 Canada's parliament celebrated an actual Nazi. What is happening in that part of the world? Japan, South Korea and China are conducting discussions to bring some normalcy in a region which has seen a spike in tensions recently. What were the conclusions of this discussion? This is the Daily Debrief. These are your stories for the day and if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the incident deeply embarrassing. The speaker of the country's parliament is apologized. This is after a 92-year-old Ukrainian man who was in a Nazi military unit was honored in the Canadian parliament and received a standing ovation. The incident took place in the presence of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. 98-year-old Yaroslav Honka who was hailed as a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, was thanked for his service. He had served in a unit made up of Ukrainians who fought alongside the Nazis against the Soviet army during the Second World War. We go to Pravir Purkayasar to analyze this decidedly weird incident. Thanks Pravir so much for joining us. So very rarely do we speak about what could be considered maybe a bit of a faux pas, but definitely this is, I think it's more than a faux pas. There are larger political dimensions at play because you have an actual Nazi being honored by the Canadian parliament. After that, of course, Trudeau calling it an embarrassment. Everyone's calling it a horrendous mistake, etc., etc., calling it a one-off incident. But also in some senses it reflects, I think, a political sort of tendency or trend that has been going on since the Ukrainian war has started. This is a very strange issue because the person concerns 98-years-old, okay, but he was supposed to have fought against the Russians in 1940s. The obvious question for anybody with a modicum of history would know that the only war at the time was that it's going on against Nazi Germany and Russia at the time was Soviet Union. It wasn't Russia. And Ukraine was a part of Soviet Union. This is something which people would have known with really a modicum of Jim GK. So how is it that an entire secretariat of the parliament and the speaker of the parliament both seem to have been completely ignorant of history? How is it that history has been so now molded by the current scenario where Ukraine seemed to be fighting Russia and therefore thinking this is a much older battle and Ukraine was fighting for independence, taking as Russia, which seems to have been the underlying theme that was being presented when Mr. Runka was presented with this medal of honour, so to say. So it does seem not only a very shoddy exercise but a complete ignorance of the history of Second World War, history of Ukraine, history of Soviet Union and Russia. That could have led to a mistake like this and particularly it just takes about a minute to know that the so-called Galician unit that was being referred to was nothing but a part of the SS Nazi Germany's military main. So it is something which is elementary, I would say in terms of historical knowledge. So how could they do this is the question. I think the argument here or what I think is happening that the Ukrainian versus Russia theme has so become so dominant and this is something the agenda which has been pushed. The history of the Bandarite section in Ukraine, the alliance between the section of those who are Stephen Banderas followers and Nazi Germany alliance is totally airbrushed out of history if not forgotten in real terms. Now this is not only something the group not only fought against Soviet Union which is what they did as a part of the German army but they were also involved in number of atrocities both against Polish population, against their own population and of course against the Jewish population. Again, very well documented. All of this is known and I think somebody a historian who pulled all these facts out within a very short period and put it on the internet in what is now called X but what we knew as Twitter and that created immediately a backlash that how could Ukraine how could somebody claiming to be Ukraine fight freedom fighter was actually a part of the SS Galician unit. How can some in Canada such a person be not only feted but you know hand-traps with Zelensky there to know being there all of it how could such an embarrassment take place and I said it's really ignorance of history ignorance of their past and not knowing much about Ukraine or Soviet Union or Russia or about Europe which some of them claimed to have come from all of this is really I think a part of what we see and a quick attempt to make hey win some cheap kudos by honouring a Ukrainian who fought in the 40s for independence of Ukraine against Russia for getting what was the actual history of the terror. Also of course ignoring the hundreds of thousands if not more of Ukrainians who were in the Soviet army fighting against the Nazis as well but you made a very interesting point which is it this is also a sign of the times which is why we are discussing this today as well where for instance the person concerned was declared as an Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero and that is how he was feted. So also this is attempt to sort of link the Ukrainian people and the Canadian people you have seen this in many other countries in the west as well portraying this what was made similar speeches portraying this war as a frontier of the fight for