Again, I'm not a legal expert of the department and I can't really comment on the determination of genocide with regard to this specific case. That's going to have to be adjudicated. People will then go through all of these elements that you've identified to try to piece together if there is a case or not that proves intent.
Clearly there is, in the current situation, absolutely no indication that there is any restraint being put on Russian armed forces in terms of the messaging they're receiving from their leadership. I think if you're messaging that these people are only a people who have Nazi intent against Russia and against russophones, then you're going to be enabling bad behaviour by your own armed forces. You're not going to be feeling as a soldier, I'm sure, that you're going to be sanctioned for doing something when the country that you're in is being vilified by your own leadership. Those who are perpetrating these actions are not being called to account by their senior officers.
That's just an observation, as somebody who is watching this from the outside, of what that will look like in a situation should there ever be, finally, a real investigation and prosecution of the war crimes being perpetrated. It will be for the courts to determine, based on what the investigators are able to put together and the prosecutor is able to argue. From my perspective, of course, as somebody who's worked on the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, and Ukraine and the west, for over two decades now, I have to say the intent, to me, is pretty clear, but that's just Natasha Cayer. It has nothing to do with anything else, and it has no value. It's just a feeling. I'm sure that's a feeling that's widely shared across Canada and across the western world by those who have been watching these atrocities going on.
With regard to cultural property, I think there is clearly a disregard for anything that is Ukrainian cultural property, and there's not seemingly much intent to try to circumscribe what targeting and activities are going on within Ukraine. We've seen some significant sites that have been completely destroyed, including ones that were harbouring people. I think that speaks for itself, but what the determination will be eventually is going to be in the hands of the experts who do the investigation and the prosecutors who will bring it forward.