Liberal MPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, are criticizing the use of public funds for a controversial documentary depicting Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine that has been called “Russian propaganda.”
The film, Russians at War, is having its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday. It was helmed by a Russian Canadian director and was funded by Canadian public broadcasters — in part through government grants — and an Oscar-nominated Canadian producer.
A protest organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress was held outside Tuesday afternoon’s screening at the Scotiabank Theatre after festival organizers declined calls to pull the film from its lineup. Ukraine’s consul general in Toronto and the country’s foreign ministry have also spoken out against the film.
Freeland, a Ukrainian Canadian and a staunch critic of Russia’s invasion, took a moment to comment on the film after taking questions from reporters outside the Liberal caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., Tuesday morning.
“Ukrainian diplomats and the Ukrainian Canadian community have expressed really grave concerns about that film, and I do want to say I share those concerns,” she said.
“It’s not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this.”
The film’s director, Anastasia Trofimova, spent seven months embedded with a Russian army battalion in eastern Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow’s forces to make the film, which she says was done without the Russian government’s knowledge. She and her financial backers have said the film shows the soldiers losing faith in the fight and seeks to humanize the ordinary men caught up in Russia’s invasion.
Freeland appeared to push back on any attempt to sympathize with Russian soldiers, however.
“We have to be really clear that this is a war where there is no moral equivalency,” she said.
“This is a war of Russian aggression. This is a war where Russia is breaking international law and committing war crimes. There is very clearly good and evil in this war. Ukrainians are fighting for their sovereignty and for democracy around the world. And we as a country have to be very, very clear that there can be no moral equivalency in our understanding of this conflict.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress said it welcomed Freeland’s comments and called for a government investigation into the decisions that led to the film receiving Canadian funding.
“Ultimately we’re looking for governments to ensure that this kind of a propaganda film isn’t funded again,” executive director Ihor Michalchyshyn told Global News.
Another Liberal MP, Yvan Baker, said in statement the film “whitewashes Russia’s crimes against the people of Ukraine by falsely portraying members of Russia’s military as victims and by absolving them of their responsibility for the invasion of Ukraine and the war crimes they have committed.”
He called on TIFF to cancel all screenings of Russians at War and condemned TVO, Ontario’s public broadcaster, for using its annual Canada Media Fund allocation to help fund the film.
He also urged TVO to withdraw its funding and for the Canada Media Fund to investigate “how and why their funding was used to support the film.”
“The victims of the atrocities perpetrated by Russia, and Canadians who have so generously provided and backed Canada’s strong support of the people of Ukraine, deserve no less,” he said.
Neither Freeland nor Baker indicated they have seen the film.
Trofimova has defended her work, saying in a statement provided by TIFF that the film is “anti-war” and that she is at risk of criminal prosecution in Russia for secretly filming Russian troops. Her statement also condemned Russia’s invasion and acknowledged the “validity” of the International Criminal Court’s investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine.
She has said her film only includes material she witnessed on the front lines, which did not include any war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, a claim that has been criticized by Ukrainian officials.
“The filmmaker is free to make whatever movie she wants to make, but when it’s being funded by thousands and perhaps millions of dollars from public and private funds, I think there’s an accountability that needs to happen,” Michalchyshyn said.
The Canada Media Fund receives money from both the federal government and Canadian broadcasters, which is then allocated back to those broadcasters for the creation of Canadian content. Its funding decisions are made independently of the government, but its guidelines are based on rules outlined by the CRTC.
A spokesperson for the Canada Media Fund told Global News it was aware of concerns surrounding the film but noted it was TVO’s decision to support the project with CMF funds.
“We rely on our trusted and CRTC-regulated broadcasters to ensure projects conform to the programming standards endorsed by the CRTC,” the CMF statement said.
“The CMF has been in communication with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) organizers and the producers of this documentary. We take these concerns very seriously and we are actively engaged.”
Global News has reached out to Canadian Heritage, the ministry that oversees the Canada Media Fund, for comment.
TVO Media Education Group, the Ontario Crown corporation that operates the TVO public broadcaster, said in a statement that it supported the film “because it is a documentary made in the tradition of independent war correspondence.”
It encouraged people to see the documentary for themselves, adding it will be shown on TVO in the coming months.
“Russians at War is at its core an anti-war film,” TVO’s statement said. “It is unauthorized by Russian officials and was made at great personal risk to the filmmaker, who was under constant threat of arrest and incarceration for trying to tell an unofficial story.
“This film shows the increasing disillusionment of Russian soldiers as their experience at the front doesn’t jive with the media lies their families are being told at home.”
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has called TVO “naive” for claiming the Russian government did not authorize Trofimova’s filming in occupied Ukraine, and highlighted her past work with RT, a Russian state-controlled media company that has been banned in Canada and whose employees have been indicted in the United States for spreading propaganda.
Trofimova told the Globe and Mail on Sunday she worked for the RT Documentary channel that is separate from RT News, with a focus on the Middle East. She later left the company for the CBC.
Other funding partners acknowledged in the film’s trailer are Hot Docs and British Columbia’s public broadcaster Knowledge Centre.