The 2026 Dick, Ruth, and Judy Bell Lecture with the Honourable Chrystia Freeland

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to colleagues, students, special guests, alumni, and members of the wider community. The Bell lecture was established by Ruth Bell, a political science alumni, uh, who is an educator and champion for women's and children's rights in honor of her husband Dick Bell and step-daughter Judy Bell. It has long been a signature event at Carlton that honors the contributions of distinguished individuals to the political and public life of Canada. Uh the inaugural bell lecture was delivered in 1992 by the right honorable Robert Stanfield. Previous speakers include former prime ministers Kim Campbell and Joe Clark, Senators Pamela Wallen and Hugh Seagull, diplomats, journalists, Governor General Mary May Simon, and both sitting and former MPs and party leaders such as Jaged Singh, Elizabeth May, and last year's speaker Lisa Ra. We're thrilled to welcome the honorable Christ Freeland who joins this impressive roster. In a moment, I'll invite our dean, Dr. Mary Frank Kohley to the stage to deliver a land acknowledgement and to formally introduce our speaker. Before we begin, just a few housekeeping items to help ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience. Uh for everyone, first I'd kindly ask you to take a moment now, if you haven't already done so, uh to please turn off your ringers and set them to silent. Uh we appreciate your help in minimizing distractions during the lecture and the discussion. Uh washrooms are located around the back of this floor. You can access uh washrooms down the hallway to my right uh or to my left. Uh we have volunteers on site available to assist you if you require directions or for any accessibility related questions during this evening. Miss Freeland will speak for approximately 45 minutes. At the conclusion of her lecture, she'll be joined on stage for a brief sitdown conversation uh with our colleague, Professor Paul Good of the Institute of European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies and an internationally recognized expert on the study of nationalism and authoritarianism in Russia and the former Soviet states. He leads the Russian media observation and reporting project which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Uh we will then after that conversation open the floor uh to questions. However, we invite you to submit your questions uh using the QR codes which you can see on the screens and I believe you may have received a paper copy of the QR code uh at the uh at the entrance. Uh so we'll ask you to submit your questions online. Our team will review them and make sure we try and get to as many of them as possible. Uh, Professor Good will serve as the facilitator uh, during the Q&A and at the conclusion of the question and answer period, I'll return to the stage to invite Carlton's president and vice chancellor Dr. Wisdom Ted to offer closing remarks. Uh, this event would not have been possible without a lot of hard work particularly by our faculty Bell lecture team. Uh, please join me in thanking Cora St. Pierre Christy Wells, Karen Kelly, Brian Daniel, Leo Soleno, Eddie Benin, and Stephanie Bourke. Thank you again very much for coming. I know you're in for a treat this evening. And without further ado, it's my pleasure to now invite our dean, Dr. Mary Frankley. Thank you. Thank you so much, Josh. And good evening and welcome to the 2026 Bell Lecture. Uh, as Josh said, my name is Mary Franoli. I'm the interimm dean of the faculty of public and global affairs here at Carlton University. Uh, before we begin, I would like to acknowledge the Alangqua Nanesnab Nation on whose traditional and unseated territory we are gathered today. These land acknowledgements are not just words. Here at the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs and at Carlton, we try to ensure that they're not empty words. As we continue to learn, to connect, and to share knowledge and ways of knowing, these words are a reminder of our history and of our shared responsibility to one another and our respect for each other. So, as uh Josh said, the Bell lecture is a highlight of the academic year here at Carlton for our faculty. It was established by Ruth Bell, a Carlton political son, political science, excuse me, alumni to honor the contributions of individuals to public and political life in Canada. It's fitting that Ruth Bell chose our faculty as the home for this lecture here at Carlton. Ark faculty is committed to improving governance and public policy to building a better society to strengthening democracy fostering intern or informed citizenship and also to contributing to addressing regional and global problems and I would say that this mission is reflected in the work of in tonight's speaker as well. So, I was very pleased to hear that uh Christia Freeland, the Honorable Christian Freeland would be joining us this evening. I did say to her earlier, we've actually invited you. This is the third time and we played the long game and it it worked out for us. We didn't give up. So, we're really excited to have you here. So, Miss Freeland is a former deputy prime minister and former Minister of Finance of Canada, as I'm sure all of you know. Uh she serves as economic adviser to the president of Ukraine and is the incoming chief executive officer of the roads trust. Miss Freeland was elected in five consecutive national elections and served as a member of parliament from 2013 to 2026. She served as Minister of Finance for four years uh becoming the first woman in Canadian history to hold that position. seems a little a little bit unbelievable, but that's amazing. Uh, previous to that, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miss Freeland uh led the successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Mexico. And she's received numerous international honors. I'll just name a few uh so that that you have time to speak and I'm sure people are looking forward to hearing from you. In 2018, she was named foreign policies diplomat of the year and received the Eric M. Wahlberg award for strengthening transatlantic ties. In 2020, she was awarded Freedom House Marker Palmer Prize for her leadership in advancing democracy and human rights. uh and more recently in 2025 she received the foreign policy association medal for her defense of democracy and rules-based international order. So please join me tonight in welcoming the honorable Christa Freeland to Carlton. Okay. Well, thank you very much for that kind introduction. Um, it's a thrill for me to be here. Um, I want to start by thanking the students and the teachers here at Carlton. I think this is a time in the life of Canada and the life of the world that we should be especially grateful for our institutions of higher learning and the people uh who work here and who study here. So, do we want to give them a hand? Um, I also have to say I'll tell you a personal story about me that I don't think is known. I'm really thrilled that Robert Stanfield was the first person who delivered this lecture because I have sort of a tangential family connection. So my greatuncle uh husband of my grandfather's sister Bula was Jed Baldwin who was the conservative member of parliament for Peace River. Uh, and he was Robert Stanfield's uh, house leader. Uh, so I'm going to have to tell my dad tonight. My dad will be very happy and proud of me. Um, okay. So, I'm going to talk I'm divided my thoughts into three sections. Um, first I'm going to offer a little bit of framing uh of where I think Ukraine is right now and my connection to it. Uh, second, I'm going to go through four things that are working right now with and for Ukraine. One thing that isn't working but should be, you can guess what that is. Um and then the finally I'd like to offer two sort of broader reflections um prompted