44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 20, 2024 02:00PM
- Mar/20/24 7:17:50 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Chair, it is a real pleasure tonight to have a few minutes to stand and talk about the relationship between Canada and Ukraine. The fact that the free trade agreement was passed yesterday is one of the additional symbolic things we can be doing to show our support for Ukraine.
Once the world witnessed the brutal unprovoked attack on democracy, freedom and the rules-based international order when Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine, not many people believed that Ukraine's capital would stand strong longer than two or three days. However, two years later, it is clear that their remarkable strength, resilience and love for their country made Ukrainians known around the world as members of a nation of the brave, and Ukraine has become a symbol of a steadfast force.
I am proud that Canada and our government stand alongside international partners with unwavering support for Ukraine. On the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, our Prime Minister and President Zelenskyy signed a new, historic agreement on security co-operation between Canada and Ukraine to establish a strategic security partnership. This agreement is intended to shore up Ukraine's security and outlines key, long-term security commitments for Canada to continue supporting Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty and territorial integrity, protects its people and rebuilds its economy for the future. As part of that commitment, Canada will provide over $3 billion in critical financial and military support to Ukraine in 2024.
Our government has stood with Ukraine since day one of Russia's illegal invasion, and we will continue to do so until Ukraine and the Ukrainian people are free once again. The signing of the new security agreement is yet another testament to Canada's unwavering support for Ukraine. Canada will continue to support Ukraine's implementation of the deep and comprehensive reforms necessary for full integration into the EU and NATO, and we commend Ukraine for the significant reform that has been made to date. It is clear that defence and security are the number one priorities for Ukraine right now, and our prayers are with all of the people in Ukraine.
The rebuilding and recovery of Ukraine are another highly important aspect to its agenda. To this end, I am thrilled to acknowledge the incredibly important milestone that Canada and Ukraine achieved last night, as I mentioned earlier: the royal assent of the modernized Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement. As chair of the international trade committee, it was great to work with all members of the committee to examine it, process it and get it through committee and into the House. It is disappointing that the Conservatives turned their backs on Ukraine by voting against the free trade deal, but I need to emphasize that this side of the House will continue to stand with Ukraine in our words, in our actions and with our votes.
A modernized CUFTA marks an important milestone in the Canadian-Ukrainian relationship, one that will support our people, our workers and our businesses for years to come. Sectors of strategic importance to Ukraine's recovery include infrastructure, renewable energy, financial services, and oil and gas, which are all areas where Canada has strengths. Even more so, CUFTA will help make the reconstruction process transparent and sustainable. This agreement is the first FTA addressing anti-corruption provisions.
According to the latest estimates by the Ukrainian side, since February 2022, more than 37% of the total damage in Ukraine has fallen on residential buildings, another 24% on infrastructure and 8% on industrial assets. It is no surprise that Ukrainian and international analysts say that Ukraine will turn into the largest construction site in the world after the war ends. This free trade agreement sets the foundation on which Canadian and Ukrainian businesses can work together in the reconstruction of Ukraine and underpins the long-term economic relationship between our two countries.
Our government will continue making sure Ukraine has Canada's back in times of need. Canada will stand with Ukraine, as I indicated earlier, with whatever it takes, for as long as it takes. Slava Ukraini.
I am thankful for the opportunity to speak and to share time with the previous member.
712 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 7:38:12 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member opposite for highlighting the government's recent announcement on acquiring additional 155-millimetre shells. I believe that the government should also be building domestic capacity to produce shells here in Canada.
It is clear in discussions I have had at NATO headquarters in Brussels last year and in talking to defence experts here in Canada that there is an undercapacity that has developed since, frankly, the fall of the Berlin Wall with respect to armament production. We have, through a series of decisions we made as a result of what was then called the peace dividend, decided to reduce the capacity of western democracies, NATO democracies in particular, to produce 155-millimetre munitions and other munitions, and we are in desperate need of rebuilding capacity.
The Government of Canada should lead an effort, which could be part of our 2% contribution to the Wales declaration, to invest in the capacity here at home to increase armament production, munitions production, so we can meet not only our needs but also the needs of NATO members and the needs of democracies beyond the NATO alliance, such as Ukraine.
195 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 7:47:17 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I think this take-note debate is timely because it allows us to take stock of how Canada and Ukraine have been collaborating since Russia's large-scale invasion of that country in 2022.
