MOSCOW, March 8. /TASS/. A monument to the Waffen-SS Galicia (Galizien) Division made up of Ukrainian volunteers during World War Two has been dismantled in the Canadian town of Oakville in Ontario, the Strana online newspaper reported.

The monument was installed at the Ukrainian cemetery in 1988. According to Strana, local activists and journalists repeatedly demanded that the monument be taken down, and the Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said that he was disgusted at such a monument.

On September 22, 2023, Ukrainian nationalist, Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian emigre who in 1943 volunteered to serve in the Nazi 14th Waffen SS Galizien (Galicia) Volunteer Division, was invited to the Canadian Parliament during Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s visit. The war criminal was introduced to the audience as a fighter for Ukrainian independence and received a standing ovation. After Hunka’s affiliation with an organization recognized as criminal by the Nuremberg Tribunal came to light, a scandal erupted. On September 26, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly called for the resignation of House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota, who took the blame for inviting the Nazi. Joly called the incident "absolutely unacceptable" and "a disgrace to the House [of Commons] and to Canadians." Rota subsequently tendered his resignation. On September 27, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the incident.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the public praise of the Nazi "epitomizes the ruling regime of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a T," declaring that Russia does not intend to "tolerate the way Canadian liberals flirt with Nazism.".