Mr. Chair, we never know exactly what is in the mind of President Yanukovych these days. There is a lot of speculation out there. I believe that what we are living with are the remnants of Soviet mentality, that technocrat approach to the way they govern their people. I have a great concern that the current administration would rather be more tied in to the past than look to the future.
We have to continue to reach out to the people of Ukraine, and hopefully we will see this peaceful protest, the Euromaidan protest we are seeing in Independence Square in Kiev, and in communities across Ukraine, cumulate in a change of heart by President Yanukovych.
I ask that he strongly consider the will of the people, and I ask my friends from the Ukrainian Embassy to carry that message back. I ask them to consider the will of the people and the wishes they are laying out. They are wearing their hearts on their sleeves on the streets of Kiev tonight, and I ask them to listen to their cries and allow their will to come to a final successful conclusion of moving Ukraine into a stronger European relationship into the future to increase their prosperity.
I always say that a rising tide lifts all ships. The great prosperity that we see in Europe today, which Canada will tie into with our own comprehensive free trade deal, will be to the benefit of our friends in Ukraine, if they pull more into integration, both from an economic standpoint and also through co-operation on so many other avenues, such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law.