A federal announcement came for more tools for to help in the fight overseas as well as Ukrainians seeking refuge in Canada .
Lethal Weapons
Minister of Defense, Annita Annand announced that more lethal weapons are being sent over to help Ukrainian troops fight the battle against the Russians.
Up to 4,500 rocket launchers and 7,500 hand grenades are being sent over from current stockpiles in the Canadian Armed Forces.
On top of what has already been promised, a million dollars is also going to the Ukrainian government to purchase high resolution satellite imagery.
Travel Visa’s
The Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, Sean Fraser announced that there would changes coming for Ukrainian nationals looking to travel to Canada to escape the conflict in their country.
People from Ukraine coming to Canada have been getting priority and will continue until the new system is up an running in the next two weeks. Once that is launched, Canada will allow an unlimited number of Ukrainian nationals into the country on travel visa’s. Those applications will be much simpler to apply with and the fees associated with them will be waived. However, applicants will have a security check and will still need to supply biometrics.
Once approved, they will be allowed to stay in Canada for up to two years and they will be allowed to work or study within the country once they arrive.
The second program that the Minister announced today was an “expedited path” for people of Ukraine coming to Canada to become permanent residents and join family members that already live within the country. An expansion on the circle of family members will be able to sponsor incoming Ukrainians that want to live here permanently.
It has been questioned as to why Canada can’t waive visa’s for those fleeing the conflict, and Fraser explained that after a detailed look it would require regulation changes as well as broad spectrum internal and international IT changes that could take upwards of 14 weeks. Where as this new visa laneway will be up and running in the next two weeks.
So far more than 6,100 people from Ukraine have arrived in Canada since January.
New Tariffs
Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland announced new tariffs directed at Russia.
Freeland declared that Canada is the first country to revoke “most favoured nation” status within the World Trading Organization to both Russia and Belarus. Both countries will now face tariffs of 35 per cent on exports to Canada. The only other country that is also treated this way is North Korea.
During the briefing, the Deputy Prime Minister had harsh words for the Kremlin and the oligarchs that associate with Putin;
…We’re going to keep on going. There is a tremendous willingness among the worlds democracies to keep ratcheting up the pressure. And as I hope the Russian leadership has seen, we are being very creative. We are using tools which no one would even have imagined deploying just a week ago, and there’s more to come.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister also noted that sanctions that were only enacted on Monday are already affecting the Russian economy. The ruble has fallen by 30 per cent, the Bank of Russia’s interest rate has jumped to 20 per cent. As well, Thursday marks the fourth day that the Russian stock market has been closed.
Two out of three of the world’s top credit rating agencies have labelled Russia’s debt as “junk”; a rating that tells the world that their debts are likely to go unpaid.
Meantime, a statement from the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Canada has led to calls for Ottawa to expel the ambassador.
The document was put out Monday (pictured below) and says that Russia is strictly working to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.
“We understand that the ambassador in Ottawa is a mouthpiece for (Vladimir) Putin, and is saying the same kind of things that are Russian propaganda and disinformation,” remarked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday.
Oleg Stepanov was appointed to the post on March 9, 2021, and arrived in Canada on April 4th.
Trudeau stressed the next step has to balance the power the ambassador has with the work that’s being done by Canadians in the ground in Russia.
“We are of course looking at what our allies are doing, and what we need to do to not only send the strongest signals but also be as effective as we can in pushing towards an end to (the invasion),” added Trudeau.
The statement ended with the words “Russia is not starting wars, they are ending them.”
(With files from Kevin Jeffrey)