A monument that commemorated a Nazi-led military unit of Ukrainian soldiers has been removed from an Ontario cemetery after years of argument surrounding the site.

The monument was located in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville and it paid tribute to the First Ukrainian Division, a Nazi unit which predominantly comprised Ukrainians that fought in the Second World War.

The First Ukrainian Division is also referred to as the Waffen-SS Galicia Division and the SS 14th Waffen Division. It made headlines six months ago after Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran that served in the unit, was invited to the Canadian House of Commons, where he was given a standing ovation.

Liberal MP Anthony Rota later resigned as speaker amid criticism over the invitation of Hunka.

While talking to CTV News Toronto, Oakville-based Rabbi Stephen Wise said: “It’s a memorial to soldiers who served for the Nazis in the Second World War, one of the greatest atrocities of the Jewish people, and it does not belong on Canadian soil.”

Wise is part of a group that’s been clamoring for the monument’s removal for years, which Dan Panneton with Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center labeled as a glorification of a Nazi military unit “complicit in war crimes committed during the Holocaust.”

The cemetery confirmed the monument was removed “to enable repair” after consultation was held with the descendants of the First Ukrainian Division, who raised funds for the establishment of the monument in 1988.

A spokesperson for the cemetery said the monument has been “defaced” with graffiti many times in the last few years, recently “seriously damaged by vandals.” 

Speaking further, Wise said: “As a Canadian, and as a Jew, and as someone who believes in democracy, it was just frightening.”