BACK-END: Russian's at War.

"Russians at War," is a film the Canadian government funded but not something the Canadian government wants us to view. Perhaps that's why we need to watch the film.

At a time when Canadian legacy media outlets are mostly refusing to respond with reasonable critiques of government censorship initiatives like B-63 or Bill C-293 or to some of the more opaque domestic and international censorship initiatives being championed in places like the UN or the World Economic Forum (WEF), its good to know that legacy media is at least willing to comment on the “controversial content” at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

TIFF is “one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world,” and has just finished up its 2024 program. One of its most controversial movies this year was the Canadian French co-production of “Russians at War.”

As outlined in the September 22nd, 2024 Canadian Dimension post, “When ‘disinformation’ control becomes government censorship,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland acted to promote a campaign to cancel the TIFF screening of the movie, which depicts Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

According to the Canadian Dimension post:

Two weeks ago, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland boosted a campaign to cancel the screening of Russians at War at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her efforts to censor the documentary, which is directed by Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, came on the heels of TV Ontario buckling to pressure by withdrawing its commitment to air the film.

Trofimova made Russians at War at great personal risk and without permission from the Kremlin, embedding herself with a disillusioned and battle-bruised battalion as it made its way across eastern Ukraine. TIFF initially paused screenings of the film over “significant threats to festival operations and public safety,” but resumed showings several days later at its Lightbox venue in downtown Toronto.

The Canadian Dimension post goes on to note:

Barely a week after Freeland’s intervention whipped up controversy around the film, Global Affairs Canada released a statement by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly on “Russian interference,” claiming that state broadcaster RT is acting as “an extension of Russian intelligence services.”

Despite being banned from Canadian airwaves following the invasion in early 2022, Joly said RT has been “relying on state-backed hacking, psychological and information operations, covert influence and military procurement.” She even claimed that RT “caused cyber incidents against Western targets, including Canadian critical infrastructure.”

The minister’s statement was released seemingly in conjunction with an appeal by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the US, Canada and Britain “urge every ally, every partner, to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders.” Blinken said the three countries were instructing their diplomats to pressure countries to target the network.

The intent of the Canadian government’s comments in this area seems to be to limit the free distribution of unsanctioned viewpoints to members of the Canadian public, perhaps in conjunction with or maybe in response to US pressure.

It’s essentially overt government censorship, unlike the more nuanced efforts of Bill C-18, B-63 or Bill C-293.

Freeland’s effort to censor the film came on the heels of TV Ontario buckling to outside pressure by withdrawing its commitment to air the film, which was partially financed by TV Ontario through the Federal government funded Canada Media Fund.

As outlined in the September 19th, 2024 Canadian Press post, “‘Russians at War’ producers threaten TVO with legal action for pulling film,” the film’s producers have threatened legal action for being denied an air-date.

But as outlined in the September 17th, 2024 Canadian Press post, “‘TIFF screens controversial doc 'Russians at War' amid protests, tight security,” the show did eventually air at TIFF, so that’s some consolation.

But these sorts of issues never go away and although not noted in most Canadian based accounts of the event, the September 17th, 2024 Hollywood Reporter post, ““Rape, Violence, Abuse”: The Threats That Led the Toronto Film Festival to Pull ‘Russians at War’” quoted TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey as stating that “hundreds” of threats against staff led to the festival's initial decision to pull the “controversial” documentary.

There’s obviously stuff going on concurrent to the legacy media reports, TIFF press releases and government statements which suggests serious problems in the background which no one wants to address.

The Hollywood Reporter account of what happened is remarkably similar to something that happened to the author five years ago while working at Trinity Saint Paul’s (TSP) United Church and Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts in downtown Toronto.

As outlined in the July 8th, 2019 National Post story, “Toronto church cancels Palestinian event called an ‘open glorification of terrorists,'” TSP cancelled a youth scholarship event hosted by a Palestinian group condemned by the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, which accused the group of advocating “the open glorification of terrorists and murderers.”