What can I say, other than this agreement, the Canada-Ukraine strategic security partnership, was signed on February 24, 2024, when the Prime Minister visited Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. My hope is that this partnership will bear fruit. My fear is that it will be on par with what we have done so far, meaning that it will fall short.
Let me back up a bit. I think the fatal error that western countries made from the get-go was to suggest that, no matter what, we were not going to intervene. In my opinion, that gave Vladimir Putin license to do just about anything he wanted to do. I think we dropped the ball right from the get-go.
When the conflict began, members will recall that we were quick to deliver humanitarian aid. Militarily, we delivered what we called non-lethal weapons to Ukraine at that time: helmets, bulletproof vests, night vision goggles. Imagine being Ukrainian, seeing Russian troops coming in, and Canada sending helmets, bulletproof vests and night vision goggles.
Obviously, we quickly realized—I think the goal was to avoid provoking Russia—that this was not exactly what Ukraine needed. We began sending them ammunition, and before long, we were sending machine guns. Then, after a while, we started sending artillery, and some time after that, anti-aircraft defence weapons. Then, after a while, we sent them tanks, and after that we started sending fighter jets.
A few weeks after the conflict began, I went to NATO headquarters in Brussels and I asked the military command what was happening with the fighter jets. I was told that it takes six months to train a pilot. I went back to NATO headquarters a few months later and asked the military command the same question, and I was once again told that it takes six months to train a pilot. That is when I took the liberty of telling NATO's commander-in-chief that, if we had started training pilots from the get-go, then maybe we would have been able to prevent the Russians from settling into and fortifying their positions to the point where it is now almost impossible to get them out and maybe we would not be in the situation that we are in now.
I think that we misjudged the threshold beyond which we would risk provoking the Russians. Honestly, just between us, Madam Chair, the Russians already had their hands full with the Ukrainians, and I do not think that they would have engaged in a large-scale conflict with NATO. I think that the NATO countries misjudged the situation from the beginning, which means that we basically allowed Russia to really gain a foothold in Ukraine. That is extremely unfortunate.
I want to come back to the Canada-Ukraine strategic security partnership, which will apparently be in effect for 10 years. This agreement will increase information sharing, co-operation and military support, help Ukraine join NATO and help Ukraine rebuild. That is all well and good, but what is in the agreement that goes beyond appearances and image?
I remember that extremely striking image of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of National Defence and the Prime Minister going to Kyiv. It is a spectacular image. A flag was raised on the flagpole at the Canadian embassy, indicating that the embassy was open. However, that is no longer the case today. Of course, we have staff working within Ukraine's borders, at home and in hotels, but not at the embassy.
In addition, when it comes to visa applications, Ukrainians are still being asked to leave the country and go to other countries in Europe to apply for a visa, because the embassy in Kyiv is still unable to welcome Ukrainian citizens who would like to apply for a visa.
I am all in favour of having a joint declaration of support for Ukraine. I hope it will help Ukrainians. We know that all political parties in the House want to support Ukraine, if we exclude the minor episode where the Conservatives were perhaps not up to the task of supporting the free trade agreement. Support is unanimous on the matter before us. However, everyone needs to walk the talk. We need to put our words into action. Right now there is a lot of talk and no action.
The proof lies in the fact that the Ukrainian defence minister said, “At the moment...50% of [weapons] commitments are not delivered on time.” Because of these delays, he said, “we lose people, we lose territory”. It may seem awful that western nations are failing to deliver on 50% of their commitments. It is appalling that 50% of their commitments are not being met. In Canada's case, however, the figure is almost 60%.
On February 19, Le Devoir published an article on Canada's failure to meet its commitments to provide assistance to Ukraine. The article said, “almost 60% of the value of the military equipment that Canada promised Ukraine after the outbreak of Russia's war of invasion two years ago has still not been honoured.... Of the $2.4 billion in military aid promised by Ottawa since February 24, 2022, $1.4 billion has still not made it to the front lines”. That means that 58% of everything promised to Ukraine has not been delivered. I am sure someone is going to tell me that these are only numbers.
I will continue. “The National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and associated munitions, at a cost of $406 million”, has not been delivered. “The 35 high-resolution drone cameras valued at $76 million”, have yet to be delivered. “The promised winter clothing, worth $25 million”, which would supply 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers with “boots, thermal layers, winter sleeping bags and patterned military uniforms”, according to the announcement made at the time, have yet to be delivered.
