Canada announced a further round of sanctions against Russia on Monday following a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his counterparts from Britain and the Netherlands.
Another 10 individuals have been added to the sanctions list. Their names were suggested by Alexei Navalny, the jailed Russian opposition leader and activist.
“These sanctions put increased pressure on Russia’s leadership, including Putin’s inner circle,” said Trudeau.
Still noticeably absent from the sanctions list released Monday is billionaire Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich. He is a confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has extensive business holdings in Western Canada.
The ten Russians added to the list Monday are key media executives and personalities, business leaders and senior officials who, in some cases, also hold powerful positions in Russian industry.
Among the media personalities being sanctioned is Vladimir Solovyov, anchor and host accused of spreading propaganda. The Guardian reported that Italian police seized his villa on Lake Como shortly after the invasion started.
Also on the sanctions list is Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian television news network RT. She is described by the EU as a central figure in Russian government propaganda and is accused of promoting Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The third media mogul on the list is Konstantin Ernst, described by The New Yorker in 2019 as “The Kremlin’s Creative Director.” He is the the CEO of the television network Channel One Russia.
Among the Russian officials being sanctioned are Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, banker and Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and former justice minister Pavel Krasheninnikov.
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is believed to have the ear of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Canada is also targeting two officials of the FSB, the successor to the KGB: Victor Gavrilov and Dmitry Ivanov. Both men are alleged to have been involved in the arrest of Navalny.
Also on the list is Oleg Deripaska, a Russian industrialist with interests in aluminum, mining, airports and energy projects.
The Liberal government has faced increasing pressure — notably from the Ukrainian government — to target Abramovich.
Canadian sanctions to date have targeted hundreds of officials in the Russian regime and a much smaller number of oligarchs.
While the Russian economy and Russian businesses have taken a major hit, there is little sign of any impact on the ground in Ukraine. Attempts to establish humanitarian corridors have failed and 1.5 million people have fled Ukraine to escape relentless bombardment.
The allies say they recognize the disconnect.
Local residents cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate from their town in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine on March 7, 2022. (Jedrzej Nowicki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via Reuters)
“Yes, I agree with you. The sanctions have not had the desired effect,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in response to a reporter’s question Monday. “They have a huge effect on Russia but they are not against the Russians.”
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called this meeting with Trudeau and Rutte to promote his idea of a humanitarian coalition to help Ukraine.
Even after the meeting, the corridor remained a vague proposal to provide long-term assistance to Ukraine.
“As Ukrainians resist Russia’s onslaught with courage and tenacity, the international community must aid their struggle in every way we can,” Johnson said.
The three leaders, who met at a Royal Air Force base west of London, also discussed Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and natural gas.
Trudeau said Europeans have started to realize that Moscow is an unreliable partner.
Johnson has suggested that shifting Europe’s energy sources away from Russian control could affect the world’s climate change targets. He insisted that doesn’t mean those goals are being abandoned.
The U.S., meanwhile, is discussing a ban on Russian oil. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington is prepared to move unilaterally if necessary.
Rutte said that while no one doubts Europe must diversify its energy supplies, the work of untangling the continent from Moscow has to be done in an orderly manner.
“It is a step-by-step process,” he said. “We have to make sure to de-leverage our dependency on Russian oil and natural gas. If we forced companies to quit doing business with Russia in that realm, that would have enormous consequences.”
Trudeau was greeted at 10 Downing Street by a handful of angry protesters waving Canadian flags and calling for the release of Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the anti-vaccine mandate convoy that occupied downtown Ottawa for weeks.
The protest prompted Trudeau to use a separate entrance.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
