Canada's Ukraine Approach

"Obviously people are grateful for the statements of support and condemnation, but we'd like to actually see some concrete measures. We'd like to see individual and targeted sanctions. By that we mean visa restrictions and travel bans. We mean the freezing of assets. Financial restrictions. And we mean criminal responsibility for those who have committed criminal abuses."
Tara Zalusky, executive director, Ukrainian Canadian Congress

"There are a number of ridings where Ukrainians are a majority and of course there are many Ukrainians in many positions across Canada who are well educated, well connected."
"I think (Harper's) ramped it up more than I can recall in my 60-odd years."
Lubomyr Luciuk,  professor, Royal Military College

"We are very concerned that these actions speak not of moving toward a free and democratic Euro-Atlantic future, but very much towards an anti-democratic Soviet past. We will continue to vocalize our concerns, to work with the Ukrainian-Canadian community and our allies to take all appropriate actions necessary to encourage the government of Ukraine to move in a positive direction."  Prime Minister Stephen Harper

• Pro-European Union activists get ready to defend their tent camp at Independence Square in Kyiv on Monday. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's contempt for calls from millions among his country's population to manoeuvre Ukraine over to the European Union to join in aspirations for future prosperity, employment, opportunities and democratic freedoms was obvious when he instead opted to return Ukraine to the comfortless embrace of the Russian Federation, with President Vladimir Putin sweetening the financial pot to cement the deal.

Mr. Yanukovych's denial to his people of the liberty to protest signed his own trajectory to limited rule as head of government. Opposition leaders who were once anxious to make some progress, any kind of progress leading to conciliation have now hardened their position and it is Mr. Yanukovych's departure from government that is the first order for business at this juncture, despite desperate attempts to bridge the gap -- too little, too late.

Riot police gather near a barricade set up by supporters of EU integration in Kyiv on Monday. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has backed a call for talks with the opposition to end weeks of protests in Kiev, but tension was high with pro-Europe demonstrators barricading their protest camp in preparation for police intervention. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Canada has 1.2-million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage. The Conservative government of Prime Minister Harper represented one of the first internationally to formally recognize the horrendous reality of the Holodomor, the 1930s dread famine imposed upon Ukraine as a deliberate genocidal tactic to avail itself of Ukraine's bountiful grain harvests for Russia, leaving nothing behind to feed the Ukrainians themselves.

Prime Minister Harper travelled to eastern Europe to visit Ukraine in 2010, at that time vocalizing support for freedom and democracy, that was heralded by the country's 'orange' revolution. Then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko enjoyed a fulsome welcome in his trip to Canada in 2008. Free trade talks, election-monitoring missions, millions of aid dollars resulted from the current government's relations with Ukraine.

"Canada remains deeply concerned by the escalating violence that has occurred in Ukraine in past weeks. We strongly condemn the killing of protesters. After extensive consultations with stakeholders including allies our government has been compelled to take action and indeed meaningful action. Today our government is announcing that effectively we will restrict entry into Canada for key Ukrainian government officials that have been responsible for their repression and silencing of opposition voices."
Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander

Students hold placards and flags as thousands of pro-European supporters rally in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Nov. 27, the fourth day of massive demonstrations. (Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP/Getty)

Former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj claims to be disappointed by this announcement: "Clearly not adequate", he emailed his opinion to Yahoo Canada News. "It would have been a good first step in November when the students were first brutalized in Independence Square", he maintained. Perhaps it is precisely because of the inflamed situation where violence is prevalent on both sides, the government and the more assertively violent parts of the opposition, that no foreign government should intercede too forcefully.

The Ukrainian people have more than amply demonstrated their ire and rejection of their current government and its policies. This truly is a matter for the population of whom greater numbers who once supported the government are now swaying over to the opposition side, to make their demands met by the sheer force of their numbers. And this is precisely what appears to be occurring.