Peter MacKay: It's time for Canada to get tough with Putin and his thugs. Here's how we can do it
What kind of country assassinates the opposition leader virtually on the steps of their legislature; puts hits out on citizens who speak out against them, even outside its borders; orders the persecution of government employees; submits foreign politicians and governments to cyber attacks; sends troops across sovereign borders and generally behaves like a 16th century dictatorship? The answer, of course, is Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
We have become so inundated with news, fake and otherwise, that we’ve become numb to the reality of suffering abroad. The horrors of far-away places become somehow too much to rationalize, too large and complex to grasp, let alone tackle. So we briefly recoil and then return to the daily grind of work, community, and kids, naively thinking the wolf half a world away won’t come to our door.
Russia, however, is not that far away. And it is already coming. Their aircraft approach our airspace in North America regularly, their ships and submarines skirt our coastlines. They have planted flags in the high north in disputed, territorial Arctic waters. They are within striking distance, if we dare contemplate that chilling truth. Canadians and Russians may share a certain natural affinity as northern peoples, but our governments are increasingly and fundamentally opposed.
Peter MacKay: It’s time for Canada to get tough with Putin and his thugs. Here’s how we can do it | National Post
What kind of country assassinates the opposition leader virtually on the steps of their legislature; puts hits out on citizens who speak out against them, even outside its borders; orders the persecution of government employees; submits foreign politicians and governments to cyber attacks; sends troops across sovereign borders and generally behaves like a 16th century dictatorship? The answer, of course, is Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
We have become so inundated with news, fake and otherwise, that we’ve become numb to the reality of suffering abroad. The horrors of far-away places become somehow too much to rationalize, too large and complex to grasp, let alone tackle. So we briefly recoil and then return to the daily grind of work, community, and kids, naively thinking the wolf half a world away won’t come to our door.
Russia, however, is not that far away. And it is already coming. Their aircraft approach our airspace in North America regularly, their ships and submarines skirt our coastlines. They have planted flags in the high north in disputed, territorial Arctic waters. They are within striking distance, if we dare contemplate that chilling truth. Canadians and Russians may share a certain natural affinity as northern peoples, but our governments are increasingly and fundamentally opposed.
Peter MacKay: It’s time for Canada to get tough with Putin and his thugs. Here’s how we can do it | National Post
