Indigenous Guests at the Vatican

"We are in 2022 and our history is being stored and shown in other countries where nobody understands."

"These items, those artifacts ... those are ours. Those belong in our communities."

"They belong to people. They belong to generations."

Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, retired chief, Okanese First Nation, Saskatchewan

Assembly of First Nations delegation lead Regional Chief Gerald Antoine says he hopes the delegation can forge a new relationship with Pope Francis and the Catholic Church after the visit to the Vatican   CBC

 

A delegation of Canadian Indigenous representatives travelled to Rome to meet with Pope Francis last week. While on the way they anticipated seeing pieces of their own history on display at the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum in Vatican City. The museum has on display for the very few who may have access to its treasures, collections of Indigenous artifacts. Artifacts that, in fact, were collected, but possibly not ever before displayed publicly.

Chief Walker-Pelletier spoke of observing the objects in the museum, spurring thoughts of artifacts in her opinion, speaking truth to life, history and the communities of Indigenous people. She had strong feelings of the venerable artifacts reflecting her peoples' history being in the possession of the Vatican. She was part of the delegation as a former pupil within the residential school system, most of which were operated by groups within the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.

In her opinion, if the Roman Catholic Church is committed, as it says it is, to truth and reconciliation, it would divest itself of Indigenous-Canadian artifacts, returning them to those for whom it has personal meaning and in whose possession they would be honoured, placed on public display and used as teaching materials, as proud symbols of the past.

"That's one of the things the Pope needs to look at, how does he reconcile and bring back the artifacts", she said. According to Indigenous curators and experts, they have been unsuccessful in obtaining access to objects, unknown in quantity, held in the possession of the Church. The Vatican's collection began at the behest of a pope who had planned on holding a world exposition in 1925.

In preparation for that event, a message was sent out to missionaries around the globe with instructions to collect and send aboriginal cultural and religious items to the Vatican. A request that resulted in over 100,000 objects and works of art being sent to the Vatican for display during that exposition, and held by the Vatican ever since. The Pope in 2019 planned on placing many more objects on display, those of Indigenous people among them. 

Last year the Inuvialuit Regional Corp. requested that a rare kayak made by Inuvialuit be returned to them. Embroidered gloves from a Cree community, a baby belt from a Gwich'in community, moccasins from British Columbia, masks, wampum belts, pipes and rugs were all on display for the visiting Indigenous people. 

 

Originally, such heritage objects were removed from Indigenous hands when the Canadian government outlawed cultural practices in 1875, through the Indian Act. Ceremonial objects along with other items of cultural importance were seized, sold, given to museums, or destroyed.

 

 Pope Francis welcomed a delegation of Canada's First Nations to the Vatican. They asked to revoke centuries-old papal decrees used to justify the seizure of Indigenous lands in the Americas by colonial powers. (Vatican Media/Catholic Press Photo)

"A Wave of Murderous Arab Terror"

"I live on Hashneim Street in Bnei Brak and I was at home when I heard gunshots."

"I immediately went out to the street and saw a terrorist pointing a weapon at me."

"By a miracle, his weapon jammed and  he couldn't shoot."

Menachem Englander, Israeli paramedic

 

"Every few years, the State of Israel deals with a wave of terrorism."  

"After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price, whose hatred of Jews, of the State of Israel, drives them crazy."  

"[Israel's security forces had to adapt to] read the tell-tale signs of lone individuals, sometimes without organizational affiliation, and to be in control on the ground in order to thwart terrorism even before it happens." 

"They are up to the task and, as in the previous waves, we will prevail this time as well."

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

The scene of a shooting in Bnei Brak on March 29, 2022.

(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Eleven Israelis were killed by Palestinian Arab terrorists in three separate attacks within Israel in the space of a week. Israelis were shocked; police and the armed forces are on high alert for further attacks, and in the West Bank, jubilation broke out among those who believe the occasion merits great celebration. Arab states that signed on to the Abraham Accords sent their sympathies to Israel, as friends will do when misfortune falls upon others.

 

A video posted online saw a young man in black using an assault rifle to shoot in the streets of Bnei Brak. He also shot his weapon into a car that drove past, as it crashed. Police who appeared expeditiously on the scene of carnage engaged the attacker and he was shot to death. The Palestinian terrorist was identified  as a 27-year-old resident of a village close to the West Bank city of Jenin.

 

Witnesses to the attack describe seeing the gunman shooting at apartment balconies before turning to people on the street, and the passing car. He succeeded in taking the lives of five people, and injuring more.  Two Ukrainians in Israel on work visas were among the dead, along with two Israeli men with young families. An Arab-Israeli policeman, being lauded as a hero for his role in stopping and 

'liquidating' the attacker, himself died from wounds he sustained.

 

Amir Khouri, 32, from Nof Hagalil, a police officer who was killed in a firefight with a terrorist in Bnei Brak on March 29, 2022 (Israel Police)  

 

 

 

 

Two previous attacks within a short period had seen security stepped up across the country. An Israeli Arab who aspired to join the Islamic State group in Syria, serving a prison sentence for security crimes had carried forward the first attack when he deliberately and fatally drove his car into a cyclist. He then stabbed three people to death in the southern city of Beersheba, outside a shopping centre. Following that, five days afterward, two Israeli Arabs attacked and killed two 19-year-old police officers in Hadera. Islamic State claimed it as one of their victories.

