In the last weeks of April, the PASS Ukraine team helped organise a working visit to Canada for MPs from the VRU Committee on Law Enforcement.
The main purpose of the visit was to exchange experience in the field of military justice and law enforcement. In particular, participants visited the Petawawa military base, where they learned about the principles of organisation and functioning of the Canadian Armed Forces and discussed issues related to training the Ukrainian military.
In addition, during a meeting with Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence of Canada, the delegation of Ukrainian MPs discussed the supply of ammunition and investment in the Ukrainian defence industry.
As Halyna Mykhailiuk noted: “It was important for our delegation to have the opportunity to communicate not only with the leadership of the military law enforcement agencies but also directly with the military personnel during the visit to the Petawawa military base.
In addition to the principles of implementing military justice “on-site,” we had the opportunity to discuss the activities of Canadian instructors in training Ukrainian servicepersons as part of Operation UNIFIER.”
During the visit, MPs also worked on strengthening parliamentary diplomacy, in particular at meetings with the Standing Committees on Public Safety and National Security and National Defence of the House of Commons of Canada, members of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Group, and Greg Fergus, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Moreover, Ukrainian MPs attended an event at the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada, where they once again stressed the need to increase military assistance to Ukraine.
Following the visit, Oleksandr Danutsa said: “I would like to note the high professionalism of the PASS team in organising the visit. A lot of quality material was processed, which is necessary for us, as MPs of Ukraine, in our future work on drafting the law on the establishment of the military justice institution in Ukraine.”
The visit was part of the project “Parliament and Accountability of the Security Sector in Ukraine” (PASS Ukraine), which the Agency implements jointly with the Parliamentary Centre (Canada), in cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and with the support of Global Affairs Canada within the framework of the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (PSOPs).
