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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?”
Adrian Morrow reports on the mounting pressure on the West to take stronger measures against Russia.
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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 Porter talk 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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Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
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LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
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