While pushing Ukraine proxy war, Canada struggled to evacuate citizens from Sudan
Written by: Steven Sahiounie
Canadian military aircraft deliver Ukraine-bound military aid not only from Canada, but from allies and partners, but Canada recently found it difficult to fly its citizens home from a war zone.
Canadian citizens were caught-up in the war zone in Sudan, where two rival generals are fighting for power and control.
CTV News reported that, faced with a dangerous and desperate situation, a Canadian woman from Toronto, Azza Ahmed, her mother and an elderly aunt were left to fend for themselves in evacuating Sudan, and felt forgotten by the Canadian government in the process.
A Canadian government representative called the woman and advised her and her two aunts to go to a military airport 25 kilometers away to catch an evacuation flight. At that time, the situation was too dangerous to even venture outside, but they were expected to fend for themselves in getting to the airport.
She recalls that Canada did not offer them any assistance with food, accommodation, transportation, or the evacuation flight home.
“(The Canadian government) basically abandoned us,” said Ahmed. She compared her experience with other nationalities evacuated, and found some countries got their citizens out of Sudan in just two or three days and paid for all their expenses.
Many are asking about Canada’s priorities, and whether the attention and expenses spent on keeping the war going in Ukraine has made Canada weaker and less prepared to care for its own citizen’s needs.
The Canadian government does not see it their duty to evacuate their citizens from danger abroad. They take the position of their ally, the US: you got yourself there, now get yourself home.
Canada follows many American viewpoints, including the supplying of weapons to the Ukrainian military. The American-Canadian-NATO priority is to keep the fighting ongoing in Ukraine, and support the fight against Russia.
Canada found it difficult to quickly evacuate its citizens in Sudan because they lacked the personnel on the ground to tackle the job. Canada relied on several Canadian planes which flew out of the capital Khartoum, but then handed off the job by relying on the US evacuation resources.
The airport at Khartoum became a front line in the battles, and pilots deemed it unsafe. Then the government switched the evacuation plan to the Port Sudan, but that was 800 kilometers away, which represented a 30-hour journey filled with risks.
A possible solution would have been a Canadian military convoy of buses which could have been rented from local transportation companies, and citizens living in the capital could have left for the port safely.
Colin Robertson, a Canadian Global Affairs Institute Fellow and former Canadian diplomat, has said that crisis situations require a larger diplomatic corps than presently available. He says instead of increased diplomatic personnel as Canada grows, instead it has been reduced over the last two decades.
In any evacuation situation, the diplomatic corps would be making travel and logistical plans with local, allied and Canadian resources according to Robertson.
Canada sends weapons to Ukraine
The Canadian government has committed over $1 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since February 2022.
The administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has billed the war in Ukraine as a fundamental war of independence, while Trudeau is not independent of the American war machine, which pulls Canada into most foreign misadventures as a US ally and partner.
"We will stand with the people of Ukraine, as long as it takes," Trudeau said.
Canada missed its opportunity to develop negotiations which would bring Ukraine and Russia together to solve their differences without bloodshed and destruction. Instead, Canada followed its cues from Washington, DC, and built-up Ukraine’s military, leading to a war in Europe, the first of its kind in decades, with no end in sight.
The US-led coalition to attack, destroy and occupy Iraq in 2003 has been proven to have been based on lies, and faulty intelligence. Now, after 20 years Iraq still stands unrecovered, with shortages of water, electricity and medical services. Iraq was a US engineered war for regime change.
Neither freedom, nor democracy was achieved in Iraq, only regime change. It appears to many that the war in Ukraine is another attempt by the US at regime change in foreign lands. This time the target is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Canada anti-war movement
Many Canadians are against involvement in the NATO war against Russia, centred in Ukraine. They have held rallies which proclaim “Stop the Weapons, Stop the War, Stop NATO”.
“We are opposed to NATO because it is an aggressive, US-led, military alliance of 30 Euro-Atlantic countries that has launched deadly and destructive interventions in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. These NATO wars have caused profound misery and a massive refugee crisis.”
Canada was involved with NATO’s provoking of conflict with Russia, by NATO’s expansion on the Russian border, and the training and arming of Ukrainian forces by NATO. Many Canadians feel the war in Ukraine could have been avoided by negotiations, instead of US pressure on President Zelensky to not back down from the position that US President Joe Biden has insisted upon.
The war in Ukraine is the result of a NATO proxy war against Russia, fought on Ukrainian soil. It is being financed by citizens from Canada, US, EU and other NATO members. The goal is to drain and weaken Russia to its lowest point possible.
Instead of the US directly attacking Russia, which could lead to nuclear war, it has devised the Ukraine conflict which does not harm Americans, or American infrastructure, but has destroyed many areas across Ukraine, and has sent millions of refugees from their homes.
Western mainstream media
US and Canadian media have played their role in bending the minds of the public into the acceptance of a war in Ukraine based on values of democracy and freedom.
One of the first examples of political propaganda used in the Ukraine war, was the repeated media denials that there was any Nazi party or influence in the Ukrainian government.
However, a brief study of the facts reveals that the Azov Battalion was the backbone of the Ukrainian military forces and was originally proudly identifying themselves as Nazis. Many western TV commentators would scoff at the idea while commenting, “How could there be Nazis in Ukraine, when the President is Jewish?”
The Nazis in Ukraine have no problem having a Jewish President Zelensky, viewing him as useful cover to operate under. A Nazi can be described as an Ultra-Nationalist, and some will use the descriptive term of Fascist.
The Azov Battalion’s political wing is the National Corps Party, a far-right political party, which holds seats in local city councils across Ukraine.
The Canadian media portrays the Ukrainians as the good-guys and the Russians as the bad-guys. Bombing and ethnic cleansing has been carried out by Kiev for almost a decade against Russian speaking civilians, who live in areas which were formerly part of Ukraine. No information is given about the UN reported ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed in the Eastern provinces of Ukraine by the Ukrainian forces, which have been ongoing since 2014. This propaganda leads some Canadians to demand the freedom of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
Need for peaceful resolution
There is an immediate need for a ceasefire in Ukraine, and diplomatic negotiations to end the conflict. Canada does not need to be a partner to a conflict which can be resolved. Just as in the case of the Iraq war in 2003, Canada can make decisions independent of US pressure.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has put forth effort to broker peace in Ukraine with his 12-point peace plan. Xi spoke with with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 26 by telephone, and assured Zelenskyy that Beijing would not add “fuel to the fire” of the war, and also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Li Hui, China’s special representative on Eurasian affairs, will visit Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany and Poland this week as Beijing tries its hand at peacemaker.
Celso Amorim, a former foreign minister, and top adviser to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Zelenskyy on May 10 in Kyiv, as da Silva continues his push for peace in the Ukraine war.
“Brazil is making a significant effort" to form a coalition of countries, including China and India, to negotiate a peace agreement,” says President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Continuing the war, and the resulting destruction of families and infrastructure is not the only option for the West to impose on Ukraine.
Editor’s note: The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
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Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist.
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