Canada’s House of Commons gave a rousing standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran who fought in the Second World War – unaware he had served in a Nazi SS unit. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was sitting in the gallery when he was described as a “Ukrainian hero” and a “Canadian hero” to applause from prime minister Justin Trudeau and president Volodymyr Zelensky. However, leaders were left red face when house speaker Anthony Rota subsequently apologised after it emerged that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, a voluntary unit made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command. In a statement, Mr Rota said that on 22 September “in my remarks following the address of the president of Ukraine, I recognised an individual in the gallery. “I have subsequently become aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to do so.” Mr Rota said that “no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them. This initiative was entirely my own, the individual in question being from my riding [district] and having been brought to my attention.” “I particularly want to extend my deepest apologies to Jewish communities in Canada and around the world. I accept full responsibility for my actions,” the speaker said. The Canadian Jewish group CIJA said it was “deeply troubled” that a Nazi veteran had been celebrated, and said “proper vetting is imperative to ensure such an unacceptable incident does not occur again”. The incident came shortly after Mr Zelensky delivered a passionate speech to the Canadian parliament to bolster support from his Western allies. Mr Rota then hailed Mr Hunka as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” and “a Ukrainian hero and a Canadian hero.” Following the address, Mr Zelensky, who is Jewish and lost family members during the Holocaust, raised his fist in acknowledgement as the veteran saluted. Mr Hunka’s Nazi unit are accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, and were visited by SS leader Heinrich Himmler in 1944 who said his men would be “eager” to “liquidate the Poles”. The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said that Mr Rota's remarks ignore “the horrific fact that Hunka served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, a Nazi military unit whose crimes against humanity during the Holocaust are well-documented.” Since his invasion in February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made unsubstantiatec alims that Ukraine of ‘harbours neo-Nazis’. Read More Putin gives defence chief one month deadline to stop Ukrainian counteroffensive in its tracks Russian airstrikes kill 2 and wound 3 in southern Ukraine as war enters 20th month Russian foreign minister lambastes the West but barely mentions Ukraine in UN speech Trudeau and Zelensky give Ukrainian Nazi war veteran standing ovation in parliament We have a responsibility to defend our citizens, says Canada’s defence minister Leader of Canada's House of Commons apologizes for honoring man who fought for Nazis

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Friends is full of celebrity appearances but forJean-Claude Van Damme, he described how "ashamed" he is of his acting skills for his "strange" episode on the popular show. In the 1996 episode, called 'The One After the Super Bowl: Part 2,' the Belgian martial artist and actor played himself in the sitcom where Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Monica (Courteney Cox) both fancied him which led the besties to fight over him after they spotted the "Muscles from Brussels" shooting a movie in the Big Apple. The fight between Rachel and Monica occurs when Monica doesn't have the confidence to shoot her shot with Van Damme so Rachel does it for her - only for Van Damme to be interested in Rachel. Twenty-seven years on, Van Damme is highly critical of his performance. “My acting is so bad. I look so like a ham. Like, ‘Hey, girls.’ […] It’s like, I’m ashamed of myself," the 63-year-old told The New York Post. “So then I was on the set, and those girls, they go and they kiss me and they kiss me on the lips. I didn’t know what to do, how to do … It was strange. They were very nice.” While Van Damme may not be a fan of the episode, viewers at the time certainly were as it became the most-watched episode in the history of Friends with 52.9 million viewers watching after the Super Bowl. Despite the success of the show, Van Damme didn't know much about Friends before appearing as a guest star. “I didn’t know much about the show. So when I go to the show, I see those two beautiful girls and they say this is the hottest show right now in the world. So I was very glad,” Van Damme said. “And my agent said, ‘You have to do an episode with them. So you’re going to play this guy.'” Overall, the actor described the experiences as a "good memory" and also praised Aniston and Cox. “They [Aniston and Cox] were very open because they did the show every day. So for them, I enter into a place where everything is working like a very well-trained mechanic engine,” he continued. “It was amazing.” How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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