The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, condemns the Russian bombardments which continue in Ukraine despite the commitments made during the talks.
“It’s clearly awful what’s going on, because we see that while the negotiations are still going on, the two sides can’t trust each other. Why ? Because Russia is not showing good faith,” she said Wednesday before heading to a Liberal caucus meeting.
Mme Joly reiterated that Ottawa is preparing to impose new sanctions against the Russian regime. “We must not stop, because we see that the fighting continues. »
The Minister remained vague on the role that Canada could play in the hoped-for achievement of a diplomatic solution.
Ukraine has offered to remain a neutral country, but its security would be guaranteed by a group of countries, much like Article 5 of NATO, which specifies that an attack on one of its members constitutes an attack on all its members.
“I cannot go into the details, because of course the negotiations are taking place, but we know that a diplomatic solution, one day, can be found, because that is always the case whenever there is has, unfortunately, fights,” she claimed.
She added that discussions are constant between her and her Ukrainian counterpart — as well as between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Ukrainians know that we can have discussions during which we trust each other extremely. »
Processing time for receiving Ukrainians
In addition, the Minister of Immigration, Sean Fraser, estimates that the processing time of 14 days is being respected for files of Ukrainians and members of their families who wish to come to Canada on a temporary basis. maximum of three years.
This is the deadline to which Ottawa committed itself for “regular and non-complex cases” by announcing, on March 17, the start of its Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization (AVUCU) program.
“So far, yes,” he replied in a scrum when asked if that promise would be kept.
“We are monitoring the movement of people very closely and we can move resources to where a significant number of people are going,” he said, adding that this had been the case in Warsaw, Poland, and that further adjustments will be made over time.
Called to give an estimate of the number of Ukrainians who will arrive in Canada in April, the minister did not want to come forward. He argued that the applications keep coming in and that some will eventually decide to move elsewhere to stay closer to Ukraine.
“Time will tell if this will remain an option for them, so we are doing everything we can to provide a flexible route to Canada as quickly as possible, with a limited amount of barriers,” he said. said.
More than 60,000 Ukrainians and their immediate family members have applied under AVUCU, and about 10,000 others have turned to pre-existing programs, the minister noted. Ottawa has promised to prioritize any file of people trying to flee the war in Ukraine.
The first Ukrainian families have already been reunited in Quebec in recent days.