Ukraine is still waiting for small arms and ammunition worth $60 million that the Canadian Commercial Corporation is trying to procure from an arms manufacturer in Ontario. The same goes for 10,000 rounds of 105mm ammunition, 76mm naval ammunition, 277 1,000-pound aircraft bombs and associated fuse assemblies, 955 rounds of 155mm artillery smoke and over 2,000 rounds of 81mm mortar smoke, and 2,260 gas masks, which were supposed to be sourced from the Canadian Armed Forces' inventory.
We know that our inventory is not especially well stocked, but what we do have, we could send right away. That has not been done. We are still fiddling around while the Ukrainians are in an absolutely terrible situation.
More tragic still is the fact that, for want of weaponry, Ukrainian soldiers are being subjected to wave upon wave of Russian attacks. The Russians have troops to spare, but the Ukrainians do not have the firepower to repel their attacks.
I support a strategic security partnership agreement between Canada and Ukraine. I am all for any measure that can really help Ukraine. Again, it is time to stop posturing, spouting good intentions, and paying lip service. It is time to make sure these promises are actually kept.
1258 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 7:57:15 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his speech. We were both members of the committee that must not be named. It was very interesting. What struck me was how we, as Canadians, take our safety here in Canada for granted.
We have welcomed more than 100 Ukrainian families to Châteauguay—Lacolle, and they are fitting right in. These wonderful people work in our communities, and we are happy to have them. In his speech, my colleague said that NATO should maybe have intervened sooner following the Russian invasion. I would like him to expand on that. Does he think Canada was ready to send troops to Ukraine?
111 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 8:06:59 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Edmonton Strathcona.
It has been more than two years since Putin began his full-scale, illegal invasion of Ukraine. Today, New Democrats want to reaffirm our solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Putin's genocide has killed and injured tens of thousands of Ukrainians and displaced hundreds of thousands more. However, through it all, Ukrainians have maintained their courage in fighting for Ukraine, for democracy, for international law and for an international order based on justice and accountability. Their spirit and resilience in the face of this war shines bright, and they do it for all of us.
Since Parliament's last take-note debate on Ukraine, much has changed. The unanimous solidarity among democratic countries is beginning to crack. The long-awaited strategic security partnership package from the United States has been held hostage by far-right Republicans who seek to undermine Ukraine's fight. Hungary's Viktor Orbán has repeatedly blocked Ukraine's membership in NATO and the European Union.
At a time when the far right is increasingly listening to Putin, Ukraine needs Canada to step up and support its fight. That is why it is so painful to see what is happening here in Canada.
First, we have seen the government not meet the urgency of Ukraine's fight. Time after time, the government announces a new aid package to Ukraine, whether it is for air defence systems, light armoured vehicles, funding toward demining activities, or seized Russian assets, only to have the promise left unfilled. While the government delays its delivery of aid, Ukraine is being bombed and Putin's attacks continue. We must demand that the government quickly deliver on all promised aid packages and find new ways to deliver aid quickly.
Second, what is truly painful to see is the erosion of our unanimous solidarity within this very chamber. I know the pride many members of the Conservative Party had when thinking they were champions for Ukraine. However, recently, I was shocked to see the shift in positioning from the official opposition, and Canadian Ukrainians have spoken to me in my riding about how they feel abandoned by this.
Not only did the Conservatives vote against the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement, but they put up delay after delay on the bill. After President Zelenskyy specifically asked us to support the deal, Conservatives did everything they could to block it. Even last night, the Conservative Party senators teamed up for one last attempt to block the bill.
Conservatives also voted against additional monetary supports for Ukraine, with millions of dollars in humanitarian aid and the monies required by Operation Unifier so Canadian Armed Forces members can continue to train Ukrainians. The Conservatives voted against those measures.
Canada is not immune to American-style far-right politics. We know that the dog whistles we hear from the Conservatives about cutting foreign aid, refusing to commit to honour the security guarantee and calling Ukraine some “faraway” land are playing to a dark side of their base that we have to call out.
As this war continues and we hear more and more escalatory rhetoric from Russia, Canada needs to take a leadership role on the world stage. Last week, Putin openly declared Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons. This was far from the first time the world has heard those threats, but we need to continue to take them seriously.
The nuclear threat is the highest it has ever been. The tensions between NATO, Russia and China are constantly rising, and diplomacy between countries is at an all-time low. Canada has a role to play in restarting the necessary talks on nuclear disarmament. Canada could join the 93 other countries that have signed on to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We can use our voice on the international stage to push for disarmament negotiations so that Ukraine and our allies are not faced with nuclear blackmail and bullying by nuclear superpowers.
