Our people in Canada

In early June, a private e-petition was registered with the secretariat of the Parliament of Canada, asking it to abolish visas for short-term (under 90 days) trips of Ukrainian citizens to Canada. The petition came from Ukrainian-Canadian Nicholas Krawetz, who visited Ukraine three times as an observer at presidential, parliamentary, and local elections. In an interview with The Day on Skype, he explained the reasons behind his initiative.

“THE GOVERNMENT HAS 45 DAYS TO RESPOND TO THIS PETITION”

“Firstly, I have Ukrainian ancestry, and come from Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is a Central Canadian province. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother immigrated to Canada before the First World War from western Ukraine. I was also a member of the organizing committee of the regional Euromaidan, which was created to support Ukraine two years ago.

“Secondly, my academic background is in economics and international relations. Therefore, I followed closely the developments in Ukraine, the adoption of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, as well as relations between Canada and Ukraine and the preparation of the Free Trade Agreement. Past year, the two nations completed negotiations on this agreement and it is expected that it will be signed this summer and subsequently ratified.

“Thirdly, the EU leads on the liberalization of the visa regime for Ukraine and has negotiated on the issue for many years. The EU is committed to abolishing the visa regime for Ukraine after it complies with the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization. If Canada is serious about its FTA with Ukraine, it should follow the example of the EU in abolishing visas for Ukrainian citizens.

“Fourthly, this year, the Canadian government introduced e-petition system. I decided to use this window of opportunity and proposed a petition to introduce visa-free travel for short trips of Ukrainian citizens to Canada. Since its publication, my E-petition e-33 has received a lot of attention from the Canadian media.

“To get the government to respond, we needed at least 500 signatures. We got 2,500 signatures, i.e., five times over the threshold. After the publication of this petition, I phoned MPs and senators to find out whether they supported it.

“Overall 121 out of the 338 MPs have expressed their support for this idea so far, including the leaders of three parties: Conservative, New Democratic, and Greens.

“The petition was registered with the Canadian Parliament yesterday [the interview was recorded on June 7. – Author]. Under the rules, the government has 45 days to respond to this petition.

“It is expected that our prime minister will visit Ukraine in early July and will sign the FTA. After signing and ratifying, it should come into force on January 1, 2017.

“I hope that when Justin Trudeau will be in Kyiv, the Ukrainian media will ask him when visa-free travel will be introduced. I believe it was important to come up with such an initiative and put pressure on legislators in the parliament to abolish visas for young people.”

Why is it important to get precisely young people benefiting from visa-free travel between Ukraine and Canada?

“It would help prospective students to get to Canada, start a three-month term here and then return to Ukraine. In my opinion, this is fantastic. After all, they can apply their knowledge to the Ukrainian context, become open to new ideas and spread them. And I think it will benefit everyone. If the EU is going to grant visa-free travel to Ukrainians, it will be a strong argument for Canada to follow suit and do likewise.

“I really hope that the EU will do it this summer. And I will insist here in Canada that the parliament decide to grant Ukraine visa-free travel. I sincerely hope that it will.

“I understand that the government will not abolish visas overnight, but I hope that my petition will prompt the government to start dialog, to enter negotiations, and we will see how it all turns out.”

“I THINK THAT CANADA WILL EXTEND SANCTIONS”

What do you think about the Trudeau government’s current policies, since some experts believe that it is trying to have pragmatic relations with Russia and refusing to approve the Magnitsky List?

“Of course, opinions differ about the approaches espoused by the new government. The previous government was steadfast in its support for Ukraine, both in financial terms and in supporting reform. Meanwhile, the new government has confirmed that policy towards Ukraine will not change. I think it counts as a positive. The official Canadian policy is non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea. As for support, Canada has been providing it since Ukraine’s independence and continues to do so.

“The new government has taken some steps and actions to resume discussions with Russia. On the one hand, this makes it possible to talk to them and clearly explain our position. I hope that it will. At the same time, the government’s message is one of the conflict between actions and words.

“As for the Ukrainian community, our diaspora in Canada, we strive to maintain and even increase support for Ukraine. And this initiative, this petition for the abolition of visas, is one way we can do it.

“I would like to note an interesting fact: a petition to encourage the government to adopt a law on the Magnitsky List was registered in the parliament on June 6. And the government has to react to it. Of course, I worry that the government has chosen a different path than that claimed earlier. Before the election, the parliament was unanimous in support of the law, but it was delayed at the last moment.

“The Ukrainian community is determined to get this law passed in accordance with the tradition that Canada is devoted to, I mean promotion of the human rights and democracy irrespective of the country in question. And this especially applies to Russia, where human rights are being violated and democratic freedoms are being undermined. Therefore, I sincerely hope that the government will approve the Magnitsky List.”

At the end of this month, the EU will decide on the extension of sanctions against Russia. What is the Canadian government’s position on this issue?

“Canada has witnessed much talk about this. I think that Canada will follow the US and EU’s lead in extending the sanctions. After all, the recent G7 summit in Japan decided to extend the sanctions until the Minsk Agreements are implemented in full. But so far, there has been no evidence for their implementation.”