Thursday, December 5, 2013

CANADA MUST STEP AWAY FROM WINTER OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS 2014- SOCHI RUSSIA-we must stand with everyday people of beloved Ukrainepeople-basic human rights identifies Canada/But if we step away from Olympics- what about all our incredible athletes who gave so much for 4 years to reach Olympics? -fix this



Sidney Crosby on gay rights: 'I think everyone has a right to play'





Bruce Bennett
Sidney Crosby provided comment regarding Russia's anti-gay legislation during Hockey Canada's orientation camp on Sunday.
The climate around the 2014 Sochi Olympics is unique. With the host nation taking an extreme approach to anti-gay legislation, athletes participating in the games have come into focus for their thoughts on the matter. Considering the NHL Players' Association's intimate relationship with the You Can Play Project -- an organization that advocates equal rights regardless of sexual orientation -- some players have been put in a difficult position.
Many have chosen to provide no comment as a strategic approach to avoid distraction. Some of the more prominent players have voiced their opinions or, at the very least, insinuated them.
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby made his views abundantly clear during the first day of Hockey Canada's orientation camp, as he voiced his disagreement with the anti-gay legislation, via ESPN.com:
"I think that everyone has an equal right to play and I think we've been supportive of that. With the Olympics and the controversy around that I think those decisions and those laws aren't necessarily something that I agree with personally ... their laws and their views."
The atmosphere around the 2014 games is seemingly going to be as big a storyline as the competition itself. Many outlets -- specifically those based in North America -- have voiced the opinion that the athletes should find someway to protest or signal that the anti-gay legislation is not acceptable.
As the games get closer, this pressure will intensify.
Considering Hockey Canada and USA Hockey won't be holding traditional on-ice sessions during their orientation camps, it seems likely that this is a subject that will be addressed at great lengths.

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SHAME ON RUSSIA- Mr. Putin.... humanity of everyday people CANNOT ALLOW THE WINTER OLYMPICS/PARALYMPICS 2014 SOCHI.... how can Canada not feel shame over this.... it's basic human dignity and human rights and freedoms of a peaceful democracy being proudly Ukraine... United Nations u must haul in Russia, China and Islamic nations... or disband... u do nothing... and they laugh at you... how did it come 2 this.... am appalled... and so sad... how can we have Sidney, Tessa, Joannie Rochette, Patrick and all the gang and our Paralympic dreams take part in games when u spit on basic human rights of your neighbours???


 O CANADA- CLASSIFIED
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjiwBwBL4Qo


 I stand with Ukraine and the everyday people who are in peaceful protest being savagely beaten by Russia Hijacking human rights and freedom




_ I stand with Ukraine and the everyday people who are in peaceful protest being savagely beaten by Russia Hijacking human rights and freedoms- it's just wrong

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Baird se joint aux manifestants à Kiev


6 décembre 2013 | Le Devoir | Canada

Photo : Sergei Chuzavkov Associated Press

Le ministre canadien des Affaires étrangères, John Baird, a posé un geste symbolique jeudi en se joignant aux manifestants réunis à Kiev. Un foulard à l’effigie du drapeau ukrainien autour du cou, il a marché à leurs côtés et échangé quelques mots avec certains d’entre eux. L’opposition ukrainienne proteste depuis plusieurs jours contre la décision du président Viktor Ianoukovitch de suspendre le processus d’intégration du pays à l’Union européenne.
http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/12/04/foreign-minister-canada-will-support-democratic-development-in-ukraine/

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Photo Credit: Ivan Sekretarev/AP
Hundreds of thousands demonstrated in the streets of Kyiv Tuesday, December 3, 2013. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says Canada will work with the people of Ukraine in its 'democratic development'.
Photo Credit: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

Foreign Minister: Canada will support democratic development in Ukraine



http://www.rcinet.ca/en/2013/12/04/foreign-minister-canada-will-support-democratic-development-in-ukraine/

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We must step back from Winter Olympics/Paralympics Sochi 2014 Russia- CANADA- basic human rights of Ukraine can have no less-  it's no different that Kuwait and Iraq..... it's really not


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What is the point of United Nations .... and UN Human Rights Council who won't even make women equal 2 men...