This is a moment for all of us to reiterate our commitment to supporting Ukraine and supporting the fight to create a peaceful, just world.
701 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 8:32:37 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, my hon. colleague mentioned in his speech how Ukraine and Canada share many similarities, in particular, a shared geography with Russia: Ukraine borders Russia, and Canada shares an Arctic border region with Russia.
In light of the fact that Sweden and Finland have recently joined NATO and that NORAD modernization is going on, as the defence minister has indicated, could he tell the House what the government's views are on Canada's role in the Arctic, particularly as it relates to countering some of the threats the Russian Federation presents not just to the Canadian Arctic but to the other Arctic nations in the NATO alliance?
109 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 8:33:29 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, that question is key in my mind. As someone who lived in Canada's north for six years, I am very aware of the strategic importance of Canada's Arctic, as well as the fragility of Canada's Arctic and the people who inhabit it.
I had not been to Finland until last year, but I made three trips to Finland in the last year and two trips to Sweden. Part of that was to engage with those northern countries. The welcoming of those countries into NATO has been absolutely critical. It changes the nature of our alliance. It adds more weight to the northern questions, to the near north, to the near Arctic, as well as the Arctic countries. Those voices at the table are very valuable for Canada. Of course, we were the first country to acknowledge and approve their accession into NATO. We did that not only because it is good for them and their security, but it is good for Canada and our security. Absolutely, we have to have them.
My colleague from Orleans, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence, will be speaking after me. I am sure she will have an understanding of our restructuring, refunding and rebuilding of Canada's defence capacity in the north, both with NORAD and, I am hoping, with NATO as well, and for them to understand that our collective security resides on that front as well, not just in eastern Europe.
248 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 8:36:22 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I am not going to get into a recitation of everything that Canada has done, such as the military support and the training, but when I travel the world, believe me, we are thanked every day for the contributions we have done. There is no way Ukraine would have been able to withstand the massive assault it did from Russia without the training that Canada provided to 30,000 soldiers. I hear that every day.
Have we fallen short? Absolutely we can do more, but every country in the world is facing a similar situation. We are looking for armaments that are not always available. We are looking for weapons that are not always available. The ammunition needs to match the artillery Ukraine has, and it is not always available. This is not an easy task. Canada is working lockstep with our NATO allies and others to continue this fight.
We never said this was easy. I have been in opposition. It is very easy to do anything one wants in opposition and say anything. We are doing it day by day. We are working with the Ukrainian government, with the Ukrainian embassy here and with the tremendous ambassador, and we are finding ways to do that.
209 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 8:39:09 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I apologize.
To guide these efforts, the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Ukraine signed an agreement on security co-operation between our two countries in Kyiv this past February.
I am very pleased with the agreement, and the reason we are talking about it tonight is that it builds on previous bilateral agreements between Canada and Ukraine, as well as on the larger NATO effort to help Ukraine. Specifically, it builds on the 2017 Canada-Ukraine Defence Cooperation Agreement signed by the Canadian Department of National Defence, the Canadian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, a major milestone in our shared defence efforts.
It also builds on the G7 joint declaration of support for Ukraine announced on the margins of the NATO summit in Vilnius last July.
The aim of this new agreement is to expand and to deepen our political, foreign, military and security co-operation and effectiveness. This includes becoming strategic partners; enabling our two countries to share information more easily; delivering supports to Ukraine during both the conflict and the recovery; providing support to Ukraine in the event of future Russian attacks; helping Ukraine pursue integration into the Euro-Atlantic community; and supporting Ukraine in its pursuit of peace and security, with a special recognition that different segments of the population, including women, men, boys and girls, are all impacted differently by Russia’s invasion.
As part of those efforts, the agreement contains several critical funding announcements for Ukraine. Those include $3 billion in critical financial and military support to Ukraine in 2024, which I think my colleagues mentioned earlier; $45 million for demining assistance and cyber resilience; another $30 million to support ongoing engagement between CSIS and the Ukrainian intelligence service; and other funding to support resilient food systems, mental health services and governance reforms, among other measures.
One important aspect of this agreement is that it strengthens Canada and Ukraine's already robust defence relationship. We are proud to say that we are helping to support Ukrainian troops by training more than 40,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Since the war started, Canada has provided $4 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including $95 million in materiel.
