Smith must condemn Komick’s hateful comment. UCP Association President says displaced Ukrainians walk around wearing swastikas

Marco Levytsky, Editorial Writer.

Just like all the other “Town Halls” hosted by United Conservative Party (UCP) constituency associations, the one held July 30th in Premier Jason Kenney’s former riding of Calgary Lougheed was open only to members and closed to the media. Yet, one intrepid reporter, Katie Teeling, managed to get in and not only wrote a report, but also live-tweeted the proceedings. According to her report, the following exchange occurred between Darrell Komick, President of the Constituency Association and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

“Near the end of the event, Komick gifted Smith an Alberta passport, while criticizing Canada’s immigration system and the recent influx of immigrants to Alberta.
“It seems to me that really the only thing that a Canadian passport gives you is travel,” Komick said. “Why can’t we issue Alberta passports to create a constructive immigration program here? If you want to have referendums, let’s have a referendum to see how many people want to have 10 million people [move here].”
He then said that when Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian refugees entered Canada with “zero screening.”
“We have people walking around wearing swastikas because no screening was done,” Komick added. “They walk in proudly wearing them and they give you the evil look like, ‘I’m here because I was allowed to be here.’”
Smith said she hadn’t seen that but agreed that it was important to ensure immigrants fit into Albertan culture prior to immigrating.”

We contacted the Premier’s Office for comment, but did not get a reply.
The statement about Ukrainian refugees wearing swastikas is false and is derived from the vilest Russian propaganda that can only serve to incite hatred against an identifiable group. By the way, Komick’s MLA, Eric Bouchard, also showed his pro-Russian bias recently when he retweeted a post that called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “war criminal”.
It’s bad enough that Canada’s media unquestioningly accepts Russian propaganda that defames, as Nazis, people who fought to free Ukraine from Russian oppression in the past. But to tar as “Nazis” the current refugees from Russia’s genocidal war can at best be attributed to ignorance so profound it defies imagination and, at worst, to the wilful dissemination of Russian lies in service of Putin’s goal of conquering Ukraine in order to restore the Russian Empire
We are talking about:
• People who, according to a recent study, have the lowest level of anti-Semitism in all of Eastern Europe. Ukraine passed a law banning anti-Semitism three years ago.
• People who consistently cast the lowest percentage of votes for extreme right-wing parties of any nation in Europe. .
• People who elected a Jewish President with a 73% landslide. That doesn’t stop Russia from calling him the “top Nazi.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it doesn’t matter that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is Jewish because Hitler – he claimed – was part Jewish.
• People who have come to Canada to escape a genocidal war.
• People who have lost loved ones to Russian aggression – husbands, wives, daughters, sons killed, children ripped from their homes and sent to Russia to be brainwashed.
• People whose homes and the towns or cities they lived in no longer exist — having been obliterated by Russian bombs.
And the President of the Calgary Lougheed UCP Constituency Association, in the presence of the Premier and hundreds of town hall attendees, is calling these very same victims of Russian genocide “Nazis.”
In responding to Komick’s rant, Premier Smith stated that she had never seen any Ukrainians wearing swastikas. Might this be because there are no Ukrainian evacuees walking around Alberta wearing swastikas? And might that, in turn, be because no Ukrainian national would have cause or desire to ever consider wearing anything as loathsome as a swastika? But instead of taking this opportunity to condemn Komick’s racist comments, the Premier instead chose to lecture the audience on how important it is to ensure immigrants fit into Albertan culture before immigrating. How the Premier arrived at this quite unnecessary tidbit of gratuitous advice, especially in reference to Ukrainians, is difficult to grasp. Not only do Ukrainians fit into Alberta culture, they are one of the pioneer ethnic groups that substantially contributed to developing this culture. Ukrainians first came to Alberta 14 years before it even became a province. Former Premier Jason Kenney used to wax poetic about the dozens of onion-domed Ukrainian churches that dot the landscape of Alberta. His predecessor, Rachel Notley, though not Ukrainian, danced with one of the 70 Ukrainian dance groups that have proliferated around this province. As her participation shows, membership in these groups is no longer limited to people of Ukrainian origin but to all Albertans of many diverse backgrounds. When the world-famous Shumka Dancers go abroad, they don’t represent Ukraine – they represent Alberta, Canada. Ukrainian culture has become an integral part of Alberta culture. If Ukrainians don’t fit into Albertan culture, then who does?
Meanwhile, Komick’s comment that Ukrainians have come here with “zero screening” is not merely mistaken, it is a blatant falsehood. Not one Ukrainian who has come to Canada under the Canada Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program was allowed into the country without a thorough background and police criminal check. This is a testament to the professionalism and dedication of Canadian immigration officials. These officials reviewed every Ukrainian national's application in all respects and the Ukrainians were required to obtain a medical clearance to be allowed to come to Canada. Anyone who doubts that should speak to Canada's Minister of Immigration, the head of CSIS, or any Canadian immigration lawyer who can confirm these facts. It was impossible to board an airplane to Canada without first going through these security and police criminal checks.
Were it any other ethnic group or minority that was slandered in this way, the outcry would be tremendous, But Ukrainians are treated as fair game when it comes to defamation. This is appalling.

One of the reasons Premier Smith may be afraid to condemn such an incitement of hatred against an identifiable group is because of the power that the Far Right “Take Back Alberta” (TBA) exerts by spreading its tentacles across the province. It has especially targeted ridings represented by Ukrainians for hostile takeovers. They infiltrated Shandro’s Calgary Acadia and launched an unsuccessful bid to take over Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. TBA raiders are Alberta’s answer to Trump’s MAGA Republicans and bow down to Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin as much as their American counterparts do.
But Komick’s hateful statement cannot stand unchallenged. We call upon Premier Smith to condemn Komick's hateful remarks and have him removed as President of the Calgary Lougheed UCP Constituency Association. We also call upon members of our community to let their local MLAs know how they feel, especially those from the UCP.
At the same time, we have to offset the influence the TBA faction exerts upon the UCP. Smith is afraid that the TBA can force a leadership review at the upcoming Annual General Meeting of the UCP in Red Deer, November 1-2. That’s how they ousted Jason Kenny. Therefore, members of our community should join the UCP and attend the AGM. It doesn’t matter whether you voted UCP or not. The object here is to counter the influence of the TBA and prevent the further spread of hateful Russian propaganda. Whom you choose to support in a general election is up to you. For more information about the AGM and how to attend, please go to: https://www.unitedconservative.ca/events/agm-notice-2024/

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