democracy for freedom against authoritarianism etc and this incident for instance very neatly fits into that kind of a narrative that is domestically being they're trying to do it in the west. You know this part of what you're talking about of course is the rewriting of history that is one part of it but also it's very important to understand who are rewriting this history what of this and this is not dissimilar to what's happening again in for India as well you have the emigre population who go abroad who migrate to countries like Canada like United States trying to become a part of the politics of those countries then push the politics of those countries for your agenda which really predate your migration in this case you have the Ukrainian agenda the so called Ukrainian nationalists who were co-opted by the United States for the second world war who had actually cooperated with Nazi Germany in fact Nazi Germany supporters in Eastern Europe were taken over essentially by the United States for two reasons one is to operate as a fifth column against the Soviet Union because a lot of them either joined the socialist block or were a part of Soviet Union itself because if you remember Nazi Germany had penetrated inside Soviet Union particularly in the Ukraine area so this is one part of it the second part of it is that it fitted in very well in the larger agenda that the United States had which is the battle against Soviet Union and if you have people who have come from this area then the ability to raise fifth columnists at home in these areas and therefore the Emigre population were actually taken to their bosom so to say and used for this kind of activities and one of the issue was how to whitewash for instance in Canada I think 2000 of those who were in the SS Galician forces actually were taken to Canada similarly a large number of them migrated to the United States and then they were whitewashed over a period of time and presented as nationalists not because the United States didn't know who they were but all of these were essentially thought to be people who could be used against the Soviet Union let's not forget you had the intelligence chief of Germany who defected with his whole intelligence apparatus and this contains the Americans particularly that he had a lot to offer it's not very different for the Japanese for instance did there is an important group which involved itself with experiments against the use of biological and chemical weapons against the Chinese soldiers and of course North Koreans who were again taken over lock stock in battle by the United States and they became the core of what the United States then their attempts at chemical and biological weapons who become so all of this history is very murky and the US of course has been a major player in all of this but what we now see that Canada is also a player in this let's not forget for instance the Punjab divisive movements that existed what is called in India the Halistani movement to try and create an independent state of Punjab which is no traction in India at the moment but it seems to have traction amongst the Canadian immigrant population from Punjab so these are things which the Canadian state has been using these internal elements in their external foreign policy and whether it is Ukraine whether it's India the Canadian objective seems to be very similar how can they align how can these groups be aligned with foreign policy objectives is really the issue and in this case of course it is clear that the issue is Ukraine versus Russia and how therefore to co-op the fascist forces which of course also exist in the Ukrainian military how to co-op them is a part of the larger agenda of the NATO countries. Canada unfortunately along with the United States is home to many of this emigre groups and a lot of the politics that plays out in the west plays out in the interest of the small emigre populations because they act really a small what shall we say ginger groups trying to change their policy of the countries which they have emigrated to and quite often that between the intelligence agencies and these groups there is a meeting of minds which is what seems to have happened in this case as well except it became highly embarrassing that the way it sort of blew up in their face. Thank you so much for that analysis definitely more than meets the eye there and I think it would be a mistake to dismiss this as just a for-power or one-off embarrassment which is what the Canadians are now desperately trying to do. We will be following this. Thank you so much. Diplomats from China, South Korea and Japan met to try and ease tensions in the region after the summit it was announced that there would be a meeting of their leaders and they would be an attempt to get them all together to meet soon. This is a tough time for the region as a whole South Korea have right-wing governments which are moving closer to each other and the United States. In fact, President Joe Biden recently hosted the leaders of these two countries in Camp David. We go to Anish to get a sense of the meeting. Anish, thank you so much for joining us. This is a region we have discussed a lot in recent times and episodes of Daily Dispatch especially the increasing meeting of minds so to speak between the US, Japan and South Korea. So this is a meeting with the difference. We are Japan, South Korea and China having a discussion on this topic. Could you maybe