Hospital Distancing Itself From Nazi Soldier
North Bay Hospital seems to be attempting to erase significant ties to Yaroslav Hunka.
This week, I reported on the longstanding connections between former Speaker of Parliament and the Yaroslav Hunka family. Hunka fought with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, which served under command of the Nazis during World War II. Last Friday, Anthony Rota honoured this man in the House of Commons to a standing ovation by all MPs.
This week, many organizations are trying to distance themselves from the Nazi soldier’s family. After it was discovered that the University of Alberta had accepted a $30,000 donation and named an endowment fund in the name of Yaroslav and Margaret Hunka, the university announced that they would be returning the funds.
“We have made the decision to close the endowment and return the funds to the donor. The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused.”
One of the connections between this family and the former Speaker is Martin Hunka’s prominent role with the North Bay Hospital. Martin Hunka (son of Yaroslav) has been on the board of trustees for the hospital foundation since 2015 and up until this week was the chair of the organization.
But as opposed to the University of Alberta, the North Bay Hospital seems to be simply trying to erase it’s past affiliation.
As of this week they have removed all mention of Martin from their website and social media pages and have removed him from the list of board trustees. As of yesterday, they now list the Vice-Chair (Danielle Magnusson) as also holding the Chair position. The hospital has not made any statement regarding his departure.
The organization’s 2022-2023 annual report has also mysteriously disappeared from the web. In fact, every annual report and most financial statements have been wiped from their website. All links on social media from the past few years sharing the annual reports direct browsers to broken links.
Using a website archiving service, I was able to retrieve the 2022-2023 annual report. The report published just a few months ago prominently features Hunka as the chair on the opening page.
The 20 page annual report also features Martin and Theresa Hunka as having donated between $1,000 and $4,999 in the last year. The family also made a $2,000 donation in honour of Margaret Hunka. But the Hospital Foundation has erased this document from their website and social media pages.
It is clear that the Hunka family has close ties to this foundation. In prior annual reports which the organization appears to have made an effort to conceal this week, the Hunka family may be featured more prominently. There may be much larger donations and homages made to this WW2 Nazi veteran.
Yesterday I reached out to the foundation’s president as well as the board members for comments on the removal of Martin Hunka as well as the deletion of prior publications yesterday. But I have not received any comments.
I don’t think the Hospital Foundation should regret having received generous donations if they were not aware of the individuals past. However I don’t think they should erase history either.
The Hospital Foundation lists integrity, inclusivity, gratitude, respect and accountability as their values. By erasing prior annual reports and financial statements, this multi-million dollar organization is not being accountable to the public.
The facts are: Martin Hunka was a prominent member of this board for many years and the Hunka family has been closely related to the hospital. The hospital should stop hiding all prior annual reports. If inappropriate homages were made, then they can apologize and move on without attempting to erase what has already happened.
Rejean Venne is a regular newsletter providing insight and analysis on Canadian issues. Please consider becoming a subscriber.
Well said. Great reporting.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center does have documentation, detailed documentation on the SS officer Yaroslav Hunka! He was an SS officer which means that he took a blood oath to Hitler. He definitely would have had extremely fanatical beliefs on racial purity and politics. Hunka's division, the 14th Waffen SS is responsible for crimes against humanity: The slaughter of over 100,000 unarmed Poles in Volhynian and Galicia! He said in an essay that he joined the SS because the Poles in his area of were suppressing his people! Yet he went into Polish villages where there was only unarmed citizens and burnt them to the ground. And in true SS style locked the inhabitants inside burning buildings. And where it is true that his children did not engage in war crimes it is not unusual for the children of Nazis to continue their membership in the Nazi party, and thereby reap the financial rewards for that association. Hunka could have joined anyone of 4 Partisan groups fighting for the Ukraine, but, he chose the one that best appealed to him, the SS. As for 'checking out' the opinion of Ukraine citizenry you will have to keep in mind that the Nazis never left Ukraine! What do you think the Azov Brigand of the Ukrainian Army is? They are Nazis! That is why so many Jews have now fled Ukraine!