The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was taking action in response to Canadian sanctions
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OTTAWA — Russia on Friday sanctioned a series of Canadian public figures, including Maj.-Gen. Michael Wright, head of Canadian Forces Intelligence Command and pastor who performed the first same-sex marriages in Canada.
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Moscow’s latest round of sanctions targets several staff members of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has openly criticized Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and is of Ukrainian descent.
The media team of Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, Maeva Proteau and Adrien Blanchard is also banned from entering Russia.
Also on the Kremlin list are Ian Scott, head of the broadcast regulator the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which this year banned Russian public broadcaster RT from the Canadian airwaves, and the general at the retired Rick Hillier, former Chief of the Defense Staff.
Russia has also sanctioned Pastor Brent Hawkes, the LGBTQ activist who performed the first legal same-sex marriages in Canada, and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who is of Ukrainian and Indigenous descent.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was taking action in response to Canadian sanctions, including those against Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which the ministry said were an insult to believers. Orthodox all over the world.
Hawkes said it was “an honor to be included on such a brave list of Canadians.”
“I’m worried about the LGBTQ community in places like Russia, Ukraine and Afghanistan,” he said. “It shows that we have a lot of work to do.”
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