by what's happening in Ukraine. So first of all on the framing I just wanted to start um by being really clear about who I am and in whose name I'm speaking. And for the first time really since I stopped being a journalist and became a politician, I'm speaking just for myself for Freeland. Uh I don't speak for the government of Canada, although I'm very proud uh to have served in our parliament and in our government and I don't speak for the government of Ukraine. Um President Zalinski has formally appointed me his advisor, but it's an unpaid volunteer role. I have no executive authority. I have no staff. It just means that I can talk to him. And when people talk to me, they know I can talk to him about what he's told me. Uh so what I'm going to be talking about is really my views. Um, and then the next thing I wanted to say just in terms of general framing is Ukraine is actually winning this war. You may have heard, you may even have seen the most powerful guy in the world uh inform President Zalinski not too long ago that Ukraine had no cards. And I do actually think that that view was quite broadly held. I think a lot of people had been thinking um that Ukraine was finished um that the only thing Ukraine could and should do would be to surrender as quickly as possible on the least terrible terms. And that's certainly something that I heard from a lot of very smart people um around the world in the Western Alliance, including here in Ottawa. The one place I didn't hear that was Ukraine. And the Ukrainians, they have been saying to me actually since the full-scale Russian invasion, we are going to win. We don't know how. We don't know when, but we're going to win. And I'm want to start today's conversation by saying actually that's kind of happening. So I thought I would start today is May 6th. I thought I would start by reading a post on Telegram from President Zalinski that he posted yesterday in the early hours of Tuesday morning. And this is what he wrote. I've translated it into English. Um, our long range sanctions continue to provide an entirely just response to Russian strikes. Last night, combat launches of F5 Flamingo cruise missiles were carried out as part of the armed forces deep strike operation against several enemy targets, including military-industrial complex facilities in Chabukare. Ukrainian flamingos covered a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers. Russia and then said a few more things but then he concludes by saying Russia must end its war and turn to real diplomacy. We have made our proposal clear. Glory to Ukraine. And then he also shared a video showing those missile strikes uh and giving credit to the 19th missile brigade of SIA Vada St. Barbara. Um I will point you to the cheeky first sentence in that post. he said are long range sanctions. Um the Ukrainians have come to the view that if the sanctions imposed on by Russia by allies around the world are not able to stop Putin, Ukraine needs to impose sanctions on its own and those sanctions come in the form of deep strikes. Um why is that significant? um that strike that happened just this week. It shows that Ukraine has missiles that can strike 1,500 kilometers deep into Russia with precision, targeting a wellprotected military production facility. It shows that Ukraine can actually manufacture those missiles itself and it reveals the broader strategy we're seeing, which is a strategy of disrupting Russia's military-industrial complex and the Russian economy more broadly. So, that's kind of my first proof point of how well Ukraine is doing. second proof point and like it breaks my heart to cite this as a positive proof point. Um, and it speaks to really how terrible the situation is. Um, but Ukraine has set itself a target uh of at least 35,000 Russian casualties a month. um aiming to get to 50,000 and the defense minister Mikailo Fedorov uh announced that recently announced that in April Ukraine exceeded the 35,000. Um that is important because that means that the Russian forces are being diminished more quickly than they can be replaced. Russia simply cannot get 35,000 new troops to the front line every month. Um, third proof point, Ukraine has either damaged or destroyed more than 20% of Russia's oil refining capacity. That's some of that um Ukraine's version of applying sanctions to Russian oil. Uh fourth point, Ukraine really has stepped up its military production. Uh Ukraine has the capacity and I think this could be greater by the end of the year, but estimates are right now that Ukraine has the capacity to produce 7 million drones a year. Um fifth point, and I still have lots of Russian friends. Um, those of you who do have Russian friends will be hearing this. But one of the things that has been a challenge about this war from the Ukrainian perspective is Russia is so big and Putin has focused on sending the poorest uh the weakest people in the society to the front lines. You know, if you are well off and live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, your son is not on the front line. And so people, especially well-off, prosperous people have been really insulated from the war. That is starting to change in part because the Russian internet is starting to be disabled. Um, and that is really affecting regular people, including well-off people. They just can't use the internet. They can't make calls. They can't buy stuff. So, regular affluent Russians are starting to recognize, which hadn't been the case really previously, that they really are living in a country at war. Um, my final proof point is just an interpretation of someone who I think knows Pukin's Russia as well as anyone and that is Mikail Hodovski uh former oligarch turned political prisoner um and now living in Switzerland and actually quite bravely I would say leading a Russian opposition effort, an effort to kind of try to revive a democratic Russia. Um, and I actually I saw him in February and he was quite bleak in that he felt that Russia's capacity to keep on fighting was quite great. He started to change his mind. Um, partly based on int some of the same intelligence that you're seeing published, partly based on people he's talking to. Um, but Mikail said just a couple of days ago that the fortress is cracking and that Putin is under pressure from within his own regime. I think that is really significant. Um, so that's my second point of my framing. um that we need to kind of shift our thinking and rather than assume the inevitability of Ukrainian defeat uh start recognizing Ukraine can actually win. Um, third point I want to make about framing is less on the specifics of what's happening on the battlefield and more on how we think about Ukraine uh and how the Ukrainians think about themselves. Uh I think when the war started um the general view was of Ukraine as the righteous victim and we were very focused on Putin's war crimes. We were very focused on how morally appalling it was. We were focused on the torture, on the rape, on the ch on the stolen children and all that stuff is really horrible. Of course it is. Um but that and that and that framing was very much this is a moral cause. This is a philanthropic contribution that we're making in our support for Ukraine. that I think has changed and I think now Ukraine is increasingly being seen and in fact is a shield and an arsenal for its allies. First of all, Europe, but increasingly other countries too. I think we've seen since the war in Iran started the Gulf States sort of all of a sudden saying, "Wow, the Ukrainians actually have something that we need." Um, second thing that I would say on this overall framing of how to think about Ukraine, how Ukraine thinks about itself, Ukrainians are starting now to think about what happens after the war. And I increasingly hear people saying, "Right now, our fight is on the military battlefield, but we need to be ready to