Last week, I wrote about the case of Maria Kartasheva, a Russian immigrant whose application for Canadian citizenship was blocked because a Russian court convicted her of the “crime” of speaking out against Russian atrocities in Ukraine. She could even potentially have been deported back to Russia, where an eight-year prison sentence awaited her. For reasons outlined in my earlier post, this was a truly ridiculous decision. Fortunately, Canada’s Ministry of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship has now announced a reversal of this previous action, and Kartasheva will be granted citizenship, after all:
I am happy that sanity prevailed in this case. But it’s ridiculous the issue was ever in doubt in the first place. Speaking out against horrific war crimes is surely not the kind of “crime” that can ever justify denial of citizenship or deportation from any liberal democracy worthy of the name.
Since the start of the conflict, I have been making the case that the US and other Western nations—including Canada – should open their doors to Russians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s increasingly repressive regime. Even for those who wouldn’t go as far in this direction as I advocate, the case of a dissenter facing imprisonment for speaking out against Putin’s war war should be a no-brainer.