Canada’s Deputy PM a Malignant Presence

Keghart.org Editorial, 16 October 2022

After Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a plea at the United Nations for international intervention to stop Azerbaijan’s aggression, Mélanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, stood up and talked about abortion and women’s rights. Joly, whose Montreal riding has a significant number of Armenians, has made no statement about the Sept. 13 Azeri attack. In early October, she tweeted regarding the gory video of the murder of Armenian POWs but said nothing about the unprovoked invasion and occupation of Armenian territories. The federal politicians who have condemned the Azeris are PC Senator Leo Housakos of Wellington (Quebec) and NDP MP Alexandre Bouleice of Montreal. Neither PM Justin Trudeau nor Deputy PM and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland have condemned Azerbaijan’s unprovoked attack or mentioned the illegal Azeri occupation of parts of Eastern Armenia, the summary execution of Armenian soldiers, and the desecration of the Armenian female soldier although the sickening details are on the Internet.

On Sept. 30, ten prominent Canadians, including Greg Sarkisian of the Zoryan Institute, Dr. Noubar Afeyan (co-founder of Moderna pharmaceutical company), film director Atom Egoyan and Professor Emeritus of Political Science Alan Whitehorn wrote to Prime Minister Trudeau requesting to meet him to discuss Canada’s response to the recent Azerbaijani aggression. The reply from the Prime Minister’s office was sent by a bureaucrat who acknowledged receipt of the letter. That was the sum total of Trudeau’s “response.”

According to reliable sources Freeland has labelled Armenia “pro-Russian” and thus a pariah.

Before addressing Freeland’s false allegation that Armenia is in Russia’s pocket, let’s put her under a microscope to better understand her lies.

Freeland has a loose mouth. During parliamentary debates she comes across as a harridan, a war-monger, and a Cold War warrior. She’s a female John Bolton. A former financial journalist, she was elevated to her present positions by Trudeau although she had no experience in politics.

She’s also a tax-and-spend Liberal. If faced with a shortage of funds, she rushes to print money, blasé about the resulting inflation.

By far, her primary political motivator is a fanatical hatred of Russians. An extreme Ukrainian nationalist, Freeland is the granddaughter of ultra-nationalist and Nazi Michael Cherniak who was chief editor of the “Krakiviski Visti,” an anti-Semitic journal which the Nazis had confiscated from its Jewish owners.

Freeland can’t be condemned for her grandfather’s crimes. However, she should be condemned for lying about her Nazi grandfather and even praising him. In a 2015 essay for the Brookings Institute entitled “My Ukraine,” Freeland wrote: “My maternal grandparent fled western Ukraine after Hitler and the Soviet Union signed their non-aggression pact in 1939. They never dared to go back…” No word about the years her grandfather had edited a Nazi newspaper. She also pretended her grandfather was a political refugee from Soviet-occupied Ukraine, describing him as journalist and lawyer.

On August 26, 2016, in honor of Black Ribbon Day, Freeland tweeted a loving note to her grandparents Michael and Alexandra Cherniak saying “I am proud to honor their memory today.” During her long career as a journalist in Eastern Europe and elsewhere–when she revealed the secrets of others–she covered up her family’s shameful past. She labeled the revelation about her Nazi grandfather as “Russian disinformation” although her grandfather’s criminal past was exposed by Canadian-Ukrainian Alex Boykowich of Alberta. He also revealed that after settling in Canada, Freeland’s grandfather continued to read Nazi and anti-Semitic articles. Polish intelligence continued their hunt for Freeland’s grandfather well into the 1980s.

According to The Globe and Mail where Freeland worked, she knew about her grandfather’s past.

Freeland told the Washington Post that “Russians should stop calling my grandfather Nazi.”

Freeland is a George Soros fan. MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay has pointed out Freeland’s “closeness” to the notorious Soros. It’s impossible not to note Freeland’s adoring manner towards Soros when she “interviewed” the international crook at least twice. The body language was that of an adoring student at the feet of the guru-teacher.

