Canada's Unacceptable Mission in Ukraine Longstanding, Far-Ranging and Unprecedented Intervention Tony Seed

During a March 6 press conference to announce the extension of Canada's military mission in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan gave the deliberate impression that the training of the Ukrainian army and National Guard -- 3,200 soldiers since 2015 by Canada alone -- is a recent phenomenon adopted for defensive reasons in response to "Russian aggression." CBC reported, "Asked whether further helping Ukraine would put Canada in Russia's sights, Sajjan said that Russia's actions were what caused Canada to step in and help Ukraine in the first place." This is misleading. The Canadian military began to "step in" in the early 1990s. The reference to "Russia's actions" is what CPC(M-L) calls "History As Such." It is not a matter of getting facts wrong or distorting or concealing facts; it is a method of falsifying history according to the secret agendas of the Canadian and U.S. governments with a political aim: marginalizing people from seriously discussing these matters and uniting in action against their war plans. In concert, the media spreads incoherence in the form of sound bytes on foreign and military policy to ensure that people are confused about the world situation. Any sober discussion of the historical record of this intervention would demonstrate Freeland and Sajjan's falsification that Canada's role is of a recent or a defensive character. CPC(M-L) points out, "analysis begins with what is given. It analyzes the given to overcome it and to establish what really is within those conditions. It establishes a valuable approach and provides a concrete way to tackle reality. It begins by taking up the important question of history. Under the section History-As-Such, the Necessity For Change puts forward the profound role of history, as opposed to what merely exists at the present time."[1] Under the high ideals of democracy and "Canadian values," Canada has been up to its neck in subverting the sovereignty of Ukraine in the following spheres: - Politically, interfering in its internal affairs and bringing about regime change from the "Colour Revolution" of 2004 to the Maidan "Revolution of Dignity" of 2013-14 for which it provided cash, personnel, materiel, the shelter of the Canadian Embassy and unconditional support to the armed forces of the Pravi Sektor (Right Sector), whom Stephen Harper, John Baird and Freeland called "courageous activists." The coup d'état of February 23, 2014 in Ukraine represented the rule of the oligopolies through unfettered police powers. The coup plunged both the peoples of the Ukraine and the peoples of Europe and the world into an even more dangerous situation. - Economically, providing $200 million of "aid" to the coup government to pay off its debt to foreign, mainly U.S. vulture funds such as Franklin Templeton of New York. - Ideologically, Canada was the first foreign state to officially adopt the Hitlerite myth of the Holodomor famine created over 70 years ago to attack communism for "genocide." Canadian military intervention in Ukraine is rooted in five strategic factors: - Serving United States imperialism as a de facto and de jure annexed armed force;- Surrounding Russia with NATO members and forces in a cordon sanitaire ; - Eliminating or minimizing the influence of Germany; - Pressuring Turkey, which under the Montreux Convention controls the vital Bosporus Straits entering the geostrategic Black Sea from the Mediterranean, and retaking Crimea; and - Linking Ukraine with Georgia, the Caucasus and states on the Caspian Sea to encircle and blockade Iran. The end goal of both the Trudeau government's and NATO's military intervention as well as their efforts to "reform" the Ukraine army is the escalation of tension and to convert Ukraine to an appendage of the U.S. and its imperialist strategy in the name of "Euro-Atlantic values" and in the conditions of intensified inter-imperialist rivalry, fully interoperable with the NATO bloc, even without the country becoming a member. The training of Ukraine's army according to the mechanism of NATO standards was, and is, important to achieve "interoperability" and cultivate high- and middle-ranking officers so as to gain control over that country's armed forces and use them for its own ends, which has already happened in Canada. The objective is neo-liberalism, the wrecking of the polity and the long solidarity between the fraternal peoples of Ukraine and Canada, the complete isolation and encirclement of Russia, and the opening up of the old Nazi expansionist Drang Nan Osten -- "path to the east." The perfidious involvement of successive Liberal and Conservative governments in the military sphere is longstanding, far-ranging and unprecedented. This Supplement informs on Canada's intervention in Ukraine and its various dimensions, including Canada's current military and police missions, as well as the arrangements for arms production and sale between Canada and Ukraine as well as other partners such as Saudi Arabia. It aims to contribute to Canadians taking up these matters for discussion and affirming their right to decide the direction of Canada's foreign policy and establish peaceful relations with other nations and peoples. Note 1. Hardial Bains, Author's Preface, Necessity for Change! 1998 Edition, pp. 9-10. Unless otherwise noted, the material in this Supplement is compiled by Tony Seed, with files from the Hardial Bains Resource Centre and Bill Shpikula . (TML Weekly Supplement No. 23, June 24, 2017)