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- CANADA 1960-  John Diefenbaker... 

The Canadian Bill of Rights

After witnessing the horrors of the Second World War, demand for the national and international  protection of human rights and freedoms grew sharply within Canada.
As the national press brought the controversy over the internment of Japanese-Canadians and after the Second World War to the forefront, the question of human rights in Canadian society became an urgent matter of public debate. Additionally, with the post-war development of the United Nations Charter, an alliance of nations had declared their commitments to human rights.  As a country which stressed the importance of the United Nations, Canada could hardly ignore matters of civil liberties at home.
John Diefenbaker, whose reputation was built on his dedication to civil liberties, held a longstanding commitment to developing a Canadian Bill of Rights.  During the minority parliament of 1957-58, his goal of developing human rights legislation was deferred in favour of more pressing political measures. However, once Diefenbaker's government gained an overwhelming majority, the issue topped his agenda.
Diefenbaker's interest in human rights was genuine, and his views on universal civil and political rights are apparent in the records of his early years in federal politics in the 1940s.  Diefenbaker also had a personal agenda of promoting multiculturalism, noting that he could "speak on the subject of mixed racial origin," and that he knew "what it has meant in the past for some to regard those with names other than British and French origin as not being quite that kind of Canadian that those of British or French origin could claim to be."  It was a subject that suited his strong individualism, his sympathy for the voiceless, and his rhetorical abilities.
In the two years between the first introduction of the Bill by the Prime Minister in 1958 and its final passage by the House of Commons in 1960, the government invited comment from both lay and professional groups concerning the nature and contents of the Bill and received a torrent of responses.
Diefenbaker's agenda would profoundly influence Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who would succeed in winning the battle with the provinces needed to bind human rights legislation to the Canadian Constitution. In 1982, the Constitution was officially amended and a full Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms came into force - a step made easier by Diefenbaker's dedication and action.
Though more a symbolic declaration than a piece of practical legislation, the Canadian Bill of Rights succeeded in influencing developments in the Canadian courts, resulting in a greater public awareness of human rights issues.  It would become, as Diefenbaker often reminded Canadians, his proudest achievement.



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  Reflections: John Diefenbaker and the “un-hyphenated” Nation


Posted in Apartheid, Canadian History, Countries: Canada, Countries: South Africa by the woyingi blogger on March 27, 2010

I’m helping the daughter of an aunty of mine with her History Summative. It has to be on a Canadian Prime Minister. She chose John Diefenbaker. I was happy about this because since reading Canadian philosopher George Grant’s “Lament for a Nation“, I have been fascinated by John Diefenbaker and his involvement in promoting civil rights in Canada.

John Diefenbaker led the Conservative Party to victory in 1957. He was the Prime Minister of Canada from 1957 to 1963. Growing up, I absorbed some snippets of Diefenbaker’s history from TV, but like most Canadians my age, I didn’t learn much about Canadian history and frankly felt that our history was boring.

John Diefenbaker

I knew about the Diefenbunker and wanted to visit there some day (I still haven’t managed to yet). I knew that Diefenbaker didn’t get along with President John F. Kennedy but I didn’t really know why. I knew that Diefenbaker had cancelled the Avro Arrow but didn’t know why. I also had come to my own conclusion that Diefenbaker was one of our ugliest Prime Ministers.

But while reading Grant’s Lament for a Nation I discovered that Diefenbaker was something of a progressive for his time, despite being the leader of the Conservative Party.

Diefenbaker once said  “I am the first Prime Minister of this country of neither altogether English nor French origin. So I determined to bring about a Canadian citizenship that knew no hyphenated consideration.”- March 29, 1958, Maclean’s. Diefenbaker believed in promoting an “unhyphenated” Canadian identity, and that protecting the rights of all Canadians, regardless of race or national origin, was key in building the idea  of Canada as “one nation”. However, this position make him quite unpopular among the Québecois.

