Justin Trudeau famously claimed when he took office that Canada was back, but his attention to global affairs has been pitiful: five ministers in six years, the latest one inarguably the least qualified. He has been preoccupied with optics, and it’s arguable he no longer carries any standing to lead.
When you see talking heads uncritically parroting propagandist stories about Ukraine that turn out to be false, from the “Ghost of Kyiv” to that Snake Island story to old photos taken years ago, you should be asking why the corporate media is so willing to spread such fake news (while it censors conservatives for factual critiques of disproven Covid narratives, no less). It wouldn’t be the first time the press lied to pull Americans into war.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced Wednesday afternoon that it was removing RT and RT France from the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution in Canada.
The decision means broadcasters in Canada are no longer legally permitted to carry the channel.
The Western intelligence apparatus has been busy in Ukraine. With financing and collaboration through various non-governmental organizations, it won the information war with the help of Ukrainian media before Russia ever fired a shot in February. Even the country’s newest publications, like the Kyiv Independent, have received support and funding from institutions associated with the Central Intelligence Agency.
In most cases, these outlets have propagandized to the beat of the West’s war drums rather than inform the public.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has signalled its solidarity with Ukraine in the form of supplies, weapons and sanctions since the early days of Russia’s latest incursion into its territory, but has not deployed troops for combat.
“This is the first time where people say, ‘Give diplomacy and sanctions a chance but brace for potentially this becoming military involvement,”’ said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.
In the past two weeks, it has become increasingly dangerous for Russian citizens to participate in anti-war demonstrations, to express opposition to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, or to share true information about the military campaign. The Russian State Duma has introduced legislation that threatens fines, forced military conscription and prison sentences for speaking the truth. At the same time, public pressure to support Putin’s lies has mounted. Russian professionals who refuse to sign open letters supporting the purported “special military operation” in Ukraine have been sacked from their jobs. Russian university students who show up at protests have faced expulsion.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is portrayed as a hero as he pushes for NATO — specifically the US — to go to war. While Russia is led by a villain and they invaded Ukraine, Zelenskyy might have been able to stop it before it got to this point. There is a lot of evidence that Russia did have legitimate complaints ignored by Zelenskyy and NATO.
For the record, I don’t agree with a lot of things in this article. I do however agree that Zelenskyy is not a hero and this is not our fight – at least not yet. But it’s always good to know what your opponents are thinking.
We are witnessing another manifestation of Russian imperialism pure and simple, notwithstanding many learned explanations by so-called “realists” that somehow the prospect of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, at best at some distant point in the future, provoked Putin to attack.
Russia’s annexation of Crimea robbed Ukraine of nearly 80% of offshore oil and gas drilling rights. Observers fear Russia, at some point, may try the same in Canada’s north.
The collective post-West has been running amok for the last two weeks. The powers that be make believe that they did not expect that events would unfold the way they are unfolding now (though they did their best to make things happen as they are happening) and they make a show imposing sanctions on the aggressor and assuring the populace that the aggressor sooner or later will cave in. There is yet a third aspect to the phenomenon: the same powers that be want the people to forget that merely twenty years back they themselves assaulted Yugoslavia/Serbia, used missiles with depleted uranium, bombed cities and shot at civilians. Of course, that earlier event was a humanitarian action while the current one is a brutal act of aggression, but we digress.
And while Trudeau was in Europe diving into the dangers of disinformation, his top national security adviser was in Ottawa delivering a high-profile warning about how it’s feeding into domestic extremism in Canada.
March 11 (Reuters) – Prosecutors have asked a Russian court to designate Facebook’s parent organisation Meta Platforms (FB.O) as an “extremist organisation,” Interfax reported on Friday.
The state prosecutor also asked Russia’s communications watchdog to restrict access to Meta’s Instagram social networking service.
Reuters reported on Thursday that Meta would allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine .
The president spoke about the conflict at a House Democrat retreat in Philadelphia, vowing again to defend “every inch” of NATO territory from Putin and the Russians.
“Granted, if we respond, it is World War III, but we have a sacred obligation,” he said to his fellow Democrats.
The United Nations on Friday said it had no evidence Ukraine had a biological weapons program while Washington and its allies accused Russia of spreading the unproven claim as a possible prelude to launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