move to the economic battlefield." And the the sort of conception that Ukraine is developing in terms of where it goes, how it fights that fight on the economic battlefield. I would sort of offer two ideas. One is we want to be the most liberal economy in the European Union. And the second is a recognition that the defense technology that Ukraine has built is an economic could be a real economic driver. And I'll quote a great guy his name is Alexander Kamish. Um he was the minister of railways right when the war started then minister of strategic industries. Now he's a special adviser to Zalinski and his main job is doing these defense production deals around the world and getting investment. And what Alexander says about the Ukrainian military production sector is that this has the potential to be for Ukraine what oil was for the Gulf States. um that sort of special capacity, that special ability that can really drive the economy forward. Okay, so that's my framing. Um now I'd like to talk about the four things that are working well and the one thing that isn't. So the first thing that's working really well in Ukraine is democracy. And one of the things that has actually both perplexed and enraged me from the moment of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine is our collective inability to recognize democracy as one of the strengths that Ukraine was building to this war was bringing to this war. And I would even go further and say some of us, you know, among Ukraine's allies and supporters could get a little bit mesmerized by the supposed power of authoritarianism. Um that sort of notion that somehow a selfappointed strong man is going to be stronger than an inevitably and necessarily chaotic democracy. Um, I think a lot of people fell into that intellectual trap. Uh, I think it speaks actually a little bit to our own lack of confidence in our own democracies. And the good news is Ukraine is showing us that's just wrong. Because I think the single biggest strength Ukraine is bringing to this fight, the single reason that Ukraine actually is winning right now is because it's a democracy. And you know, President Zilinski is fantastic. He is a remarkable person and has shown a remarkable ability to rally his own country and to stand up for his country in the face of really powerful people telling him he's wrong. That's amazing. But a friend of mine, Archbishop Boris Gujak, uh who was who is the president of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Nviv, um and is the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in North America or in the United States, um said to me shortly after the war started, when we saw how great Zalinsky was, Buddhists said he is great because he is actually being led led by his people as much as he is leading them. And that is what I observe whenever I am in Ukraine. Uh in a little bit over 3 weeks, it will be the 86th anniversary of Dunkirk. And for me, um, that's a reminder that in our own history, we've also really had these moments when the fact of being a democracy, regular people doing extraordinary things in defense of their community and their values could really could really lead to remarkable victories. So, I think that's what's happening in Ukraine. Um, a more specific example for you is like why are they doing so well militarily, right? Like where do they get that from? And in particular, how have they figured out to be so good at inventing the war of the future, right? How have they been able to figure out drone war in a way no other country has done so far? The answer is democracy. Ukraine has probably the most decentralized grassroot system of military procurement and of actually fighting. Ukrainian brigades buy their own weapons and have their own direct relationship with arms producers. Many of them have decided to make their own weapons themselves. And in any event, there's a very close relationship between the people who are designing and producing weapons and the people who are fighting. And that has meant an incredibly fast innovation cycle. And it also means everyone is highly motivated. You know, if you are producing a drone and it's your friend who is going to be using it, you really really care about getting it right. Um, and it's a really grassroots system. So, a lot of these brigades fund raise from regular Ukrainians who are not rich to buy the weapons that they need. And regular Ukrainians are smart and discerning and they give their money to the brigades that are doing a good job and to the weapons producers that are doing a good job. So that really is it it's the most grassroots democratic civilian war effort that I have heard of in modern times. Now not everyone thinks this is great. At the end of March, Armen Paper, he's the CEO of Ryan Mal, very important guy in military defense production, gave an interview to the Atlantic and he was being asked about, well, you know, what do you think about the Ukrainians? Are they good at building weapons? And he said, actually, not really. He said, it's Ukrainian housewives. They have 3D printers in the kitchen and they produce parts for drones. This is not innovation. So, the Ukrainians could have been insulted, but actually they kind of took it as a backhanded compliment. made by housewives became a went viral as a hashtag in Ukraine like a few hours after that interview was published. Um, Alexander Commission who I mentioned to you put out a tweet in which he said Ryan Matal says our hashtag Lego drones are made by housewives in kitchens. Fine. Meanwhile, our hashtag LEGO drones have already destroyed more than 11,000 Russian tanks. Um, within 48 hours, Ryan Mattel was regretting the comment. Look, I'm a politician. I know what it's like to regret, right? And and they walked it back, and this is what they posted. We have the utmost respect for the Ukrainian people's immense efforts in defending themselves. It is to Ukraine's particular credit that it is fighting highly effectively even with limited resources. Okay. So point one, what is working, democracy. Point two of what is working in Ukraine is diversity actually is a strength. And you know at this time when um political correctness, wokeness, whatever term you want to use, is widely mocked and reviled and seen as virtue signaling. And at this time when we have from the Pentagon what I would kind of call a cartoonish cosplaying image of what is a warrior, right? You have to be Christian, you have to be white, you have to be a man, you would have to be very tall, uh probably ripped. Um and that that is the kind of warrior that gives your country lethality and winning in a war. That's that that's that's one vision. And what I want to say to you is my second point of what is working is Ukraine which is not cosplaying war. Ukraine is actually fighting a war is such a powerful counterargument. It is such a powerful demonstration that diversity truly is a strength. And I'm going to start by saying one of the reasons that Ukraine is winning is because of Ukrainian women. Um the woman who may or may not have inspired the housewives in their kitchens with their 3D printers maybe. We don't know for sure. But there is a woman called Ena. She is in her mid30s. She is the mother of two. She is the CEO of Firepoint, the company that made those Flamingo deep strike missiles that Zalinski was talking about at the beginning of this week. Um that struck 1,500 km into Russia. Um, she said to me, I had a conversation with her a few weeks ago. And I asked her, she is not like she's not a military person. She studied as an architect. Uh, dropped out because she had little kids and wanted to spend time with them. Ended up becoming an entrepreneur and, uh, having a concrete making company for like structural and architectural concrete. Um but then when the war started she was in BHA which is a suburb of Ukraine um a well-off suburb. She was relatively