None of those attackers survived. But they fulfilled their purpose, to become celebrated martyrs, to earn the praise of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah among other terror groups, for their heroic efforts on behalf of the goal to destroy the Jewish state. Israel is always on alert in the days leading up to, and during the holy Islamic festival of Ramadan, when it seems its enemies are inspired to zealously slaughter Jews as a symbol of their faith and their dedication to jihad.

 

Eli Bin, head of the Magen David Adom emergency responder unit, Israel's version of the Red Cross stated: "We unfortunately have to note that five people have died". The frequency of such attacks inspired by hatred fed to Palestinians from childhood to maturity -- being exposed to Palestinian Authority urging of its citizens to never think of normalizing relations with Jews and Israel since to do so would assent to its right of existence as a Jewish State -- have been bred through school curricula and PA media to value unrelenting, lethal attacks as virtuous justice.

Israeli security, forewarned of the potential of attacks, had raided homes of a dozen Arab citizens, arresting two on suspicion of ties to Islamic State. the raids resulting from a probe into the attacks. The deadly assaults, remarked Israel's prime minister, highlighted a "new situation" requiring more stringent security measures. "Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terror", he said.

Photo: paramedic Menachem Englander

Surrender Says Russia, and We'll Give You Peace

"[The dosage and type of toxin used was not enough to be life-threatening] and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage."

"The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack."

Bellincat

"We have destroyed the myth of the invincible Russian army."

"We are resisting against the aggression of one of the strongest armies in the world and have succeeded in making them change their goals."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko

The gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital, Kyiv,

 

The Wall Street Journal published a report on a little-commented incident whereby during peace negotiations Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich -- whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskii prevailed upon to use his access to Russian elite circles and involve himself in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia -- and the Ukrainian team of negotiators were exposed to a toxic substance from which they are recovering. The symptoms were visibly red eyes, painful tearing and skin peeling on hands and faces.

Their deteriorated health condition resulting from the poisoning by an as-yet-unknown substance did not keep either the negotiators nor Mr. Abramovich, from being fully engaged in matters around arranging for ongoing negotiations to put a halt to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its deadly destruction. Experts who examined the event reached the conclusion that "poisoning with n undefined chemical weapon" was the likely cause.

As for the ongoing and maddeningly inconclusive peace talks to convince Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine, Dimytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister felt a ceasefire remained the only hope his country could have from the talks. "We are not trading people, land or sovereignty", he said in response to the Kremlin's demands and intention to hive off the Donbas from Ukraine to be included within Russian territory.

 

The aftermath of Russian artillery shelling on a residential area in Mariupol where a rocket hit a house, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is seen in this screengrab from a video uploaded on social media  (Armed Forces of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS)

The threat of Russian attacks continue to block exit routes east and west for civilians desperate to leave their besieged towns and cities. The devastated port of Mariupol's situation appears doomed. Within the Russian troop encirclement, an estimated 160,000 residents remain trapped in the siege.  The city with its formerly 400,000 population has been reduced by constant artillery shelling and bombs to a ghostly vestige of its once-vibrant presence  with 90 percent of its infrastructure in rubble.

 

In the city of Kharkiv a pre-dawn missile hit a school. "They've not been able to take the city, so they've decided to destroy it", observed a Ukrainian who had taken shelter in the school when his home had been bombed out. In Irpin, close to Kyiv, the mayor spoke of Ukrainian forces in full control. Ukrainian military had recaptured the eastern town of Trostyanets as the military continued their offensive to restore their ground.

 

The Russian defence ministry stated that its  troops destroyed ammunition depots in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, the prize goal that Moscow keeps seeing eluding their grasp. As well, they claimed that 41 Ukrainian military depots  had been hit in the past two days, reports that remained unverified in a conflict known as much for its propaganda as for its total lack of human scruples.

 

 Kyiv Mayor Klitschko spoke of 100 people killed in the capital, four children among them. Russian bombing had destroyed 82 multi-storey buildings in the capital as well. Also figures that elude verification. Even while the inescapable reality is that one is a staunchly fierce defender of its territorial integrity, the other a brutally unscrupulous imperialist dictatorship.

A charred Russian tank and captured tanks in the Sumy region of Ukraine  (REUTERS)

Prodding the Serpent

"Biden has a tendency to articulate things that we know to be true but that he shouldn't say as president."

"It would be to everybody's benefit, including the people of Russia, if he were to no longer be in charge, but if you're the president of the United States you can't articulate the fact that you want another country's democratically elected leader -- such as democracy is in Russia -- gone."

"The Russian government is willing to use anything as a propaganda tool, ranging from whatever the Ukrainians do, to JK Rowling. They are so opportunistic in seizing on the public debate to justify what they're doing in Ukraine -- or planning to."

"The result of that will be Western politicians will not say anything in public in case Russia pounces on it and uses it as an excuse for any action they wish to take."

"If Russia's performance goes terribly, Putin will be grasping for straws He may well seize on these remarks which provide an unexpected opportunity for him. It's out there now, it can't be unsaid."

