Hello,
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations is calling for calm after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s move to put his country’s nuclear forces on their highest level of alert as war with the Ukraine proceeds.
“I think it’s important for us not to be scared off by this tactic because I think it is a tactic,” Bob Rae told a Monday meeting of Parliament’s standing committee on foreign affairs and international development.
“It’s important not to give in to what it’s intended to do. It’s intended to make us all back off,” said Mr. Rae, instead urging Canadians “to stay resolute, to stay strong and to stay determined.”
There’s a story on President Putin’s nuclear forces action here.
Mr. Rae noted that in January, Russia joined other nuclear powers, including the United States, China, France and the United Kingdom to indicate a nuclear war could never be won and there was no justification for the use of nuclear weapons. Mr. Rae appeared to be referring to a declaration accessible here.
“This took place in January, 2022. We’re not talking about five years ago. We’re talking about six or seven weeks ago. So when President Putin turns around and makes the announcement that he made yesterday, what are we to make of it? I think it’s deeply irrational.”
Asked about the issue, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told a news conference later Monday that the idea of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine is unjustifiable and “madness. That is my response to his comments.”
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TODAY’S HEADLINES
UKRAINE
RUSSIA LIED: JOLY - Canada’s Foreign Minister told a United Nations panel in Europe on Monday that Russia lied to the world in the run-up to its invasion of Ukraine. Story here. Meanwhile, Canada will send $25-million in defensive equipment to help Ukraine defend against an invasion by Russia.
RT PULLED OFF THE AIR - BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and Shaw Communications Inc. are pulling a Russian state-funded television channel from their channel lineups after the minister who oversees Canada’s broadcasting system said Ottawa is exploring “all options” to get RT off the air. Story here.
RUSSIAN ATTACK ON KHARKIV - Russian forces unleashed a horrific attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city Monday, killing dozens, authorities said, on the day the country’s negotiators demanded a ceasefire. Story here.
TURKEY TO BLOCK RUSSIAN SHIPS FROM ENTERING BLACK SEA - Turkey’s Foreign Minister called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “war,” and said his country, a NATO member, would block Russian ships deployed in the attack from entering the Black Sea. Story here.
RUBLE FALLS TO NEW LOWS - The Russian ruble fell to further record lows on Monday while world stocks slid and oil prices jumped, as the West ramped up sanctions against Russia over its Ukraine invasion, with steps including blocking banks from the SWIFT global payments system. Story here.
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST SOME FLEEING UKRAINE - Africans and Asians fleeing Ukraine have been subjected to racial discrimination border guards, with videos showing Africans being pushed back from trains and border crossings going viral on social media, causing an uproar and sparking statements of concern by African politicians and officials. Story here.
BAN RUSSIA FROM HOCKEY COMPETITION: GRETZKY - Wayne Gretzky has raised his voice in opposition to Russian’s attack of Ukraine, saying the IIHF should ban Russia from its rescheduled world junior competition this summer. Story here.
UPDATES: Watch here for the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
OTHER HEADLINES
HIGH-PROFILE QUEBEC MP URGES CHAREST TO RUN - A prominent Quebec Conservative MP is urging Jean Charest to seek the leadership of the federal party. Gerard Deltell, a former leader of the Action démocratique du Québec from 2009 to the merger of the party with the Coalition Avenir Québec in 2012, said the former premier has the best political skills to defeat the governing Liberals in Ottawa. Story here. Meanwhile, Quebec’s anti-corruption squad has dropped a probe into the finances of the province’s Liberal party, detailed here in a report from Global News.
CANADA CHANGED BY FREEDOM CONVOY PROTESTS: GG - Governo- General Mary Simon says Canada “has been changed” by the “major event” of recent Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. In an interview, she said that although the protest started out about vaccinations, it “became much bigger than that.” Story here from CTV.
THIS AND THAT
TODAY IN THE COMMONS: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, Feb.28, accessible here.
TAYLOR ON OFFICIAL LANGUAGES - Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor is holding a press conference to discuss the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
NG VISITS WASHINGTON - International Trade Minister Mary Ng is visiting Washington on Monday to, according to a statement, “reinforce the importance of Canada’s strong partnership with the United States. “ Beyond meetings, the visit includes a keynote and panel at the Wilson Centre and virtual remarks hosted by the Brookings Institute on the progress of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to date and opportunities for the future.