well off then she was there with her kids, a friend, her dogs and they were occupied by Russia. Uh and she said that every day she and her friend were worried about a Russian soldier knocking on the door and raping them every day. And when they were liberated, she said, "I had never even really felt like I hadn't certainly hadn't been political. Hadn't even felt I was that Ukrainian." Um, when they were liberated, they drove past a point to get out of BHA that was manned by Ukrainian soldiers. It was March 8th, International Women's Day, and they gave her and her friend a flower each, a tulip, she said. And she said, "At that moment, I realized it was my responsibility to fight for Ukraine." and she put it very personally. She said, "It was my responsibility to make sure my friend and I would never be afraid someone would knock on our door in a uniform and rape us." Um, and what I love about Edena and the other Ukrainian women who are fighting is they don't feel like there's any conflict between being a woman who makes missiles or is fighting and being a woman. Um, she calls herself now uh a housewife who makes missiles. Um, and she says she gets some of her best ideas while cooking. Um, she gave to me these socks. Um, they say MILF. You know what MILF stands for? MIL tech. Get it? Um, and they read, "Keep your legs warm and arsenals full." Um, that to me is true lethality. Um, now it's not just about 20% of Ukraine's of Ukraine's military are women. 20% of cadetses right now are women. Um, women all combat roles are open to women. And there is broad social acceptance of this. 80% of Ukrainians say they support women fighting. I've talked to a lot of women who say they're fighting for their children. Probably the most basic reason to be ferocious, to be a ferocious defender. Um, second point of diversity being your strength, ethnic diversity. And again, I want to just point to, you know, right now there is a notion out there that a strong community, a community that's able to defend itself and fight for itself, um, needs to have ties of blood, ties of ethnicity, ties of religion. Well, that's actually not true in Ukraine. Um, Ukraine is a political the Ukrainian nation today is a political nation, not an ethnic one. A very important part of the fighting force is Crimean Tatars who are Muslim. President Zalinski celebrates Ramadan with them. Uh and they are particularly important in one of the most dangerous jobs which is espionage and sabotage in Crimea. The kind of thing that can get you arrested and tortured if you're found doing it. Another important diversity point about Ukraine is of course the guy who is rallying Ukraine, the guy who is rallying his country and speaking for Ukraine in the world is Jewish. Uh and to me that says something really remarkable about who the Ukrainians are right now and what they are fighting for. that he was elected that he has been so effective at rallying the country. Final diversity point that I want to mention is what I have been seeing in Ukraine uh as a direct result of the war is a very quickly changing attitude to disability. Um, one of the horrible things about the war and actually one of the things that has inspired the drone army is how many young people have been really really severely injured. Um, and that really, you know, the reason one of the reasons that Ukraine invented this new way of fighting was a desperation to save their youth and not to have them be killed or maimed. But a lot have been hurt. And one of the things that I have observed as a result of that is quite a social change in attitudes to disability. Um so many of the people who you see uh in an office or on the streets of CU um who have a visible physical disability are bearing it as a war wound. Um and it is treated as a badge of honor. Now, I don't want to romanticize um Ukraine is a very it's it's a poor country and it's a hard place to be disabled. Um but I've seen this real change in attitude and I find that very encouraging. Okay. So, second thing that's working, diversity is a strength. Third thing that's working in Ukraine is that patriotism can be a powerful force in defense of liberal democracy. And for me, this is really important to emphasize because I think some of us, the small L liberals, um had a period when we got a little bit wobbly um on the idea of being patriotic, on the idea of love of country, on the idea of flag waving, all of that stuff. And what I think we're seeing in Ukraine is people being highly motivated by a patriotism. A patriotism grounded in defense of themselves, of their families, of their values, of their independence, but a true patriotism. And I think that's important to reflect on. Now, I happened to be a journalist in Ukraine when Ukraine first became independent. And a lot of people thought it shouldn't be independent. And one of the reasons they thought it shouldn't be independent is they thought patriotism or nationalism was a bad thing. Um, one of them was George Bush, the president of the United States. And I was actually in the VOV Narada the Ukrainian Parliament when he delivered what came to be known as the chicken Kiev speech. Um this is one of the things he said. Freedom is not the same as independence. Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local desperatism. they will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred. He could not have been more wrong. The parliament voted for independence a couple of weeks later and the country voted for independence in a referendum in December. Um but I cite him just as a caution to all of us about how we need to be thoughtful not only about suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred which certainly the world has seen. Um but we need to be thoughtful about the very positive communitybuilding um courage enhancing powers of a healthy patriotism. I think that's working in Ukraine could work in other places too. Um fourth point of what is working Europe. Um Europe is doing much better than people thought. Um and I think than people appreciate. Um when I talk especially to you know the American CEO class and probably the Canadian CEO class too. Europe is broadly written off. Um there is this view that you know Europe it's just a museum. They can't decide anything. um that's not where the future is. But I would actually say that what we have seen with Ukraine's fight against the full-scale Russian invasion is Europe stepping up to the plate and showing it is capable of beating being defending itself and being a leading actor in the world. Um I would give a lot of credit to the Nordic Baltic countries. Um, and it's worth pointing out that right now the European Commissioner in charge of foreign affairs is Kayakalis, Estonian. The European Commissioner in charge of defense is Andreos Kublius, Lithuanian. European Commissioner in charge of the economy is Valdees Donovkis. Um, they understand Ukraine well and they understand what the fight is about and they are at the heart of Europe. Second thing that's going really well in Europe and I think not fully appreciated outside and I would say not fully appreciated in Europe itself is the Germans are really stepping up when it comes to Ukraine. Um they did you know um patchcha CEO of Ryan Mutal. Um but I think part of the reason for that is his country is doing some very big defense deals with Ukrainian arms companies because Germany is seeing that that partnership is absolutely necessary and valuable. Um I'm going to give you two little personal data points to show you how seriously Germany is taking Ukraine right now. The guy who is currently the German ambassador to Ukraine is someone I know from my past life because he used to be the number two person in the German Ministry of Finance. That's who they've sent there. His predecessor in Ukraine, so the guy who was the German ambassador to Ukraine until last September is currently the