Elizabeth Braw, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

"For Putin, life itself has always been a special operation. From the black order of the KGB, he learned not only contempt for 'normal' people, always expendable matter for the Soviet Moloch-state,but also the Chekist's main principle; not a single word of truth. Everything must be hidden away, classified."

"Now, one thing has become clear; with this war, Putin has crossed a line -- a red line. This war was unleashed by a man corrupted by absolute power, who, in his madness, has decided to redraw the map of our world. If you listen to Putin's speech announcing a 'special operation', America and NATO are mentioned more than Ukraine. Let us also recall his recent 'ultimatum' to NATO. As such, his goal isn't Ukraine, but western civilization, the hatred for which he lapped up in the black milk he drank from the KGB's teat."

Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer, playwright

 

The civilized world winced in pain and disgust when the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, issued his many coarse and ill-considered statements regarding relations with America's traditional collegial and trading nations, his penchant for insults and ill-considered language. His impulsive-compulsive decision-making, his egocentricity and belief in his infallible cerebral thinking, his impressively wise commentary.

 

With bated breath the world awaited the time when he would leave office and a successor, more reasoned and intelligent would take the helm of the most powerful country on Earth. And then came another ill-spoken, self-confident replacement comfortable with himself as president of the great United States of America, a country indispensable to the world's civil discourse in place of braggadocio, insults and controversies.

Trump's successor has managed to alter world opinion that fell so low, leaving the U.S. maimed as a colossus of human rights and upholder of justice, freedom and fairness. Smiling unapologetically as he withdrew U.S. diplomacy and troops from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan people to the sad and sorry plight of life and death under the Taliban. Renewing the nuclear agreement with Iran, extending its pause on nuclear development until 2025 when, with the great strides it made in uranium enrichment toward breakout it can break loose.

In effect, abandoning the hopes of the majority Sunni Arab nations traditionally befriended by the United States interested in petroleum-energy sources and seeding 'democracy', along with the State of Israel between which it and the US no darkness would ever crack the lock on compelling friendship and support. Choosing to proceed with an agreement that is designed to lift sanctions and free up billions for the Islamic Republic to more generously fund and arm its militia proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Yemen.

And now President Biden in obedience to his Democratic party's hard-left-fascist wing, like an avuncular relative anxious to please the young and the restless finds it compelling to advance the Islamic Republic's agenda. He sees no evil, speaks no evil, hears no evil and is prepared to shrug off suggestions, recommendations, pleading from former Middle East allies he has shunted aside in favour of doing business with the mullahs of Iran, the sponsor of terrorism under the guise of a theocratic, peaceful nation.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin know one another from 'way back. Not exactly a comradely relationship but one of familiarity. With a touch of mutual contempt. A year ago, Joe Biden in an interview allowed that in his opinion Vladimir Putin had the instincts of a 'killer', and acted on those instincts. This is a new era in American-Russian relationship, and it has moved backward to Cold War times, driven by both sides. It is the president of the Russian Federation that decided he must eviscerate Ukraine and embark on a killing mission.

His imperative; to stop Ukraine from becoming totally westernized; to stop NATO and the United States from further incursion into Russia's near-abroad, challenging Russia's east European authority and regional power; an insult and an assault on Russian sensibilities; on Vlad's sense of badly leaking imperialism and the right to encroach upon his neighbours' sovereignty. The dangerously paranoid Putin convinced the walls of democracy are closing in around him personifying Russia's future, needs no prodding.

Suggesting that given the current circumstances where Putin's star has ebbed and crashed, his violent incursion into Ukraine stalled, the astonishing death rate of Russian servicemen and generals, along with Russian mechanized war machines' destruction; supply and morale issues looming toward total failure in a swoop-and-grab invasion, that 'Putin must go', is to invite that same man raging over a humiliating failure, to contemplate the use of the most compelling of his arsenals.

Biden's critical gaffe in recklessly prodding the serpent in the Kremlin was instantly 'rectified' by his administration, desperate to change the dial on the short-wave message to Putin that his days in both Russia and Ukraine are numbered. A man seemingly on the edge of mental derangement, in possession of the world's largest nuclear arsenal will not shrug away the implied notion that NASA may feel compelled to move in, led by the United States, to remove Vladimir Putin from power. 

 

Before the war Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid regular visits to the front line in eastern Ukraine   EPA

 

A Third World War, triggered by an accident in loose lips and a feeble mind unable to instantly grasp an error in judgement is not to anyone's advantage. There is carnage enough in Ukraine at this moment in history. Vladimir Putin's threshold for tolerating insinuations of incompetence and war-mongering when he is, after all, only engaged in house-cleaning next door, needs no prodding to have his mind slip its moorings on his nuclear options.

When Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, refused to strike out the impression that Russia is not beyond considering the use of nuclear weapons, after Putin himself mused on just that, after he placed his nuclear forces on high alert, after hinting that a strike would be imminent in response to any risk of some other country or group manouvering to do the same first, it is sheer folly of the most birdbrained quality for the president of the United States of America to lead the chorus of doom for Putin.

 

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

"I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn't remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn't continue to do bad things. But it doesn't mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way."

