Statement
March 26, 2019 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality, today released the following statement:
"Election observers directly support democracy, and today, 110 Canadian short-term election observers arrived in Ukraine for Mission Canada, Canada's election observation mission run by CANADEM.
"Canada's short-term election observers will join their long-term observer counterparts and the Honourable Lloyd Axworthy, recently named head of Canada's election observation mission to Ukraine, to begin their work observing all aspects of the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine.
"Canada has committed up to $24 million to support initiatives in Ukraine that advance electoral reforms, the participation of women and minorities, and inclusive governance. This assistance includes $11 million in support of the Canadian election observation mission and the secondment of Canadian observers to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe election observation mission. In total, Canada will support up to 500 long-term and short-term observers in Ukraine's elections this year.
"Canada has also committed $2.8 million for initiatives that will counter the negative impact of disinformation propagated by malign actors in the context of Ukraine's elections.
"Canada supports Ukraine in a number of ways, including a broad range of financial, development and security assistance, military training and targeted sanctions against Russia. This July in Toronto, the Government of Canada will also host the third international Ukraine Reform Conference to support Ukraine's broad economic and democratic reforms."
