French defence minister Herve Morin said any future NATO enlargement must take Russia into account. Any expansion of NATO to include countries such as Georgia and Ukraine cannot happen without consultation with Russia, Mr Morin said, ahead of a parliamentary vote on France’s return to the alliance’s military structures. NATO has so far maintained that Russia does not have a veto over the alliance’s enlargement policy, despite the visible influence it has on some of its members, such as Germany and France, who last year blocked further steps in Georgia and Ukraine’s accession process. At US insistence, they were however promised they could become NATO members at some undefined point in the future.
The Obama administration has proposed to triple the IMF’s resources from their current level of about $250 billion to salvage emerging markets, including Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that does not enjoy the political benefits of E.U. membership, the stakes are especially high. There, industrial production has plunged by almost a third since the beginning of the crisis; living standards for 46 million people are starting to collapse. The weaker and more chaotic Ukraine becomes, the likelier it is that Russia will attempt to reassert hegemony over it. A Putinized Ukraine would be a disaster for that country, Europe and the United States.
Some good news for Toronto Ukrainian Catholic Elementary School Josyf Cardinal Slipyj:
The Rathburn Road-Renforth Drive area school is one of four Catholic elementary schools in Etobicoke recently approved by the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to receive additions to replace existing portables. Other local schools slated for additions include Father Serra, Josyf Cardinal Slipyj and St. Stephen.
Additions will increase space required to accommodate Ministry of Education-directed smaller primary class sizes. Board-wide, the TCDSB qualified for funding for 2,254 pupil places.
Board officials took a strategic decision to cluster the schools getting the additions, one board official said.
"We identified schools with a high number of portables where projected enrolment is stable or increasing to take the larger additions, instead of the other option of buying more portables," said Angelo Sangiorgio, associate director of planning and facilities with the school board. "We’ll do six to eight to 10-classroom additions around a centrally located elementary school."
Is Russia’s neo-colonial think creeping into Canada?
Russia’s nasty tactics to corral its "near abroad" are well-known globally. Its strong-arm tactics to reassert power over Ukraine — the largest country in Europe — by interfering in elections and threatening nuclear attacks if it moves closer to the West by joining NATO are not lost on Canada and some of its 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, including the 125,000 strong in Edmonton. Russia’s neo-colonial think allowed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to inform former president George W. Bush that Ukraine is not a nation. He’s not alone.
In his little book Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, Michael Ignatieff, now leader of the Liberal party, belittles Ukrainians: "Ukrainian independence conjures up images of embroidered peasant shirts, the nasal whine of ethnic instruments …" and reverts to historic self-aggrandizement of the oppressor over the hoi polloi.
The League of Ukrainian Canadians didn’t take this lightly and sent out a note to its readers and urged them contact their Members of Provincial Parliament:
As the Holodomor has affected us all, we encourage you to write the Premier to share your support for this legislation and encourage its speedy passage. To ease this process, we have included a sample letter for you to consider, as well as some key points we encourage you to express in your communication to the Government of Ontario.
It’s an impressive effort, put together jointly with other MP’s Cheri DiNovo (NDP Parkdale-High Park) and Frank Klees (PC Newmarket-Aurora) and it’s definitely one I’m behind. In the past year alone we saw Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the entire country and even the USA recognize the Holodomor as genocide.
