He must be stopped before he plunges Europe into another war
Vladimir Putin is once again threatening to invade Ukraine. The risk is real and Putin must be stopped before he plunges Europe into another war. Yet, as Russia amasses troops and equipment on the borders of Ukraine, the question in everyone’s mind is: what are Putin’s intentions? There are three broad, possible answers. First, Putin…Rhea Clyman was the first western journalist to expose the forced famine that killed millions in Ukraine
She’s considered the first western journalist to expose the Soviet famine-genocide that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s. But although Rhea Clyman sent numerous accounts of Soviet and Nazi atrocities to North American newspapers as a foreign correspondent, she was soon largely forgotten. That is, until four years ago, when Jars Balan, director…
The Democrats' corruption of the impeachment process sets a dangerous precedent for the future
The impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Donald Trump has been moving full steam ahead. The House Intelligence Committee heard several testimonies, including Gordon Sondland (U.S. ambassador to the European Union), Admiral Alexander Vindman (National Security Council director for European affairs) and Marie Yovanovitch (former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine). The House Judiciary Committee is in the…
Trudeau is wrong – it's not just diversity that makes us strong, it’s how our diverse parts find so much in common
“Be proud of your heritage – be passionate about your country,” was the motto of The Ukrainian Voice, a Winnipeg-based newspaper that recently ceased operations. First published in 1910, it was the leading advocate for Ukrainians in Canada. In this digital age, it couldn’t survive. Read by many in its day, it will be missed.…
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland plays fast and loose with the facts if she believes her grandfather wasn't a Nazi collaborator
We live in a world where “fake news” is used with near-reckless abandon. But there are moments when real news gets lumped into this category. It blurs fact and fiction, and changes a narrative not for the better but for the worse. Here’s a recent example. Canada recently tossed out four Russian diplomats and refused…
Freedom of expression in the arts is as fragile as freedom of the press, and it’s just as vital to human rights as freedom of thought
Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk said, “Art, freedom and creativity will change society faster than politics.” Art has been a part of the human experience as long as there have been people. It’s served many purposes, from the practical to the philosophical. Great pieces of art offer an expression of beauty and human creativity.…
Historians are divided on Josef Stalin’s intent in the Ukraine that resulted in millions of deaths. Anne Applebaum’s new book has revived the dispute
Chances are Anne Applebaum’s Red Famine will set the cat among the pigeons with respect to the horrendous Ukrainian hunger of 1932-33. It’s already touched off a rhetorical skirmish between the author and an early reviewer. Applebaum is an American journalist-historian whose Gulag: A History won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize. Russia is a particular specialty of…
Russia is banking that a new U.S. administration will give it a way out of the hole it has dug for itself
If Vladimir Putin ever writes his autobiography, he must call it The Art of the Bluff. No Russian leader since Catherine the Great’s prime minister, Grigory Potemkin, has done a more masterful job of blending guile, audacity and bluff to project an undeserved illusion of power and success. Whether that strategy ultimately bears fruit will…NATO needs to redefine the kinds of threats it is designed to oppose to reflect the current tactics in the Kremlin’s playbook
Russia’s elite might oust Putin over the Ukrainian debacle in an attempt to “normalize” relations with Ukraine, Europe and the United States
One of the unintended consequences of Great Britain’s Brexit vote is that the European Community (EU) has put any future membership expansion on hold. Kiev had signed the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement on June 27, 2014, in expectation it would lead to full membership in the EU. Now, any hope of becoming a full-fledged member of…