As you mentioned, there was shock and surprise in the community over this situation and, from our perspective, puzzlement as to how someone wouldn't know the connection was there. I mentioned how right away—even from the Speaker's quote—we knew there was something off here.
Unfortunately, for the Polish community, this is something we struggle with sometimes: ensuring that history, from our perspective, is understood, as well. The Canadian Polish Congress, in its 90-plus years of existence, has been actively advocating for and teaching people about Polish history and its links to Canada. There are so many great stories of bravery, such as Canadian airmen dropping supplies to Warsaw operation participants who were fighting Nazi-German occupation, or of Poles being trained in Canada to fight abroad. Those are great stories that we try to highlight as an organization to help foster that historical understanding.
For us, it was a responsive shock, but I certainly appreciate your comment about how this has a bit of a chilling effect on recognizing future guests. I hope a way can be found to take the lessons from this, in order to ensure we still recognize people who represent the best of the values we all share. We just have to put in that extra bit of due diligence to make sure we don't do something inadvertently that we will all feel badly about.
I hope that answers your question.