The church minister, ex-NDP MLA Dr. Cheri DiNovo was on vacation in Africa and the board of directors was unsure what to do until various untraceable and very nasty emails and voice mails were received by several TSP employees.

The correspondence strongly encouraged TSP employees to cancel the event and threatened violence if the event wasn’t cancelled.

The TSP board, when appraised of the situation, then cancelled the event and hired some extra security, just in case the perpetrators hadn’t got the message that they had won and the event was cancelled.

It’s a situation which has caused concern within the congregation ever since. As expected, it didn’t resolve the problem for the Palestinian expatriate community in Canada or their United Church supporters either.

Both the August 19th, 2019 Palestinian Chronicle post, “United Church of Canada Should Come Clean on anti-Palestinian Accord” and the July 8th, 2020 Mondoweiss post, “The United Church of Canada’s accord with B’nai B’rith prevents it from supporting justice in Palestine,” blamed a 47-year-old cooperation agreement with B’nai B’rith and the United Church of Canada for causing the situation.

The agreement was put in place to attempt to silence Rev. Dr. A.C. Forrest, the then editor of the United Church of Canada and his discussions on the international legal concept of right of return, and his publication of the The Unholy Land.

According to some, the agreement was specifically meant to squash support for Palestine by groups supporting Forrest within the United Church.

Tensions have been slowly simmering beneath the surface of the United Church ever since.

The August 9th, 2019 Yves Engler post, “United Church should come clean on anti-Palestinian accord,” categorized DiNovo as an “anti-Palestinian leftist” and said:

Since publishing that piece the former NDP MPP admitted — to vicious anti-Palestinian/Islamophobe Toronto Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy, of all people — that she forwarded B’nai B’rith’s concerns to the church’s board, which then cancelled the event.

Dropping her progressive standing further, DiNovo unfriended a number of individuals on Facebook who politely questioned her role in suppressing the Palestinian cultural event.

Those issues are still front and center at the TSP, within columnist Yves Engler heart and in a great many other places. They will remain there until the next crisis pulls those emotions and those ambiguous issues back to the surface.

Someone is always either a “terrorist” or a “propagandist.”

As for our current crisis and the legacy media’s response to it, they mostly don’t think “Russian’s at War” should be shown, which is likely to be expected given that legacy media is heavily dependent on Canadian government funds and the deputy PM supports the Ukrainians against the Russians.

Recent headlines are indicative of the legacy media’s viewpoints.

• The September 27th, 2024 National Post editorial, “Don’t be fooled by Russian Propaganda, even if it airs at TIFF,” and the September 17th, 2024 editorial, “Andrew Chakhoyan: TIFF falls into the Russian propaganda trap,” strongly suggest that the National Post is opposed to Canadians viewing the movie.

• The September 16th, 2024 Yahoo News post, “Ukraine's consul general in Toronto outraged by second attempt to screen propaganda film Russians at War,” seems to echo the viewpoint of the Ukrainian consul general, which makes sense, given the the only authority cited in the post is Oleh Nikolenko, Ukraine's Consul General in Toronto. The story was updated the next day, with comments from Yuliia Kovaliv, Ukraine's Ambassador to Canada, supporting Nikolenko’s position.

• The September 20th, 2024 Toronto Star post, “Opinion: Russians at War is painful and one-sided but an important slide of a complex story,” is at least trying to be fair.

• The September 13th, 2024 CBC Arts post, “If TIFF won't screen Russians at War, then who will?,” asks the obvious question.

  If not us, who? If not now, when?

Meanwhile, the censorship is beginning to close around Russian-Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova and her movie.

As outlined in the September 27th, 2024 Ukrainski Pravda post, “Zurich Film Festival officially cancels screening of propaganda film Russians at War,” the Zurich Film Festival organizers have stated that public screenings would not be held "for security reasons."

More festivals are expected to follow suit over the next little while.

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