I’ve lengthy been a critic of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who has devastated free speech in that nation whereas assuming sweeping authoritarian powers. Now, his administration has blocked the citizenship of Maria Kartasheva as a result of she has a conviction in Russia. The crime? Free speech. Kartasheva was convicted in Russia for criticizing the battle in Ukraine. She was actually pulled out of a citizenship ceremony by Canadian officers and now fears deportation and incarceration in Russia.
It’s important that we unfold the phrase on Kartasheva’s state of affairs to place stress on the federal government to ensure that she is just not deported and to complete its assessment of the case to maneuver ahead along with her citizenship.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada yanked the citizenship utility after studying of the conviction underneath Putin’s draconian legal guidelines. She was charged with the wartime offense of disseminating “intentionally false info” about Russia forces.
She has not lived in Russia since 2019 and has lived in Ottawa as a tech employee. She can be the co-founder of a grassroots activist group for democracy in Russia. In different phrases, she is every part that you’d need in a brand new citizen. Certainly, not like Trudeau, she is aware of the worth of free speech and the way simply it’s misplaced to authorities companies.
Notably, the cost was based mostly on two weblog posts that Kartasheva wrote and revealed in Canada.
She expressed disgust at stories in March 2022 that Russian troops had killed Ukrainians within the city of Bucha. Not solely did she write the blogs whereas dwelling in Canada, she notified Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada concerning the fees and provided the underlying papers to the federal government.
However, her citizenship ceremony was scheduled solely to have an official block her from changing into a citizen.
Oh, but it surely will get even worse.
In response to a press report, Kartasheva “was arrested in absentia by a decide sanctioned by Canada, after which convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail by a Moscow court docket that can be underneath Canadian sanctions.”
That brings us to the ultimate and most chilling side of this drama. The Canadian authorities knowledgeable Kartasheva that her conviction in Russia aligns with a Legal Code offense in Canada referring to false info.
That’s proper. Canada is worried as a result of it additionally has criminalized speech and Kartasheva has used free speech to unfold what her authorities thought of false or deceptive info.
For instance, Part 372(1) of the Legal Code of Canada makes it illegal for any individual to convey, trigger, or procure to be conveyed false info with the intent to alarm or injure anybody.
The federal government cracked down on Web speech regardless of opposition from the general public and pushed 2021 Invoice C-36 to impose $70,000 fines for authorized content material deemed “prone to foment detestation or vilification.”
So this courageous lady made all of it the best way to the West to reside in freedom solely to seek out that Canada additionally places individuals in jail for voicing dissenting or opposing viewpoints. The issue is just not that Kartasheva is basically completely different from most Canadians. The issue is that Canada is legally not that completely different from Russia on free speech.
