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Well, seriously now, because this is a serious subject - Canada turned a ship of Jews away so where do we get off thinking that we were on a much higher level than them? I'm a pacifist as the regulars know and besides it being my faith, wars are dirty. My grandfather also a pacifist Mennonite said little about the revolutionary times other that there were so many dead and so much terror, you just stepped over dead bodies on your way out and even if you recognized them, you were so numbed you barely blinked.
I'm not a nationalist but I don't know what's so hard to understand about Ukrainians thinking they were fighting for their country against communists. I don't agree with them but I've heard really bad things about what the Allies did too. They say war is hell for a reason. Gott mit uns indeed.
When I was young I had a university professor who showed us a documentary about the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. It was truly horrifying and during the discussion that ensued I mentioned that unfortunately it was the kind of thing that happened during wartime.
The professor quickly corrected me and said: that's actually pretty damned good reason not to have wars!
It's the Ukrainian-Orthodox church honoring them, it's not like it's a public space or the government endorsing it. I'd imagine the decision on whether to honor them or not is one they have made within their community.
Many Ukrainians love the Nazi SS, they worship them, their current regime is a product of such worship.
Many Ukrainians love the Nazi SS, they worship them, their current regime is a product of such worship.
Or at least, this particular unit is extremely popular in Ukrainian patriotic nationalism. They have lots of monuments to them in Ukraine. Rightly or wrongly. Ukrainian-Canadians in the Toronto area were simply following the lead from the mother country.
Things don't always make sense. The Croats are Slavs too and they were generally associated with Germany during the war, and their arch-enemy Serbs were associated with the USSR.
And the Ustase (Croatia's version of the SS) slaughtered many Serbians, as well as many Jews. Hitler didn't think much of Slavic peoples.
Taking this up one or two levels, it does raise some questions about the application of near-dogmatic multiculturalism.
I mean, most cultural practices, beliefs and traditions are fine, but what happens when something like this (which appears to be totally acceptable in the old country) bumps up against our new world, human rights-driven sensibilities?
We're not seeing it much on here but there are tons of reactions from the Ukrainian-Canadians asking what's the big deal or telling people to mind their own business.
When I was young I had a university professor who showed us a documentary about the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. It was truly horrifying and during the discussion that ensued I mentioned that unfortunately it was the kind of thing that happened during wartime.
The professor quickly corrected me and said: that's actually pretty damned good reason not to have wars!
I was going to say that too but figured I'd be jumped on! We're practically twins!
There were reasons why war vets, holocaust survivors and people caught in war zones don't usually talk about these things. There are no words to describe man's inhumanity to man.
When I was a teenager and knew everything, I raged a few times at my parents asking them why they (meaning their generation) screwed the world up so badly. Then I grew up.
I would throw my inherited pacifism out the window if I could see something beyond the victor writing the rules.
I will maintain that WW2 is as close to a righteous war as we are ever likely to see but I think seeing some of the comments here, people have very little idea about war.
Maybe their generation is far enough removed not to have heard from grandparents on a losing side, idk. I just know people go to war because their governments tell them to and they all think they're on the side of the angels.
My grandpa never spoke a word of Russian or Ukrainian again after that until his sister managed to get out of the Soviet Union in the 80s. He said at that time (this is in a pacifist society), if someone was at the door you shot first and looked later.
He was from an area beset by bandits, Nestor Makhno, who received a hero's welcome in Paris after the Revolution. So. People in glass houses and all that. It was a different time.
I thought everyone who immigrates is just as Canadian as someone with roots for 400 years.
I'm just trying my best to understand, being from Quebec and all.
Seeing that photo have me seething with rage. That young kid's t-shirt, I see it and think "that isn't what being Canadian is about". I look at said person's t-shirt. It confirms to me, "perhaps he sees the 14th SS Galician Grenadiers as an inspiration for his white nationalist way of thinking".
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