"I was talking to the Russian people. The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people. I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is ... just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can."

"I'd just come from being with those families. I make no apologies for it."

U.S. President Joe Biden, White House

Russia Creates A Hell in Ukraine

A block of flats in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine | Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

"The bombing killed about 300 people on the upper floors and in the back of the theatre."

"It feels like that damn bomb exploded right in my heart, leaving nothing."

PetroAndrushenko, adviser to Mariupol mayor

"Look at that scum standing there, frowning with his bovine eyes, showing me his unhappy face, his stinking mug."

"Why is he still serving? And why should I have to waste my time with your scrum? If you're the head of a unit, then step up to the plate."

"Why has his face not been messed up? Why has his ear not been cut off? Why is he not limping by now?"

Russian Col.-Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev -- Butcher of Mariupol

"She [mother] says that there is the smell of corpses and the smell of burning in the air. People are simply buried in front gardens near houses."

"If my mother leaves, we may never meet again [forced by Russian orders to go to Russia]. [She] witnessed] many corpses, torn body parts, huge damage, burning cars [before leaving Mariupol]."

"People just lived in the walls left, slept on the floor, and ate once a day. There were many children, the elderly. There were people under the ruins, people were dying in front of us.There were no doctors."

Yevhenila Kudria, 24, refugee from Mariupol

Dozens of refugees are now housed in a sports centre in Taganrog, Russia, east of Mariupol   EPA

 

The city of Mariupol, under heavy, unceasing bombardment for weeks has been utterly destroyed, reduced to rubble, annihilated by carpet bombing. Its residents and its authorities refused to surrender as Moscow demanded. People paid with their lives, by the thousands. Mass graves were first dug on the outskirts of the city, then on children's playgrounds and city parks. When Russian shells hit a theatre where people were sheltering 300 people died there alone, buried in the rubble, crushed and smothered by its ruins.

Ukrainian officials have identified the senior military officer leading the destruction of the port city. Identified as Col.-Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, 59, formerly in charge of bombing Aleppo, Syria. He now heads Russia's National Centre for Defence Management. He had offered 'safe passage' to residents of the city if Mariupol took up the offer to surrender. The local officials who refused on behalf of the entire city community would face 'military tribunals' in company with any 'bandits' who remained in the city.

The Ukrainian intelligence service had made public an intercepted phone call where he could be heard demanding that a junior officer's ear be cut off as punishment for not having worn his Russian uniform in an approved manner. Over 6,000 resident civilians of the city had been captured by Russian forces. The Kremlin was accused by Ukraine's foreign ministry of planning to forcibly relocate civilians in their thousands from Mariupol to Russia "to use them as hostages and put more political pressure on Ukraine".

"Some are dying from dehydration and lack of food; some are dying from lack of medicine, insulin."

"Many bodies have been left lying in the streets, as collecting them is so risky."

"Russian soldiers just open [enter] this shelter and tell them: 'look, you have five minutes to evacuate in this direction. Just go, walk five or three or seven kilometres and the buses will transfer you to temporarily controlled territory [by Russia]."

"If you don't go this house will be bombed in an hour'."

Mariupol's deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov

Ordered to Russia were 15,000 Ukrainian nationals from one district after having had their identity documents seized. The estimate is that roughly 100,000 people remain trapped in Mariupol, aside from the two thousand that have been killed by the constant shelling. Alexandr Volodko, 21, a student resident of Mariupol spoke to a newspaper telling them : "We spotted a stray dog, it was already not doing well. We were so desperate we cooked it. We were starving and I am ashamed to say it". His father had been missing for a week, his mother ill, and the responsibility to feed the family fell to him.

A British photographer who had worked in Donetsk and eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 used his contacts with the ethnic Russian separatists to gain accreditation to work in the separatist-held region. From there he was permitted to travel to Mariupol.

"People have been sheltering from the absolute intensity of the bombardment for weeks."

"Yesterday we saw people who weren't leaving for whatever reason. Many of them have got no money or cars. They're making fires and cooking whatever food they have outside their bombed-out apartments."

"No one is mentally intact there. This constant sound of artillery falling. It could make someone unfamiliar with incoming artillery fire jumpy. But all these people were just sitting there. They weren't even flinching."

"They said it was an airstrike, presumably Russian. It's utter destruction. It's pretty incomparable to anything I've seen before."

Maximilian Clarke, British Photographer

Moscow in Retreat?

"The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas."

Sergei Rudskoi, head, Main Operational Directorate, Russian General Staff

"Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian forces falling back on over-extended supply lines, have allowed Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 km east of Kyiv."

British intelligence report

"I'm not sure that anything that the Russian military will do will change the balance. It's more about patching up gaps."

"They're going to be brought in as fresh bodies primarily, to replenish the losses ... folks who are suggesting they're bringing in everybody they can for one big push to break Ukrainian resistance -- I don't see that as possible now."

Dmitry Gorenburg, Russian military expert with think-tank CNA

An armoured convoy of pro-Russia troops in the Donetsk region © Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Mission partially completed, signals Moscow, now on to auxiliary mission... Russia has initiated a draw of forces from Georgia into Ukraine, badly needed reinforcements to make up for the unfortunate loss of Russian servicemen falling to the ferocious defense by the Ukrainian military. According to Moscow, no such thing, a mere handful, not the gross numbers quoted by Western intelligence, have fallen. The decision to bring in reinforcement from Georgia is only fair; they're no longer needed there to repress protests, so they're being given the opportunity to earn their keep, in Ukraine.