Freeland behaves like a virago during Parliamentary debates. Her virulent comments and bull-in-a-china-shop manner regarding Russia and her vituperation about the Russian-Ukrainian War indicate that Freeland is motivated by her ultra-Ukrainian nationalism rather than by Canada’s interests. She comes across as smarmy yet arrogant.

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if it was revealed that she supports Ukrainian Nazi Azov Brigade. During one anti-Russian march she held a red-and-black scarf inscribed with the slogan “glory to Ukraine.” It was the slogan of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during its congress in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Freeland is also an opportunist turncoat. In 2012, she wrote “Plutocrats: The Rise of the new Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else”. The book was an attack on the super-rich and Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF). But after she was promoted to her current positions, she became an executive at the WEF. The turncoat merrily frolicked with the global super-rich at WEF gatherings in Davos, high-up in the rarified air of the Alps. As Canada’s Deputy PM and Minister of Finance, she earns $420,000 a year. We don’t know how much she earns at WEF but we know that WEF annual membership fees range from $60,000 to $600,000 and admission to the WEF annual pow-wow is a cool $25,000.

Ukraine’s Victor Yanukovich was legally elected, in 2014, but Freeland insisted that Canada impose personal sanctions against Yanukovich and his political backers and freeze their assets. Why the animus? Yanukovich was friendly with Russians. She got her wish when the Americans (led by neo-con Victoria Nuland) engineered the 2014 Maidan coup toppling Yanukovich.

Although Syria’s White Helmets are known gun-for-hire terrorists, Freeland has called them “courageous volunteers.”

Freeland has not shown much support for Uighurs of China’s Xinxiang perhaps because her boss is a great admirer of China.

In a classic display of geopolitical meddling, three years ago out of the blue Freeland tangled with Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro and made a failed attempt to impose sanctions against the impoverished country. The fact that she had egg on her face didn’t faze Freeland.

When a major Canadian TV network contacted Freeland’s office, requesting background material and a statement about how her personal connections impact her work, the request was brushed off.

Freeland’s condemnations are selective. While condemning the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine as “illegal seizure…something Canada can’t accept or ignore,” she has kept silent about Azerbaijan’s recent unprovoked attack on Armenia and its occupation of Armenian territories since May 2021.

Always undiplomatic and intemperate, she has called for the “vanquishing” of Vladimir Putin. A call to vanquishing can only be understood as a call for assassination. Is this Canada’s official policy?

One of the most important trade negotiations Canada has participated in recent years has been the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and Mexico. At the time, Donald Trump was the president. Afterwards, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said Freeland was a “frustrating and difficult negotiator” who stalled the negotiations. He also said it was difficult to get Freeland to commit to any substantive changes. She also “regaled” reporters with platitudes.

Freeland has been called Stepford Wife and Klaus Schwab’s doll. On the Internet, Canadians have said she is worthless, a ghost, turncoat, smarmy, and incompetent. Canadians have also said she has abandoned all principles of human decency. One reader asked her image not be shown because “I just ate.”

Freeland is also disliked for subjective reasons.

Perhaps it’s her radically unappealing looks. She’s hard on the eyes.

Perhaps it’s her grating voice.

Perhaps it’s the too small garments she wears.

Perhaps it’s her undignified posture and posturing during Parliamentary debates.

Why did Freeland pigeonhole Armenia as an extension of Russia? Why did she ban fellow Liberal Parliamentarians from expressing their revulsion against Azerbaijan’s invasion? Was it because she’s ignorant or does she have a hidden agenda. It’s no secret that for years Armenia-Ukraine relations have been less than warm.  Freeland, the life-long Ukrainian nationalist, knows about the unfriendly relations of Armenia and Ukraine. As a good patriotic Ukrainian “soldier,” she believes it’s her duty to hurt Armenia. She used her position as Canada’s deputy prime minister to hurt Armenia.

