– N. Ribar, TML In the News –
For this year’s so-called “Black Ribbon Day” — the official Canadian state term for the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, signed on August 23, 1939 — a new force has come to the fore in the National Capital Region to spread the most vile reactionary narratives regarding alleged persecution under communism. Until now unknown, the “Ottawa Black Ribbon Committee” has announced that it will hold a memorial event on August 26 at Parliament Hill.
Among other things, this new group justifies this action by stating: “Two dictatorships found a common cause in committing crimes against humanity and imposing worldwide terror and destruction on so many nations.” Of these “two dictatorships,” it is stated that one is Nazi Germany, but not another word is given in the announcement about this dictatorship. By contrast, it extensively mentions and attacks the other, the Soviet Union. It stated that these two countries “facilitated the invasion and occupation of Finland, Poland, the Baltic States,” and to avoid missing any countries, states that this included “many other European nations.” Further, it claims that the present-day Russian Federation represents a “neo-Soviet” threat to “Western democracies” and is responsible for a multitude of crimes.
It is not worth discussing these claims in depth, but what is noteworthy is the inclusion of Finland in their diatribe. For anyone who has a basic knowledge of history, this is striking for the following reason: during the Second World War, Finland sided with Nazi Germany and, more than any other country in Europe, aided in Operation Barbarossa, which was meant to exterminate the Soviet people, in June 1941. It was Finland that took second place, behind Nazi Germany, as the greatest perpetrators of the Siege of Leningrad, one of the deadliest crimes of its kind in world history. For that reason, Finland was a losing state upon the Allied victory and was forced to make numerous concessions to the Soviet Union. This included ceding territory and adopting a neutral state status during the Cold War, as compensation. Either these anti-communist warriors do not understand history, or they are purposely obscuring it for a definite purpose.
Further, to mention the “invasion and occupation” of Poland, without clarifying the role of the Nazis as the aggressor versus the Soviet Union’s role, is to make a false equivalence between the two. Nazi Germany invaded Poland as the aggressor, while the Red Army’s entry into Polish territory only occurred once the Polish government and state had fallen, to create a buffer zone and block the Nazis from pushing further east to then invade the Soviet Union.
Also listed as an “invasion and occupation” is the Baltic states’ voluntary union with the Soviet Union in August 1940.
Why doesn’t the Black Ribbon Committee condemn invasions and occupations by Nazi Germany, which included Czechoslovakia in May 1939, Poland in September 1939; Norway and Denmark in April 1940; France, Belgium and Holland in May 1940; and Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941? These evidently shady individuals would like to sweep this history under the rug while only the alleged cruelty of the Soviet Union and a modern “neo-Soviet” country are described. Their reference to “many other European nations,” thrown in for effect, is also meaningless.
Should all of this be a mere oversight, this would be a great offence to Canadians, Quebeckers, and Indigenous Peoples whose fore-parents fought to liberate many of these aforementioned countries from the Nazi scourge. But in fact, the reality is far darker. It is intentional, and any person of conscience would be horrified at the real outlook of this committee.
Who is the Ottawa Black Ribbon Committee? There are only four pages presently available online which mention this group — all of which have republished the same announcement, and all are Estonian exile websites. A clearer picture can be seen in the imagery associated with this announcement — the same logo and pictures — can be found in a Facebook page entitled “Black Ribbon Day,” and on their website. The same rhetoric is used, and identical statements are produced in both. It can only be assumed that there is a direct link between the “Black Ribbon Day” Facebook page and website, on the one hand, and the Ottawa Black Ribbon Committee, on the other.
This website serves almost entirely to spread false information about the history of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact and subsequent events, promote future anti-communist events, and give information about the modern “Black Ribbon Day.” Out of five countries it mentions as wronged in the “bloodiest period in human history” — Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine (it is worth noting Ukraine was not an independent country either pre- or post-war) — in four out five, the blame is wholly placed on the Soviet Union. In the sole case of Poland, blame is shared between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Through this, the same anti-communist aim is evident.
The strange lack of the victims of Nazi terror, including numerous invasions and occupations, only brings up more questions. First among them, why don’t these blatant falsifiers of history mention that the “Soviet occupied territories” were occupied by the Nazis in Operation Barbarossa? Is this not itself a crime?
Relating to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact in terms of significance, the organizers of the Black Ribbon Day event omit the highly significant fact that the Anglo-American capitalist world, from its very beginning, supported Hitler with the full force of Western finance capital, with the aim, as Lord Halifax said, that he would go East and destroy the Soviet Union.
After repeated refusals of Soviet offers to join forces with the British and French against Nazi Germany during the summer of 1939, the Soviet Union realized their true aim — simply talk, hold back Soviet defense, until Hitler’s attack on them, in which they would not take sides.
In such a dangerous situation, the Soviets only had one option — conclude a non-aggression pact with Germany. This was a stroke of military-strategic genius by J.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov who outmanoeuvred all those who wanted to bring harm to the Soviets. The pact helped safeguard the Soviet economy and provided two years of peaceful development and armament to prepare for its defensive war. It also ensured that once the Nazi invasion came, the Anglo-Americans would join the USSR in opposing the fascists. This is the true rationale for the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact, and not whatever is invented by the Black Ribbon Day organizers.