head of the German Federal Intelligence Service. And I think just those two personnel appointments alone tell you so much about how Germany is positioning itself. Um, two more things about how Europe is getting its act together that we're seeing on Ukraine. Europeans. And I really think this is a view that probably the Balts and the Poles have had for a long time, but other Europeans are only starting to have now. But they have come to the view that they face a real direct threat from Russia and that they need Ukraine to succeed today and they need Ukraine to be their ally to support them were they to face a kinetic threat from Russia in the future. Um, I'm going to quote Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, speaking after the EU Council meeting on April 24th. I want to wake up those who are living under illusions. Russia is preparing for further acts of aggression. And you see, you see that consciousness shaping how Europe is acting. Final thing I want to mention about Europe um is an obvious thing but maybe an unobvious observation about it. Orban lost in Hungary and Peter Magiard won. Um that is you know credit to the people of Hungary, credit to Peter Magiard who ran a remarkable campaign and managed to overcome huge hurdles. But that is also an accomplishment of Europe. uh there was only so far that illiberal democracy could go inside the European Union and Orban knew that and regular Hungarians had you know the magnetic pull of a democratic Europe and that is part of Europe's strength and I think we should not be shy about drawing a broader lesson about the way effective democracy can have a positive and magnetic effect on countries on the edge. Okay, point five. What isn't working? The United States. Um, and it's actually truly truly a betrayal of all that is good about America and the values that I think America the the best values that America has stood for in its 250 years. I'm going to read you two quotes because I worry that there could be some revisionist history and I think it's important to remember who stood not only not with Ukraine but against Ukraine. The vice president J. D. Vance in April at a Turning Point USA conference said, "One of the things I am most proud of as a member of this administration is that we told Europe, if you want to buy weapons, buy them. But the United States is no longer buying and sending weapons to Ukraine. We are out of that process." no attempt to equivocate a very direct proud claim of abandoning Ukraine. Um, Hegth, uh, I'm going to have to call him the Secretary of Defense. Sorry. um in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee was shown a chart by Senator Angus King of Maine that showed Ukraine receiving aid only from European states. Uh and I think Senator King intended that as a gotcha moment, a moment of embarrassment. But Hexes said, "I think that is a beautiful chart." Um, and let's bear in mind that the US fired more Patriot missiles in the first four days of the Iran War than it gave to Ukraine in four years of war. Um, and let's finally bear in mind that Russia is actively and without really bothering at concealment supporting Iran with intelligence. uh their components from what could have been that Chabukadi plant that Ukraine hit at the beginning of this week have been found inside an Iran linked Shahed attack. So why do I mention all of this? Because it's important to know who stood on which side in a fight that I believe is probably the decisive historic fight happening today. and there are lots of fights happening. So, that's a big claim, but I think it's true. Um, and I also think we might see some revisionist history creeping in very quickly. You may have noticed President Trump has now made a couple of positive comments about Ukraine. And you know, if you had any doubts about my assertion that Ukraine is winning, I think there is no better proof point than that. Um, President Trump even said that he gets along with President Zalinski quite well. uh which I think shows that the way to if not the president's heart certainly to his public praise is through strength and success. Um so four things working democracy diversity patriotism and Europe what's not working the US. Um, I'd just like to conclude by offering two broader reflections. The first is the experts got it wrong on Ukraine incredibly badly. And I remember very clearly when the full-scale invasion of Russia of by Russia of Ukraine happened uh everyone thought Canadian experts too that cave wouldn't stand for more than 3 weeks maybe four at the outside. These were smart people, well-informed people, people who had all the intelligence. And there were only two people who I talked, two groups of people I talked to who said something different. On that day, I spoke to Deshmal who was the prime minister of Ukraine. And he said, "We're going to be okay. We're going to we have the airport. We've defended it. We are going to keep cave." And then the other people I talked to, my family organized a conference call. my Canadian family for our family in Ukraine. And one of my aunts who organized it, um her idea was that we had to help everybody leave because they would want to flee because Ukraine was about to be taken over by Russia. And so she had organized everyone beforehand, you know, who has an extra bedroom. And you know, we were going to supposed to say them, do you want to come to Edmonton or Winnipeg or Toronto? And so my aunt starts off and one of my great aunts who was in Ukraine speaking for the Ukrainian family said, "Thank you very much, dear Canadian family. We're staying. This is our country and we're not going to flee when our country needs us." And then one of the kids, like 14-year-old guy, said, "Oh, and by the way, could you please cut Russia off from the Swift system? um and could you please close our skies? And that's when I thought, you know what, I think the experts maybe have it wrong. It's going to be it is very important. And I want, you know, we're in a university. I'd like to cite another academic, a guy called Seva Gunitki. He's a professor at the University of Toronto. Um he wrote a very good piece a couple of weeks ago called the expert trap in the next war. Um really driving home this idea that the experts were wrong about Ukraine. And his point was we need to actually do a little bit of an autopsy. We need to figure out why did they get it so wrong. I think that's incredibly important because partly because we keep on making that mistake with Ukraine. We keep on deciding Ukraine is about to lose and it has real consequences. Ahead of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, one reason countries including Canada were reluctant to provide Ukraine with weapons is everyone assumed they would fall into Russian hands. I think we also and you know we are here in the academy in Ottawa. Um we also really do need to thoughtfully without recriminations but with honesty look at why did people get it so wrong about Ukraine because there are other challenges coming up. Um and Sea in his piece specifically speaks about China. uh and he says, you know, he's not a China expert, but he says, "Isn't it possible that the same analytical errors that led us to underestimate Putin's willingness to invade Ukraine and underestimate Ukraine's ability to fight could also cause us to have imperfect judgments about China and Taiwan?" I think that's a great point to make and something that policymakers and the academy could really interrogate. My final point and this is the um title I chose um for this talk is we are all Ukrainians. Now, uh, I said in the framing that when the war started, we tended to think about Ukraine as the righteous victim and it Ukraine as a philanthropy. We've moved to thinking about Ukraine as our shield and our arsenal. I think the next stage is going to be to think about Ukraine as our teacher and what we can learn from