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Alberta

Russian billionaire couple claims Canadian sanctions are unjustified and unreasonable

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Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and his wife Aleksandra want to be taken off Canada’s sanctions list, claiming in Federal Court they’ve been wrongfully labelled as “elites and close associates” of the Russian regime.

The Melnichenkos filed two applications in the Federal Court of Canada in late March, seeking to quash a decision to place them under sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.

Court documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal that the pair have been fighting their inclusion on Canada’s list of “designated persons” under its Russian sanctions regime since October 2022.

Back in February, the Trudeau government announced amendments to the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, which included placing the Melnichenkos on a list of 122 sanctioned individuals tied to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The couple claim the Canadian government has failed to provide them with any evidence to justify their inclusion on the list.

The list includes Russian elites and policymakers thought to be “engaged in activities that directly or indirectly facilitate, support, provide funding for or contribute to a violation or attempted violation of the sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

“Mr. Melnichenko does not have, and has not had, any association with the Government of Russia or President Putin,” Andrey Melnichenko’s application states. “He left Russia 20 years ago and has resided in Switzerland for the past 13 years. There is no reasonable basis for the Minister to believe otherwise.”

His wife, a former model and Serbian pop singer, claims she’s been wrongly targeted by Canadian sanctions, since she has no ties to Russia and doesn’t have any involvement in companies founded by her husband.

The couple’s Canadian lawyers, Scott Hutchison and Eleni Loutas with Henein Hutchison Robitaille LLP in Toronto, declined to comment on their cases.

Andrey Melnichenko’s public relations director, Alexander Byrikhin, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Global Affairs Canada said in an emailed statement that it “cannot release information on individuals or entities listed under the Special Economic Measures (Russia) or comment on individual cases.”

“In response to Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, Canada has imposed hard-hitting sanctions against the Russian regime and those who enable it,” the statement said.

Aleksandra Melnichenko claims in her application that she’s a European citizen with “no connections to Russia whatsoever.”

She denies any involvement in two companies founded by her husband, fertilizer firm EuroChem, and SUEK, a coal company, both of which are owned by a trust administered in the European Union.

“She is merely a beneficiary of the discretionary trust managed by the independent trustee,” her application claims. “The latter is the legal owner of the named companies.”

In June 2022, EuroChem issued a “statement on ownership and control” following reports that Andrey Melnichenko had ceded ownership in the firm to his wife just before being sanctioned by the EU.

“EuroChem Group AG is not sanctioned, has never been sanctioned, and is free to continue with its important mission of supplying high-quality crop nutrients to world markets,” the statement said. “EuroChem is majority-owned and controlled by EU trustees of a trust, whose beneficiary, Aleksandra Melnichenko, has no majority ownership of, nor influence over, EuroChem. Therefore, EuroChem is not controlled by any sanctioned person.”

Aleksandra Melnichenko claims her “erroneous” inclusion on sanctions lists in the EU, Switzerland and Canada caused “difficulties for the companies’ operations worldwide, increasing the ongoing food and energy crisis.”

Andrey Melnichenko claims he’s been falsely portrayed as an “oligarch” in control of the companies, causing production disruptions at facilities in Europe after he was sanctioned by the EU.

His court application warns of similar “unintended consequences” in Canada, where the Russian sanctions list now includes more than 1,300 individuals.

It states that he’s not an oligarch but a “self-made businessman,” quoting a Forbes report referring to his fortune being made independently and free of ties to the Russian government under both Putin and Boris Yeltsin.

Melnichenko sits at number 58 on Forbes’ billionaires list with a net worth of more than $25 billion, which he amassed beginning in the early 1990s with a chain of currency exchange booths, before founding MDM Bank, and later EuroChem and SUEK.

“As has occurred in Europe, sanctioning Mr. Melnichenko could disrupt EuroChem and SUEK’s operations and detrimentally impact the global fertilizer supply which, in turn, has the potential to exacerbate the ongoing food shortage,” he claims in Federal Court.

Julia Webster, a Toronto-based international trade lawyer and partner at Baker McKenzie, said Canada’s approach to Russia contrasts with other countries currently under sanctions.

Unlike sanctions on Haiti, Myanmar, Iran and Sri Lanka, Canada’s sanctions on Russia represent a “true decoupling of economies,” she said, given the economic entanglements between western nations and Russia before its invasion of Ukraine.

She said Canada’s sanctions list mirrors that of allied nations.

“The sanctions are being implemented in co-ordination with Canada’s allies,” Webster said. “There is overlap on many of the prohibitions that are in place amongst the sanctions regimes between different countries and the people who are designated on those sanctions regimes, but there are also differences and Canada at this time seems to have actually one of the strictest regimes comparatively to its allies.”

In March 2022, the EU sanctioned Andrey Melnichenko, noting his attendance at a meeting held by Putin with Russian business leaders and oligarchs on the day of the invasion of Ukraine.

“The fact that he was invited to attend this meeting shows that he is a member of the closest circle of Vladimir Putin and that he is supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as stability and security in Ukraine,” the EU said.

Shortly after Andrey Melnichenko was sanctioned in the EU, Italian authorities seized the couple’s $600-million “Sailing Yacht A,” but their other vessel, Motor Yacht A, valued at $300 million, avoided a similar fate by docking in the United Arab Emirates at the time.

In August 2022, the United Stated designated Melnichenko as a “Putin enabler,” pointing to his past involvement in Russia’s financial services sector.

“Listing carries serious social, economic and personal consequences,” the couple claims.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2023.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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