National Defence committee  As president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. We are a major stakeholder in supporting Ukraine in its struggle for democracy. That's the reason we were asked to be part of that. I've been on virtually every trip with prime ministers and ministers. I was just in Ukraine a year

National Defence committee  Absolutely non-partisan.

National Defence committee  First of all, I think we all believe in a people's and a nation's right to self-determination. That underlies why that whole premise of spheres of influence is fundamentally flawed. Putin's endgame is to restore something like the old Soviet Union. At the end of the day, it's s

National Defence committee  He's not elite.

National Defence committee  I was put on that list immediately after I visited Ukraine with Prime Minister Harper when he went to show support for Ukraine right after the Maidan revolution and the fleeing of President Yanukovych. At that point, Prime Minister Harper was advocating for Russia to be excluded

National Defence committee  A peacekeeping mission is not going to happen any time soon. As we know, these things take a long time to broker and a long time to get off the ground. We would love to see it happen soon, but in reality they're just starting to talk about it. If there are suggestions on how we c

National Defence committee  Well, it's both. I think you need to start off with Canada spearheading the dialogue, both at the United Nations and when it takes over the G7 presidency in January, to make this a key topic: how the G7 countries can come together and do something different. If we continue doing

National Defence committee  When you look at how these bands of supposed separatists were able to take over a Buk missile system, were able to get their hands on the most sophisticated Russian military equipment to shoot down flight MH17 because they had mistaken it for a Ukrainian military plane, and you h

National Defence committee  I see my time is up, but essentially I think Canada's moving in the right direction.

National Defence committee  I'd like to get invited back one day so I'll....

National Defence committee  We have been working together with our member organizations on various levels. Number one is to strengthen the whole infrastructure, because things like health care reform and support for humanitarian initiatives have been a key priority for us to help the Ukrainian people get

National Defence committee  Absolutely. Unfortunately, there are still many in Ukraine who have not travelled abroad and have not travelled to either Europe or Canada. We'd like to see much more happen by way of youth exchanges, opportunities for students to study here, and opportunities for young professio

National Defence committee  First of all, the whole Maidan revolution was, to Mr. Westdal's point, poking the Russian bear, so to speak. The Ukrainian people won't live in a world where they are part of somebody else's sphere of influence. The Ukrainian people are very independent-minded and have fought for

National Defence committee  Do you mean leading up to the Maidan or the Revolution of Dignity?

National Defence committee  When the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the country after the killing of 100 peaceful protesters on the Maidan in Kiev, Ukraine, he realized he had overstepped the bounds, and he had nowhere else to go but to flee to Russia. At that point, Russia implemented thei