Thursday 12th of December 2024
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a waffen SS nazi monument is a protected war memorial in canada.....

Edmonton police and the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service are treating a Waffen SS monument as a protected “war memorial” in their charges against journalist Duncan Kinney.

Kinney vehemently denies the allegations and is contesting the charges in court.

It is likely the first time a Canadian journalist has been charged with vandalizing a war memorial, as well as the first time anyone has been charged with vandalizing a memorial to Canada’s wartime enemies.

The charge – “mischief relating to war memorials” – which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, seems to have been intended to punish vandalism of cenotaphs and monuments dedicated to Canada’s war dead. 

The Criminal Code specifies that the charge relates to “mischief in relation to property that is a building, structure or part thereof that primarily serves as a monument to honour persons who were killed or died as a consequence of a war, including a war memorial or cenotaph […].”

The monument in question, located in St. Michael’s Cemetery in north Edmonton, honours Ukrainian veterans of the SS “Galicia Division,” which fought on the side of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Kinney was also arrested and charged in October 2022 with one count of mischief for allegedly spray painting the words “Actual Nazi” on a statue of Roman Shukhevych, a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator responsible for the extermination of tens of thousands of Poles and Jews during the Second World War. 

Edmonton police allege the incident took place on Aug. 10, 2021, the same day the monument in St. Michael’s Cemetery was similarly vandalized with the words “Nazi Monument 14th Waffen SS.”

Kinney is represented by Edmonton lawyer Tom Engel and vehemently denies both charges, arguing that they are a deliberate attempt by the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) to intimidate and silence him.

A prominent critic of the Edmonton police, Kinney has reported on numerous matters of police misconduct, as well as the difficulties he has encountered in trying to do his job. Alluding to those difficulties, Kinney described EPS Chief Dale McFee’s demeanour towards him as “hostile, dismissive, sarcastic, and evasive” in court documents.

Though Kinney had previously received media accreditation with EPS, beginning in February 2022 he alleged that he faced numerous and often arbitrary obstacles that have denied him access to police press briefings. 

In addition, Edmonton police have not been forthcoming with documents that Kinney said are necessary for his defence.

Lawyer Tom Engel believes Kinney is being persecuted for criticizing the police, and not for allegedly vandalizing a monument.

“When you look at the investigation and the resources poured into it by the EPS, you have to ask yourself the question: ‘why would they devote such scarce police resources to an investigation like this?’ And the only reasonable explanation is because they targeted him,” said Engel in an interview with The Maple.

“He was identified, in my opinion, as an enemy of Chief McFee and the Edmonton Police Service.”

According to Engel, Kinney and his immediate family had been the subject of extensive police surveillance. Kinney has accused EPS of spying on him.

Engel said the initial investigation was handled by the EPS’ investigative response team, which he characterized as being designed to handle complex cases.

“They basically decided they would close the file because there didn’t appear to be any point in investigating any further,” said Engel. “And then it mysteriously resurfaces and it goes to the hate crimes unit. The officer there spent many hours investigating it, including surveilling Duncan and his wife and kid.”

Engel is incredulous that so much time and effort would be exhausted investigating a case of petty vandalism, let alone the alleged spray painting of a memorial to members of the Waffen SS.

“Normally it would involve a patrol constable,” said Engel. “Like somebody gets a swastika painted on their fence [...] (the police) are not going to go very far in trying to investigate it.”

Several other monuments to SS volunteers and other organizations complicit in Nazi war crimes have been defaced across Canada. 

Engel thinks it may be the first time a charge meant to protect war memorials honouring Canadians has been used to try to prosecute an individual for allegedly defacing a monument to Canada’s war time enemies.

According to journalist and author Peter McFarlane, the Edmonton Galicia Division monument that Kinney is alleged to have vandalized was created thanks to the efforts of Waffen SS veteran Peter Savaryn, and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland’s maternal grandfather, Michael Chomiak, who voluntarily served as a Nazi propagandist in occupied Poland during the war.

McFarlane’s latest book, Family Ties: How a Ukrainian Nazi and a living witness link Canada to Ukraine today, explores how Chomiak’s antisemitic wartime propaganda helped fuel the Holocaust.

“Chomiak was on the committee, he helped raise the money for [the monument],” said McFarlane in an interview with The Maple. “Savaryn of course was an SS man himself.”

