Corruption International
"We are most interested in having a good relationship with Washington. It's vitally necessary for our security. We are for stronger co-operation, but not for stronger interference."
"I guess American democracy will work properly to settle this problem without Ukrainian interference."
Vasyl Bodnar, Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister
"Ukraine is waging this fight at a moment when -- and it is concerning and troubling to have to say this -- but at a moment when the rules-based international order and liberal democracy more broadly are under threat."
"[The threat also comes from] within our own Western alliance, among the world's liberal democracies. [Canada is now the world's] strongest liberal democracy."
"All of my Canadian modesty kind of shrinks back when I say it. But do the thought experiment yourselves, and if not us, then who?"
Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada
Ukraine's deputy foreign minister attended a conference in Ottawa hosted by a vast network of Ukrainian-Canadian groups. Ah yes, Chrystia Freeland, Ukrainian-Canadian whose grandfather was a Nazi collaborator, a publisher of a Nazi-supporting Ukrainian-language newspaper out of Poland during the Second World War where enthusiastic support was given to the concept of ridding the world of its pestilence of Jews. Canadian modesty? A canard, certainly exemplified by that extraordinary statement elevating Canada to the strongest liberal democracy in the world.
Bolstered no doubt by her boss, Justin Trudeau, speaking of Canada as a post-national country welcoming immigrants at the rate of a third-million annually, and favouring the audacity of the streams of illegal migrants flooding across the border from the United States into Canada to declare refugee status. And taking the government of Canada to court for its stance that the U.S. is a country of safe harbour, negating Canada's obligation to consider them refugees eligible for status in Canada since they had first entered the U.S. for that purpose.
The results of Canada's 21 October federal election more than adequately point out that the slender re-election of Ms. Freeland's Liberal Party of Canada back to power is anything but a democratic success story, since it hinges provocatively on the reality that the central government has so hugely alienated a significant proportion of the country's electorate that they are considering the possibility of separating from Canadian Confederation. So, as the world's signal democracy, something seems somewhat putrid in the claim. And oddly, reflecting within Canada a problem Ukraine faces.
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| 13,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Ukraine's east in 2014 AFP |
Ukraine, invaded by Russia in its east, losing the Crimean Peninsula and its deep sea port to Vladimir Putin's resurgent designs on eastern Europe in general and Ukraine in particular, is hugely concerned to continue its reliance on the good offices of the United States of America, for support and provision of military aid. America as a vital ally in the Russia-Ukraine war without end -- with Russia supporting and arming the ethnic Russian-Ukrainian rebels who claim the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine as their own, linked with the Russian Federation -- is indispensable to Ukraine's future.
That the Democratic Party is exercised over their Republican president's negotiating tactics with the new Ukrainian president for a bit of quid pro quo is of little moment to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predictably sees nothing amiss in a little conversation steering him to a course of action that would ingratiate him with Donald Trump, enabling the transfer of $130 million in badly needed military aid to attempt to hold his own with the rebels. Ukraine, after all, is accustomed to institutionalized corruption, a persuasive nudge like President Trump's rates as a mere pinprick.
The July 25 telephone conversation between Trump and Zelensky was a trifle, nothing to get excited about, and in truth far more substantive and egregious interchanges have without doubt taken place between presidents of various nations on countless occasions that have failed to erupt into the kind of orchestrated outrage and claims and counterclaims sufficient as to remove a sitting president from office. But such is the drama now unfolding in the United States Congress with the Republican-heavy Senate awaiting the opportunity to level the roiling tide.
Labels: Canada, Controversy, Russia, Trump Impeachment, Ukraine, United States
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, November 03, 2019
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