Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2022-02-28 23:23
Madam Chair, I echo the comments of the hon. member for Kildonan—St. Paul. It is certainly a wonderful thing when we can come together and unify around a common cause, which is to defend the people of Ukraine against an aggressor, which I do not think is the nation of Russia, but increasingly seems to be its leader. He is unconcerned with the fate of his own people as well as the people of Ukraine.
I ask our hon. colleague if he has any thoughts on how we can reach out to the people of Russia who are bravely standing up in peace marches to encourage them to fight against Putin.
Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands)
2022-02-28 23:24
Madam Chair, it certainly is encouraging to see people who are standing up and protesting in a country where we know things can happen to those who are very loud and vocal about their opinions. They are still doing it, so that is all the more inspirational.
What can we be doing? We can be giving them the tools to make sure their voices are heard. We can be communicating through various technologies we have today to make sure the right information is coming forward.
When President Zelensky specifically spoke to the Russian people in Russian, that was incredible, but we know that is not going to be played on RT, Russia Today. We need to make sure we are doing our part to get messages like that in front of the Russian people, because they are being oppressed. The manner in which they are being pushed down is the exact same thing Putin wants to do to Ukrainians. Whatever we can do to make sure that message gets through is something we should be doing.