‘Charity begins at home’ should be Canada’s New Year’s resolution

THE EDITOR, Madam:

At a NATO meeting in Brussels about three weeks before Christmas, Foreign Minister Anita Anand announced that Canada was contributing $250,000 into a fund for military capabilities to help Ukraine. Ms Anand proudly noted that Canada had provided almost $22 billion to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.

On December 27, Prime Minister (PM) Mark Carney warmly welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he was en route to his highly publicised Peace Plan meeting with US President Donald Trump in Florida. During his brief stopover he collected a nice Christmas gift of $2.5 billion, which PM Carney said made Canada one of the largest contributors to Ukraine, for what Mr Zelenskyy described as recovery and reconstruction. Not mentioned was the newest corruption scandal reported in Ukraine’s Euromaidan Press that very same day, where an undercover operation exposed an organised group of sitting MPs who systematically received illicit payments in return for votes.

Several have been charged, while others are being questioned, and at least one has fled the country. All belong to Mr Zelenskyy’s Servant Of The People Party, some being his long-time cronies, and only a month after other close associates were exposed in a $100-million kickback fraud scheme at the country’s nuclear power company.

Homelessness has reached unprecedented numbers in Canada. Encampments in every community where people, mostly with mental health and drug addiction issues, live in deplorable conditions. There is a huge shortage of mental health practitioners, and hardly any facilities where those in desperate need can be treated. Many repeatedly commit all types of property crimes in downtown areas, with security enforcement overwhelmed. Often, hospital emergency rooms are closed overnight due to lack of staff to operate them, and the healthcare system as a whole is in dire need of a shot of long-overdue funding.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected in April with the promise to make great improvements on the disastrous decade of his predecessor, yet he kept a majority of the same lacklustre team of ministers, and continues to throw good money after bad at Ukraine. It would be a good idea for the government of Canada to quit doling out over $24 billion to prolong a war in Europe, and adopt the mantra of “Charity begins at home” as their New Year’s resolution.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada