{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "Canadian Foreign Policy Institute",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/canadian-foreign-foreign-policy-institute",
"title": "The courage to call for negotiation.",
"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/share_options/facebook_images/000/349/020/original/UPDATED_DIPLOMACY_NOT_MILITARIZATION.png",
"description": "Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law that has already caused significant death and suffering. In Canada the invasion has bolstered those calling for more military spending and fossil fuels. While Russia’s actions must be condemned, the Canadian government’s contribution to this calamitous situation shouldn’t be ignored. Since the early 1990s, Canada has pushed to expand NATO to Russia’s doorstep despite promises to Soviet officials not to do so. Now 600 Canadian troops lead a semi-permanent NATO mission in Latvia on Russia’s doorstep. While NATO maintained nuclear weapons in Turkey and various European countries, Canadian officials blamed Russia for the arms control impasse and the demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which banned an entire class of nuclear weapons.[i] The Donald Trump administration formally withdrew from the INF. Most directly, Canada played a role in today's tensions by contributing to the 2014 overthrow of the elected Ukrainian president, which precipitated war in the east of the country. Incredibly, the Canadian embassy in Kyiv was used by anti-government protesters for a week in the lead up to Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster. The ouster of the elected president lead to an eight year war that’s left 14,000 dead. Instead of pouring in more weapons, Canada should push to negotiate a way out of the conflict. The alternative is evermore Ukrainians dying and the possibility of cataclysmic nuclear war growing. It takes courage to press for diplomacy during war. Canada should declare its opposition to the expansion of NATO, call on the US to withdraw nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe and push the Ukrainians to adopt the Minsk agreement. Canada’s sanctions and diplomatic measures are leverage",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/letters/diplomacy-not-militarization"
}