Canada is sending $4 million of taxpayers' money to Ukraine for "gender-inclusive demining," prompting disbelief and criticism from some.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named the initiative among others February 24 as "Assistance captured in the Agreement on Security Cooperation between Canada and Ukraine." Here, the Canadian government outlined where $3 billion to the war-torn country would be sent, including the $4 million to remove mines."This project from the HALO Trust aims to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians, including women and internally displaced persons, by addressing the threat of explosive ordnance present across vast areas of the country," a prime ministerial press release proclaimed."Project activities include conducting non-technical surveys and subsequent manual clearance in targetted communities; providing capacity building to key national stakeholders; and establishing a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine."According to its website, HALO trust is funded by "governments, members of the public, foundations, philanthropists and companies.""HALO takes pride in ensuring that best value for money is achieved from donor funds. In 2022, 90 per cent of our turnover was spent directly on our field programmes, nine per cent on programme support and one percent on fundraising costs."The taxpayer-funded initiative, draped in diversity, equity, and inclusion, seemed farcical to People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier."No joke!" Bernier wrote on Twitter ("X")."YOU’RE ALL PAYING TO PROMOTE GENDER-INCLUSIVE DEMINING IN UKRAINE!".Other Canadians also chided the initiative on Twitter ("X"), including retired Mountie Geoff Buxcey."'Gender-Inclusive Demining!' What the actual heck does this $4 million dollars do exactly? It doesn’t even make sense to anyone, this is absolutely ridiculous spending by this Trudeau Government!!!" wrote Buxcey.K.A. Law added, "How diverse. How equitable. How brave. Let the Ukrainian unicorns begin lining up for gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine. #TrudeauLibsDestroyingCanada."Others wondered if Ukranian casualties in war were so high, women and non-binary people were the only ones left to remove the mines."Must be running out of men to do the demining work," wrote Calgarian Dusty Rose.X E V I U S S tweeted, "Am I reading this wrong or are they encouraging trans folks to assist in ‘manually’ clearing unexploded land mines? Yep, sounds like progress…"A Reuters video last August called landmine removal "the most dangerous job in Ukraine," a job Canadian taxpayers will now send women to do..Gender-related funding was also provided in other envelopes, including $1.5 million for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining’s Support Programme for Ukraine. The purported goal was "to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian mine action institutions to implement effective and gender-responsive mine action operations."Not all of the money would go to the direct work, as the purpose was also to "develop country-appropriate information management solutions, and lead efficient mine action donor coordination platforms."Another $930,000 was directed to sponsoring Ukraine media and anti-disinformation campaigns and get more women in journalism."Canada is providing funding to Internews Ukraine to help enhance the literacy and fact-checking capabilities of Ukraine’s media in order to better counter disinformation in the country," Trudeau announced."This project includes a comprehensive skills-transfer program to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian journalists and civil society organizations to carry out fact-checking and verification; a new network of media literacy clubs across Ukraine to empower citizens to critically assess media content and identify disinformation; and a public awareness campaign on media literacy and fact-checking to help Ukrainians critically evaluate and verify information. This initiative will also address gender disparity issues in the Ukrainian media."The Russian military is also removing mines in territories it gains, as shown in the video below.
Canada is sending $4 million of taxpayers' money to Ukraine for "gender-inclusive demining," prompting disbelief and criticism from some.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named the initiative among others February 24 as "Assistance captured in the Agreement on Security Cooperation between Canada and Ukraine." Here, the Canadian government outlined where $3 billion to the war-torn country would be sent, including the $4 million to remove mines."This project from the HALO Trust aims to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians, including women and internally displaced persons, by addressing the threat of explosive ordnance present across vast areas of the country," a prime ministerial press release proclaimed."Project activities include conducting non-technical surveys and subsequent manual clearance in targetted communities; providing capacity building to key national stakeholders; and establishing a gender and diversity working group to promote gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine."According to its website, HALO trust is funded by "governments, members of the public, foundations, philanthropists and companies.""HALO takes pride in ensuring that best value for money is achieved from donor funds. In 2022, 90 per cent of our turnover was spent directly on our field programmes, nine per cent on programme support and one percent on fundraising costs."The taxpayer-funded initiative, draped in diversity, equity, and inclusion, seemed farcical to People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier."No joke!" Bernier wrote on Twitter ("X")."YOU’RE ALL PAYING TO PROMOTE GENDER-INCLUSIVE DEMINING IN UKRAINE!".Other Canadians also chided the initiative on Twitter ("X"), including retired Mountie Geoff Buxcey."'Gender-Inclusive Demining!' What the actual heck does this $4 million dollars do exactly? It doesn’t even make sense to anyone, this is absolutely ridiculous spending by this Trudeau Government!!!" wrote Buxcey.K.A. Law added, "How diverse. How equitable. How brave. Let the Ukrainian unicorns begin lining up for gender-transformative mine action in Ukraine. #TrudeauLibsDestroyingCanada."Others wondered if Ukranian casualties in war were so high, women and non-binary people were the only ones left to remove the mines."Must be running out of men to do the demining work," wrote Calgarian Dusty Rose.X E V I U S S tweeted, "Am I reading this wrong or are they encouraging trans folks to assist in ‘manually’ clearing unexploded land mines? Yep, sounds like progress…"A Reuters video last August called landmine removal "the most dangerous job in Ukraine," a job Canadian taxpayers will now send women to do..Gender-related funding was also provided in other envelopes, including $1.5 million for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining’s Support Programme for Ukraine. The purported goal was "to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian mine action institutions to implement effective and gender-responsive mine action operations."Not all of the money would go to the direct work, as the purpose was also to "develop country-appropriate information management solutions, and lead efficient mine action donor coordination platforms."Another $930,000 was directed to sponsoring Ukraine media and anti-disinformation campaigns and get more women in journalism."Canada is providing funding to Internews Ukraine to help enhance the literacy and fact-checking capabilities of Ukraine’s media in order to better counter disinformation in the country," Trudeau announced."This project includes a comprehensive skills-transfer program to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian journalists and civil society organizations to carry out fact-checking and verification; a new network of media literacy clubs across Ukraine to empower citizens to critically assess media content and identify disinformation; and a public awareness campaign on media literacy and fact-checking to help Ukrainians critically evaluate and verify information. This initiative will also address gender disparity issues in the Ukrainian media."The Russian military is also removing mines in territories it gains, as shown in the video below.
