Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration

Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l'immigration

For immediate release

Ottawa, June 13, 2023 -

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration calls on the Parliament of Canada to grant honorary Canadian citizenship to imprisoned opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza and to demand his freedom. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist and historian, entered Russian politics in 2001 and has survived two assassination attempts by poison in 2015 and 2017. He is one of the leading advocates pushing for the adoption of the Global Magnitsky Act of 2016 that came into force in the United States, legislation that sanctions individuals for corruption and human rights abuses, and which has been mirrored in Canadian law since 2017.

In April 2022, Mr. Kara-Murza was arrested for having publicly condemned the unjustified and illegal war by Russia against Ukraine. In October 2022, while awaiting trial, he was awarded the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, at which point the Kremlin modified the charges against him and prosecuted him for high treason. Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a show trial. In his statement to the court, Mr. Kara-Murza decried the unfairness of his trial:

“For a person who has not committed any crimes, acquittal would be the only fair verdict. But I do not ask this court for anything. I know the verdict. … Such is the price for speaking up in Russia today.”

Since his detention, Mr. Kara-Murza’s health has been failing. And yet, since the 8 June 2023 appeal court hearing, he could be transferred to a penal colony.

The Parliament of Canada has bestowed honorary citizenship to a handful of individuals of exceptional merit in the past, including Raoul Wallenberg (posthumously), Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai. By granting Vladimir Kara-Murza honorary citizenship, Canada can highlight his sacrifices to the democratic cause in Russia, and his advocacy for peace in Ukraine.

Canada stands with Vladimir Kara-Murza in calling out the crimes that Russia is committing against Ukraine and its own civil society and joins the international community in condemning the Putin regime.