 

It has been a month since Russia invaded Ukraine and met with the surprise of fierce Ukrainian resistance, when Ukrainians failed to realize they were meant to greet the invaders as saviours, welcoming them with appreciative open arms. Instead Ukraine's citizens have been arming themselves in defence of their nation against the brute mechanized force of a volatile, oppressive and dangerous neighbour. One who has flouted all 'civilized' rules of conflict; an invasion where no threat exists leading to ceaseless, deliberate bombing and shelling of civilian infrastructure and the mass murder of innocent people. 

The cities of Ukraine have been bombarded and encircled, residential areas laid to waste, as up to three-and-a-half million of Ukraine's 44-million-strong population has been terrorized and displaced, thousands killed, others turning in desperation to find haven in sympathetic, Russia-aversive neighbouring countries. To which the Russian Defence Ministry addressed itself claiming its first phase of operations completed, it would turn its focus on the 'liberation' of the eastern Donbas region.

 

Heavily damaged residential buildings in the town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region © Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

 

The thousands of Russian troops stationed at military bases ranging from Georgia to Syria to Tajikistan, many in motorized rifle brigades, combat-capable and ready to deploy on orders from the Kremlin have not yet been called to duty in Ukraine. There is the trifling matter that withdrawing troops in those outposts would result in losses there. The Kremlin appears not quite prepared to order them wholly to disperse to Ukraine in a boost to the Russian ground offensive there.

The reality on the ground with heavy losses of servicemen, including the unprecedented losses of generals in the field mere weeks following the beginning of the invasion has shone a spotlight on an ill-conceived and poorly executed military manoeuvre destined to fail, in the face of a badly reduced 'combat power'. Up to 15,000 Russian troops, according to NATO, have been killed in the war up to the present, a number that Russia denies, citing a loss of 1,351 of its servicemen.

In any event, should an influx of reinforcements be brought in to relieve the beleaguered troops in Ukraine the course of the war seems unlikely to improve for Russia, given the vulnerability exposures that would eventuate in the redeployment of foreign-based troops in other global hot-spots controlled by Moscow. Reality is Volodymyr Borysenko, the mayor of an eastern suburb, the locale of Kyiv's main airport, reporting a call to clear out civilians to enable Ukrainian troops to counterattack.

Ukrainian forces have been planning and executing an encirclement of Russian troops on the main front outside Kyiv, in the suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel. Troops that will be ordered to deploy to the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, to 'secure' the Donbas for Russia in its plans to eviscerate Ukraine, a scheme that began when Vladimir Putin decided to gift Crimea back to Russia.

A destroyed tank lies amid rubble in northern Mariupol © Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/dpa

 

At the same time Sinopec Group, the largest oil refiner in Asia, has halted discussions on a petrochemical investment and venture to market Russian gas. Even with China, sanctions imposed against Russia have had their influence.  "Companies will rigidly follow Beijing's foreign policy in this crisis. There's no room whatsoever for companies to take any initiatives in terms of new investment" stated an executive at a Chinese state oil company. Abandoning the ship of friendship established most recently on pledges of undying support between China and Russia.

 

The Afghan Refugees Canada Left Behind

"Those refugees face an uncertain and volatile future in neighbouring countries, and Canada is here to help them as well."

"In an initial effort to alleviate the emerging humanitarian crisis in the region, Canada will build on our earlier special immigration program to welcome over 20,000 vulnerable Afghan refugees in total."

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino, September 2021

 

"The defence team remains ready to support the whole-of-government effort to get these Afghan nationals out of harm's way."

"The Canadian Armed Forces will provide additional flights as required, and DND will continue to support the vetting process and advise on contingency plans for a range of scenarios as our government monitor the evolving security situation in Afghanistan."

Then-Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan, August 2021

 

"Yes, I'm a bit frustrated, I'm happy that they actually acted, and that there's a process in place. But that process needs to be considerably accelerated or we're really going to be faced with a disaster, which I don't think any Canadian would be willing to accept."

"There needs to be more communication with these legitimate Canadian organizations that are connected to the Afghans who supported us in Kandahar, Kabul and across the country so that we can communicate the plan to them and speed the process,"

(retired) Major-General Denis Thompson, commander, Canadian troops in Afghanistan, 2008-2009

 

"We could have done so much more. It's hard for me just to think about those that I know that are still there. What do I say to them now?"

"What are all the other veterans going say to their interpreters? Sorry? Good luck?"

Retired corporal Dave Morrow, Canadian-Afghan Interpreters group

Afghans from northern provinces who fled their homes due to the fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces take refuge in a public park in Kabul, August 13, 2021.  ©2021 AP Photo/Rahmat Gul

On the return of the Islamist fundamentalist Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August of 2021, Canada pledged it would relocate 20,000 refugees. This is the government of Justin Trudeau's Liberals. This is the prime minister of Canada who called a surprise election the very day that Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. Never one to miss an opportunity, during the election campaign that followed, it was stated rhat the government was prepared to set aside $350-million to resettle Afghan refugees.

