Polanada

By Bill Kilpatrick

Many people don't fully understand the significance of Bancroft's geology. While many people know that we are the mineral capital of Canada they don't know why that is, but within the area around Bancroft one can find close to 90 per cent of the world's mineral's in varying quantities. That's a variety of minerals that is found in few other places in the world and makes our area so unique. That's why thousands of tourists flock here every year for the Gemboree.

If many people fail to fully understand Bancroft's mineral significance, I would say that many Canadian's also fail to understand Canada's significance when it comes to our mineral resources, especially critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite, and other rare elements. Statistics Canada estimates that Canada's known mineral reserves amounts to $383 billion, pointing out that the untapped resources most likely push that number over a trillion. And in normal times, this would be a strength for Canada and a huge opportunity for investment, but these are not normal times. Those vast resources make us a target for American and Russian oligarchs who are looking to expand their already vast wealth and power and our geo-political position makes us vulnerable from the north and the south.

Canada has never had a friendly neighbour to the north and now we no longer have a friendly democratically-minded trade-oriented neighbour to the south either. Both neighbours, Russia and the United States, care not for international trade laws or international law in general and instead of negotiating in good faith simply demand what they want and if people do not bend at the knee they are punished with tariffs or threatened with invasion, like Greenland and Canada, or they are actually invaded like the Ukraine. Given that Donald Trump is mimicking much of what Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing internationally Canadian's need to be worried and on guard. Canadian's also have to realize that if this was August 1939 Canada would be Poland. Sandwiched between two dictatorial superpowers who are hungry for resources and are willing to work together to achieve those ends. The most recent peace agreement proposed for Ukraine should be a warning to all Canadians that we could be next.

Historian Anne Applebaum pointed out that the so-called Ukrainian peace agreement should in fact be renamed. On Nov. 22 she wrote the following in The Atlantic magazine: “It is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else.”

She went on to point out that not only was the agreement drawn up by two people with no knowledge of Ukraine- Steve Witikoff is a real-estate developer, and Kirill Dmitriev is the head of Russia's sovereign-wealth fund- but that it takes land and resources away from Ukraine, gives territory and resources to Russia and the Untied States, and punishes Ukraine while rewarding Russia for their illegal invasion. She said, “The plan calls for Ukraine not only to cede occupied territory to Russia, but to cede territory that Russia does not currently control. If the Ukrainians agree, which is, politically probably impossible, they will sacrifice heavily fortified land, leaving all of central Ukraine vulnerable to a future invasion. In return, they get a vague and unrealistic promise of security guarantees, but with no details. Although the plan pays lip service to Ukrainian sovereignty it, also imposes harsh conditions on Ukraine and none on Russia. Ukraine must stop talking about war crimes, cut the size of its army, promise never to join NATO, never to invite European troops onto its territory and even hold elections within 100 days… Most disturbing, though, are the Russian-American financial deals that seem to be lurking in the background. …The United States and Russia would ‘enter into a long-term economic cooperation agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centers, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities,' according to the plan.”

Last week I spoke about how some of the liberals were sending “appeasement” vibes to Trump which was alarming enough, but this Ukrainian “peace” agreement is reminiscent of the Ribbentrop/Molotov pact that was signed by Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany during the summer of 1939. That agreement between two sworn enemies partitioned up Poland into spheres of economic and political influence. The 1939 pact surprised Russians and Germans alike who had been indoctrinated that the other was pure evil, and now, all of a sudden, they were friends, well, friend with benefits if we're being honest. It also surprised Britian, France and most of the world, much like the current Ukrainian “peace” agreement has.

Many people labour under the illusion that knowledge of historical events makes them being repeated less likely, but they are wrong, it makes them more likely. 93-year-old artist and survivor of the Second World War, Arne Roosman, said last week “There's no escaping human nature's bad traits. You've got to watch it.” And we are watching it play out in real time. And I'd like to add that we should never underestimate the extent that people will overlook their ideological beliefs to satisfy their greed. If the Nazis and the Communists can unite for greed then so can the United States and Russia, in fact they are. As William Shakespeare said in his play The Tempest “what is past is prologue.”