None of the Ukrainian organizations in Canada has made such statements. Andriy Shevchenko, former Ukrainian ambassador to Canada and head of the Ukrainian World Congress mission, who is in the photo, has denied the information.
Pro-Russian social media accounts are spreading the news that the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada allegedly supported forced mobilization and stated that standing up for the homeland is the duty of every Ukrainian. As expected, the news caused a wave of mockery among the Russian audience: just one of the posts has so far collected 1,300 reactions on Facebook, as well as more than 700 comments and 135 shares.
However, this news is fake. We were unable to find such statements in the public communications of leading organizations of Ukrainian citizens in Canada, such as the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, UADSC, Ukrainian National Federation of Canada, Ukrainians in Toronto.
In addition, the photo that the propagandists decided to use to illustrate the news was taken back in 2019. It shows participants in the Canadian internship program for Ukrainian youth posing with Justin Trudeau, then Prime Minister, at a gathering on the occasion of Vyshyvanka Day. At that time, Ukrainian interns were invited to Canada for a two-month internship as part of the program, which has been funded by the Ukrainian Congress of Canada for over 30 years.
On the left of the photo is Andriy Shevchenko, the then ambassador. After returning to Ukraine, he heads the Ukrainian World Congress mission in Ukraine. We asked him for his comment on the Canadian diaspora’s support for the so-called forced mobilization. Andriy Shevchenko said that he also knew nothing about such statements by Ukrainian organizations in Canada.
We have previously refuted similar news that the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada allegedly called for a referendum in the country on joining the United States. The propagandists even invented a representative of Ukrainians in Toronto named «Steve Tkachuk», to whom they attributed the statement.
