Nipissing Timiskaming MP Anthony Rota is under intense pressure to resign today.
Some members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet say the event, which has become internationally embarrassing, demands that the Liberal Speaker step down.
"What happened on Friday is completely unacceptable. It was an embarrassment to the House and Canadians. I think the Speaker should listen to members of the House and step down," Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters earlier today. "I don't think there's any alternative."
Rota issued an apology in the House of Commons chamber for recognizing a Ukrainian, who is a North Bay resident and who fought for a Nazi unit in the Second World War. Rota invited the individual to Parliament Hill during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to Ottawa on September 22.
See Rota apologize to the House of Commons here.
The issue has made news internationally with even Al Jazeera covering it.
See the Al Jazeera report here.
Meanwhile, CBC reports that Poland's education minister says he has "taken steps" to effect the extradition of Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian Canadian to Poland after it emerged that the veteran served in the Nazi SS Galizien formation during the Second World War.
In an interview with BayToday last year at a peace rally, Hunka claimed he fought in the Ukraine underground during the war.
"I joined the Ukrainian underground to fight Russia, so I was fighting the same people they’re fighting now. Nothing has changed there. "