Ukraine. For countries like Ukraine, the idea that the world's liberal democracies would protect you from horror, they've known that that wasn't the case in the world for a while. Um, I would say for me, the first moment that I really saw that was 2008, um, with, uh, with the Russian invasion of Georgia. Uh, and it was fine. Putin invaded, claimed some territory. The world shrugged really. I would say the next moment was Syria and when the red line of chemical weapons was crossed, there had been a clear declaration that that was not going to be okay. But it was. And in those days, I still would talk to the Russian oligarchs. And one of them said to me, "You know what? This shows you this shows that Pukin is a more reliable friend than the president of the United States." That was the lesson. Third moment was the Russian invasion of Crimea. And again there we kind of collectively shrugged and actually Washington told the Ukrainians not to fight. And then full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. So the world, I think, has been a dangerous place uh for democracies and for democrats for longer than maybe we lucky Canadians have appreciated. But I think territorial territorial claims against our own country have woken us up. I think for the Gulf States, the war in Iran has exposed to them their own vulnerabilities. And so I think that now is a very good moment for us. Yeah, I think Ukraine winning, Ukraine is winning, but I don't want in saying that I don't want us to be complacent. Uh I think a Ukrainian victory will make the world much safer for all democracies. It will make Europe safer. I think it will have a demonstration effect for other authoritarian regimes like Beijing that might be that are watching Putin closely and seeing does he succeed or fail. And I think looking at what Ukraine has done right, at the power of democracy, at the power of diversity, at the power of patriotism, at the power of strong allies for Ukraine, that is Europe, also us, but Europe uh can be a valuable and powerful lesson for us as well. And I'm just going to close with one personal story. Um, when I took on this role, uh, officially advising President Zalinski, it was a big decision for me. Um, it was a hard decision. Uh, I love Canada. I love Canadian politics and moving on to something different was very emotional for me. See, I'm getting emotional now. Sorry. Um, and uh, I have three children. only my youngest uh who is 16 is at home and he was sort of um present in all of this thinking and ruminating. And he came home one day that week from school and he said, "Um, you know, mama, I walked home from school today with my friends and we all decided we're really glad that you're helping Ukraine." And I said, "Why?" And he said, 'Well, we're a lot younger than you. True. And we think it's going to be our generation, and it's boys. He said, "Our generation of boys who's going to have to stand for Canada, and we might need Ukraine's help. So maybe now that you're helping them, they'll be more willing to help us later on." Um, I thought that was uh kind of nice, kind of terrifying he would say it. Um, but then we saw the 51st state comments stepped up. We saw Greenland. Um so let's I have every confidence uh that democracy, diversity, patriotism and good democratic friends can be important for Canada. They are important for Canada today and can be important for us whatever challenges we face. Thanks a lot. Um, I wanted to return to where you started your talk with with that notorious Oval Office meeting. Um, because you made some extremely compelling points for why Ukraine is winning. The question is despite all that, how does Ukraine convince the United States or does it even need to at this point? Well, look, I have a view about how to deal with President Trump that is based on personal experience um but may not be shared by everyone. Um so I think when you deal with President Trump, you need to do three things. The first is look for areas of shared interest. Um, and try like try to find ways you can work together. Um, and sometimes you can, you know, I would say the reason we ultimately got the NAFTA deal done is we found some issues that Bob Lighheiser, who was really driving things in actually a very positive way, really believed in that he saw he could get done with Canada. So this is like trade intricacy, but he wanted to get rid of ISDS. I said, "Sure, no problem." Um, he wanted to introduce a labor value content element into our rules of origin for car parts. And these are like important for kind of the Trump trade agenda. So, yay, let's do that. So, look for areas where you can work together. I would say today an area the Ukrainians have where they can offer real benefit to the United States that the Americans are starting to see is drones, right? The Ukrainians now have some real muscle in an area where the Americans are seeing they could use a friend. Look for areas you can agree. First point. Um second point, and we called this during the NAFTA negotiations the donut strategy. Um, and that was recognizing that America is vast and diverse and it is a democracy and the president is not the only guy in the country. He is the dulyeleed president. You have to respect him. You have to recognize he is your principal interlocutor, but he's not the only game in town. And we had a very elaborate strategy of working with senators, with members of Congress, with governors, with mayors, with unions, with businesses going on TV getting our story out. Um, and again there, I think that applies to Ukraine. Um, opinion polls in the United States show that Americans actually think Ukraine is kind of great. uh and they think they think the Ukrainians are brave and are doing a good job and they think Putin is terrible and there are a lot of American leaders who agree with that and I think it's important for the Ukrainians and Canadians um for that matter not to be scared to reach out to those other sympathetic constituencies. And then the final thing that I do believe is at the end of the day appeasement and capitulation with the president doesn't work. Um it's it's awfully tempting because the secret one of like you may hate me when I say this everyone but he's actually quite charming in person. Um and he tries to charm like he doesn't try to fight with you. He called me the killer, but like in a nice way. And I was like, "Wow, the president of the United States, he knows who I am. He calls me the killer. Yay." Um, Tucker Carlson gave an interview recently where he says he has kind of a hypnotic charm. Um, Tucker Carlson suggested it could be supernatural, but like, no, truly read it. It's a funny interview. Um, but so it can be tempting in the moment when you're dealing with the guy to kind of think, "Oh, I can win him over. I can persuade him. I can make this work." And if you can find an air of agreement, great. Um, but I think and the latest comments from President Trump about President Zilinski bear this out in my view. At the end of the day, you have to speak up for your interest. You have to hold your ground. And if you think that graveling is going to win his longterm support, I think you haven't been watching him very carefully. At the other end of the spectrum, there's Russia. Russia has started a war which is now I think one could safely say is really existential for Putin. Whether or not it's existential for Russia is a completely separate question, but I think for Putin's regime, one could say that it is. So, how do you convince Putin at this point that Russia is losing and that it's time to settle? So, I don't want to be like difficult or argumentative, but I actually don't think that this war is existential for Putin. Um, and I have never thought it was existential for Pukin. Um, that has been assert an assertion of a lot of people that he really believes in it. He has to win. He has no way out. He's, you