Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, insisted on the floor of Parliament that her nation’s citizens should not complain about high gas prices, or they are helping Russian President Vladimir Putin and China.
Freeland, the second-most-powerful Canadian official, argued that blaming her government for skyrocketing inflation is equivalent to “doing Vladimir Putin’s work for him.”
In a question period in the House of Commons on May 16, a Conservative lawmaker complained that “gas prices are at record highs, and Canadians are suffering.” He accused Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of wanting high gas prices in order to reduce fuel use, to better protect the environment.
Freeland replied, “I think everyone in this House needs to be mindful of the fact that none of us should be doing Vladimir Putin’s work for him.”
“And that means we all need to recognize the reality, and be honest with Canadians about the reality, that inflation, including the higher price of fuel, is a global phenomenon,” she continued.
“It is being driven by Vladimir Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine. It is being driven by China’s zero Covid policy,” Freeland claimed.
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland claimed that complaining about gas prices is “doing Vladimir Putin’s work for him.”@CAFreeland blamed inflation on Russia and “China’s zero Covid policy.” (She didn't mention Western sanctions)
More here: https://t.co/S5GZl1gK1O pic.twitter.com/viNfy5Wav2
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) May 17, 2022
Freeland did not mention the extensive Western economic sanctions on Russia, which have significantly contributed to the inflation crisis.
Even the Washington Post, which takes an extremely anti-Russian editorial line and strongly supports the Western sanctions on Moscow, has admitted that these economic coercive measures “are also exacerbating a political headache for Biden at home: inflation and worries about an economic downturn.”
The Post acknowledged that “sanctions — especially as they get more extreme — could contribute to higher prices in a variety of areas, such as energy and food products that use wheat.” It also conceded that there “are several factors driving prices upward, and many of them were at work long before Russia invaded Ukraine.”
US government celebrates Chrystia Freeland for her hawkish “‘America first’ foreign policy”
Chrystia Freeland is a hard-line anti-Russia hawk. Before being promoted to deputy prime minister and finance minister, she made her name as Canada’s stridently pro-interventionist foreign minister.
As the top Canadian diplomat, Freeland strongly supported the Donald Trump administration’s coup attempt in Venezuela, recognizing unelected US-appointed putsch leader Juan Guaidó as supposed “president.”
When Trudeau chose Freeland as his foreign minister in 2017, the US embassy in Ottawa boasted in an internal memo, “Canada Adopts ‘America First’ Foreign Policy.”
Praising “her strong U.S. contacts,” the embassy noted that Freeland’s “number one priority” was collaborating with Washington.
Canada's hawkish FM @CAFreeland — who was celebrated in a declassified US State Department memo for bringing Canada an "American first" foreign policy — is the granddaughter of a Ukrainian Nazi propagandist.
She knew this, but called it "Russian disinfo"https://t.co/B8w8uXEdf5
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) July 6, 2019
Freeland’s work in US regime-change operations goes back to the days of the Soviet Union.
In the 1980s, she traveled to Ukraine to support the right-wing anti-communist opposition. In collaboration with the Canadian embassy, Freeland covertly provided money, recording equipment, and computers to anti-Soviet dissidents, while also helping to organize protests.
Chrystia Freeland’s extensive links to far-right Ukrainian groups
Chrystia Freeland is also the granddaughter of an infamous Ukrainian Nazi collaborator, Michael Chomiak.
Chomiak edited an explicitly anti-Semitic, pro-fascist propaganda newspaper, using a printing press stolen from a Jewish publisher who was later killed in a Nazi extermination camp.
Freeland knew for decades that her grandfather was a Nazi collaborator, but lied about this fact and continued to praise him.
She event went so far as to claim that journalists and researchers who correctly reported on her grandfather’s work with Nazi Germany were engaged in a supposed “Russian disinformation” campaign.
Freeland knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper https://t.co/Fhri8a76yk @GlobePolitics #cdnpoli
— The Globe and Mail (@globeandmail) March 8, 2017
Freeland’s links to far-right Ukrainian groups are extensive.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Freeland attended a rally in which she was photographed posing with a fascist symbol.
Freeland tweeted an image of her with the red-and-black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), an extreme-right paramilitary group that collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Faced with backlash, Freeland later deleted this tweet, and posted a new photo without the far-right extremist symbol. She did however keep the fascist-created slogan “Slava Ukraini.”
Canada's deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, deleted her tweet with a photo holding a Ukrainian fascist banner, and instead posted a different photo without the banner.
But she still left the same text, including the fascist slogan "Slava Ukraїni"https://t.co/fT4waUI7wN pic.twitter.com/0X0Thov3xd
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 28, 2022
jm hatch
2022-05-16 at 18:48
Invite Canada Files on for discussion. This is one of their mutual interest subjects.
JonnyJames
2022-05-17 at 14:57
“The Germans lost WWII, but the Nazis won” (George Carlin)
Freeland and many others praise openly Nazi groups in Ukraine, yet out the other side of their mouths denounce “white supremacists” at home. WTF?
These mendacious hypocrites are far-right racists themselves, of course: they continue to trample on the rights of the indigenous population and support The Genocide of Yemen, the Starvation Blockade of Afghanistan, and the Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine etc. The US and NATO bootlickers are responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people.
These scum continue the ILLEGAL blockades (and thefts of billions of $) against Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan etc. The Sycophantic Vassals to the North (aka Canada) do what their imperial overlords tell them.
So, anytime we hear of a US or NATO vassal speaking about “the rule of law”, democracy or “rules-based order” they should be laughed off the podium. It’s good for tragic humor, not much else.
David
2022-05-17 at 19:20
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47009S.HTM an article collaborating and enhancing Ben’s story about this evil women
David
2022-05-17 at 19:23
an article collaborating and enhancing Ben’s story about this evil women https://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47009S.HTM 2nd try to post this
Jp Jude
2022-05-18 at 15:04
Very Good article, Mr. Norton.
Canadians would do well to remember Chrystia Freeland’s idea of the ‘Rule of Law’ means her Law by which the rest of us are ruled. Melanie Joly, the new Foreign Minister, speaks the same sort of language. NATO welcomes Finland and Sweden as members in the name of Democracy despite the countries’ Constitutional shift from neutrality not being democratically voted on, nor Canada’s recognition of their NATO membership and thereby contravention of NATO’s original Charter not being considered in the House of Commons. Our democracy but Joly’s singular vote. These people are scary.