The presence of monuments to an SS division and a prominent Nazi collaborator has long been criticized and opposed by Canada’s Jewish community, but it is also opposed by members of Canada’s Polish community. Both members of the Galicia Division and Shukhevych are alleged to have been involved in ethnic cleansing campaigns directed against Poles as well as Jews.

https://www.readthemaple.com/police-treat-nazi-monument-as-war-memorial-in-alleged-vandalism-case/

 

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

the other tomb....

On May 23, 2000, a Canadian Forces aircraft flew to France to bring the Unknown Soldier back to Canada. On board was a delegation consisting of a Canadian Forces contingent including a 45-person guard, a bearer party, and a chaplain. The Veterans Affairs contingent contained Veterans and civilians, including two representatives of Canadian youth.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, responsible for the care of graves and memorials of the Commonwealth forces members who died in the First and Second World Wars, selected an unidentified Canadian soldier from Cabaret Rouge British Cemetery in the vicinity of Vimy Ridge, the site of a famous Canadian battle of the First World War.

On May 25, at a ceremony at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission turned over the remains to Canada. At that point the Canadian Forces took over responsibility for the safekeeping and transport of the soldier's remains. Immediately after the ceremony, the Canadian delegation returned to Ottawa with a casket containing the soldier's remains on board the aircraft.

On the evening of May 25, the casket carrying the remains of the Unknown Soldier was transported to Parliament Buildings, where it was placed in the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block. The remains lay in state there for three days, until the morning of May 28, so that Canadians could view the casket and pay their respects.

In the afternoon of May 28, the Unknown Soldier was transported from Parliament Hill to the National War Memorial on a horse-drawn gun carriage provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The funeral cortege included Their Excellencies, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada and John Ralston Saul, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada, Veterans, Canadian Forces personnel and members of the RCMP. In a ceremony which aired on national television, the Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in a specially-designed sarcophagus directly in front of the National War Memorial.

From that point on, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became a focal point of commemoration for all memorial events at the National War Memorial. It is a memorial in Canada for Canadians. The Tomb is a fitting way to honour the sacrifices on which our freedoms were built.

Located on the upper plaza of the National War Memorial, in front of the existing monument, the Tomb consists of a granite sarcophagus enclosing a casket containing the remains of the unknown soldier. A bronze relief sculpture is secured to the top with stainless steel pins. The four corner pieces of the sarcophagus also have bronze relief work.

The three-tiered sarcophagus is 12 feet long, 8 feet wide and 3 feet high. Dark Caledonia granite, quarried in Rivière à Pierre, Québec, was selected to complement the paler-coloured stone used in the National War Memorial. While it is patterned after the stone altar of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, the severe Ottawa climate, as well as the bronze and stone makeup of the National War Memorial, led to the decision to produce the relief work in bronze.

The bronze relief sculpture, cast in Roberts Creek, British Columbia, includes the key elements of the stone carving on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial altar; a medieval sword, a helmet of the type worn in the First World War, with branches of maple and laurel leaves. The laurel leaves symbolize both victory and death. Four bronze corner pieces containing symbolic mementos of mourning enhance the sculpture.

Three of the corner pieces are decorated with large replicas of the Memorial Cross. First instituted in 1919, the Cross is presented to the family of those who gave their lives while serving Canada in war or on peacekeeping missions. The three Crosses are slightly different; each has the Royal Cypher of one of the successive monarchs since its inception (George V, George VI, and Elizabeth II). On the fourth corner piece there is a replica of a poppy, representing those who may fall in future conflicts. The curved shape of the corner pieces echos the curve of the top of the National War Memorial.

The sculpture was created by Mary-Ann Liu, a well-known Canadian artist from Mission, British Columbia, who works with a variety of materials. A sculptor and designer for 15 years, her work has been exhibited as far away as Japan.

The design selected for the bronze relief was the unanimous choice of the selection committee. It was one of six submissions received from internationally renowned Canadian artists from across the country who were invited to submit their designs. The selection committee was comprised of representatives from Public Works and Government Services Canada, Veterans Affairs Canada, the Department of National Defence, the National Capital Commission, the Royal Canadian Legion, a former Dominion Sculptor, a sculpture restoration specialist and a design consultant.

Inscription found on memorial

THE UNKNOWN
SOLDIER

LE SOLDAT
INCONNU

 

https://www.veterans.gc.ca/en/remembrance/memorials/national-inventory-canadian-memorials/details/9367

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.