WARSAW —
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau capped a weeklong European trip Friday by slapping new sanctions on the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who has become an international poster boy for the largesse that enabled President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Abramovich is a major shareholder in Evraz, a British multinational manufacturing company that operates a steel mill in Regina. Britain also sanctioned Abramovich on Thursday, as pressure continued to grow on Boris Johnson’s government to bring down the hammer on the owner of its famed Chelsea Football Club. Abramovich sent his super yacht into the Mediterranean Sea this week to avoid having it seized.
Abramovich is one of five new Russian oligarchs added to the Canadian sanctions list for their close ties with Putin as Trudeau ended a four-country European trip.
Their assets will be frozen, and restrictions placed on 32 military entities in Russia, Trudeau said in Warsaw before his planned departure on Friday, as the Russian war on Ukraine appeared to be entering an ominous new phase. Airstrikes on cities in western Ukraine signalled an attempt by its forces to expand its attack beyond the country’s other regions further north and south.
Trudeau also visited London, Berlin, and Riga, Latvia, to meet with leaders to ramp up pressure on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine. Their measures included sanctions, tightening the economic noose around the neck of Putin and his enablers, and sending new arms to Ukraine’s military and civilian fighters who have so far defied all odds in holding off the onslaught of Europe’s biggest military force.
G7 leaders issued a joint statement Friday backing Ukraine, calling for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops and promising further sanctions and economic policies targeting Russia’s economy.
“We are united in our determination to hold President Putin and his regime accountable for this unjustified and unprovoked war that has already isolated Russia in the world,” they said.
That includes denying Russia “most-favoured nation” status for trading, which would prevent Russia from exporting goods to the G7 at favourable tariff rates. Canada already revoked that status for Russia and Belarus on March 3 and the G7 statement said a broad coalition of World Trade Organization members will follow suit shortly.
The leaders said they’re also pushing global financial institutions including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund from giving Russia any financing.
“Russia cannot grossly violate international law and expect to benefit from being part of the international economic order,” the statement said.
The G7 includes the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada.
However, Trudeau and his allies have not been able to give the Ukrainian leadership the one thing it wants to protect its civilian population that has been pummelled by Russian bombs for more than two weeks: a no-fly zone. Western politicians, NATO leaders and the Trudeau government all say that a no-fly zone would lead to all-out air war between them and the alliance.
Canadians may soon get to hear directly from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has agreed to address Parliament March 15.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland noted this week as she stood near the Berlin’s symbol of Cold War freedom, the Brandenburg Gate: “They’re fighting for all of us. But they’re fighting alone.”
Therefore Canada and its allies have resorted to an unprecedented economic war on Russia in the hopes the rich and powerful cronies of Putin might turn against him, or the pain inflicted on its citizenry will somehow drive them to change their government.
Trudeau said the government would try to ensure that the sanctions against Abramovich don’t hurt the Canadian workers in the Saskatchewan company in which he holds a stake.
“The sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs like Abramovich are directed at them so that they cannot profit or benefit from economic activities in Canada or the hard work of Canadians working with companies that they have investments in,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister said he believes the value of the shares Abramovich owns in Evraz is less than 30 per cent. “We are obviously going to watch carefully but we are confident that this will not impact the hardworking Canadians who are doing good work in companies across the country.”
Trudeau also said he’s considering a Canadian airlift of Ukrainian refugees who may want to leave Europe to find a safe haven in Canada as the European continent buckles under its worst migration crisis in decades. But he wouldn’t say when.
“I’m not ruling that out at all,” Trudeau said. “We’re looking at all options ΓǪ Canadians want to be there for Ukrainians.”
The prime minister came face to face with the crisis when he spent time with more than a dozen refugees in a Warsaw hostel on Thursday. While Canada has one of the world’s largest Ukrainian diaspora communities, at 1.3 million people, many of those fleeing their country would prefer to stay in Europe so they can return to their homeland when the war there ends.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told Trudeau that 100,000 people are coming from Ukraine into Poland every day, swelling his population by 1.5 million refugees. Duda said his country is warmly welcoming its Ukrainian neighbours and wants to give them sanctuary until they can return home.
But Duda did not try to hide the fact that the pressure on his country from a continuing influx of Ukrainians across its eastern border was not stopping and that help from allied countries such as Canada would be essential.
Trudeau said Friday the government will be providing extra resources to support its expedited refugee application process for Ukrainians that eliminates many of the normal visa requirements.
Trudeau has not spoken directly to Putin as some of his allies have, such as Germany’s Olaf Scholz and France’s Emmanuel Macron, but he was asked Friday whether he has gained any insights in the Russian leader’s state of mind.
Trudeau said a central theme in the conversations of the allies with Putin was “what he wants, what the endgame is” rather than focusing on “his deeper motivations and justifications.”
He said the leaders are trying to make Putin understand that “what he is doing is not going to lead to benefits for him or for the Russian people. On the contrary, it has set back Russia’s path forward.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2022.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