In its webpage “About August 23, Black Ribbon Day,” among other claims as to why the annual anniversary is necessary, the founding of it in 2009 at a conference in Toronto and its official recognition by the Government of Canada, the true organizers are named: “Canadian Black Ribbon Day is organized with support and participation of The Albanian Canadian Community Association, Czech and Slovak Association, Estonian Central Council in Canada, Canadian Hungarian Heritage Council, Latvian National Federation in Canada, Lithuanian-Canadian Community, Canadian Polish Congress and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.”
It is worth noting that this list is identical with the list of groups which compose the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada and claim to represent “over 4 million Canadians of Central and Eastern European heritage.” Its President is Marcus Kolga of the Estonian Central Council, the same leader who was instrumental in establishing Black Ribbon Day as an official anniversary in Canada.
This individual has spearheaded accusations on multiple occasions against journalists of conscience who have reported on Canada’s harbouring of Nazi war criminals, labelling them “Russian propagandists” or other epithets designed to halt any discussion of the problem. Given his Russophobia, his 2019 report Stemming the Virus, in Nazi style links any thought associated with Russia to a viral disease. He accuses these journalists of having “mischaracterized Ukrainian and Baltic freedom fighters who resisted Soviet occupation as Nazis.” Which freedom fighters? Fighting for who and for what? Were they with the Soviet Union, Canada’s wartime ally? Or were they with Nazi Germany?
Remember that in both Ukraine and the Baltics, according to the organizers of Black Ribbon Day, only the Soviets are blamed as invaders and occupiers, while the crimes of Nazi Germany are not worthy of mention. The reference to “freedom fighters” is, of course, to those who fought in Baltic Legions such as the 15th, 19th, and 20th Divisions of the Waffen SS. In Ukraine, it is to the followers of Bandera and the 14th Waffen SS Division who hailed Hitler as a liberator in Lvov. On the Eastern Front, these groups were known for their incredible brutality and involvement in Generalplan Ost, the Nazi master plan for the complete ethnic cleansing of Slavs and Jews. Many of these Nazis and Nazis collaborators found safe refuge in Canada post-war.
Do the over 4 million Canadians which the Central and Eastern European Council organization claims to represent, agree that members of the Waffen SS and Bandera’s gang are in fact “freedom fighters”?
Most notorious of these groups is the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, which today operates as an unofficial arm of the Canadian state. The image which cannot be removed from Canadian and world consciousness no matter how hard emigre groups and the state attempt to do so is when the entire Canadian Parliament cheered with joy for a known member of the Waffen SS, Yaroslav Hunka. It is to the eternal shame of everyone involved, and the greatest treachery against Canada’s historical position in the war as a victorious, allied, anti-fascist state.
At that time, Hunka was personally a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and on their insistence, he was honoured with an audience and standing ovation for the entire world to see. Proving their lack of shame, last September, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress further announced it was pursuing all court avenues to block all the names of alleged Nazi war criminals from release. These are the types who make up the Central and Eastern European Council, and which organize Black Ribbon Day. Due to official silence, Hunka’s status in that organization is unknown today.
It is obvious why there is seldom a trail leading from the Black Ribbon Day event announcements to the organizations which are, in fact, organizing it. Returning to some previous unanswered questions, it can be stated that none of the oddities in its announcement are a coincidence — the main goal of the organizers of Black Ribbon Day is the relentless defence of Nazi history, and a total offensive against communism and all progressive movements. The date of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is only chosen symbolically, as a facade to equate “totalitarian regimes” and present themselves as moderate in the face of the public. But in every case the Soviet Union is blamed for every wrong while Nazi crimes are relentlessly covered up by omission.
First among these crimes, which occurred on the territory of many of these organizations’ homelands, but are omitted, are those linked with Hitler Germany’s Generalplan Ost. Through the forced Germanization of captured lands in collusion with local collaborators, hundreds of millions of Slavs and Jews were set to be cleansed or exterminated. If these genocidal plans had succeeded, the Russians, Poles, Belarusians and, indeed, the Ukrainians, would not have a homeland today. The many-centuries civilizational contributions of Slavdom would have been wiped out. Only the Soviet Union stood in the way of these heinous misanthropic plans. In the war, she gave 27 million of her greatest, bravest, most noble sons and daughters so that their peoples could survive, and that the whole world would be saved from the fascist beast.
In this fight, the Soviet Red Army also spilled torrents of blood so that the Eastern European peoples could live freely, and liberated historic capitals — among them Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, and most prominently, Berlin. On the one hand, survival, and liberation, and on the other, complete annihilation. There was no middle position in this great struggle, and there is no middle position regarding its history.
Black Ribbon Day represents the sinister forces which defend Nazi criminals and try to sow confusion by equating Nazism and communism. But people are seeing through these efforts to promote the Nazis, as evident in the inability of these forces to secure funds from the public for their anti-communist monument. Many people are reaching the just conclusion that these organizations stand alongside those responsible for the greatest slaughter in human history. These same forces have partners with the blood of more than 45,000 Canadians on them. They stand against all those who fell for the most noble cause of freedom, fighting the Nazi-fascist scourge. People do not want the monument and do not want events like Black Ribbon Day and August 26 at Parliament Hill.
All progressive forces, all Canadians and Quebeckers who want to honour their fore-parents who bore such sacrifice, must oppose such manoeuvres by agents of reaction who stir up all these historical problems with only the vilest of aims.
(Republished from TML In the News, August 26, 2025)