Details are still emerging from Russia’s latest attack on innocent civilians in Ukraine. On Saturday, a missile strike on an apartment building in Dnipro killed at least 40 people, including a promising 15-year-old dancer, Maria Lebid. Thirty more people are unaccounted for, so the death toll will almost certainly rise. More than 70 were injured, too – many of them critically.
This, of course, is nothing new for Russia, which has been attacking civilians since the war in Ukraine started almost a year ago.
Last spring, the Russian military went after apartment blocks and public buildings in Kharkiv, killing hundreds; in March, a Russian airstrike destroyed a theatre in Mariupol that was sheltering children, murdering as many as 600 innocent people in what Amnesty International has called a “clear war crime”; the Russians have bombed a train station and a shopping mall, knowing full well that people were inside, trying to live their lives. The United Nations has confirmed that there have been about 7,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine – but acknowledge that the real figure is certainly much higher.
Russia’s conduct in a war it started for no good reason has been beyond despicable. According to a report by the U.N.’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, Russian soldiers have engaged in torture and summary executions. Investigators have uncovered unimaginable examples of sexual violence, including the alleged rape of a four-year-old girl and, separately, of an 83-year-old woman. Some, including Canada’s Parliament, have accused Russia of genocide.
None of this should come as a surprise when you consider the track record of Vladimir Putin’s administration. Russia’s bombing of the Syrian city of Aleppo, in support of the dictator Bashar Assad, is just one example of Moscow’s terrorist tendencies. In total, more than 51,000 civilians died in Aleppo; more than 13,000 children were either killed or injured.
So what does it take to be labelled a state sponsor of terrorism, a designation that typically comes with a raft of sanctions, economic and otherwise? Because if Russia doesn’t fit that definition, what government does?
Canada has listed only two countries as “state supporters of terror” – Iran and Syria – but the federal government has so far resisted calls to add Russia. The fact that it hasn’t renders our country’s State Immunity Act a farce. You either have a meaningful definition of what a terrorist state looks and acts like and move on that criteria, or you don’t.
In the case of Ukraine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to be taking his lead from U.S. President Joe Biden, who has similarly refused to designate Russia a state sponsor of terror, despite the fact that the U.S. has categorized Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria as such.
Few agree with Mr. Biden’s position, including members of the U.S. Senate on both sides of the floor. They believe it represents an appalling and embarrassing standing-down in the face of a tyrant who seems determined to wipe a people out. And make no mistake: that’s what’s happening in Ukraine.
Canada has absolutely no reason not to join others who have already stated the obvious: Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.
There is a growing chorus of those who believe words are important. Late last year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the European Parliament called on NATO and EU member states to declare the current regime in Russia a terrorist one. So far, only parliaments in Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states have done so.
It is clear that these bodies believe that public opinion is on their side.
The counter-arguments seem increasingly weak. Some say that this toxic label would hamper the ability to reach some sort of truce with Mr. Putin, but that’s ridiculous. Mr. Putin either wins this war, or he’s gone; losing is not an option for him. Tagging him and his government a terrorist state will not make one bit of difference in terms of his ambitions – but it might make some of the world believe that their democratic leaders have a backbone and aren’t afraid to call someone a terrorist who clearly is.
Thankfully, some politicians have. Recently, Ontario cabinet minister Monte McNaughton called Russia a “terrorist state” while announcing support for the more than 39,000 displaced Ukrainians who had settled in the province. While Mr. McNaughton’s remark doesn’t carry any weight with Ottawa, it helps show that not every politician in this country is afraid of getting Mr. Putin’s back up.
If you talk like a terrorist and act like a terrorist, there’s a pretty good chance you are a terrorist. Mr. Putin fits the description to a T.
Gary Mason