Anthony Rota resigns as House Speaker amid condemnation for inviting Nazi veteran to Parliament

Anthony Rota has resigned from his prestigious position as Speaker of the House of Commons over his invitation to, and the House's subsequent recognition of, a man who fought for a Nazi unit during the Second World War.

Rota announced his unprecedented decision to step aside after meeting with the House leaders from all parties on Parliament Hill Tuesday afternoon. His move comes amid days of steadily growing pressure from MPs of all stripes for him to "do the honourable thing" and vacate the Speaker's chair.

"The work of this House is above any of us. Therefore, I must step down as your Speaker,” Rota said, adding he was making the announcement with a "heavy heart" and that serving as House Speaker has been his "greatest honour."

The incident that led to this historic scene unfolding in the House of Commons took place during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to Parliament last Friday.

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Following Zelenskyy’s remarks, Rota drew the room’s attention to a man in the viewing gallery that he described as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran … who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians” and “a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service,” prompting a standing ovation. It then came to light over the weekend that 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka was a Ukrainian veteran who fought in a volunteer unit under Nazi command.

Rota apologized first on Sunday, and then again to all MPs Monday, taking full responsibility for the mistake, and for not being aware until after the controversy exploded of his constituent’s historic involvement with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division.

"I have acted as your humble servant of this House, carrying out the important responsibilities of this position to the very best of my abilities," Rota said in his resignation speech. "I reiterate my profound regret for my error. ... That public recognition has caused pain to individuals and communities, including the Jewish community in Canada and around the world."

Rota's departure will be in effect as of the end of the sitting day Wednesday, to allow preparations for the election of a new Speaker. His decision to resign was met with applause in the chamber.

Late Tuesday, MPs agreed that instead of having the deputy Speakers continue to share responsibility for chairing House proceedings in the interim, Bloc Quebecois MP and Dean of the House Louis Plamondon will take over Thursday and Friday. Then when the House resumes on Tuesday, Oct. 3 the first order of business will be the secret ballot election of Rota's replacement.

MPS AGREE TO 'WITHDRAW' TRIBUTE

NDP House Leader Peter Julian, who was the first to call for Rota to resign on Monday, thinks Rota did "exactly the right thing" in putting the institution first.

"It's a sad day, of course, but the reality is he made the right decision," Julian told reporters in the foyer following Rota's remarks. "Parliament has been tarnished and so many people have been hurt by what happened."

Instead of seeking to strip the record clean of the sordid incident, as the Liberals had proposed on Monday, MPs of all sides agreed to a motion from Bloc Quebecois Yves-François Blanchet to: condemn Nazism in all its forms and express full solidarity with all victims past and present.

The motion the House adopted also saw MPs "condemn" the invitation made and "withdraw any tribute paid," to this individual.

Reacting to the resignation after a loud and tense question period, Government House Leader Karina Gould said she thinks Rota could have stepped aside sooner, and that during the "very short" closed-door meeting she and other House leaders had with him, party representatives shared directly their desire for him to do so.

Defending her failed effort to strike the recognition of Hunka from Parliament's record books, Gould said: "if any parliamentarian had known ahead of time, who they were being asked to stand and applaud for, not a single person would have stood."

"Never in my life, would I have imagined that the Speaker of the House would have asked us to stand and applaud someone who fought with the Nazis," she said, getting emotional, noting her family are Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Gould said Rota's role in the Liberal caucus has not been discussed, but he has indicated plans to stay on as an MP.

'HASN'T HAPPENED' IN PARLIAMENT'S HISTORY

The rules of the House of Commons require the Speaker—who is responsible for administrative matters as well as maintaining order and upholding members privileges—to operate outside of partisan lines and at all times "show, and be seen to show, the impartiality required to sustain the trust and goodwill of the House."

Rota, who has represented the Northern Ontario riding of Nipissing-Timiskaming as a Liberal since 2004, was first elected as Speaker in 2019. He was re-elected as the 37th Speaker of the House at the outset of the 44th Parliament, on Nov. 22, 2021, stating then that he'd treasure the "confidence" MPs had placed in him for the rest of his life.

According to the latest edition of the House of Commons Procedure and Practice, only two of the 36 speakers elected since Confederation were elected mid-session. In 1899, it was because the Speaker died while in office, and then in 1984 a replacement was needed because the Speaker resigned to become governor general.

Anthony Rota leaves the speakers entrance of West Block after announcing his resignation as Speaker of House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Now that Rota has resigned—a historic and extremely rare occurrence—the House will be thrust into a secret-ballot election of his replacement. Precisely how this will unfold is still developing and it remains to be seen if, and how, any virtual option will be provided given the House's current hybrid sitting provisions.

As for the when, now that MPs have decided to leave the role in dean Plamondon's hands for a few days—as the longest consecutive-serving parliamentarian—putting off the vote until next week opens up some time for interested MPs and perhaps some of the current deputy and associate deputy Speakers, to start campaigning.

"This hasn't happened in the history of the Canadian Parliament, so we will be convening with the table officers and the House leaders later today to understand what this process entails, and exactly what the next steps are… we're working out those details," Gould said.