Here is a list of some of the positions, decisions, and accomplishments of Diefenbaker that I think were pretty progressive and important for more Canadians to know about:

1) Diefenbaker opposed the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II


While an MP in the Conservative Opposition, Diefenbaker was appointed to the House Committee on the Defense of Canada Regulations. This committee was an all-party committee responsible for examining the war-time rules related to arrest and detention without trial. When Mackenzie King’s Liberals sought to forcably relocate Japanese Canadians from the Pacific Coast and interned them, Diefenbaker was against such actions. I wonder how much this had to do with his background as a German. At the time, Diefenbaker was concerned about Canadians accusing German Canadians of disloyalty and during his early political career he had been called a “Hun” and faced harassment because of his obviously German last name. It should really be no surprise that redress for the internment of Japanese Canadians were made under the Conservative Government of Brian Mulroney, seeing as this had been an action that Conservatives like Diefenbaker had opposed.

2) Diefenbaker and First Nations’ Rights


On March 31, 1960, First Nations and Inuit peoples were given the right to vote in Canada by the Diefenbaker Conservatives. This allowed Registered Indians living On-Reserve the right to vote in federal elections for the first time. Before this, if a Registered or Status Indian wanted to vote, he had to renounce his Status.

3) Diefenbaker’s Appointment of James Gladstone, the First Status Indian Sentator

Although Cree by birth, James Gladstone was adopted by the Blood/Kainai Tribe, a member of the Blackfoot Nation, because he was born on one of their reserves. He was President of the Indian Association of Alberta and was appointed to the Senate in 1958, two years before Status Indians were given the right to vote in federal elections. Gladstone’s presence in the Senate was key in pressuring Parliment to grant Status Indians their civil rights.

4) Diefenbaker’s Appointment of Ellen Fairclough, the First Woman Cabinet Minister

In 1957, Diefenbaker appointed the first woman federal cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough. She held the posts of Secretary of State, and later Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. During her time in Parliment, she worked on issues related to the status of women, including private members bills pushing for equal pay for equal work for women.

5) The Canadian Bill of Rights

Taken from Diefenbaker’s Bill of Rights by Thomas Axworthy:

    John Diefenbaker was a passionate advocate for the rights of the downtrodden, and as early as 1936 he had begun to draft a Canadian Bill of Rights. Elected to the House of Commons in 1940, Diefenbaker began to introduce annually a private member’s bill enunciating a made-in-Canada Bill of Rights. Becoming leader of the Conservative Party in 1956, Diefenbaker stunned Canada with an upset victory over the Liberal Party in 1957, and work on a Canadian Bill of Rights began immediately. Believing that Canada’s internment of the Japanese during World War II was a disgrace, he told the House of Commons that a Bill of Rights “would make Parliament freedom-conscious.” In August of 1960, his cherished Bill of Rights was proclaimed.

    Mr. Diefenbaker made the strategic decision that his Bill of Rights would apply only to the federal jurisdiction. He did not believe that the provinces would agree to amend the Constitution. “Let us clear our own doorstep first,” he told critics who said he did not go far enough.

6) Diefenbaker and Aparteid South Africa

Taken from The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online:

