The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A ug us t 13 ,2 02 0 | 10 ®® NOWOPEN! ®® NOWOPEN! For more information visit www.marineland.caF e information visit www.marineland Enjoy a complimentary Fun Card upgrade for the price of a general admission ticket now until August 15th. That means unlimited visits and unlimited fun all season long! BUY ONLINE TODAY! Veterans of the division and members of their fam- ily are buried at the site. The controversial me- morial attracted the pub- lic's attention when it was vandalized June 22 with the words "Nazi War Mon- ument" spray-painted across it. Halton police, believing the graffiti was targeting all Ukrainians, investigated the incident as a hate crime. While police have since announced the vandalism is no longer being investi- gated as hate-motivated, the incident led to a social media explosion, with many questioning why Oakville is home to a me- morial honouring those who fought with the Nazis. "As a proud Canadian citizen who believes in equality, religious free- dom and multicultural- ism, I am absolutely ap- palled, disappointed and quite frankly disgusted that not only this monu- ment was allowed to be erected but is still allowed to stand. This goes against everything Canada, Onta- rio, and Oakville em- bodies," reads a letter by Oakville resident Timur Gabaidulin to various pol- iticians. "I plead for you to ad- dress this wrong and make it right. By allowing this memorial in our com- munity, you are saying that fascism and anti- Semitism is a-okay." Many others took to so- cial media to call for the cenotaph's removal. A petition calling on the cemetery to remove the memorial was estab- lished on Change.org July 21. As of late last week, it had received 667 signa- tures. The Friends of the Si- mon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies has also weighed in on the Oakville memorial. "Any monument which venerates soldiers who fought for Hitler's geno- cidal regime is nothing less than a blight and in- sults the memory of Cana- dian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice dur- ing WWII on behalf of the freedoms we all hold dear," said Rabbi Meyer H. May, the group's executive director. In a statement issued about the memorial, Ihor Michalchyshyn, CEO of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, noted the 1st Ukrainian Division never fought against the West- ern Allies, and in 1986, Canada's Deschenes Com- mission found that charg- es of war crimes against the division have never been substantiated. He went on to assert the Ukrainians of the 14th SS Division were not fighting so much for the Nazis as they were against the So- viet Union. "Caught between the genocidal dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin, many Ukrainians fought against both regimes for a free Ukraine," said Michal- chyshyn. "Their burial sites are places for their families to remember them." It should be noted the Oakville memorial does not feature any Nazi sym- bols and there is no refer- ence to the SS on it. Michalchyshyn argued labeling Ukrainians as Nazis is part of Russia's ongoing effort to sow divi- sion in Canada and other western democracies, and distract from Russia's oc- cupation of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine. Many local politicians have not shied away from expressing their opinions about the memorial, how- ever, they say their op- tions for doing anything about it are limited. Oakville Mayor and Halton Police Board Chair Rob Burton issued a state- ment about the monu- ment Friday, July 17, not- ing if he could remove the monument, he would. "Unfortunately, munic- ipalities have no role in regulating the contents of private cemeteries," he said. "It's personally repug- nant to me. I have family who died fighting Nazis. If Ontario laws permitted me to have it removed, it would have been gone 14 years ago." Oakville North-Bur- lington MP Pam Damoff said the monument pays tribute to those who fought for the Nazis and has no place in the com- munity or in this country. "While it is my under- standing that the federal government has no legal mechanism that it can use to remove this monument, I am following up to see if we have any recourse," said Damoff on social me- dia. "I strongly encourage the private cemetery to re- view its policies and re- move this monument." Oakville North-Bur- lington MPP Effie Trian- tafilopoulos said she firm- ly believes there is no place for anti-Semitism, racism or hatred in this community and province. She said she would con- tinue to unapologetically stand against division and focus on reconciliation and resolution. "I continue to encour- age dialogue in the com- munity to find an appro- priate path forward," said Triantafilopoulos. The MPP went on to note that the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Ser- vices Act governs ceme- teries in Ontario and does not give the Province the power to direct the remov- al of monuments from pri- vate cemeteries. The federal and provin- cial representatives trad- ed assertions that the oth- er might be able to do something about the me- morial. Damoff argued private cemeteries fall under the Province's jurisdiction, while Triantafilopoulos argued hate crimes fall under Canada's Criminal Code, which is entirely under federal jurisdic- tion. A member of the St. Vo- lodymyr Ukrainian Ceme- tery Board, whose name is being withheld for safety reasons, said while the memorial is on cemetery property, they have no connection to it beyond that. They said the ceme- tery does not own the monument, noting it was purchased by veterans of the division and erected in 1988. These veterans have all since passed away. STORY BEHIND THE STORY: In the wake of a monument in a local cemetery being labelled by some as a 'Nazi monu- ment,' we explore the origin of the controver- sial marker and look at what -- if anything -- could be done to have it removed. NEWS Continued from page 1 'IT'S PERSONALLY REPUGNANT TO ME': MAYOR "While it is my understanding that the federal government has no legal mechanism that it can use to remove this monument, I am following up to see if we have any recourse." Oakville North-Burlington MP Pam Damoff SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM