Opposition, disinfo experts push government to fight Russian propaganda in wake of Hunka incident
Federal site fighting disinfo by Moscow not updated since before event
While Russia continues to blast Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for venerating a Nazi combatant in Parliament, Ottawa's main website designed to fight Russian disinformation hasn't been updated since the day before the incident.
During a visit to the House of Commons by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, the Speaker of the House led a standing ovation for 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, who had fought for Ukraine against the Russians in the Second World War, and was present at the event.
Since Sunday, when news stories began to highlight that Hunka had served with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, or the SS 14th Waffen Division, a voluntary unit that was part of Adolf Hitler's forces, Russian government statements have leaned into a narrative about the Canadian government and Nazis.
On the social media platform X, Russia's foreign affairs ministry called Parliament's ovation to Hunka a vivid portrayal of "the regime of Justin Trudeau." The embassy in Canada called the event an "insult to the memory of Canada's sons and daughters who fought Nazism in WWII."
Also on X, the Russian foreign affairs ministry quoted its spokesperson Maria Zakharova stating "Canada is funding and training ideological heirs of the Waffen 'SS' Division Galicia," next to a cartoon of Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, along with Zelenskyy, doing the Nazi salute.
On the same platform, the Russian Embassy in the U.K. appears to have claimed Ukraine's postal service had published a stamp honouring Hunka. The post is no longer on the embassy's X page, but CBC has seen an archived version.
"If we fall for this narrative, if we fall for the polarizing effects of it, if we allow ourselves to sustain the partisan nature of the argument within government, we could fall prey to it," said Marcus Kolga, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, who showed CBC the archived X post about the Hunka stamp.
Demands to counter claims
In 2022, Global Affairs Canada created a website called Countering Disinformation with Facts, which was specifically designed to collate Russian disinformation about its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and official Canadian fact-checks from Global Affairs or other departments.
CBC News reached out to Global Affairs Canada to find out why there have been no fact-checks or rebuttals posted on the site since last Thursday, the day before Hunka's visit to Parliament. GAC has yet to comment.
Opposition politicians questioned Trudeau this week on the plan to counter Russian propaganda.
"He's got to take action," said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh during Question Period on Wednesday. "What is he going to do, in concrete terms, to clean up this mess?"
"Is there a strategy, along with our allies, to counter the current, terrible Russian propaganda campaign?" Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet asked on the same day.
'A goldmine for Russian propagandists'
Trudeau apologized for Hunka's appearance on behalf of all parliamentarians on Wednesday.
"This was a mistake that has deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada. All of us who were in this House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped even though we did so unaware of the context," Trudeau said in a statement to reporters.
On the same day, in response to the questions from Blanchet and Singh, Trudeau said it was horrible to see Moscow exploit the mistake made in the House of Commons last week.
"We are going to continue to stand up to the propaganda, and the Russian disinfo and misinfo," Trudeau said.
Disinformation experts warn Russia is casting a wide net with falsehoods about Canada, Ukraine and Nazism after the incident, in order to question the legitimacy of supporting Ukraine's push against the Russian invasion.
James L. Turk, the director at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, said Russian messaging is meant to create more sympathy for the invasion, "whether that is non-aligned governments, whether it's people in Western countries or elsewhere who don't understand the situation well."
Turk said Russia is looking for "anything that gives them some legitimacy for the horrendous war that they're launching against the Ukrainians."
Kolga, who also runs DisinfoWatch, which calls itself a "foreign disinformation monitoring and debunking platform," said one of Russia's main goals is "to divide democratic societies, to polarize them." The applause for Hunka last week "certainly has that potential."
"This was a gold mine for Russian propagandists," he said.
A need for media literacy
For Turk, Trudeau's apology on behalf of parliamentarians was a good start in correcting disinformation.
"I think what the prime minister did [on Wednesday] is a step in the right direction, to make very clear that [Hunka's appearance] wasn't an action of the Government of Canada, that the Government of Canada is deeply embarrassed by what's happened," Turk said.
But Kolga said that politicians need to become smarter about this type of psychological warfare.
"There's lots that we could be doing," Kolga said. "Among those things is ensuring that parliamentarians are aware ... [and have] the digital media literacy skills to be able to detect these sorts of foreign narratives."
John-Paul Hymka, a retired professor at the University of Alberta who has spent much of his career studying Ukrainian history, called not just for digital literacy but better knowledge of the Second World War.
He criticized the lack of awareness displayed by MPs who clapped for Hunka, pointing out that it should be obvious that after 1941, Russia was mostly on the same side as the Allies.
"I'm overcome by the ignorance," said Hymka.
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