Here are reasons which make mockery of Freeland’s allegation that Armenia is an extension of Russia:

1. Russia did nothing when in 2020 Turkey flew American-built F-16s into Azerbaijan and used them against Armenia.
2. Russia was inactive and virtually silent when Azerbaijan-Turkey used terrorists in the 2020 war.
3. Russia didn’t congratulate Nikol Pashinyan in his parliamentary victory in Dec. 2018.
4. Russia has sold at least $4 billion of weapons to Azerbaijan but did not deliver arms to Armenia for which payment was already made.
5. Following the Sept. 13, 2022, unprovoked Azeri attack and penetration into eastern Armenia, Russia lied that the conflict was about “border demarcation.”
6. Russia belatedly said Azerbaijan troops must return to the original places—but only after the U.S., France, and other states had said so.
7. Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) violated their defense agreements with Armenia when they refused to help Armenia the week of Sept. 13 and prior occupation of Armenian territories in May 2021.
8. Russian peacekeepers in Artsakh are inactive when Azerbaijan makes frequent attacks on the Armenians of Artsakh.
9. On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev signed a partnership agreement which vowed to increase cooperation between the two countries, particularly in energy production. Lukoil, the giant Russian energy company spent $1.5 billion to increase its stake in Azerbaijan’s largest gas field, bringing its share to 20 per cent. Lukoil also holds 10 per cent stake in Azerbaijan’s South Caucasus Pipeline. Moreover, Russia is exporting oil and gas through Azerbaijan to Europe and other markets.
10. Russian media, led by Russian RT.com, never says anything positive about Armenia. Various Russian media outlets commenting on Azerbaijan’s attack on Sept. 13 downplayed the Azeri attack and misrepresented Moscow’s inaction. On “Time Will Tell’ program (Sept.19) host Anatoly Kuzichev called Nancy Pelosi’s damning description of Azeri attack (“illegal and deadly”) as “incorrect” and “exaggerated.”
11. Russian military analyst Vladimir Shurgin claimed the “clash” needed to be studied for a long time to determine who attacked as if Russian satellites hadn’t shown the Azerbaijanis had attacked. Another Russian “analyst” [Oleg Shiskin] said he had flown over the area of conflict and had not seen any sign of habitation. He didn’t mention that 7,600 Armenians had fled from the area the Azerbaijanis had attacked. He also repeated the Azeri lie that Azerbaijan had responded to Armenian provocation.
12. Russia doesn’t want a democratic Armenia. It wants an Armenia headed by an autocrat whom it can manipulate and threaten. An Armenian leader who answers to the electorate is unappealing to Russia.
13. Pashinyan had a history of opposing Russia’s role in Armenia. The Kremlin never liked or trusted him. Knowing his anti-Russian stand, the people of Armenia twice elected him.
14. The Western Bloc has never offered Armenia any real security and has implicitly consented to Turkey’s ongoing closure of the borders with Armenia. The Western Bloc has also supported the blatantly corrupt Azerbaijan dictatorship against democratic Armenia. Thus, the Western Bloc has done its best to drive Armenia into Russia’s arms. And now the vile opportunist Freeland has the temerity to “accuse” Armenia of being an extension of Russia.
15. “Haykakan Jamanak” newspaper, which is owned by Pashinyan’s family, said in a recent article that the Kremlin wants Armenia to become part of the Russia-Belarus Union State or Russian Federation, and is trying to achieve this through Azerbaijan and to some extent, Russian troops stationed in Armenia, in addition by selling arms to Azerbaijan. According to the article, which was probably written by Pashinyan, Russia is pushing for the corridor in southern Armenia since it would be the main beneficiary and control the corridor.

The above facts are evidence Armenia isn’t a Russian satellite anymore. Ostracizing Western policies against Armenia would realize what Freeland wrongly believes is a fact. Freeland’s view of Armenia underline the fact that she is either an ignoramus or has an ulterior motive in ordering Jolie and Co. not condemn Azerbaijan.

Finally, even if Armenia was a Russian satellite, it takes a bottom-feeding character to hide the crimes of Azerbaijan which murders POWS and after making mincemeat of the corpse of an Armenian female soldier videotapes it, and boastfully puts it on the Internet.

NB Canadian Armenians whose riding MP is Liberal should contact their representative and express their displeasure with the Trudeau government’s indifference to the plight of Armenia.