    Despite his vehement rejection of the South African policy of apartheid, Diefenbaker was hesitant to consider exclusion of South Africa from membership in the British Commonwealth on the ground that the association should not interfere in the domestic affairs of its members. Political pressure for action intensified after disorders and a police massacre of peaceful demonstrators in Sharpeville in March 1960. At a meeting of Commonwealth prime ministers in May Diefenbaker worked with Prime Minister Macmillan to avoid a split among the leaders along racial lines. They found their escape in convenient delay. The conference offered South Africa time to revise its policies by agreeing that in the event it chose to become a republic, it would have to request consent from other Commonwealth members for readmission to the association. When South Africa’s whites voted that October in favour of a republic, Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd announced that he would seek continuing Commonwealth membership at the meeting in March 1961. Diefenbaker arrived at that meeting carrying divided counsels on South Africa, some calling for its exclusion, some for renewal of its membership coupled with a Commonwealth statement on racial equality, and others for further delay. As the conference opened he was undecided, but at the suggestion of Bryce he advocated a declaration of principles to be adopted before a decision on South Africa’s readmission. The effect would be to force a choice on South Africa rather than on the other members. When Verwoerd called for additional wording which would exclude his country’s practices from blame, Diefenbaker sided with the non-white leaders in rejecting the proposal. Verwoerd withdrew the South African application and left the meeting. Following South Africa’s departure, the conference dropped the effort to adopt a declaration of principles, but Diefenbaker told reporters that non-discrimination was an “unwritten principle” of the association and that it was “in keeping with the course of my life.” He accepted the outcome as the least divisive one possible and received wide praise at home and abroad for his defence of the principle of non-discrimination.

Diefenbaker’s position negatively affected his relationship with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan,  who already thought Diefenbaker was a nuisance because of his interference in Britain’s economic policies. Diefenbaker was the only one of the white Prime Ministers to take an unequivocal stand against aparteid and spoke of a Commonwealth that opposed racial discrimination. He had be well advised by Civil Servant and ardent Keynesian, Robert Bryce that if Aparteid South Africa, with British support, had been allowed to remain in the Commonwealth most of the Asian and African countries would leave, defeating the purpose of the Commonwealth and making it nothing more than a whites-only club.

Further Reading:

Lament for a Nation by George Grant

Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the world 1945-1984 by Robert Bothwell (To learn more about Diefenbaker and the Commonwealth of Nations)

 http://woyingi.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/reflections-john-diefenbaker-and-the-un-hyphenated-nation/


 comment:
Thank you for your thoughts and comments on John Diefenbaker who, as you say, was so far ahead of his time in advocating for social justice issues. Whether apartheid in South Africa or First Nations rights here at home, Diefenbaker was a passionate advocate for equity.

I am the owner of Fireside Publishing House in the Toronto area. We are producing the Leaders & Legacies series of historical fiction novels for children on our Canadian prime ministers, imagining their lives at about age 12 wherever they were actually living at that time. Book One in the series, released last fall, is called The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder: An Early Adventure of John Diefenbaker. While the adventure itself is fictional, the history of the time (in 1908 Saskatchewan) is accurate. I tried to foreshadow the man to come, who would come to believe so strongly in human rights. A guide at the back lets parents and teachers (and the reader) know what was real and what wasn’t.

Our hope is that these books will hook kids on Canadian history so that they will go on and read further information about our leaders.

I do hope your daughter learned a lot about Diefenbaker and the Canada he envisioned.

Best wishes,

Roderick Benns

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Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau signing the Constitution.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Pierre Elliott Trudeau signing the Constitution.Photographed by Robert Cooper April 17, 1982.Library and Archives Canada, accession number:


Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms

The History of the Charter
Canada's original Constitution, the British North America Act, was passed in 1867 by British Parliament. This Act, also known as the Constitution Act, 1867, founded Canada as a nation. It made elected governments the highest political and legal institutions in the country. The Constitution distributed power between the federal and provincial governments. Unlike the United States Constitution, Canada's Constitution did not have a "Bill of Rights" that governments had to follow.

