Drinking The Kool Aid

Canadian Minister: Chris Alexander Delivers a Troubling Speech on Ukraine

Video and Transcript

"Vladimir Putin is behaving like a terrorist."

Posted March 19, 2015

Transcript

We know, as you know, that Vladimir Putin is only going to face his comeuppance, that his whole, mad nightmare is only going to come apart at the seams, when the whole world is standing against him, with every option on the table, denouncing his illegal action and standing with Ukraine with military assistance, and with every other form of assistance.
This is the biggest issue facing the world today...in my view. I think in the view of our prime minister, and our team…Yes, there is terrorism. Vladimir Putin is behaving like a terrorist. And he was taught by an organization, trained by an organization that specialized in training terrorists. So there's no surprise there.

But, Syria and Iraq are serious issues as well. We can't forget them. Maybe Ukraine is in the plight that it's in because of mistakes that the United States and others made with regard to our policy jointly in Syria. But the buck stops in Ukraine; there is absolutely no scenario going into the future that leads to peace and security for this world, that leads to prosperity in Europe and globally that does not include a full international effort to give Ukraine the tools it needs to drive Russian forces from their borders and to secure its borders for good…(applause) What is happening in Eastern Ukraine has roots that go as far back as well (sic) and some to the Second World War. But it really has to do with the incomplete process of ending the existence of the Soviet Union for good. Ending the oppression and ending the Faustian bargain that had been made in the Second World War with Stalin’s Soviet Union, for good…

And we have been – those of us who have served in Russia - we have been expecting this. We have been expecting a crisis in Ukraine because there have always been Russians, since 1991, everywhere. And now around Vladimir Putin, who wanted to put Humpty Dumpty back together, who didn't accept that Ukraine could be an independent country within these borders. They are a menace to Russia, they are a menace to Ukraine, they are a menace to the whole world, ladies and gentlemen and we must speak out against this dangerous ideology, which is present in our own city of Toronto. Which is present across Canada. Which comes to us through state-sponsored Russian channels which are preaching absolute poison…For Vladimir Putin's media handlers to be calling the government of Ukraine, to be calling us Ukraine supporters, to be calling the whole western world Nazis is nothing less than reprehensible, and we must be taking the lead not only in fighting and in supporting those who are fighting, not only in making sure that Ukraine gets all the support it needs, but in denouncing one of the greatest perversions of history that I have seen in my lifetime, which comes to us courtesy of Russian language television.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's join that fight as well. There are ideals at stake here, there is ideology at stake here, there is history at stake here, and all of our democracies, all of our democracies, depend on the outcome of this struggle. This is going to be a great struggle. We are just at the beginning of this struggle. And I think when I see groups like this assembled… when I see determination on the level that is plain from all of your faces, I know that the future of Ukraine is still bright; I know that the ties that bind Canada to Ukraine have never been stronger; and I know that Canada's leadership in the world on this issue as on others has never been more important. Thank you for being here. Slava Ukrayini! This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, AlbertaPolitics.ca.