A week after Anthony Rota, the speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, resigned over its parliament honoring a Ukrainian man who fought in a voluntary Nazi unit, another highly decorated member in the Waffen-SS Galicia Division has come to light.
Peter Savaryn was chancellor of the University of Alberta, a public school in Edmonton, from 1982 to 1986. The following year, he received the Order of Canada—an honor also bestowed on ice-hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, film director James Cameron and folk singer Joni Mitchell.
The Forward, which broke the news, called the award “akin to the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.”
Mary Simon, the governor general of Canada—King Charles III’s representative to the country—expressed “deep regret” for Savaryn’s receipt of the Order of Canada, she told The Forward. She said some of the honors that Savaryn received are currently under review.
