Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed a plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday 23 March.
“Vladimir Putin has violated the principles of international law and is killing civilians by bombing hospitals and homes. It is a threat to Europe and to the whole world”, said the Canadian Prime Minister, reiterating at the same time his country’s status as a host country for Ukrainian refugees.
“We need to increase humanitarian aid and start thinking about post-war reconstruction in Ukraine”, he added, recalling that Canada has the second largest Ukrainian community outside the country, after Russia.
On the European Parliament side, several MEPs, in the wake of Mr Trudeau’s speech, affirmed the EU’s support for Canada in receiving Ukrainian refugees.
In addition, the Canadian Prime Minister spoke at length to MEPs about his reading of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Vladimir Putin saw our disagreements and considered them as weaknesses. What he never understood was that the rigour of the debates, this civil engagement, is our strength, it is democracy at its best”.
“Let’s be honest though: we have not always been at the top of our game. Putin thought he could weaken the EU, NATO, and it’s a backlash he’s getting”, he added.
At the same time, Mr Trudeau also took the opportunity to recall his country’s involvement in NATO and confirmed the announcement, made earlier in the day, of the reinforcement of Canadian troops in Latvia.
Fighting populism
Placing the values of democracy at the centre of his speech, Mr Trudeau also returned to the need to combat populism and the rise of extremes, referring to the historic protests against public health measures in Canada between late January and February 2022.
“Citizens feel uncertainty, it is a time of fear, of worry. People need leaders, they need solutions and populism exploits these fears with simplistic solutions. But democracy is not a game. There are no simplistic solutions to the problems we all face today”, said Justin Trudeau from the lectern in the Chamber.
Finally, he stressed the importance of sanctions against the Kremlin and those close to the Russian regime. Some people in the Parliament also felt that it would be possible to go further.
“The list of sanctions must be completed. Defending democracy has a cost, but not doing so would have an even higher cost”, said Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania).
“We have made Putin a pariah. The sanctioned oligarchs must be tackled”, said Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)