music. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamCarterCBC or drop him an email at adam.carter@cbc.ca.
With files from Chris Brown







479 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.





David Amos  
Content disabled 
Methinks the jury is still out and trying to decide whether Voltaire may have said this or not

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize"

However such words certainly apply these days N'esy Pas? 



Ben Smyth
Content disabled  
Reply to @David Amos: If that were true these comment boards would have dissappeared long ago.

















Ben Smyth
The only reason to find out who did this is to give them an order of Canada for doing it. Police resources should not be used for this. Would they bother investigating who vandalized a statue of Paul Bernardo? This statue is of no greater value than one of him would be.


David Amos 
Reply to @Ben Smyth: "If that were true these comment boards would have dissappeared long ago."

Now what have you got to say?













Anthony Gracey
Why am I not surprised a cop shop has to apologize and deny links to Nazism in Canada?


David Amos 

Content disabled
Reply to @Anthony Gracey: Methinks all the cops know why I am not surprised N'esy Pas?









Jay Jonah
Was done out of Love...Obviously



David Amos 

Content disabled
Reply to @Jay Jonah: BINGO












Stan Johnston
The Police sure don't help themselves. Not a lot of thinking at times.


David Amos

Content disabled
Reply to @Stan Johnston: Methinks Chief Steve Tanner just figured out who rules the roost N'esy Pas? 


Greg Gesner
Reply to @Stan Johnston:
Easy to judge them with the benefit of context provided from the story.  


















Steve Donnelly
Some people in this country are so desperate to find monuments to tear down.

Yes, this group sided with the Germans and Herr Hitler. But there had also been a government-induced famine in the Ukraine during the 1930's under Comrade Stalin. So Ukrainians had the unenviable choice of choosing between the two.

Sorry if this is a bit more complicated than the 'Colouring Book' History some people like to have where 'White Hats' and 'Black Hats' can easily be handed out.

 
Scott Wesley
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Great comment.


Hadee Lone 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Okay sure, they had a tough choice. Doesn't mean there needs to be a monument to them to glorify their actions. If we want to learn about their 'tough choices'( a funny way to spell war crimes, which is also the same justification used at the Nuremberg trials, tough choices, following orders etc.) we can learn about them in a museum or a textbook, where things of this nature belong.


Pete Needham 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Yes...but...


Michal Scur 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: germany had a plan to depopulate the lands in eastern europe called "generall plan ost". it was no secret. slav who supported this ideology deserve no veneration.


Lieschen Mueller 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: If this group sided with the National Socialists, they are NOT individuals to be feted but to at the very least be dealt with critically and with NO monuments honouring them.


Thomas Wright
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: nothing to add, perfect


Garry Cyr 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly:
Still no reason to side with the Nazis. Just despicable.



Richard Smith 
Reply to @Garry Cyr: The Soviets killed more Ukrainians in the Holodomor than the Nazis killed Jews in the Holocaust, yet we only ever hear about one of these.


David Amos
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Well put


Charles van Duren 
Reply to @Richard Smith:
"yet we only ever hear about one of these."

Only if you're selectively deaf do you hear just one of these.



David Amos
Reply to @Thomas Wright: Methinks he may not have been permitted to do so N'esy Pas? 


Joe Godin
Reply to @Steve Donnelly:
Some people can't handle the truth.

They need it varnished and edited to fit a certain narrative.

Well said, sir.



John Grail 
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Precisely. The Eastern European countries were sold out for political games around WW2. Britain and France declared war on Germany for dividing up Poland, but then allied with the other party who took the other half of Poland? People need to look at what actually transpired.


Ken Likness
Reply to @Lieschen Mueller: Kind of like the late P.E.Trudeau who was arrested 3 times wearing a Nazi swastika necklace and was well documented (even in his own memoirs) to have said he would have preferred/ratherd to have run as a National Socialist then as a Liberal but knew he wouldn't get elected if he did? His self admitted mentor Jas Taylor formed the BC National Socialist party in 1931 before they merged with the BC Communist Party to form the CCF, Jas subsequently left the party sat as an independant for 3 years and then became the President of the Vancouver Burrard Liberal riding Association.


Dan Moore
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: You are also guilty of simplifying history. Ukrainians faced several choices not just famine caused by Bolshevik policies or join the military to aid Germany. Many chose to join the resistance against the Germans for example. This memorial is an insult to all of the Ukrainians who chose the more difficult path to resist tyranny.
Roger Richard
Reply to @Steve Donnelly: Methinks the jury is still out and trying to decide whether Voltaire may have said this or not

"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize"

However such words certainly apply these days N'esy Pas?

David Amos
Reply to @Roger Richard: Amen Mon Ami
 
 

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