take us through what was on the agenda, what was the context of the meeting for instance? Well, let's be in the fact that this was supposed to be a routine meeting. It began in 2008 and it has happened almost on a periodical basis since then until 2019 when because of the war reparations and colonialism reparations dispute emerged between South Korea and we have talked about the forced labor dispute as well with Japan is yet to consider to be valid or pay compensation for it. Nevertheless that was completely swept under the rug recently and there has been some what many of the mainstream media calls a thawing between South Korea and Japan but it never was frozen to begin with. But what we see right now is a very different kind of context because while newspaper and news media houses have been talking about how it is significant for South Korea and Japan to hold this meeting for South Korea to hold, post the meeting to begin with the significance is the fact that as we said China is involved and China is back on the table in a trilateral discussion and diplomatic connections with the three countries and that is significant just in and of itself we do not see much significance in the agenda of the meeting we do not know there is no surety if there will be a meeting of the leaders possibly presidents and prime ministers of the country in the near future but this is definitely one step forward but how many steps backward is a different question because we have already spoken about how South Korea and Japan have taken to a very belligerent position when it comes to China especially when it comes to Taiwan and them involving themselves into other disputes that they do not have any stakes in especially in South China Sea with Japan having is making ties with Philippines even pushing for a militaristic sort of arrangement that can actually have Japanese bases in the region so all of these factors are definitely going to be at the forefront China is definitely raising these issues especially with Taiwan it's a very you know it's pretty much the red line for China in most cases and the fact that both these countries have taken very questionable stand on this is something that is going to be a matter of concern for coming meetings if there are going to be any issues right Anish but also we are talking looking at a time when there has been of course some discussion about further US China engagement as well we have seen various visits by ministers there are talks of at least pre talks of Biden and Xi Jinping maybe having a meeting as well so how do we see this you know this meeting in the context of that larger trend is it more of a can we even call it a trend just individual instances whereas the larger trend is towards escalation there is a trend but it's a very confused trend let's be we have to be very honest about it China is quite very of these diplomatic overtures it is definitely open to stocks and you know diplomacy with all of these countries to deal with pretty much all kind of disputes whatever they be but what we have seen and if we refer to some Chinese media reports you actually see a great deal of not just from the government but also from its intelligence here civil society even its media houses and that clearly shows how and that is primarily has to do with the fact that they have all of these countries have reviewed some of their earlier commitments they have you know crossed some of the lines they have provoked China especially when we look at expansion of the power missiles systems for instance South Korea or the fact that Japan is moving towards militarizing itself in the next couple of years as during its pacifist constitution and all of these factors are definitely going to be a match of concern for China and of course we have to talk about the Fukushima waters as well so all of these because aside China is definitely open to diplomacy and that is pretty much why these meetings are having but we do not see the same level of enthusiasm from the Chinese side as it used to happen earlier when you would have you know very high level meetings happening on matters of disputes but right now what you're seeing is secular third run leaders and diplomats running these meetings leading these meetings and not necessarily people with actual power on foreign policy or you know national security so this is a very you know we have to be very careful of how we look at this as I said the meeting in and of itself is significant and the fact that it kind of opens up a trilateral forum for these three countries to resolve their disputes and their contentions but it will achieve is a different question and it pretty much you know remains on what action South Korea and Japan will take in the coming months Ben Anish thank you so much for that update like you said it's a very you know a region which is actually going through a lot at this point of time we also of course recently saw North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's visit to Russia that's probably on the minds of Japan and South Korea as well and you know the possibility of say escalation is on everyone's minds matter of concern thank you so much for talking to us and that's all we have time for in this episode of Daily Deep Brief we will be back tomorrow with another episode until then go to our website peoplesdispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you are watching this on YouTube do hit the subscribe button