In 1960, the federal government passed the Canadian Bill of Rights. This law statute was not part of the Constitution. It had no more power than any other law. The Bill spoke of fundamental freedoms, legal rights and equality before the law. But if a law itself was discriminatory, the Bill of Rights was generally not helpful. As well, the Bill only applied to federal, not provincial laws.
Because Canada's original Constitution was an Act of British Parliament, it could only be changed by Britain. For many years, Canada's Prime Ministers had been looking to "bring the constitution home." Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau also wanted to include a Charter of Rights in the Constitution.
The Charter was significantly inspired by documents such as the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Other international influences included the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In the fall of 1980, the Canadian government set up a special all-party committee to hear what people had to say about a suggested Charter. With televised hearings, the committee listened to over 300 presentations from women, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, ethnic and cultural minorities, and others. The committee also considered 1200 written submissions about the Charter. From this, the committee made 123 recommendations to improve the Charter - over half are in the final document.
It was difficult for the provinces to agree to changes to the Constitution. On the night of November 4, 1981, in the kitchen of the Ottawa Chateau Laurier hotel, then Federal Justice Minister Jean Chrétien and the Attorneys General from Saskatchewan and Ontario, Roy Romanow and Roy McMurtry, came up with a plan - popularly referred to as the "Kitchen Accord." The plan gave provinces a way of temporarily avoiding some parts of the Charter (see Clauses and Provisions - the section 33 "notwithstanding clause"). This led to stronger support from the provinces and opened the way for a Constitution that included a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Charter is a part of the Constitution Act, 1982; all of which is in the Canada Act, 1982. Receiving the approval of the Britain for the last time, on April 17, 1982 in Ottawa, Queen Elizabeth II signed the Canada Act, 1982. This gave Canada control over its Constitution. The guarantee of rights and freedoms in the Charter became part of the supreme law of the land.
The equality rights section of the Charter was delayed until April 17, 1985. This gave governments time to update laws to meet equality requirements.

Having a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in our Constitution has brought Canada in line with other liberal democracies in the world, all of whom have bills of rights that can be enforced by the courts.





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Schulz to Ukrainian authorities: listen to citizens, not beat them
European Parliament President Martin Schulz made the following statement on events in Ukraine:

"I am following events in Ukraine with great concern. Its authorities are not only ignoring the aspirations of many of its citizens, but are quashing them with batons and tear gas when these hopes are voiced on the streets with desperation.

The excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable. Reports of provocations, meant to justify charges of the riot police, are especially disturbing. The Ukrainian authorities should listen to its citizens and not beat them.

I urge the Ukrainian government to abide by its international commitments to respect the freedom and expression and assembly. The current crisis should be solved through dialogue among all political forces."

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-president/en/press/press_release_speeches/press_release/2013/2013-december/html/schulz-to-ukrainian-authorities-listen-to-citizens-not-beat-them

and...


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Ukraine police give protesters deadline, PM brands them 'Nazis'
Source: Reuters - Thu, 5 Dec 2013 07:12 PM

By Richard Balmforth

KIEV, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Ukrainian police on Thursday warned pro-Europe protesters they faced a "harsh" crackdown if they did not end their occupation of public offices in Kiev, while President Viktor Yanukovich's prime minister denounced them as "Nazis and criminals".

The authorities issued the tough warnings as foreign ministers held a European security conference in a city seething with unrest over the Ukrainian government's U-turn away from Europe back towards Russia.

Germany's visiting foreign minister used the occasion to warn Ukraine against violently cracking down on protesters. Russia's responded by accusing EU officials of "hysteria".

Kiev's Nov. 21 decision to abandon a trade and integration deal with the EU and pursue closer economic ties with Moscow brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators into the streets over the weekend. Protesters have since blockaded the main government headquarters and occupied Kiev's city hall.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov defended his government's handling of the crisis. He clashed sharply with Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who has used his visit to Kiev for a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to show solidarity with the demonstrators.

"Nazis, extremists and criminals cannot be, in any way, our partners in 'Eurointegration'," the government website quoted Azarov as telling Westerwelle.

Westerwelle expressed concern about police behaviour at the protests, when dozens of people were severely beaten.

"Recent events, in particular the violence against peaceful demonstrators last Saturday in Kiev worry me greatly," said Westerwelle. "The way Ukraine responds to the pro-European rallies is a yardstick for how seriously Ukraine takes the shared values of the OSCE."

In a pointed gesture, Westerwelle visited the main protest centre on Kiev's Independence Square on Wednesday and met opposition leaders who have called for Yanukovich to resign. Several other EU ministers made the same trip on Thursday.

