(OTTAWA) Russia sanctioned a series of Canadian public figures on Friday, including Major General Michael Wright, head of Canadian Forces Intelligence Command, and the pastor who performed Canada’s first same-sex marriages.
Posted at 5:17 p.m.
Moscow’s latest round of sanctions targets several staff members of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has openly criticized Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is of Ukrainian descent.
The media team of Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Maeva Proteau and Adrien Blanchard is also banned from entering Russia.
Also on the Kremlin’s list are Ian Scott, chairman and CEO of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which this year banned Russian public broadcaster RT from the Canadian airwaves, and retired general Rick Hillier, a former chief executive. defense staff.
Russia has also sanctioned Pastor Brent Hawkes, 2SLGBTQI+ activist who performed the first legal same-sex marriages in Canada, and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who is of Ukrainian and Indigenous descent.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was taking action in response to Canadian sanctions, including those against Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which the ministry said were an insult to believers. Orthodox all over the world.