Cargo ships with their containers are seen in the port of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 6, 2021. REUTERS / Christine Muschi / File photo
TORONTO, March 1 – Canada stepped up pressure on Russia on Tuesday to invade Ukraine by closing ports to Russian ships and saying shares of all Russian oligarchs and companies in the country were being reviewed.
Canada has announced a number of measures to isolate Russia, including imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, closing Canadian airspace to Russian aircraft, banning oil imports and banning Canadian financial institutions from working with Russia’s central bank in tandem with other western countries. Read more
Ottawa has extended its ban on crude oil imports to include refined petroleum products and “other Russian petroleum products,” the country’s natural resources minister tweeted Tuesday night.
Earlier, Transport Minister Omar Algabra said that although the number of Russian ships entering Canadian waters and ports was “small”, there would still be an impact, especially when other countries were doing the same.
Russia accounts for less than 2% of Montreal’s annual container volumes and the ban will have little commercial impact, a port spokesman said.
The port of Vancouver, Canada’s busiest, said the number of Russian-flagged vessels was minimal. In the past, they traded in crude oil, rapeseed oil and copper concentrates, a spokesman said.
Canada is tracking three Russian-flagged ships off the east coast, one of which is a cargo ship, a government official told Reuters.
Canada is also inspecting the holdings of all Russian oligarchs and Russian companies in the country, Finance Minister Christia Freeland told reporters on Tuesday. “We are reviewing them and everything is on the table,” she added.
Canada sends 1,600 bulletproof vests and nearly 400,000 food rations to Ukraine.
Canada imported $ 2.14 billion ($ 1.68 billion) worth of goods from Russia in 2021, according to Statistics Canada, with metals and minerals among the most valuable. According to the agency, last year it imported Russian energy products worth 289 million Canadian dollars.
(1 dollar = 1.2738 Canadian dollars)
Report by Alexander Schumer in Toronto; Additional reports by Alison Lampert in Montreal and Julie Gordon and Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg Writing by Danny Thomas; Edited by Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool and Sandra Mahler
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