Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with legislators in the United States and Europe, has called on national leaders to follow through on pre-invasion promises of unprecedented economic consequences for Russian President Vladimir Putin if he attacked Ukraine.
As Russian forces attacked Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky called for the West to exclude Russia from SWIFT, impose an oil embargo, revoke travel visas for Russians and recall ambassadors. The President chided “the indecision of politicians” in a video message, saying Ukraine’s allies “must act without delay.”
“This is not just Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, this is the beginning of the war against Europe. Against the unity of Europe. Against the elementary human rights of Europe. Against all co-existence rules on the continent,” Mr. Zelensky said. “But we do not see in full what you are going to do. How are you going to protect yourself when you help us so slowly in Ukraine?”
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
UKRAINE
FINAL MOMENTS OF UKRAINIAN BORDER GUARDS’ FIERCE STAND AGAINST RUSSIA BECOMES RALLYING CRY: A defiant last stand by a small group of Ukrainian border guards defending a Black Sea outpost has become a new rallying cry for a country under attack by Russian forces – and those in Russia who oppose the war. Story here.
EUROPEANS RUSH TO POLISH-UKRAINIAN BORDER TO PICK UP FAMILY OR LEND A HELPING HAND: As Marek Mahdal watched news reports of Russian air strikes pounding Ukraine, he didn’t feel he could sit at home in Prague and do nothing. Story here.
TURKEY SAYS IT CANNOT STOP RETURNING RUSSIAN WARSHIPS FROM ACCESSING BLACK SEA: Turkey cannot stop Russian warships accessing the Black Sea via its straits, as Ukraine has requested, because of a clause in an international pact that allows vessels to return to their home base, the Turkish foreign minister said on Friday. Story here.
CHINA BLAMES U.S., NATO FOR PROVOKING PUTIN, BUT BEIJING WARY OF SUPPORT FOR INVASION: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this week shocked the world, even after months of sabre-rattling by Moscow, but China in particular seems to have been wrong-footed by the unprovoked attack. Story here.
AFGHAN REFUGEES STUCK IN UKRAINE WITH NO EXIT IN SIGHT: Afghan refugees who fled to Ukraine after the Taliban takeover of their home country are terrified that they have once again found themselves in a war zone, with no obvious exit. Story here.
UPDATES: Watch here for the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
OTHER HEADLINES
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have a chance to push an increasingly divided Supreme Court to the left with the retirement in September of Justice Michael Moldaver, a Stephen Harper appointee. Justice Moldaver’s retirement date was announced on Thursday. Story here.
DOCUMENTS SHOW TRUDEAU WARNED OF ISSUES LINKED TO ‘BUILD BACK BETTER’ PLEDGE: Newly released documents show Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was given warnings about the complexity of plans to “build back better” from the pandemic that could lead to economic uncertainty. Story here.
TORIES RULE OUT MAKEUP OF EMERGENCIES ACT COMMITTEE: The Official Opposition Conservatives have rejected the proposed makeup of a new oversight committee that will review the government’s decision to invoke special powers under the Emergencies Act. Story here.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS: The House is adjourned until Feb. 28, 2022, at 11:00 a.m.
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre announced his national campaign co-chairs on Twitter: Conservative MP Tim Uppal, former foreign minister John Baird, Senator Leo Housakos and former fisheries minister Gail Shea.
The National Gallery of Canada is reopening its doors this Saturday, February 26.
THE DECIBEL – On Friday’s edition of The Globe and Mail’s daily news podcast, David MacAndrew Clarke, who worked as a railway porter for CPR in the late 1960s, talks about what it was like working on the train and how his father and the generation of older porters, almost exclusively Black men, before him dealt with discrimination and fought to make the job better. Plus, Marsha Greene and Arnold Pinnock of the creative team from the new CBC show, The Portertalk about unearthing this sometimes forgotten history and what it was like turning it into a drama for a wider audience. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister participated in the NATO Leaders Meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The Prime Minister is scheduled to participate in a virtual celebration to mark the end of Black History Month hosted by Marci Ien, the minister for women and gender equality and youth.
LEADERS
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh meets with Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley and is scheduled to meet with William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital, the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign to discuss the current situation in Ukraine.
No schedule released for other party leaders.
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail)on whether allies are willing to bear the high cost of making Vladimir Putin pay: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau insisted, more than once, that Mr. Putin can’t be allowed to benefit from invasion – and it should be obvious that Canada has every interest in uniting with other democracies to make Mr. Putin pay. Canada’s conundrum is that it doesn’t have a lot of ways to materially contribute to that effort, or means to exact costs. Mr. Trudeau admitted that Canada doesn’t have a lot of business with Russia to cut off, and even less since 2014, when Canada imposed sanctions over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The Canadian government’s role on Thursday was as cheerleader for global order and unity among allies, many of whom would have to sacrifice more.”
Kelly Cryderman (The Globe and Mail)on how oil’s grip on Alberta’s finances will linger, at least for the time being: “Alberta says its push to diversify the economy and reduce its dependence on oil and gas is bearing fruit. The province’s latest budget forecasts that corporate and personal taxes will make up an increasing portion of government revenues by 2025. But in the near term, at least, oil will continue to hold its grip on the Alberta’s finances – for the good and bad. In fact, the budget released on Thursday shows the province’s finances for the coming year will become even more sensitive to swings in North American pricing for oil.”
Konrad Yakabuski (The Globe and Mail)on how Jean Charest would bring much-needed adult supervision to the federal Tories: “Mr. Charest, who came close to running for the Tory leadership in 2020, is under no illusions about the uphill battle he would face to win the leadership of a federal party that is quite unlike the one he led before being drafted to take the helm of the federalist Quebec Liberals in the wake of the 1995 sovereignty referendum. He would need to recruit thousands of new Tories, and that would take time and money. Still, this is hardly Mr. Charest’s first rodeo. And among the list of potential leadership rivals, there is no one with his political talent, stature and experience. His mere participation would up the ante for a party in dire need of adult supervision.”
Timothy Garton Ash (Special to The Globe and Mail) on how the West needs to support the Ukrainians – for their sake and ours:“Why do we always make the same mistake? Oh, that’s only trouble in the Balkans, we say – and then an assassination in Sarajevo sparks the First World War. Oh, Adolf Hitler’s threat to Czechoslovakia is “a quarrel in a faraway country, between people of whom we know nothing” – and then we find ourselves in the Second World War. Oh, Joseph Stalin’s rape of distant Poland after 1945 is none of our business – and soon enough we have the Cold War. Now we have done it again, not waking up until it is too late to the full implications of Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. And so, on Feb. 24, 2022 – a date that will go straight into the history books – we stand here again, clothed in nothing but the shreds of our lost illusions.”
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HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
