Ottawa warns that Canadians who decide to go fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine could face serious consequences, even if the government for the first time acknowledges uncertainty about whether it would be legal to go fight for the Ukrainian side.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a warning on Thursday to Canadians who might consider joining Russian troops in the invasion of Ukraine. Asked at a press conference where she announced new sanctions against Moscow, Ms. Freeland recalled that for Canada, “this war is illegal” and “Canada will adopt a severe and appropriate attitude towards anyone who participates in it. “.
Yet federal ministers seemed less eager to assert that Canadian volunteers fighting for Ukraine would violate Canadian laws.
The Kiev government launched a call last weekend for foreign volunteers to join an “international brigade” to defend the country against Vladimir Putin’s army. Many Canadians have since said they are considering it — and some have even flown.
Joining Ms. Freeland on Thursday morning, Defense Minister Anita Anand, who is also a lawyer, said that while she understood the desire of many Canadians to take up arms in defense of Ukraine, “the legality of situation […] is uncertain at this time.
Other firmer capitals
The federal government had previously avoided directly discussing the legality of this voluntary participation, or whether Ottawa supported Canadians who want to fight for Ukraine. Instead, federal ministers presented it as a matter of personal risk.
This position contrasted sharply with that of the United Kingdom and Australia, whose governments noted the potential legal stakes their citizens could face if they fought in a conflict that did not involve their country.
Minister Anand instead encouraged citizens to enlist in the Canadian army, which faces a shortage of thousands of active soldiers. “We would love to receive nominations from across the country,” she said. The Canadian Armed Forces have provided a training mission in Ukraine since 2015 and have trained over 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers. »
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later dodged a similar question about the legality of Canadian volunteers who would fight for Ukraine. He simply recalled previous government warnings about the risks of traveling to Ukraine, before adding that he was not a lawyer.
The example of the Spanish Civil War
While Ms. Freeland did not specify that Canadians who fight on the Russian side could be prosecuted, historian Tyler Wentzell believes government lawyers are currently scrutinizing the Foreign Enlistment Act, and how it can apply today in the case of Ukraine.
Passed in 1937, the law was intended to maintain Canada’s neutrality during the Spanish Civil War. It essentially prohibits Canadians from joining a foreign army to fight a country that Canada considers a “friendly state”. Those who violate this law can be fined up to $2,000 and two years in prison.
But the law does not precisely define what a “friendly state” is, and Wentzell points out that the text specifically gives the cabinet the power and flexibility to determine which foreign conflicts are permitted or prohibited.
“They can issue regulations that say unequivocally, you can’t join the Russian armed forces,” said Professor Wentzell, who has studied Canadian involvement in past foreign conflicts and written a book about Canadians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
“Ministers can also issue regulations saying: we will not prosecute anyone, or we need ministerial authorization to prosecute someone for such and such an offence. »
Some experts have further raised the fact that paramilitary units in Ukraine and even parts of the Ukrainian military have in the past been linked to far-right radicalization and hatred, and even accused of war crimes.
These ties have raised concerns that Canadians who decide to fight against Russia become involved, knowingly or unknowingly, in such units and become complicit in activities for which they may later be held responsible.
According to Mr. Wentzell, it is interesting to note that the government is not content to discourage Canadians from going to fight in Ukraine: “it basically promises absolutely nothing” to these volunteers.