And then it promised even more; that the number of refugees from Afghanistan would be doubled to 40,000 once the Liberals were returned with a minority government last September. The refugees would primarily consist of those citizens of Afghanistan who worked as contractors in various capacities for Canada; as interpreters, consular employees and such. And would also include Afghans escaping the fear of violence under the Taliban, fleeing to neighbouring countries for haven.

 

Evacuees termed Canadian Entitled Persons sit in a Royal Canadian Air Force C-177 Globemaster III transport plane for their flight to Canada on Aug. 23. Photo by Canadian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters/File

Evacuation efforts for those who had given aid to Canadian troops had barely begun and suddenly came to a crashing halt in late August once American forces summarily pulled out, leaving Kabul's airport in total chaos. While other countries sent in  helicopters or armed patrols in evacuating refugees, Canada's department of foreign affairs informed Canadian-linked evacuees they were on their own, to find transport to the airport.

Through efforts fraught with violence and danger those refuge-seeking Afghans who had been promised Canadian haven, appeared at the airport only to be turned away by soldiers; some captured on video ignored by Canadian troops even while they held aloft their approval letters from Canada's immigration department along with their passports, begging to pass through to board the aircraft they were promised would take them to safety.

These were Afghans and their families who had risked their future to work alongside foreign troops in a NATO-US-led mission who were left to their own devices despite having been promised for years that their service would be repaid with safety in Canada. Canadian government officials ignored the urging of volunteers intent on saving those Afghans whose safety was compromised by their having committed to working with Canadian diplomatic offices and military personnel.

Now figures that have been released show that a mere 2,385 Afghan nationals who had given assistance to Canada over the 13-year mission in Afghanistan actually arrived in Canada, out of over 6,000 applications that had been approved for immigration. The thousands of interpreters and civilian contractors employed by the Canadian Armed Forces had forwarded applications to Canada's Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship department as "Government-Assisted Refugees" under special immigration measures.

IRCC had received 14,380 applications. Government approved 6,184 of those applications for relocation, and of that total only 2,385 were relocated to Canada. The Afghan security guards, embassy staff and fixers working for Canada were considered 'traitors' by the Taliban, and as such the pressure to leave before they were discovered and summarily executed qas of utmost importance. As of March 23, according to numbers posted by IRCC, 9,560 Afghan refugees arrived in Canada across all immigration streams and programs.

Afghan citizens numbering 4,325 arrived under government or privately-sponsored refugee programs. This Liberal government talks a good line about how welcoming Canada is to immigration from abroad and how responsive it is to to world crises leading to vast increases in the world's refugee crises. It makes promises along with grandiose statements of accountability, yet the final analysis of actual accomplishments leave much to be desired.

Internally displaced Afghans from northern provinces, who fled their home due to fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security personnel, take refuge in a public park Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Aug. 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

How Goes Putin's Ukraine War in Russia?

"Russian people are able to distinguish between true patriots and scum and traitors, and simply spit them out like a fly that flew into their mouths."

"I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-purification of society will strengthen our country."

"I do not at all judge those who have a villa in Miami or on the French Riviera, who can't do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedoms."

"But the issue here is that many of these people are by their very nature, mentally located there and not here with our people, not in Russia."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, second from left, and Valery Gerasimov, head of the general staff of the armed forces, in Moscow. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, obviously more than a trifle dissatisfied with the way his invasion of Ukraine has proceeded, and the reluctance of his military advisers to speak frankly with him about his prospects in anticipating a quick crumbling of Ukraine's government, is also obviously under great duress by his increasing isolation within the international community and the opprobrium that has fallen upon his decision to launch his 'special military program' on Ukraine. Russia requires 'purifying'.

Which is to say, the traitors that protest in the streets, the advisers and generals who fail their leader by allowing their fear of consequences to restrain them from pointing out the folly of his commands and demands and expectations. The Kremlin is facing a period of dislocated expectations and viral insecurity with the stressors and strains that exist of late between the dictator and his minions.

According to Western intelligence, Russian casualties, including the deaths of three generals and an admiral among the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 military deaths and huge numbers of casualties, not to mention the loss of armoured cars, tanks and planes to Ukrainian military moves in defence of their country has placed a strain on Mr. Putin's relations with his military staff. A purge appears to have resulted from these dramatic losses in so short a time.

General Roman Gavrilov, deputy head of Russia's National Guard, appears to have been 'demoted', among others in the intelligence community and military; commanders suddenly absent from duty. An angry Russian president, furious about 'traitors' in their midst, also speaks of the West's aspiration to destroy Russia. The presence in Russian society of milquetoasts who prefer decadent Western delicacies over supporting Russia in her 'hour of need' infuriates him.

 

A destroyed armored personnel carrier stands in front of a damaged by shelling building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's explanation is that people simply "are disappearing from our lives by themselves". Resigning from jobs or leaving Russia. "This is how this purification happens", he said, speaking to journalists on a conference call; many people "show themselves to be traitors", at times of national difficulties. Antiwar protests in Russia has seen some 15,000 people detained since the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's new media law threatens prison terms up to 15 years for the spread of "fake news" on the military or sanctions.

