Ambassador’s Statement

The Prime Minister’s “apology”, which we heard today in the House of Commons, is not an apology. And it is not enough.

My country was the main force in defeating Nazi Germany in Europe during WWII. Russia/USSR losses were devastating. 11 million military personnel fell on the battlefields and 16 million civilians died due to the ethnic purges under the Nazi occupation at the hands of the SS, including the notorious 14th Division of the SS “Galicia”, death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and Nazi collaborators. Imagine – this is the combined current population of Ontario, Québec, and British Columbia provinces!

There are more than 200 thousand Canadians of Russian descent. All of them are legal citizens, loyal voters and taxpayers. Every Russian family, including Russian Canadians, lost at least one relative in combating Nazism. I strongly believe that despite deep disagreements between Moscow and Ottawa on the current geopolitical situation, the Government and the Parliament of Canada must find courage to apologize directly to all Russians and the Russian Canadian community for the disgraceful incident the whole world was watching on September 22.