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The House of Commons proceedings are disrupted and the country’s business is slowed down, all because of a small misjudgment by the Speaker of the House in inviting Mr. Yaroslav Hunka to the Commons and the resulting theatrics by all parties, presumably with the support of our local members.
The Speaker, Anthony Rota, resigned effective Sept. 27 over the invitation. If Rota or his staff had better knowledge of the Second World War period with its complexity of who fought where and why, he would have likely never invited Mr. Hunka to the House of Commons as one could expect some objections from certain quarters. However, notwithstanding this misjudgment, there is little reason for the other members of the House to go through the convulsion of an interim Speaker and a new Speaker election. This election is now planned for Oct. 3.
All these costs and interruptions because a Canadian citizen was invited to the Canadian Parliament. Mr. Hunka’s participation as a teenager in the messy war period of 80 years ago may or may not be worth an investigation but it is not worth throwing Parliament in a dither. This disruption shows that our members are prone to theatrics rather than cool thinking.
Konrad Brenner
Ramara