The crisis has exposed a gulf between Ukrainians, many from the west of the country, who hope to move rapidly into the European mainstream, and those mainly from the east who look to the former Soviet master Moscow as a guarantor of stability.

EU countries, especially those like Germany and Poland with experience of Cold War-era Russian domination, are keen to bind Ukraine and its 46 million people closely with the West and say their trade pact would have brought a surge of investment.

Moscow wants Kiev instead to join a customs union that it dominates with other ex-Soviet republics. Russia exerts powerful leverage because of Ukraine's dependence on its natural gas.

A court ordered the protesters on Thursday to quit the Kiev mayor's office, where they have set up an operational hub, and halt their four-day blockade of government buildings.

In perhaps the strongest signal yet that the authorities are contemplating action to reclaim the streets, the head of the Kiev police, Valery Mazan, said: "We do not want to use force. But if the law is broken, we will act decisively, harshly.

"We will not try to talk people round. We have the means and capability laid down by the law," he added.



SOLIDARITY GESTURE

The stand-off between pro-EU protesters and the government is taking a toll on the fragile economy. The central bank has twice been forced to support the currency this week and the cost of insuring Ukraine's debt against default has risen further.

Ukraine faces a $17 billion bill next year for debt repayments and deliveries of Russian gas.

About 3,000 pro-Europe demonstrators, mainly from western Ukrainian-speaking parts of the country, have been camped out in Independence Square since Sunday. They huddle round blazing braziers, swap anecdotes about events of the day and follow news developments on a huge TV screen.

Speaking to the OSCE session, Victoria Nuland, U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, urged "all sides" to renounce violence, respect the right to peaceful assembly and the rule of law.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke scathingly about Europe's reaction to Ukraine's decision to seek closer trade ties with Moscow.

"This situation is linked with the hysteria that some Europeans have raised over Ukraine which, using its sovereign right, decided at the current moment not to sign any agreement which Ukrainian experts and authorities considered disadvantageous," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting.

Yanukovich, who is visiting Beijing, suggested some relief could be on the way for the distressed economy, signing documents for deals with China on agriculture, infrastructure improvement and energy. He estimated their value at about $8 billion of investment in the Ukrainian economy.

Ukraine faces huge problems in financing its current account deficit. Severely depleted central bank reserves are also putting Ukraine at risk of a balance-of-payments crunch.

One analyst, Timothy Ash of Standard Bank, doubted the long-term investment commitments from China would help an immediate cash shortage. "Ukraine needs short term cash/financing, and likely of the order of USD10-15bn at this stage in up-front cash to make a difference," he said.



TYMOSHENKO CALL FOR SANCTIONS

The Kiev government says it has not ditched the trade deal with Europe but is taking a strategic "pause" while it negotiates a new "roadmap" with Russia to patch up its economy.

Protesters consider the move to have been an abrupt reversal to Ukraine's march towards Europe. They hope to repeat the success of the "Orange Revolution" nine years ago, when mass demonstrations forced the overturning of a fraudulent presidential election victory for Yanukovich.

Azarov's deputy, Serhiy Arbuzov, who is preparing to head Ukraine's first high-level delegation to Brussels soon to repair some of the political damage, suggested the government might be ready to consider one of the opposition's demands - early parliamentary elections. There has been no suggestion from Azarov that he is ready to go along with this idea.

Before negotiations were halted, the EU had pressed Ukraine to release Yulia Tymoshenko, who served as prime minister after the Orange Revolution but lost a presidential election in 2010 to Yanukovich and was later jailed for abuse of office. Brussels considers her a political prisoner.

On the eve of a fresh attempt to bring her to trial on new charges, Tymoshenko called for the West to apply "targeted sanctions" against Yanukovich and his family. This "is the only language he understands," she said, according to her lawyer. (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets in Kiev, Megha Rajagopalan and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Peter Graff)

http://www.trust.org/item/20131205185809-yxg0b/?source=hpbreaking

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