Friday, March 11, 2022

In an op-ed for The Globe and Mail, published Mar. 10, University of Toronto Faculty of Law doctoral candidate Tyler Wentzell (JD 2014) writes about Canadian volunteers fighting in Ukraine: 

Within a week of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announcing that he would welcome foreign volunteers for the defence of Ukraine, 16,000 of them had reportedly arrived. Ukraine launched a website for the recruits, waived visa requirements and offered respectable salaries.

Canadians from all walks of life are answering the call. We have already seen Ukrainian-Canadians returning to their other home, while Canadians with no specific connection to Ukraine join in as well. Some have considerable military experience, while others will be picking up a weapon for the first time in their lives.

Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act establishes the rules for Canadians wishing to participate in a foreign war. It prohibits recruiting for foreign militaries in Canada, except when done by official consular and diplomatic offices. It restricts the outfitting of warships and the launching of private military expeditions, and bars Canadians from enlisting in a foreign military that is at war with a state friendly to Canada. The drafters of the legislation meant to prevent the actions of individual Canadians from dragging the country into war.

Wentzell is the author of Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War.

Read the full op-ed at The Globe and Mail