The Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs blasted the government officials that went to a Russia Day occasion at the Russian Embassy in Ottawa. “This is unacceptable,” wrote Melanie Joly on Twitter. “No Candian representative should have attended the event hosted at the Russia Embassy & No Canadian Representative will attend this kind of event again.”
Joly said Canada “continues to stand” with Ukraine “as it fights against Russia’s egregious invasion.”
Yasemin Heinbecker, the deputy chief of procedure at Canada’s Department of Global Affairs, was sent out on the June 10 occasion, marking the anniversary of the nation’s adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic on June 12, 1990.
Protestors collected outside the embassy to show versus Russian President Vladimir Putin and the dispute.
“Moscow’s diplomatic mission in Ottawa held its celebration early Friday with a lavish spread of food and drinks, as well as a speech by Russian ambassador Oleg Stepanov that recalled his country’s long-standing relationship with Canada,” reports The Globe and Mail. “Guests included representatives from Pakistan, as well as Egypt and other African countries.”
Since Russia’s intrusion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Canada has actually released sanctions on more than 1,000 individuals and companies with ties to Russia and Belarus, according to Reuters.
On June 8, the federal government revealed its most current set of sanctions versus Russia, consisting of a restriction on services utilized to support gas, oil, and chemical markets such as technical, accounting, management, and marketing services.
“We will continue to relentlessly pursue accountability for Vladimir Putin’s senseless war,” the Minister of Foreign Affairs said per, Euro Weekly News. “Canada will do everything in its power to prevent Putin’s ability to fuel and finance his war machine.”
A representative for Global Affairs Canada stated the choice to send out a federal government agent was a mistake in judgment.
“Russian officials will not be invited to Canada Day events hosted by the department,” the spokesperson added, per CBC.
Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov launched a declaration stating it was popular to welcome worldwide agents to the embassy occasions which he valued Heinbecker’s presence.
“We are in contact almost daily, we have a lot of issues on the daily agenda and practical issues that require solutions,” Stepanov noted, per Tellerreport. “Both I and the Minister-Counsellor, and our diplomats regularly interact with their counter-partners in the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
“We believe diplomacy is an all-weather instrument and diplomatic protocol is an important part of upkeeping the bilateral communications. Diplomacy is about dialogue,” the ambassador added. “We don’t look at Canada through the adversarial optic and are ready to patiently wait when [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau’s cabinet or the next government come to understand that it’s in Canadian national interest to pursue good-neighbourly relations with Russia.”
According to CTV News, the Canadian federal government has actually been called by some to expel Stepanov because of the continuous Russia-Ukraine dispute.
H/T Timcast