know, that story about him in St. Petersburg and the rats cornering him and all that sort of thing. You know, don't corner him. We have to be nice to him cuz he has no way out. I think it is incredibly easy for him to end this war. Let's remember he is a dictator. He controls the airwaves. Uh and also no one in Russia wants the war. Um the people who are fighting don't want the war. Uh the people around him who he's scared of don't want the war. Now, the one thing that kind of got me worried about sort of the internal Russian pro-war dynamic was actually Mikrosovski who said to me when I saw him a few weeks ago that a sort of a new lower middle class had been created by the war. Um the parents and the families of the soldiers who had died and that they had more money than they had ever seen. And so that was creating a social foundation for the war. But I think that is a pretty small group. I think really the pro-war constituency in Russia at this point given how badly they're doing is Pukin. And you know I'm not suggesting that well let me put it this way. I think for Putin to end the war at the current line of contact is actually politically easier and more likely to give him longevity than continuing the war will. >> I guess that that leads I think naturally to one last question before we throw it open for a question to the audience which is what does victory look like for Ukraine? Well, yeah, it's a very good question and the the the real answer to that is only the Ukrainians can say. Um, and look, I think the Ukrainians are on the right side of history and I think their success is our success. So, I want them to win. Um and some people including in this town uh were saying to me really from the time the war started, you know, would you be prepared to say hard truths to the Ukrainians? You know, would you be prepared to be the person who says to them they have to give up the Donbas? Would you be prepared to do that? A little bit kind of like a test of um I I don't know what, but a test of something. Um, and I I really think we collectively need to recognize none of us are dying. None of our kids are being sent there. None of us just live through a winter where we had to put up tents inside the bedrooms of our apartments to not freeze. Um, none of us have gone through a winter where you only had electricity for 6 hours a day. So, I think the Ukrainians need to be the ones who decide. Um, but I would say and I'd say just two more things of what I've heard Ukrainians say. Um, there was a view and maybe it will come back. it it seems to have receded a bit, but President Zilinsky was under a lot of pressure to pull back from territories that Ukraine currently occupies. And I was in a lot of I won't disclose anything private, but I was in a lot of public meetings where Ukrainian soldiers were asked, would that be acceptable? And I think the best answer I heard was actually from a young woman who commands, you know, her unit. And she said, "My fiance died 6 months ago defending that territory, and there are 300,000 people living there who have chosen to stay in Ukraine, and we stayed in their houses with them." She said, "They're mostly poor people. They're mostly old people who don't have anywhere to go." She said it would have to be we'd have to be getting a pretty big thing in exchange to abandon those 300,000 people and to abandon my fiance's body which no one ever found. I think it's a pretty good answer. >> This question seems particularly timely. Russia aligned information oper operations in Canada have targeted politicians, journalists, researchers and the Ukrainian Canadian community often through domestic accounts amplifying foreign aligned narratives. What can Canada do about this? >> Yeah, look, this is a great question and quite apppropo and I have certainly been very much subject to that. Um, it's not my first tango with the KGB. I first encountered them when I was 20 years old in Ukraine. Um, what can we do about it? Look, I do think that we need to get better as a society at identifying what is happening. Um, I would say especially the media actually. I think uh the Canadian media hasn't always been uh as hasn't always dug deep enough uh into what is going on when it comes to foreign influence operations. Uh so I I' I'd love to see more of that um and work by academia. Having said that though, at the end of the day, um I think a free society can only defend itself with its own convictions. Um and you know, I observe the Baltic republics. I observe Ukraine. Um they're subject to a lot of disinformation. Um and a lot of those kinds of operations, too. And they've made their choice. I think necessity has forced them to be a little more alert. So yeah, I I think really all of us need to really interrogate what's happening and you know maybe with a little bit of self-criticism of myself. Um, I think maybe I wish maybe that I had spoken out in a more detailed way about some of the attacks that were being waged against me. I didn't like to do it because no one likes politicians anyway and no one especially likes a whiny politician. Um uh but I think you know sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let's have some sunlight. >> Yeah. >> There have been um overlapping wars since the full-scale invasion. Um most recently of course the the war over Iran. Um how do you anticipate this conflict currently with Iran is in impacting not just energy supplies but also war Russia's war in Ukraine? So I I have been surprised at the extent to which um Ukraine's uh self sanctioning, you know, Ukraine's own sanctions as it were, have been able to counteract um the benefit to the Russian Treasury of a higher price of oil. Um, that has surprised me, but so far the Ukrainians have done better at disrupting the Russian economy recently um than the higher prices caused by the fighting in the straight of Hormuz have done at enriching the Russian Treasury. I would say the long-term impact that I really worry about I worry about a lot but long-term visav Ukraine is when I think about how do the countries of Africa and Asia think about all the fighting that is happening in the world right now and the response you know, in the global from the global south to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine um has been ambivalent. You know, I had thought that there might be a recognition that this was an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial war and that countries that had experienced that uh would support Ukraine. There was some of it. Um, and my friend Ahmed Husen says, you know, particularly in Africa, which he knows very well, there's more of a divide between the older and younger generation than we see. Um, but but the response has been, you know, I think if we characterize it as ambivalent at best. Um what I think I worry about a lot um with uh the US war in Iran is if you're a country in Asia, a person in Asia or in Africa who is facing higher energy prices, who is facing higher food prices, um who is facing a real economic shock that was caused by a war that the United States unilaterally really entered into then how will you feel about people saying let's all rally to team democracy? Um I think you're not going to be too convinced by that and that worries me a lot because I actually think you know one of the things we're seeing in Ukraine as sort of I tried to argue is actually democracy works. Um, but I worry that that is not a lesson that is being appreciated in a lot of countries in the world. And that worries me because I think democracy works best when there's a lot of us on that team. And I think if that team gets too, you know, the smaller we get, the harder it's going to be for us. If we could uh take a step back from the war for a minute, uh one of the audience questions asked, "In your political life, you explicitly champion a feminist foreign policy. Um can you offer some