Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces over $10M for humanitarian aid to Ukraine

The Alberta government will be providing more than $10 million to support humanitarian relief in Ukraine.

Premier Jason Kenney announced the monetary support at an unrelated news conference on Friday, saying the province stands in solidarity with Ukraine.

Around $5 million will go to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to provide urgent humanitarian aid to the region, and another $5 million will go to the Ukrainian World Congress’ Unite with Ukraine initiative to provide defensive military equipment such as bulletproof vests and night vision goggles.

Another $350,000 will go towards the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) to help coordinate supportive efforts in the province. Kenney said the province will actively support the UCC’s Fill a Plane for Ukraine campaign to secure air cargo transport for first aid and defensive equipment. The plane will first land in Poland before delivering the supplies to Ukraine.

“Ultimately, these are relatively modest measures but demonstrate the solidarity of the people of Alberta with Ukraine,” Kenney said at Friday’s news conference.

Kenney also denounced the rise of hate speech directed at Russian-Albertans in recent days. This comes after All Saints Russian Orthodox Church in Calgary was vandalized with red paint last week. It also comes after Calgary Police Service launched an investigation into online hate speech targeting Russian-Canadians on Thursday.

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“I am confident that the vast majority of Canadians of Russian origin are appalled by the unlawful and brutal aggression of Vladimir Putin, and in no way should they be blamed or scapegoated for what is happening in Ukraine today,” Kenney said.

“We need to remember the lessons from the Second World War, when Canadians of Japanese origin were caught up in a wave of sentiment and anger. Let’s not repeat those mistakes.”