Wednesday evening at the University of Toronto’s Innis College the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada with the support of the Munk School of Global Affairs, The NATO Association of Canada, The Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights and VEMU: Museum of Estonians Abroad hosted the Boris Nemtsov Memorial Russia Freedom Forum. Russian pro-democracy opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was murdered on the streets of Moscow on February 27, 2015. The forum featured guest speakers: Zhanna Nemtsova, Bill Browder and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
After her father’s assassination, Zhanna Nemtsova founded The Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom moved from Russia, joined Deutsche Welle as a Correspondent and has traveled to tell the story of reality in today’s Russia.
Former banker and investor Bill Browder authored “Red Notice” and now leads an international campaign “Justice for Magnitsky Campaign” in support of Sergei Magnitsky, who was imprisoned and tortured after he discovered a massive fraud by Russian tax agents in 2008.
Coordinator of Open Russia and Deputy Leader of the People’s Freedom Party Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian journalist and activist who nearly died in 2015. Only a month after the murder of his colleague Boris Nemtsov, Kara-Murza nearly died in 2015 by an apparent poisoning which continues to affect his health to this day. Mr. Kara-Murza’s articles are regularly featured here on Estonian World Review.
Despite unanimously passing Parliamentary resolutions favouring such legislation, Canada has not yet adopted Magnitsky-Nemtsov Legislation which targets human rights abusers and corrupt officials with visa bans and asset freezes. Russian officials with alleged ties to criminal organizations have used Canada in the past to hide their assets.