THE DECIBEL - On Monday’s edition of The Globe and Mail podcast, the Globe’s retailing reporter, Susan Krashinsky Roberston, explains a dispute that has seen Frito-Lay, which makes Lays potato chips and other chip products, stop sending their chips to any stores owned by Loblaw, the biggest grocer in Canada. The Decibel is here.
PRIME MINISTER’S DAY
Private meetings. The Prime Minister chaired a meeting of the Incident Response Group on the situation in Ukraine. And the Prime Minister was scheduled to participate in a meeting hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden, with the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and NATO, to discuss Ukraine. There’s also a news conference with the Prime Minister at 3:30 p.m. ET. At 6:30 p.m. ET, the Prime Minister is to speak in the House of Commons on Canada’s response to the situation in Ukraine.
LEADERS
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is scheduled to deliver a speech, at about 7:10 pm ET, during the House of Commons debate on Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
No schedules released for other party leaders.
PUBLIC OPINION
Just over half of Canadians feel they’re outpaced by the rising cost of living, with a slight majority of 53 per cent, saying they can’t keep up, while 44 per cent say they have yet to feel that pressure. Details here.
OPINION
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on why Ontario’s Premier must be a key witness for the Emergencies Act inquiries: “Justin Trudeau has put his use of the Emergencies Act into the rearview mirror but we still need an accounting, and an answer for whether it was justified. When two inquiries delve into that question in the coming weeks and months, one key witness has to be Ontario Premier Doug Ford. It wasn’t Mr. Ford who invoked the Emergencies Act to break up the truckers blockades, of course, it was Mr. Trudeau – and it is the Prime Minister who has to answer for it. But so many of the events that led up to that move, including the obstruction of border crossings in Windsor and Sarnia, and the blockading of downtown Ottawa, happened in Mr. Ford’s Ontario.”
Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on B.C. Premier John Horgan’s cancer and the state of the world: “There was a moment when John Horgan let his mind go there. Or rather, when his mind dragged him to that dark place. British Columbia’s NDP Premier had been diagnosed with cancer before in his life, and survived it. Now, he was confronted with the same news again – a new form of the disease, which, in 2021, was estimated to have been the cause of 84,600 deaths in Canada. Having survived bladder cancer earlier in his life, Mr. Horgan was now confronting throat cancer, which has a high cure rate when caught early, but still it was cancer, with all the variables and unknowns and personal emotional trauma that is attached to the word.”
Margaret MacMillan (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has brought the past to the present, and made the future very uncertain: “Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine – and let us make no mistake, it is his and no one else’s – has suddenly brought the past very close and made the future very uncertain. The parallels with 1939 are uncomfortable ones: The dictator possessed by his mission, the barefaced lies and the claims of victimhood as the aggressors make victims out of those who only wanted to live their lives as they pleased. Where Hitler dreamed of a great Aryan empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals, Mr. Putin wants the restoration of the greater Russia of the Czars and the Soviet Union and the mystical unity of the Slavic peoples. We know what happened after 1939 and can only hope that somehow a peace of sorts will be patched up in Ukraine. But the world will never be the same. We have moved already into a new and unstable era.”
Scott Reid (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on Canada’s future elections at risk of mirroring the culture-war rhetoric of the United States: “For these reasons, the coming culture-war election cannot afford to be lost. But to win, the incumbent Liberals need to take this threat more seriously and measurably up their game. Two things in particular need to happen. Mr. Trudeau must stay, but he must also adjust. He must stay because, even though his brand has been bruised, he is still his party’s strongest asset. Yes, he has become a rallying point for opponents. Many justifiably view him as a long-time culture warrior in his own right. But at his best, Mr. Trudeau has the skills, celebrity and summoning appeal that no other figure on his side possesses. It is impossible to imagine that his most likely replacements would be better suited to wage and win a culture war. But he must also change. It starts with tone.”
Joel Roberts (Contributed to The Globe and Mail) on how the impact of an acoustic assault by truckers could linger long after they’ve left: “Truckers, take note: phantom horn syndrome still lingers in Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood. As the Ottawa Citizen reports, people are hearing honking that is no longer there. While relieved the blockade has ended, residents have taken to social media to discuss the health impact of weeks of incessant noise, fearing the long-term effects. This is the legacy, tragically still forming, of your merciless din. And unlike the consequences of clogged streets and blocked bridges – infuriating as those episodes have been – the after-effects of sustained auditory trauma are often permanent.”
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Ian Bailey