By Scott Taylor
Last week there was yet another warning from the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) that the Kremlin is deliberately targeting Canadians with disinformation about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The most recent allegation was that the Russians have circulated doctored photos purporting to reveal that Canadian troops are actually on the ground fighting against Russians in the Donbass region.
Wow, if the Russian brain-trust thinks that Canadians would react negatively to such images, then it becomes easier to understand how these same Kremlin strategists convinced Putin it would be a good idea to invade Ukraine.
From every media source that I monitor, the mood in Canada would be that of enhanced national pride to discover our Canadian military was actually battling alongside the valiant Ukrainian defenders.
The truth is, that short of actually engaging in battle, Canada has contributed a considerable amount of combat capability to Ukraine.
Since 2014, the Canadian Armed Forces have supplied a force of 200 top-level military trainers to modernize the Ukrainian army. Just prior to Putin’s ill-fated invasion, Canada provided significant amounts of lethal aid to Ukraine in the form of anti-tank rocket launchers, small arms, mortars and munitions.
Since the conflict began, Canadian politicians of all stripes have tried to outdo each other with pledges of additional military support.
In her latest budget, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland allocated nearly $600 million towards purchasing new weaponry for Ukraine.
One rather novel suggestion came from Bloc Quebecois defence critic Christine Normandin. She proposed that the Liberal government fast-track a proposed buy back of registered AR-15 semi-automatic rifles that are currently in the possession of some 60,000 Canadian gun owners.
Normandin believes we could then turn over this cache of rifles to the Ukrainian military. Logistically this would be problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that Ukraine predominantly fields the Soviet era Kalashnikov family of assault rifles and their ammunitions stocks are not compatible with the AR-15.
Equally bizarre is the ongoing attempt by Conservative defence critic James Bezan to have the Canadian Army furnish Ukraine with some old armoured vehicles.
The current plan is to scrap the 30-year-old fleet of Coyote reconnaissance and Bison personnel carriers, yet Bezan thinks these surplus wheeled vehicles would somehow benefit the Ukrainians.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, and someone will realize that a few dozen old Canadian armoured vehicles will do little to augment a Ukrainian Army that still boasts over 3600 modern main battle tanks.
In fact, due to their proficiency in capturing Russian equipment, the Ukraine Army has more tanks in action now than they did at the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, 2022.
As for Canadians actually fighting on the ground in Ukraine, this is hardly a piece of Russian disinformation.
In the early days of the fighting, Ukraine’s charismatic President Volodimir Zelenskyy put out the call for foreigners to join the Ukraine Foreign Legion.
There have been numerous media reports on those Canadians who heeded Zelenskyy’s call and headed off to war.
Some Canadian peace activists have pointed out that it is illegal to recruit Canadians to fight in foreign wars, but the Trudeau Liberals have made it clear that volunteers fighting for Ukraine will face no consequences as a result.
As for generating disinformation, the Russians have no monopoly on that commodity.
For those of us closely following the conflict, who could forget the mythical exploits of the ‘Ghost of Kiev’? This valiant pilot was credited with downing no less than six Russian warplanes in the first couple of days of the war. To add some gravitas to the pilot’s persona, photos appeared on social media.
Unfortunately it was soon revealed that the pictures were a hoax and the image was originally a Canadian CF-18 pilot posing in front of a hangar in Cold Lake, Alberta.
Another emotive myth hatched during the opening round of the war was that of the brave Ukrainian defenders of Snake Island. The narrative had a Russian navy warship radioing a request to the Ukrainian to surrender Snake Island. In response the Ukrainian soldiers radioed the message “Russian warship … Go f*ck yourself!”
The subplot was that the Ukrainian defenders all perished in the resultant Russian attack. The less dramatic reality is that the Ukrainians had a change of heart and quietly surrendered after their message of bravado.
Yet to this day, the phrase “Russian warship … go f*ck yourself” is emblazoned on t-shirts symbolizing Ukrainian valour in the face of Russian aggression.
The truth is indeed the first casualty of war. Always was, and always will be.
