Tag: international affairs

The University of Manitoba has announced it stands in support with the members of the Ukrainian community following the invasion of the nation by neighbouring Russia.

By not treating these issues equally, sporting groups demonstrate the lack of concern they have for racialized people. Those who are complicit in murdering the innocent and pursuing wars of conquest have zero place in athletics. It is time that the Olympics, FIFA and the rest of the sporting world take a stand against large-scale violence. If nations forge a path of destruction and division, then they should not be permitted to participate in the unifying nature of sports.

On Feb. 24, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, reigniting a war that affected the region for eight years. Western observers immediately turned to experts on the region to understand what, to many, seems like a senseless massacre ill-fitting to 21st-century expectations of peace between states. This has meant a litany of media and academic speaking engagements for Yuliia Ivaniuk, co-ordinator of the centre for Ukrainian Canadian studies. 

It is crucial, as this crisis plays out, that we condemn Russian aggression while also recognizing that Canada has historically played a damaging and destabilizing role in the region. Canadians must resist falling into uncritical wartime rhetoric about Canada’s myth-worthy peacemaking identity. Canada has exploited Ukraine as a proxy site for its own ambitions and, as such, Ukraine has found itself sandwiched between the aspirations of two major powers in the world.

In a rare piece of good COVID-19 news, researchers in Texas are developing a COVID-19 vaccine called Corbevax that developers say will be based on conventional vaccine technology, will be cheaper to produce and less complicated to store. Crucially, they do not intend to patent the vaccine, hoping this will make it more accessible in low-income countries.