(Ottawa) The Canadian government is studying the role it could play in a potential peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. In the meantime, on the legal front, Ottawa is sending investigators to flesh out the file being prepared by the ICC.
Posted at 11:19 a.m.
Updated at 6:55 p.m.
Canada has been targeted by the Ukrainian delegation’s chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, as one of the countries on which Ukraine could count for its security if it accepts neutrality status under an international agreement. . “We insist that it must be an international treaty signed by all security guarantors,” he said, according to an English transcript posted on the Ukrainian president’s website.
In Ottawa on Tuesday, a government source confirmed to The Press that the option was indeed discussed, and that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, mentioned it to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday evening during their telephone conversation. “There are talks in this direction, but we have not committed to it. We consult our allies,” said this source on condition of anonymity, in order to speak more freely.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mélanie Joly, did not expand on the subject.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada
We are aware of many of the discussions, but I cannot give more details, because of course these discussions are taking place right now.
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada
The minister also added that Canada was preparing to hit the Kremlin with new sanctions.
The other guarantor nations of the pact would be the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia – as well as Turkey, Germany, Italy, Israel and Poland, detailed Mr. Arakhamia. In the opposite camp, Moscow communicated its plan to “radically reduce [son] military activity in the direction of Kyiv and Chernihiv”.
In terms of Canadian concerns: taking part in a multilateral military operation alongside countries with which we have no tradition of collaboration is no small feat. “There are a lot of questions about how the mechanism would work, and with whom we would do it,” noted another government source who also spoke anonymously, not having permission to discuss the incident. publicly issue.
Support for the ICC investigation
On the legal front, the Canadian government announced on Tuesday the dispatch of new investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to Ukraine to help develop the International Criminal Court (ICC) case on the Russian invasion.
The sleuths will be ‘assigned to teams that work to end impunity for the perpetrators of the gravest crimes […] including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Public Security Minister Marco Mendicino said in a statement.
Seven RCMP investigators will join the three who are already on site, the minister’s office said.
The team heading to Ukraine “has the qualifications, the experience and the expertise to gather the evidence now, on the ground, that can be used in a [procès] in the future,” explained Minister Mendicino in a press scrum. This collection of information involves, among other things, conducting interviews or accumulating material evidence, he continued.
The court in The Hague, in the Netherlands, announced on March 2 the opening of an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Moscow.
A “very strong message”, but…
The message sent by Canada is “very strong”, says Pascal Paradis, director general of Avocats sans frontières. “They say that international justice is important […] and we are going to make sure that light is shed, that there are investigations and that the ICC has the tools it needs, the resources it needs, ”he explains.
There is a “backside to the medal”, he wishes to point out. “International criminal justice does not have an immediate effect. We must not think that this is something that will emerge in the next few days, even the next weeks and the next months, and that it will have an immediate impact on the hostilities. It’s a long-term business. »
With Agence France-Presse