Canada Day falls on July 1, but the attention in Kyiv is focused on the first official visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Ukraine on July 11-12.
Trudeau announced his to visit Ukraine in Toronto in June, at the Canada Ukraine Business Forum in Toronto. The Canadian leader will be in Eastern Europe for the NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, after which he will fly in to Kyiv. In Ukraine, Trudeau plans to meet with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“Canada and Ukraine enjoy a historic friendship forged through generations of shared values and strong relations,” Trudeau said at the forum in June. “By working together in close partnership, Canada will help bring greater security, prosperity, and economic independence to the Ukrainian people.”
Canada is a home to more than 1.3 million people of Ukrainian descent out of a total population of 35 million, while some 1,500 Canadians live in Ukraine. The first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada came in 1891 to 1914, while a significant number arrived after the Second World War in 1945.
After Russia invaded and annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014, and then fomented an armed conflict in the Donbas, Canada lent strong financial and political support to Ukraine. Its government has imposed sanctions against more than 270 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and entities, according to the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine’s website. Plus, since January 2014, Canada has also announced it will provide more than $700 million in much-needed assistance.
Bilateral relations are likely to get a boost from a proposed free trade agreement, negotiations on which started in 2015. There are also proposals for a visa-free travel regime.
Canada Day celebrates the 1867 Constitution Act, which formed the legal basis for the Canadian state.
