Forgive me. I thought that Estonian soverienty was at issue and that this was a Canadian-Estonian newspaper! How silly of me. Of course this community wouldn't be interested in knowing who their friends in Ottawa really are!

Should we then praise Van Loan and Harper for ignoring this community's calls for action over the past 4 weeks? Silence that could been read as tacit support for the Kremlin's actions? Where then, do your sympathies lie sir?

I would rather "kiss the ass" of those who support my community rather the asses of those who ostensibly kick it. For those who have been thanked will come back to help us another day.

What part of Guergis' statement do you not understand? > During the height of the tensions over this incident, our foreign affairs minister communicated to Russia in the strongest terms our concerns over the Russians' actions and reminded them of their obligations under international law.

If every single statement made by any minister "demanded", as your opinion seems to be to be relased to the press then you have a skewed understanding opf politics. Chill, will ya?

...statements made by Government Ministers are released to the press. They are not always reported. So, direct your complaint to your local newspaper.

They are indeed always released to the press.

This statement was clearly meant to be tucked away Canada's population would not hear about it. Who you might ask?

You seem clever enough to figure that one out yourself.

Again: Who is looking out for Canadian-Estonian interests in Ottawa?

That should have read "tucked away from a certain segment of Canada's population" before the server truncated it.

Furthermore, the statement couldn't be more false or ill timed.

How could McKay have expressed anything when the crisis happened? He didn't even know about it on the 3rd of May when asked by a member of the opposition!

Worse, the statement was issued by a nobody at a time when no one except the backbencher from Barrie and his assistant were left in the House ensuring that no one in Canada would hear about it. How on earth can you justify and/or tolerate this insulting behaviour?

Somehow, we Harper can proudly stand up for the billions of dollars and dozens of lives spent on forcing democracy down Afghanistan's unwilling throat, yet when our NATO partner's sovereignty is challenged we just sit back? How does this make any sense whatsoever?

Huh?
Wilfert's a member of the Official Oposition not the government and as such isn't in a position to make a statement on behalf of the Government of Canada. That's Stephen Harper's job.

Even so, Wilfert is Dion's inner cabinet chair of foriegn affairs - meaning that all Opposition foreign policy quesitons and issues are approved or declined by him. So um . . . yeah, he is somebody: The future Minister of Foreign Affairs. Better to thank him for his support than, as you would seem to support, kicking him in teeth for speaking up against Russian aggression.

You are dreaming if you think that Dion could win an election. Or that Wilfert would become ForMin. Think of all the true intellectual heavyweights lined up for that job...

And by the bye, the Liberal record in standing up for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (remember May 8/9 in 2005?) is not so hot, either!

Why would you keep supporting a government that couldn't care less about our community?! . . .nor their commitments to NATO treaty partners? Will Harper abandon NATO like he's abandoned Kyoto? That's the message being sent to our European partners.

And would Dion with his abysmal record as a meber of the Liberal brain trust that saw emissions rise during their rule to far morte than promised after signing Kyoto do better? C'mon, that is a one tonne challenge of BS... :-)

It's nice that you care enough to search for someone to blame about the environment. For that I would suggest the WWF, Greenpeace or some other forum.

This is an Estonian site where the discussion is about how the Harper government has ignored our community's calls for support.

All I'm hearing are excuses and attempts to change the subject, when what we need is an apology and a statement of support from the "leader" of this country - or his poodle Van Loan.

What a shame.

Did you not put Kyoto and NATO in the same sentence? Are you not calling for Dion to be next PM and Wilfert next ForMin? Please be consistent yourself about this being an Estonian forum... Not a partisan Liberal - or to be fair, Tory - issue, is it?

The Harper government refused to acknowledge Russian agression: a Liberal did. The issue has become partisan because Harper, for whatever reason, did not want to issue support for Estonia.

So instead of making lame excuses and manipulating the discussion to deflect attention why not just say that Harper should have, but didn't support Estonia when it needed it the most?

Estonian tabloids have never published articles alluding to any political assistance from Canada. van Loan knows that Canada has absolutely no influence over Russian interests, so why upset the apple cart and take on Estonian interests when it's not recognized in Estonia?If someone knows where Canadian recognition is made, then it would be interesting to see it in print. I don't think the ECC-s work should be seen as an extention to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. The ECC is an exile organization whose work is totally independent of anything that goes on in Estonia.

http://www.ekspress.ee/viewdoc...

Hey Maximus:

This link is to an article in Eesti Ekspress that demonstrates their brand of yellow supermarket check-out magazine journalism. It refers to Marcus Kolga's G&M personal opinion article, and makes the leap that Kanada eestlased (plural) have placed a Canadain politician in shame, when even Kolga did not say that. The February article cited in the link was yet another example of the fine brand of journalism practised by Ekspress - no truth, no facts, just sensationalism to sell papers. Reminds me of what estos used to use Pravda for in Soviet times....

Read this week's Macleans article - The Commons: Peter Van Loan Week rools on. Subtitled He doesn't just run this House, he owns this House, and then make your comments!

http://www.macleans.ca/homepag...

Sorry, typo, PVL week rolls on

"both Chris Farley and Don Cherry"
That's about it: Both buffoon and thug.

If van Loan HAS done something useful for Estonia, it would have been recognized by EE. The opposite is true, and EE is simply pointing out that fact. van Loan is as good as Savisaar to most Estonians, and there is good reason to question his political input if silence in such an extreme case as April 28th is the only way to respond to Estonia's plight. I think Shirley (Sherlock) would have his/her/bi hands full to unknit this mess.