Typically, at the start of any Parliament, all MPs except for ministers and party leaders are eligible and automatically considered candidates for the role. If an MP doesn't want to be considered, they have to inform the House of Commons to remove their name from the list.

Since a rule change was made in 2015, the election of the Speaker is done by a secret and ranked ballot vote. This means the only information that will be made public at the end of the process is the name of the winner, not how many ballots it took, or by how many votes they won. Before the vote, each candidate has five minutes to make their case. Then, after a 30-minute break for any final lobbying, the voting begins.

MPs receive their ballots from a House clerk and then cast their votes behind the curtains. House officials will then count the votes and if no one candidate secures more than an absolute majority on the first ballot, the candidate with the fewest is eliminated and the votes they received are then redistributed to the second choice on those ballots. This continues until one person receives more than half of the votes.

Once the winner is named, they will be invited to take the chair. Traditionally, they are ushered up by the prime minister and Official Opposition leader, and the new Speaker is to display some degree of ceremonial resistance to walk up, given the role in the past was one MPs were actually reluctant to take.

The job comes with a $92,800 top-up—the same amount a minister receives—on the base $194,600 MP salary, along with an official residence called The Farm in Kingsmere, a community within Chelsea, Que.

It was there that Rota was set to host a pre-scheduled garden party on Tuesday night, which with the announcement of his resignation, was swiftly cancelled. Late Tuesday, his office confirmed that the food that was set to be served has been donated to the Ottawa Mission, a men's shelter in downtown Ottawa.

The deputy and assistant deputy speakers are typically then named in subsequent days and generally are decided upon by consensus amongst the party leaders, but given there are existing MPs in these roles, it's unclear how this would work mid-session.

RESIGNATION FOLLOWS ALL-PARTY PRESSURE

On Tuesday morning, senior Liberal cabinet ministers and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre joined the NDP and Bloc Quebecois in indicating they'd felt that Rota lost the confidence needed to continue in the role due to what they described as the deep embarrassment he'd caused Parliament and Canada.

While earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would not comment on whether he still had confidence in Rota, he spoke about the need to "ensure the dignity of the House going forward."

The prime minister’s office has said the federal Liberal government had no advanced notice that Hunka would be present, as he was a guest of the Speaker and the list of attendees was not shared, per parliamentary protocol.

Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota announces he will step down from the position in the House of Commons, Tuesday, September 26, 2023 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly was the first cabinet minister to publicly call for Rota to "listen to members of the House and step down."

"What happened on Friday is completely unacceptable. It was an embarrassment to the House and to Canadians," Joly said.

After fielding all of the opposition questions on the controversy in the chamber on Monday, stopping short then of asking for Rota to resign, Gould changed her tune Tuesday.

"Look, I think given what happened on Friday ... I can't see based on the conversations that I've had that he will continue to have the support of Liberal members of Parliament," Gould said. "I think it's time for him to do the honourable thing."

CALLS FOR STUDY, TRUDEAU TO APOLOGIZE

While the Conservatives have centred their condemnation of there being "a Nazi in the chamber" and the impact this international incident has had on Canada’s reputation on Trudeau, Poilievre joined the chorus calling for Rota to resign on Tuesday.

Poilievre said that even if Rota stepped down, it would not excuse "Justin Trudeau's failure to have his massive diplomatic and intelligence apparatus vet and prevent honouring a Nazi." That line of attack continued in question period on Tuesday, following Rota's resignation.

Speaking to reporters late Tuesday afternoon, Poilievre accused Trudeau—who flew to Toronto midday for meetings— of "hiding" from "the worst crisis in our diplomatic reputation."

Asked whether Poilievre thinks he and his party should also apologize for applauding as others did, he said "absolutely not."

"With less than a millisecond to do any vetting, what would you have us do? Open up our phones and do a Google search on this person whose name was suddenly and spontaneously mentioned from the front of the room? Impossible.

"But you know what would not have been impossible? For the prime minister to have one of his top agencies call the Speaker and say: 'Hey, we're having possibly the single biggest target for assassinations anywhere in the world, the president of Ukraine, on the floor of the House of Commons, we'd like to know who's going to be in the room,'" Poilievre said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called for Trudeau to come forward with a plan to remedy the negative impact this international headline-grabbing incident has had, and now the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) say they think an apology from the prime minister would be "an important step."

After Jewish community and advocacy groups initially called for, and received, an apology, FSWC joined the calls for Rota to step down. They are now imploring the Procedure and House Affairs Committee to launch public hearings to investigate the vetting failures and measures needed to ensure a similar incident does not happen again, a suggestion Poilievre is backing.

"It's an absolute necessary move on the part of Speaker Anthony Rota. He's a good and honest man. But, this was an incredibly serious mistake that has had huge fallout not just in Canada, not just in our Parliament building, but globally," said FSWC president CEO and former Liberal MP Michael Levitt.

"We've seen this picked up by Russia as propaganda, feeding their lines about de-Nazifying Ukraine, which is an abhorrent stance. We have seen it be an embarrassment on the world stage for Canada in the aftermath of Friday's happenings. So this was an absolutely necessary step, but I do think there's more that needs to happen," Levitt said.