From the Edmonton Journal:
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.
Update: Borys Wrzesnewskyj posted on his Facebook two responses to this article were published in the Edmonton Journal yesterday:
