December 1, 2019
Rt. Honourable Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Via email: PM@pm.gc.ca
Dear Prime Minister,
Congratulations on your recent parliamentary elections victory. We wish you much success in leading Canada in support of global concerns, especially peace and security.
Indeed, this is the purpose of our letter. We wish to ask for your personal intervention with the leaders of France and Germany meeting with Ukraine and Russia’s counterparts on Dec. 9 to resolve Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its war in Donbas. The situation is dire. The aggressor has taken some 14,000 lives, wounded over 30,000, and displaced about 1.5 million Ukrainians, yet denies culpability.
This is Russia’s methodology; wreak havoc, deny, then advance. We are confident that it will perform similarly at the Normandy meeting, seeking carte blanche for its crimes while taking no responsibility. Russia must be contained. Instead we believe it will advance.
Recently, accused of war crimes, it withdrew from the Geneva Convention relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflict. This may be its way of avoiding further censure as it escalates conflicts in Ukraine, Syria or elsewhere. We are deeply concerned as Russia has amassed thousands of military vehicles with prohibited weapons on the Ukrainian border.