The agreement also recognizes the significant potential of the Ukrainian defence industry.
When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine just over two years ago, it launched an attack on all those who seek peace and freedom across the globe. Putin thought the west would be quick to abandon Ukraine, but he was wrong; we are more united than ever. The security co-operation agreement signed last month is a testament to Canada’s dedication.
445 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 9:16:40 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for his compassion for the Ukrainian people.
As to what Canada has to do at the moment, certainly, it has to hope for a good result in the upcoming election in the U.S. We certainly fear what is going to happen should Trump be re-elected.
What the member said earlier about the effects on children was very apropos for me, because the harm caused by this invasion will go on for years. The effect on the education of children is something that we are going to feel for years.
The fact that the Republicans are blocking this is absolutely terrible in my mind. The reality is, perhaps, that we in the western world, parts of NATO that are not the United States, need to contemplate the possibility that we will have to do far more on our own. At some point in the future, should Trump be elected, we may need to do things without the support of America. I certainly hope that Canada would be willing to make the commitment that is needed to continue support of Ukraine against Russia with or without the United States. However, I would certainly like to see the United States continue its historical role in promoting and supporting the international legal order.
220 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 10:11:16 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Chair, it is an honour to rise in the chamber today on the issue of our strategic partnership with Ukraine. As members know, I have been sanctioned by Russia three times. I have also had the honour of visiting Ukraine multiple times: pre-Maidan, during Maidan, post-Maidan and several times thereafter, just before the war.
I think it is important, as we get into this debate, to take a step back and consider the environment we are in right now. When America withdrew from Afghanistan, it signalled two things. First, it signalled the end of Pax Americana, of a peace that had stretched through the world in the aftermath of the Cold War and created the greatest period of peace humanity had known.
The second thing it signalled was a retreat for NATO from Afghanistan, from a legitimate war it waged after an article 5 attack on New York on September 11, 2001. In the aftermath of that moment, we have watched all of our Cold War arrangements unfurl and the rule of law undermined.
We saw in Hong Kong the end of a deal negotiated by Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping, a deal that was supposed to last for 50 years but ended at its halfway mark with the imposition of the national security law on the people of Hong Kong. What was the western response? It was muted.
In the aftermath of that, Russia turned up its invasion of Ukraine nearly 100-fold. It dispatched battalions of soldiers, arrogantly driving to Kyiv with the purpose of conquest. What was the western response? It was, “President Zelenskyy, we have a plane for you, not the guns you need to fight and win the war.”
It is interesting to me that President Putin and Xi Jinping sat at the Beijing Olympics prior to that invasion to map out their unlimited ambition around the world. Part of that ambition included not just the borders of Ukraine and the rest of the world in the Middle East and Asia; it also included ambition on our northern borders, our Arctic sovereignty.
Only a few months ago, part of this constellation of authoritarians around the world, with their interoperable cybersecurity effects and with their interoperable drone warfare, dispatched Iran and its constellation of proxies in the region to wage war on the western alliance yet again. They did it in Iran in the horrific attacks of October 7, which claimed over 1,000 Israeli lives, and they did it in the northern part of Israel through rockets launched from Hezbollah fighters, rockets that were Iranian-built and Iranian-designed, with technologies from Russia and China.
In the aftermath of the chaos we have seen, including the conflict in Gaza, which has claimed so many lives, we also see a disruption to our global trade supply chains across the Red Sea region in the form of attacks from Iranian-backed Houthis on shipping conglomerates that drive up the cost of everything everywhere, creating chaos and disorder in international markets and compelling a response from the west to make the authoritarians stop. Only weeks ago, the same network cut data cables in the Red Sea region that supplied 25% of data from the Indo-Pacific region into Europe.
These are massive attacks across our western alliance, and as the west comes under attack, it is time for us, as a country, to grow up and join an alliance of democracies around the world that reclaim policies of peace through strength instead of experimenting with various versions of appeasement.
In this discussion, in this take-note debate today, I am encouraged by the strategic partnership with Ukraine and Canada that has been proposed and agreed to. What is more important is implementing three particular parts of it, which will define Canadian leadership and help change the course of history for the better.
First, Ukraine must win the war. President Zelenskyy rose in this chamber and asked for one thing. He said to end Russia's weaponization of energy. Why would he say that? He understood that Canada is the sole NATO ally with the potential to backfill European energy demand, with 3 trillion dollars' worth of natural resource strength, the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world, NATO's third-largest reserves of natural gas and the capacity to scale nuclear and agricultural products and technologies for the world.
