LILLEY: Canada’s cowardice with Ukrainian embassy staff is shameful

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Ukrainians working at Canada’s embassy in Kyiv had been left behind regardless that Trudeau authorities officers had been warned these staff may be on Putin’s kill listing. The stunning revelations, first reported by the Globe and Mail, weren’t refuted by the federal government.

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In accordance with the Globe, a number of senior diplomats, talking anonymously, had been briefed in January that intelligence from the 5 Eyes Group – Canada, the U.Ok., U.S, Australia and New Zealand – confirmed that Russia would launch an invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the intelligence report described how Russia deliberate to search out those that had labored for Western embassies.

There was no listing of names supplied, in keeping with the diplomats, but it surely was presumed that Ukrainian locals working for Canada could be on the listing. The orders from International Affairs headquarters in Ottawa to the native diplomats in Kyiv was clear, don’t inform anybody.

“They had been advised by two senior International Affairs civil servants that Canada had no accountability – identified in coverage phrases as a ‘responsibility of care’ – to native workers on this scenario, and that Ottawa didn’t wish to set a precedent of defending native embassy employees,” the Globe reported.

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Now, an official for International Affairs Minister Melanie Joly is claiming in a press release that the protection and safety of native employees “is of utmost significance.

“Ought to the minister have had data of domestically engaged employees dealing with direct risk, she would have taken the mandatory actions to maintain them secure,” spokesperson Adrien Blanchard stated in a press release late Tuesday.

Blanchard added that Joly has spoken to officers concerning the considerations of native employees, that there have been affords of versatile work preparations and that they had been knowledgeable of immigration paths to Canada. Thanks for working for us, right here’s a brochure.

One of many solely defences put ahead to the Globe of their unique story was a 2014 memo from the Harper authorities issued after the sudden closing of the Iranian embassy. If this had been 2015, maybe that might fly, however that is 2022, and simply final September, we had the autumn of Kabul and the issues that offered with leaving native Afghan staff behind.

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The Trudeau authorities has been firmly in energy for seven years, their skill accountable dangerous coverage on the previous Conservative authorities is completed. They’re the individuals in cost; they may gleefully let you know that they’ve received three elections. It’s time for them to take accountability and never simply go blame.

When Canadian embassy officers fled Kyiv for Lviv on Feb. 12 after which for Poland on Feb. 24, after the invasion began, they had been below categorical orders to not inform native embassy employees that their lives had been at risk because of their jobs. That’s nothing in need of cowardly and despicable, and but it was the official order that diplomats had been advised to observe from HQ in Ottawa.

We will debate whether or not we should be saving each individual at risk on this world and resettling them to Canada, however these are individuals who labored for us. If we don’t owe them the provide of a brand new life in Canada, don’t we not less than owe them the decency to inform them that their lives are in danger because of the work they’ve completed on behalf of our nation?

That would appear just like the minimal we must be doing, however apparently it’s greater than the Trudeau authorities is keen to present in the meanwhile.

Fortunately, Kyiv was not overrun in a matter of days or perhaps weeks, because the early intelligence urged it could be. It seems that nobody was hunted down as a result of the Ukrainian individuals have held the Russians again.

That doesn’t negate what the Trudeau authorities did in deciding that when the going bought powerful, we must always get going and go away native Ukrainian staff behind.

It’s shameful.