Lise Ravary: Warped views of Ukraine invasion raise many questions

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You don’t have to be an expert in international affairs to know that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign country, violates international law, no matter how often Ukraine may have been controlled by Russia in the past.

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After the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, Ukraine declared independence and started building a democratic state.

In February 2022, the Russian army invaded a peaceful, democratic Ukraine.

And yet, some Canadians support Russia. Or, at least, like Quebec Green Party Leader Alex Tyrrell, who said he thinks Russian demands are “reasonable,” they appear to try to justify the invasion.

Such odd opinions are also found on the right side of the political spectrum, where the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the existence of extremists who claim Canada is a dictatorship. Amazingly, some of these people, associated with the fight against public-health measures in the name of freedom, and who backed the truck protest in Ottawa, are now supporting an unabashed dictator.

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One would think that the brutality of Russian President Vladimir Putin would have them seeing their own homeland in a more accurate light, but no. Many seem to have joined the ignoramuses who claim Putin is a great guy, and suggest that the Ukrainians deserve their fate. A young Quebec woman tweeted things would go badly if she was ever asked to donate to Ukraine.

Quebec’s star conspiracy theorist, Alexis Cossette-Trudel, a man with an international following whose grandfather was a known fascist, relays Russian propaganda on his vlog RadioQuebec, hosted by libertarian platforms, alleging the supposed existence of biolabs in Ukraine, paid for by “globalist governments,” to invent and produce weapons for biological warfare.

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Members of Cossette-Trudel’s immediate family have distanced themselves from him. In 2020, his sister wrote in La Presse that he “feeds on the credulous, like a vampire.”

I was disgusted to see on television a retired Canadian soldier who has traveled to Europe to participate in the conflict and says he’s proud to fight for Russia. I hope the RCMP greets him when, and if, he returns home. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland warned of serious consequences for such people.

According to some of the most far-out members of the conspiracy crowd, the soldier would have nothing to fear in Ukraine because the war is “staged,” “crisis actors” play the parts of soldiers, “victims” walk away unhurt when the cameras are shut off, guns are made of wood and Ukraine is a hub for child trafficking.

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No one knows for sure how many Quebecers and other Canadians support this sick nonsense. Some experts believe they represent between one and 10 per cent of society.

But there were only 2,500 insurrectionists in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, enough to threaten the workings of a democratic powerhouse.

I’ve asked this question before and I’ll ask it again until someone comes up with a rational explanation: what happened to the billions of dollars our governments have invested in public education since the 1960s? How can someone who has spent a minimum of 12 years in school refuse to see what is really going? Why are children butchered and by whom?

Some Canadians who don’t know or understand what’s going on, reject solid evidence when it collides with their beliefs because they don’t trust mainstream media, preferring to get their information from the Cossette-Trudels of the world.

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In passing, I will mention that Cossette-Trudel has a doctorate.

Obviously, education is not the only issue.

Are supporters of Russia so distrustful of our “elites” that they are willing to support a man with plenty of blood on his hands who some say may be the richest man in the world, and is surrounded by billionaire oligarchs? Now, that’s an elite.

When the extreme right demands freedom, which we have in abundance, I wonder if it wants the freedom to abolish freedom.

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