Georgia, Appealing to Canada for Help

"We are straightforwardly moving towards Russia."

"They're arresting doctors, beating journalists, and threatening to close down the opposition media."

"I do remember the time when the Soviet Union was collapsing and they were dispersing demonstrators, but they never did anything like this. This is brutal."

"[And, because few countries recognize Georgian Dream's re-election as legitimate], there are no institutions that will follow their orders except the police and special forces."

"But they are using special forces against people. We have this generational trauma already. And this just adds to our trauma even more."

Maya Purtskhvanidze, activist, Georgian Women's Initiative Group 

"The criminal acts of inhuman and degrading treatment and targeted persecution of peaceful protesters, as depicted in the video footage distributed by the media are disturbing."

"The video footage and information released clearly reveal numerous episodes of unjustified use of special equipment against protesters, including politicians as well as journalists and detainees, cases of alleged unjustified detention, direct intent to commit violence, and targeted persecution during the dispersal of the peaceful protest."

Public Defender of Georgia statement

 

"By suspending Georgia's EU accession process, Georgian Dream has rejected the opportunity for closer ties with Europe and made Georgia more vulnerable to the Kremlin."

"It's a textbook Russian way of destabilizing civil society and establishing dictatorship and the regime of the country."

"First, they attack international organizations, watchdog organizations, political parties, and human rights defenders."

"All the boxes are checked right now."

U.S. State Department

Pro-European Union demonstrators hold Georgian and EU flags during a protest against the government's postponement of European Union accession talks until 2028, outside the Parliament in central Tbilisi, Georgia, Dec. 11, 2024. Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto/Getty

Violent protests of Georgian citizens against vote-rigging in their recent election, allied with the decision by the leading governing party, Georgian Dream, to abandon the country's talks of joining the European Union, seem like a reprise of a similar situation a decade earlier in Ukraine. The reversal is that Ukraine wanted to join the EU, and to create a separation between itself and Russia, and in Georgia the ruling party is moving closer to Russia, abandoning the country's aspiration to join the European Union.

Weeks of protests in the country of 3.7 million people has seen Tbilisi punished by an increasingly authoritarian government re-installed by the election on October 26 in parliamentary elections ostensibly favouring Georgian Dream. Voter intimidation, vote-buying allegations and associated voting irregularities were reported by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

Georgian Dream, in its 12th year in government, announced a day following the election its intention to halt accession talks with the EU until some time in 2028. This, despite its constitution which promises to pursue full integration into the European and NATO. The European Parliament had issued a resolution critical of the election it characterized as unfair. The EU suspension announcement saw a wave of protests and a violent response in the past several days where tear gas, water cannons and police beatings broke up the protests.

In recent weeks, a constitutional institution independent from government, the Public Defender of Georgia, spoke with 327 detainees who were injured during the protests. Of that total, 225 protesters spoke of ill-treatment suffered from the police, with 157 of that number having visible injuries. "I don't know why the government thought they had to use force", said Moreta Bobokhidze, a Georgia activist.

 

Protests over delays in the country's European Union negotiations have stretched into their 14th consecutive day, as demonstrators demand swift action from the government to advance membership talks, in Tbilisi, Georgia, Dec. 11, 2024. Davit Kachkachishvili/Anadolu/Getty

 

A 28-year-old film and theatre actor, Andre Chichinadze, was arrested when 6 police officers appeared at his house. He was arrested on charges of organizing, leading, participating and publicly calling for violence. His mother explained: "He was just standing in the front line, right in front of the police or the mob, because there were girls he was trying to protect." The government's intention to suppress peaceful protest, intimidate the public and "target positive faces" is part of its plan to subdue protest.

"They could have arrested him during the demonstration, but no. They specifically organized this home arrest and created this propaganda around him as if they were investigating something."

"For so many years, people were patient, or trying to be patient, because they didn't want to fight on the street, they didn't want to demonstrate."

"They wanted peaceful development."

Maya Purtskhvanidze

The public is fearful that suspension of EU accession talks would result in an increasingly vulnerable Georgia, ripe for Russian interference. In desperation, activists in Georgia have called on the Canadian government to "publicly condemn backsliding in Georgia, support targeted sanctions on officials responsible for undermining Georgia's democratic integrity, advocate for peaceful protests and bolster Canadian support for Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration".

"Canada remains open to co-operation with Georgia, as long as the Georgian leadership respects democracy, human rights, rule of law and addresses the recent democratic backsliding."

"We call for calm by all parties and for the Georgian authorities to respect the rights and security of individuals in the context of peaceful protests."\

"[There is a need for] free, fair and independent elections [in democratic societies]."

Canadian government statement

Canada itself is undergoing a situation not entirely dissimilar to Georgia's. The current Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is dysfunctional and has led the country into financial ruin, exacerbated relations between its disparate provinces, mismanaged immigrant intake so that housing, medical care, social services are well beyond breaking point. Rising crime, religious, ethnic turmoil has taken over the streets, while the governing body does nothing to put a stop to the chaos and violence. Hardly the country to turn to for help in Georgia's travails.

Georgia fears the smothering tentacles of  the Russian Federation with designs to once again incorporate Georgia into a greater union with Russia to fulfill Russian President Vladimir Putin's wish to emulate the Soviet Union's control of its eastern European neighbours. Canada, on the other hand, is concerned and restive over a change in the Presidency in Washington that will impact, they fear, deleteriously on Canada's trade and independence. 

 

Perhaps Canada should call on Georgia to condemn the Canadian Prime Minister's refusal to step down from high executive office in favour of alternative governance to return Canada to its center of gravity as a law-abiding, secure and equality-ensuring nation. The vast majority of the Canadian voting public has no trust in this government led by a man whose vision is that of a 'post-National' country whose values, laws, culture and history is to be erased.

Pro-Palestine supporters at a Hands Off Rafah rally in Edmonton, Alberta, on March 10, 2024. (Artur Widak via Getty Images)