reflections on the current moment and the role of feminism as a lens for policym?" >> Whoever asked that question, thank you. Um, I am a total believer in a feminist foreign policy. And by the way, in a feminist domestic policy, too. Early learning and child care, a remarkable thing. Um, and yeah, and let's keep fighting for it. Um, I was actually in Montreal over the weekend and uh, one of the big news stories in Quebec was that uh, suicide rates of young men in Quebec are lower than in English Canada. And one of the theories is maybe it's because uh, their parents had access to early learning and child care. Um, and that they grew up with this great supportive community-based care. So, you know, I think feminist policy domestically absolutely essential, more essential today than ever. And I really believe in feminist foreign policy. As you may have noticed when I talked about Ukraine showing that diversity is not, you know, just some kind of virtue signaling luxury for peace time. That diversity actually is essential in times of war. And I would just offer to you my miltech, right? Um, so I think that what does feminist foreign policy mean? Feminist foreign policy means recognizing that women are essential in the world and that countries that draw on all of their people, women as well as men are going to be stronger. Uh and that is what we want in our allies and partners. Yeah, >> we are getting close to the end of time. So, in 3 minutes or less, >> what more should Canada do to help Ukraine? >> Look, I think Canada, you know, as we have heard, lots of people say or some, not lots, a vocal minority thinks Canada is doing quite a lot already. I think it's great um what we're doing with Ukraine. Um what I would actually say um is uh because right what I am observing now is there are lots of opportunities that other countries so let me sort of flip that right I said Ukraine not as righteous victim but as shield and arsenal. I would urge us as Canadians to start thinking about Ukraine more that way too. That's how Denmark is thinking about Ukraine. That's how Germany is thinking about Ukraine. That's how the UAE is thinking about Ukraine. Uh, and the Ukrainians like us. Like they think that we're great friends and allies and partners. And I think we can learn um and gain a lot from them. Um, particularly but not only in defense technology >> and other countries are there much more than we are. Okay, I'm being told actually we have time for one more question by popular demand I suppose. Um the uh on the defense tech question, you've said in the past that Canada's a start or Ukraine is a startup nation. Um that Ukraine is a a fighter, a winner, and an innovator. Um how sustainable is defense tech as a model for economic reconstruction after war >> for Ukraine? Look, like you know that famous uh Eisenhower speech about the military-industrial complex. Um and look, Eisenhower was the great World War II general. Um and he gave a very powerful speech after the end of the Second World War basically saying it would be better to spend our money on schools and hospitals than to spend our money building weapons. And broadly I agree that that is that is what I would prefer. But I think right now you know in saying we are all Ukrainians now the point I was trying to make is Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, they've known they live in a dangerous neighborhood for a long time. Uh I think right now what we're all learning is there's no safe neighborhood anymore in the world. you know, Dubai thought it was like this glittering place of safety. Guess what? So, in a time when there's no safe neighborhood, um I think we're all going to have to be um more concerned about our defense and regrettably, really regrettably, spending more on defense than we have in the past. Um so, regrettably, I think it's going to be a pretty good strategy for Ukraine right now. Um I think some of the technology uh and also the social structure of innovation can be dual use. Um you know one of the things that the Ukrainians do with the drones is the drones they don't use them only to kill people. They also use the drones to save people. They use the drones to deliver supplies to their own soldiers. Um, so that is is going to have a good dual use. But the final thing I'll say, and this is a little bit an oblique answer to your question, I do hope that in addition to recognizing we're all Ukrainians now, we have to be prepared to defend ourselves, we recognize the second part of that, which is Ukraine is working so hard to build alliances and an alliance of democracies. We used to have that. And if we can build a 21st century version of that, we won't have to spend so much money on weapons. We can spend more on daycare. >> All right, Christia, thank you so much uh for sharing your expertise and your insight with us today. Um I'm going to hand things back over to Josh. >> Okay. I promised you in for a treat. It was going to be an exciting night. Krista, thank thank you so much for that thoughtprovoking uh lecture. It was I think you left us with a lot to think about and to think with. Uh and Paul, thank you for surfacing uh some of the kind of key themes and ideas and additional uh arguments uh and facilitating the Q&A. And thank you all very much uh for your questions. Uh it's my pleasure now to invite to the podium uh our president and vice chancellor Dr. Wisdom Tete. Dr. Tete joined Carlton uh a year ago January January 2025. Uh he arrived to Carlton via the University of Toronto where he served as vice president and principal of the uft scar bro campus. Uh previous to that he played uh leadership roles at both the UBC Okonogan campus and at the University of Calgary. Uh and of course in addition to being our president, he is also a professor uh in the department of political science uh where he has cross appointments at the Institute of African Studies uh and my academic home here in Richcraft Hall, the school of journalism and communication. Dr. Teddy, thank you very much, Josh. Um, you know, on behalf of all of us here at Carlton, I just want to say thank you, Honorable Frillain, for such a stimulating uh conversation this evening. You frame it as a conversation. Josh talked about a lecture, but you talk about a conversation and I can tell you from the interaction uh that you actually did elicit uh that conversation from the audience. I'm sure um you know there are a lot more questions that folks would have wanted to get answered but part of the exercise is to get us taking this away and thinking about these questions and engaging with one another uh about the fundamental issues that you raised the value of democracy the importance of diversity need to be able to build a sense of patriotism not just for country but for the cause that the country stands for the values that are at the part of what our country stands for. Uh and so it's important that in moments like this, we use this unfortunate situation as a learning opportunity because what is going on in Ukraine is not exclusive to Ukraine. The fear of that predatory hedgeimma is something we see manifested in different places. And it's important that we all bind together for a cause that sustains all of our collective humanity because that is what it is. A threat to one is a threat to all of us. Uh and so whilst we be removed from the daily grind and suffering of folks who seem to be many many kilometers away, the reality is that this might come back to bite us if we don't take a stand today in defense of the fundamental values that we believe in. So I'm so grateful that we had the opportunity, you know, three times as a charm. We got her here. Uh and it's it's worth the wait. I think that it's been sobering, but it's also been energizing in terms of the call to action that you've left us with. So, thank you very much for sharing the evening with us. Very much appreciate it.