The crackdown has spurred tens of thousands of Russians to leave the country, going abroad to escape the situation. Russians abandoning their homes and careers for shelter in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Israel. As for General Gavrilov, he was reported arrested as a result of "leaks of military information leading to loss of life", or the "wasteful squandering of fuel"; take your pick. 

An enlightening thought from Christo Grozev, chief Russia investigator at the Bellingcat open-source intelligence reporting project: "It's doubtless that Putin recognizes the deep s--t this operation is in. It's so bad that he changes horses in midstream -- a big no-no during war". The head and deputy head of a FSB spy unit arrested over the weekend, responsible for pre-invasion intelligence in Ukraine.

"It looks like two weeks into the war, it finally dawned on Putin that he was completely misled. The department, fearful of is responses, seems to have told Putin what he wanted to hear", wrote Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, Russian journalists, who wrote an article for the Centre for European Policy Analysis, that Col.Gen. Sergei Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh were arrested for corruption and intelligence failings.

Putin toasts with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after talks in the Kremlin. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

"[Putin's language was] fanatical [and] hugely dangerous."

"There is a desperation that might make him consider a course of action we would view as very dangerous indeed. I'm deeply concerned about where his state of mind is at and how desperate he may become."

"[Developments within the Kremlin were evidence of] real discord [at the top of the Russian high command]."

James Heappey, U.K. Armed Forces Minister

Vladimir Putin's 'Special Military Operation'

"With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted."

"The only radio you could catch broadcast twisted Russian lies -- that Ukrainians were holding Mariupol hostage, shooting at buildings, developing chemical weapons."

Oleksiy Arestovych, Ukrainian presidential adviser

 

"One bomb at a time, the Russians cut electricity, water, food supplies and finally, crucially, the cellphone, radio and television towers."

"When we [Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka] arrived, emergency workers were still pulling bloodied pregnant women from the ruins [of the Mariupol maternity hospital, bombed by Russian planes]."

"We had recorded so many dead people and dead children, an endless line. I didn't understand why he [Vladimir Putin] thought still more deaths could change anything. I was wrong."

"The propaganda was so strong that some people we talked to believed it despite the evidence of their own eyes."

"The message was constantly repeated, in Soviet style; Mariupol is surrounded. Surrender your weapons."

Mstyslav Chernov, video journalist, The Associated Press 

 

"Everything is destroyed. Where can we go?

"We're cooking over a fire -- for now we still have a bit of food and some firewood."

Irina Chernenko, Mariupol university librarian

Shelling by Russian forces has prevented civilians from being able to evacuate the besieged port city  Reuters

 

What else could it be termed as but a war crime, the constant aerial bombardment of a besieged city where hundreds of thousands of citizens are trapped with no escape routes, amidst a shortage of food and medicine, no heating, no electricity, where there is no outside communication and where the bombing of civilian infrastructure is raising the number of dead city dwellers day by day. The southeastern city of Mariupol, a prize that continues to elude the Russian military is beyond dire straits.

The devastated city was host to a journalist/photographer duo working for The Associated Press to obtain an inside story of what is transpiring within the beleaguered city and how its residents are coping with a no-holds-barred military campaign launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his legacy scheme to bring Ukraine back into the fold of the Russian Federation on its way to assuming the stranglehold re-conquest of its neighbours in eastern Europe.

The two have since emerged from the city, prepared to report on the infrastructure carnage they witnessed and the sight of hundreds of dead civilians, too numerous to honour with private funerals, instead being placed in mass burial pits, where the danger on site of being struck by missiles is such that families cannot attend even those basic funera-rite burials. 

Mariupol's position as a key port on the Sea of Azov is an integral part of Russian President Putin's plan to absorb Eastern Ukraine, its possession providing a direct route from Russia through the Donbas and the Crimean peninsula, to the Odesa port facilities on the Black Sea. In Mariupol, the strategic gateway Putin yearns to possess air, land and sea bombing raids flattened areas of the city driving hundreds of thousands of its residents into whatever shelters they could find.

 

Some of those shelters in buildings, housing theatres, shopping malls, hospitals, have become death traps for the civilians seeking haven and protection from the bombs. Buildings bombed by Russian planes collapsing into rubble covering the very 'shelters' being used to provide safety to women, children, the elderly, suffocating and crushing them under the weight of the destroyed building above, leaving desperate rescuers to find any still alive, while the shelling continues.

 

Civilians trapped in Mariupol are seen on the road on Sunday. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

 

Russia gave Mariupol a deadline of 5 a.m. on Monday past to surrender the city to the military surrounding and bashing it. "There can be no question of any surrender", responded Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk. "What's happening now in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody". The bombing represented a "massive war crime", stated Josep Borrell, foreign policy representative for the European Union.

"To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will e remembered for centuries to come." The attackers loosing endless munitions on Mariupol would be held "responsible for war crimes", vowed Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Buildings charred, windows blown out, bodies lying along the road wrapped in blankets in that part of the city held by Russian troops. Nearby, groups of men dig graves beside the road.

