WEYBURN - The federal government needs to learn they can’t have it both ways: saying that Canada is a friend to Ukraine and her peoples, and then acting to help Russia continue to supply gas to Germany.
This is what is referred to as “speaking out of both sides of your mouth”, or to put it another way, being two-faced.
Looking at what is happening in this situation, Russia invaded this smaller country and is relentlessly pounding it into dust, all the while Ukraine’s forces are standing strong and doing their best to defend their country.
In response, countries around the world, including Canada, imposed many sanctions on Russia to impress upon them the wrongness of their actions.
Russia’s military has been destroying whole cities, towns, villages, killing thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, and destroying infrastructure from factories and shopping malls to apartment buildings.
As a result of this illegal invasion of their neighbouring country, millions of Ukrainians have had to flee for their lives out of the country, most unable to take anything with them but the clothes on their backs.
The sanctions (which have yet to be shown to have any real effect on Russia) were intended to put real economic pressure on that country without involving the military of other countries to stop them. In other words, nobody wants a Third World War, so sanctions were supposed to provide an incentive to Russia to stop.
Thus, it is highly hypocritical of Canada to break sanctions and allow a turbine to be returned to Germany to enable the flow of natural gas from Russia. Allowing the free flow of gas from the invading country provides an income to that country, and helps in turn to fund their illegal invasion.
How in any sense can that be justified?
What’s worse is that the United States supports Canada’s hypocrisy, saying this was the right thing to do in the short term. If this is helping Russia to continue to garner an income in their supply of gas and oil into Europe, how can this possibly be the right thing to do?
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even sent a video message to Canada, asking this country to reconsider this action that will ultimately continue the hurt, pain and suffering being inflicted on their country by Russia.
The Liberals’ hypocrisy is compounded by their open hostility and lack of support of any kind for the oil and gas industry in their own country.
Canada cannot pretend to be the friend of Ukraine, even taking in refugees who have fled from their home land, and turn around to lend support to the very country that has illegally and immorally attacked Ukraine, killing many tens of thousands and destroying that nation’s infrastructure. This is completely unacceptable.
