(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not exclude that Ottawa could come to organize an air evacuation for people fleeing Ukraine to reach Canada.
Posted at 1:29 p.m.
Asked to indicate whether his government was going to charter flights for its new Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization program, Mr. Trudeau did not close the door.
“We will meet the demand. If there is sufficient demand requiring us to do more, such as resorting to air evacuations, we will look at that, ”he said on Wednesday, in English, on the sidelines of an announcement with the first Ontario Minister Doug Ford.
He noted that it will “very soon” be possible to apply under the Canada-Ukraine Emergency Travel Authorization, which is intended to be a streamlined process for receiving Ukrainians wishing to come to Canada.
The program, which should be officially launched on Thursday, should allow Ukrainians to settle temporarily in Canada and then decide where they want to settle in the longer term.
“If they only want to come until the war is over, we have put in a special process for two years which will not just be a tourist visa, but which will allow them to live, work and find stability. for as long as the war might last,” explained the Prime Minister.
Separately, Trudeau reiterated that Canada was determined to offer more support to Ukraine without providing further details. He mentioned several times that the NATO meeting scheduled for next week would allow the allies to move forward in their necessary conversations for this purpose.
Asked by reporters whether Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech in parliament on Tuesday made him reconsider in any way Canada’s decision to waive a no-fly zone, Mr. Trudeau replied that this choice was “heartbreaking”.
“It’s an extraordinarily difficult issue because we see the impact of bombs and missiles falling on Ukrainian hospitals, schools and civilians,” he said.
“It is heartbreaking to see these images of Vladimir Putin’s violence against innocent people across Ukraine every day,” he added.
He assured that Canada, like other NATO member countries, is stepping up efforts to provide more support to the Ukrainian people while “continuing to prevent this war from spreading”.