 

Mariupol officials speak of 2,300 citizens of the city whose lives have thus far been destroyed. Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the conflict. The figures for the Russian military alone stand at 10,000 dead, including four generals and an admiral. The loss of Russian war machines, destroyed tanks, artillery, armour and planes alone is monumental; the death toll and the destroyed war machines in such a short time unheard of in modern warfare.  

Ukrainian resistance has taken Russia by surprise. It is celebrated world-wide. No active outside help is available for Ukraine. Moral support and weaponry aplenty; otherwise, it is on its own against one of the most formidably equipped militaries in the world. The Ukraine military using Soviet-era armaments, Russia in possession of the most technically advanced weapons conceivable. 

 

And the Ukrainian military is holding its own, an inspiration to underdogs everywhere. "I think Moscow is searching for something it can use to declare a victory. Taking the Donbas and having leverage to attain concessions from Kyiv is probably what they're looking to accomplish at this point", asserted Michael Kofman, specialist on the Russian military at Washington think tank, CNA. 

Heroic Pride in Latvian SS Battalion

"They are honouring an SS unit whose members were involved in atrocities."

"This year in particular there is an amazing lack of understanding of the damage a march like this does to the unity of NATO and the nations standing for democracy."

Marvin Rotrand, national director, B'nai Brith Canada 

"Canada has consistently supported Latvia's freedom and independence, and condemns those who would co-opt those sentiments to promote hatred, extremism, and division."

"To our understanding, these events are neither sanctioned nor attended by the Latvian government."

Global Affairs Canada

"[It is] utterly sad [the parade was back on in Riga, Latvia]."

"That they would this year again be gifted the historic centre of the capital is a folly rife with poor judgment and even poorer ethics."

Dovid Katz, editor, Defending History, Holocaust journal studies

A veteran of the Latvian Legion, a force that was commanded by the German Nazi Waffen-SS during the Second World War, places flowers at the Monument of Freedom in Riga, Latvia on March 16, 2019. Some see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Legion, founded in 1943, was commanded by Germany's Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi party's Schutzstaffel SS. Photo by ILMARS ZNOTINS /AFP/Getty Images

It is nothing but heedless at this time when Russia has invaded Ukraine, an East European neighbour of both, under the pretext of rescuing Ukrainians from the 'nazis' and 'racists' and 'right-wing' gangs Moscow claims govern Ukraine. There is also the presence of the Azov Division along with other far-right Ukrainian militia groups who revere their alliance with Nazi Germany as adjuncts to the Nazi SS battalions that fought during the Second World War, and of course, slaughtered European Jews.

The yearly commemoration meant to honour Latvia's seconded citizens to fight alongside regular German SS groups, by veterans and their families and supporters of the ethnic Latvian SS battalions is not an official Latvian event, but the government of Latvia does nothing to deter the yearly celebration, issuing a permit for the parade to proceed, attended by several hundred people. The intervention in the past two years was by nature, when COVID restrictions cancelled the event.

Latvia's SS Legion being honoured to this very day for its dedication to the Nazi ideology, bringing glory in its participation in war and mass murder should be a matter of shame, but evidently it is not. Latvian TV reported the event, attended by hundreds of participants on Wednesday. It is hardly surprising that Jewish groups continue to condemn the yearly support of Hitler's policies and exploits, glorifying those who took part in the Holocaust. 

It does give heft to Vladimir Putin's spurious assertions, however, that the Russian military had a moral obligation to invade Ukraine for the purpose of "de-Nazifying" the country. There is also the unfortunate reality that in the years since World War Two ended, eastern European nations saw fit to build monuments to the nationalist leaders who were happy to fight the Soviet Union; many of the leaders being Nazi collaborators, some actively participating in the mass butchery of the Holocaust. 

 

SS units were drawn from the ethnic populations in Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Estonia.

Officials in Latvia praise the SS; their argument is that members of the legion are to be viewed as national heroes for fighting Russia and none among them were involved in the Holocaust. When, in fact, in those countries occupied by Germany during the war, it was not the least bit difficult to find the historical reality documenting deadly mass pogroms carried out by these same groups against their nationals who happened to be Jews.

 

Photo: Ivans Milovs/Latvijas Televīzija

 

"The pride of the Latvian people and of the state", was how Latvian Defence Minister Artiz Pabriks referred to his country's SS members. "It is our duty to honour these Latvian patriots from the depths of our soul." A sentiment and statement that Canadian government and military officials decided not to condemn. Even while, through its NATO membership, Canada has a contingent of 540 troops and military trainers in Latvia to 'guard against' any potential Russian plans to invade the Baltics.

In 2019, Global Affairs Canada through its spokesperson stated that Canada was "strongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance and extremism. That is why we condemn the parade to commemorate the Latvian SS Brigade held in Latvia on March 16th". Now there is silence on the ongoing issue, coinciding with the tension in Europe and beyond, with Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

The reality is that the Latvian SS Legion was represented by hard-core Nazi collaborators who took their place with enthusiastic pride as helpers in the Holocaust. Viktors Arajs, a Legion officer liked to refer to himself as "Arajs, the Latvian Jew-killer". The best way to kill Jewish babies, according to him, was simply to toss a Jewish child into the air and shoot them in mid-air, avoiding potential ricochets.

This photo from the Second World War shows Latvian SS members