In January, posters for a panel about the war in Ukraine sprung up like weeds in Carleton University’s Nideyinàn building (formerly the University Centre). Booked by OPIRG (to which students pay $4) and organized by the Ottawa Peace Council, the event asked Yves Engler, Miguel Figueroa and Tamara Lorincz, “What is the path to peace?” Meanwhile, I, and many others, consider the answer straightforward: Russia’s total withdrawal from Ukraine.
Despite the pressure to address the increasingly commonplace hateful acts towards Ukrainian students, Carleton University still allowed these panellists and sponsoring groups to spread debunked Russian propaganda on campus. The university’s solidarity with Ukrainian students is lacking. Further sensitivity to the war and direct guidelines on disinformation are long overdue.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines propaganda as the “systemic dissemination of information … in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view.”
The panellists and their materials read phrases like, “Stop the War! Stop NATO” and “Peace with Russia,” while asserting that Canada, the U.S., and Ukraine “are not telling the truth.” They concluded NATO was and is a key driver of this war.
Proposing Canada and Ukraine disarm and “stop NATO” exposes the speakers’ naiveté. Coupled with minimal attention to Russia’s imperialistic motives, the panelists effectively pushed for a policy that favours Russia and enables the ongoing genocide against Ukrainians. It’s a true embodiment of privilege to propose ending the “human tragedy unfolding in Ukraine” while the panelists are safe here in Canada, and Russian bombs are killing Ukrainians defending their land.
Canadian foreign policy and the war are not off-limits to criticism or discussion. Criticism is a staple of our democracy. It’s also acceptable to debate Russia’s anxieties around European security, that is, if such concerns were realistic and not merely an excuse for Putin to bully his neighbours.
Engler is a master of historical revisionism that runs in line with Russian propaganda, referring to Ukraine’s popular grassroots revolution as a “coup” orchestrated by Canada and NATO. Lorincz continued by reiterating this “coup” was pursued for war profiteering: the selling of weapons to Ukrainian “ultranationalists and neo-Nazi militants.” True to Engler’s prior appearance on RussiaToday, the panelists repeated lines that sounded like a Kremlin press conference.
Figueroa acknowledged Ukraine’s right to self-defence, but that Russia possesses “legitimate security concerns” regarding NATO’s growing eastern presence. Such support only occurred after Russia violated Ukrainian sovereignty in 2014. Armament deliveries were limited pre-2022. NATO troops were rarely stationed in the Baltics until 2014—the year Russia annexed Crimea.
Without the West’s military aid, there would be no Ukraine. For that matter, no NATO means no Latvia, Lithuania or Estonia.
The panel called on Canada and our allies to disarm and stop sending aid to Ukraine. Lorincz claimed that this is causing tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians to die. There was also a surprising mention that NATO “bombs and bullets” are being used by Ukrainians to kill Ukrainians, particularly Russian speakers (the pretext used by Putin to justify invasion).
All of the speakers’ arguments originate from Soviet-era propaganda that targets susceptible Western audiences. Known as maskirovka, this propaganda misleads its victims from reality. Distorted narratives on Ukraine and its history are repeated on Russian state television (like RussiaToday), spreading conspiracies and obsessing over “Ukrainian neo-Nazis.” The Kremlin plants these seeds of disinformation hoping it will sprout public distrust in supporting Ukraine.
The event offered a dangerous request that NATO and Ukraine cease resistance. “Peace with Russia” is not an option when Ukraine’s sovereignty and freedom are on the table. Seriously, negotiate with a regime that denies Ukraine’s existence and uses genocidal rhetoric? Peace at all costs fails when aggressors like Russia are unrelenting.
Accountability is in order, and we, Carleton students, can hold OPIRG accountable for exploiting its campus status for malignant purposes. Should OPIRG refuse to condemn the speakers’ messages and halt sponsorship of future events that trot out Kremlin disinformation as a rational perspective, then defunding must be pursued.
This panel should’ve never taken place on campus. Carleton’s deafening silence on the hateful and vilifying rhetoric towards Ukrainian students can be corrected, among other recommendations, by drafting an official policy on combating disinformation in non-departmental events. If the university wishes to distance itself from being perceived as hospitable to pro-Russian propagandists, it must take action.
[Photo by Daria Maystruk/ The Charlatan]