Putin today mimics Stalin nearly a century ago, bent on creating famine by weaponizing the food supply, disrupting international energy supply chains, and burning and blockading grain supplies for the developing world so that it cannot reach fragile markets.
Vladimir Putin spent years choreographing Germany's dependencies on Russian oil. Having exploited that to shake down Europe, he intervened in Syria and Libya to subvert pipelines that would supply Europe and amplified misinformation against our own Canadian energy, ensuring a steady stream of revenue for Russia's war machine of nearly $1 billion a day, and $250 million a day from Germany alone, to fund his war machine.
When Germany finally realized the costs of this, Chancellor Scholz and subsequently President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came knocking on our door for Canadian energy, and both times we turned them away.
Russia and Iran scale production today, evade sanctions and provide discounted prices to Beijing to wage their wars in Europe and the Middle East. Qatar, host to Hamas, inked a 3.5-million-tonne gas deal with France just this week. If the NDP-Liberals truly care about trading relationships that support Ukraine, then they can do the one game-changing thing that the world has been demanding, which is to end Russia's weaponization of energy and let Canadian resources be what fuels, feeds and secures the world.
Second is defence production.
In our inventories as a country, we can provide Ukrainians the CRV7 missiles they require and the mobile hospitals that were purchased but not delivered. We can provide the 155-millimetre ammunition and the light armoured vehicles they require to push back against the Russian tide. This request came directly from Ukraine as well. It was the Ukrainian ambassador who took to our mainstream press. He went on our cable networks to demand that the government come to negotiate defence production and defence supply. I am encouraged to see it as part of the strategic partnership laid out here today, but I believe it is a Conservative government that would deliver the inventory and the defence production partnerships that Ukraine requires.
Finally, there is compensation for Ukrainians as they pursue the difficult task of rebuilding their economy. We know that Russia has $300 billion of frozen assets across the western world, of which $200 billion resides in Europe and $4 billion in the United States. The requirement Ukraine will have to rebuild its economy is nearly $600 billion. Repurposing these assets for losses, injuries and damages caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine is a critical requirement. We are at the halfway mark of that, but would it not be wonderful to think of Canada as a centre of investment, of infrastructure and of the partnerships that are required to rebuild the Ukrainian economy and the world thereafter? We have all the know-how, the skills and the expertise across our cities and our people to be a critical part of rebuilding this vital democracy.
Let me close with this. The democratic world needs to arrive at a shared understanding of the rivals we must now confront: rivals to our Atlantic alliance, most fiercely met by Ukrainian soldiers on the borders that they are fighting so hard to defend; rivals across the Middle East with our partners there, with borders that they deserve to maintain and with terrorist extremists that deserve to be defeated; rivals that are threatening the order of the Indo-Pacific region; and rivals that require deterrence to know that the resolve of the world is against their ambition to reorganize the world and that Canada would be a fierce and vital part of that partnership.
I am thankful for the opportunity to provide some views in this debate. Conservatives support the strategic partnership with Ukraine as an important step forward, and we believe that our future Conservative government will deliver the energy, the munitions and materiel, and the compensation for investment and infrastructure that Ukraine requires.
1396 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Mar/20/24 10:55:43 p.m.
- Watch
Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member for his kind words toward me. I do appreciate that.
This is an issue that has all-party support, this new strategic security agreement between Canada and Ukraine.
I was not going to ask a question, but he did raise the misinformation out there. Research has been done, both in the Ukraine by NATO itself, through its Estonia cybersecurity and misinformation centre of excellence, which I had the chance to visit this past summer, as well as here in Canada. Everybody always wants to talk about the far right, and there is no doubt. The Tucker Carlsons of the world, the PPC types out there, are actually out there promoting all the Kremlin propaganda.
There is also a growing mountain of evidence to show that the far left, the alt-left, the Antifa types, are also saying that Russia is justified in its attacks on Ukraine and that Ukraine does not actually exist. It is all the same revisionist history that is pushed out by Putin and his troll farm in St. Petersburg.
I just want to ask the member if he recognized the fact that there are extremes on both sides of the political equation that are squeezing all of us who are supporters of Ukraine, and it requires us to fight back even harder on the misinformation and disinformation and to unite Canada and the world, including our American cousins, in their support for Ukraine.
245 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
