"Russians At War": Follow More Money

Its November 2, 2024 and following the money saga of the over $450K+ taxpayer funded documentary propaganda film "Russians at War" continues. This time at the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF). And the #NHL.

Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF)

WIFF refused to cancel the screenings on Friday October 25, 2025 at the Chrysler St. Clair Centre and Saturday October 25 at the Armouries - Perform. Hall.

Fun fact.

Historicplaces.ca describes the Windsor Armouries building listed on its Canadian register (2007/07/17) as the following:

"Description of Historic Place

The Windsor Armouries is a two-storey, red brick Richardson Romanesque structure located on Freedom Way in downtown Windsor. With a three-storey tower, it typifies the design of Canadian armouries in the early 1900s and is the only armoury in Essex County. This downtown Windsor landmark is recognized for its heritage value by City of Windsor Bylaw 337-1999.

Heritage Value

The Windsor Armouries is a place of pride for the people of Windsor and Essex County. Traditionally, as the only armoury in Essex County, more than 100 years of military and civic functions have been hosted at this location. Constructed from 1900 to 1902, it was built to replace the collection of wooden barracks near City Hall Square and as the new home of the Twenty-first Regiment of Essex County (Fusiliers). Later the renowned Essex Scottish Regiment and subsequently the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment called the Armouries home. It has also housed the Windsor Regiment (Canadian Armored Corps), Army Cadet Corps 1086 and the Windsor District Military Band. In 1994, the building was officially renamed The Major F.A. Tilston VC Armoury. When the regiment moved to a new facility in 2004, the property reverted to City of Windsor ownership."

Taxpayer Funding at WIFF & "Russians at War"

While the Windsor armouries were transferred to the City of Windsor, then handed over to the University of Windsor to be renovated for its School of Creative Arts and its Music and Visual Arts programs, completed in 2017, the building's historic century legacy as a Canadian military and civilian place of gathering remains.

Wondering if any Canadian military official or civilian associated with the Windsor Armouries would have approved of the showing of a Russian propaganda film funded in large part by their own Canadian tax dollars in now another public institution, the University of Windsor, also funded by Canadian taxpayer dollars.

The building in which "Russians at War" was shown by WIFF holds an important historical military legacy in Canada.

Meanwhile the boldness with which WIFF executive director Vincent Georgie (who declined a CBC interview on October 24, 2024), but said in a statement that "it's up to the public whether they choose to view a film or not" is disingenuous.

He further says: "We are proud to be screening quality, challenging films that our discerning audience can choose to engage with, criticize, and ultimately reflect upon what the filmmakers are saying. That choice is entirely in the hands of our audience," said Georgie.

"We hope that all films at WIFF generate meaningful, critical and intelligent discussion in an environment that is safe, respectful and civil."

The problem is that critical thinking was not exercised by WIFF organizers, particularly Vincent Georgie, who in 2019 received an award by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) as the No. 1 Film Festival in Canada (TIFF Partner - No. 1 out of 166 festivals), being WIFF - Windsor International Film Festival.

TIFF, postponed screening of "Russians at War" due to public outcry which it couched as a public threat but showed the film outside the 2024 festival. WIFF hung tough and showed it during its festival, possibly because of the smaller size and Windsor location being far from mainstream arts and cultural media who blasted this decision initially across TIFF platforms in September. WIFF supporting TIFF is just another way cultural institutions in Canada support their own. Nothing wrong with that, except if it isn't right, especially when taxpayer funds are involved. Perhaps the award WIFF received from TIFF in 2019 makes a difference.

Meanwhile, on October 7, 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) launched an investigation of "Russians at War" director Anastasia Trofimova on the charges of justifying and recognizing the legitimacy of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and illegally crossing Ukraine's internationally recognized borders while filming in the Russian-occupied states.

And BTW, the Government of Canada has not been held to account regarding public monies spent on "Russians at War" in general. In particular, it's not clear if any Canadian taxpayer money was used by the director, Trofimova, to get herself embedded with the Russian military illegally in Ukraine, never mind who paid for her trip to Russia while embedded for 7 months with a Russian military unit.

"Intercepted" Pull from WIFF

The Windsor Star reported on October 27, 2024 that Ukrainian Canadian filmmakers who created "Intercepted" pulled their screening from WIFF in protest after learning it would be featured in a festival line-up alongside "Russians At War".

"Intercepted" is a 93 minute joint Canada, France & Ukraine 2024 film directed by Oksana Karpovych. It melds sound and images contrasting compositions of everyday life of Ukrainians since the full-scale invasion with intercepted phone conversations between Russian soldiers and their families.

Here's the difference between "Intercepted" and "Russians at War".

Lightbox reported the following:

"Lightbox’s Anna Berthollet said: “We discovered the project a couple of years ago during the EURODOC workshop, where Oksana’s artistic vision instantly captivated us.”

Intercepted is produced by Rocío B. Fuentes and Giacomo Nudi for Canadian outfit Les Films Cosmos in co-production with Pauline Tran Van Lieu and Lucie Rego for Hutong Productions (France) and Darya Bassel and Olha Beskhmelnytsina for Moon Man Productions (Ukraine).

The film received financial support from ARTE France, SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, CNC, Visions Sud Est and Chicken & Egg Pictures, with the support of Post-Moderne and Women Make Movies.

The project took part in various markets, labs and forums, including DokFest Munich with the RIDM – Co-production Documentaire Québec-Bavière initiative, EuroDoc 2022, SODEC Lab Immersion Cannes 2022, Sheffield DocFest Meet Market 2022, CPH:DOX Forum 2023 and Hot Docs Forum 2023, where it won the CMF-Hot Docs Forum Canadian Best Pitch Prize."

So, "Intercepted" and "Russians at War" took advantage of Canadian and international cultural funding instruments to make their documentaries. They followed taxpayer money. But the difference between "Intercepted" and "Russians at War" is clear. "Intercepted" creators did not illegally invade the sovereign state of Ukraine and nor be embedded with Russian military invaders under the guise of capturing humanity, while spending Canadian taxpayer funds to capture their content. "Russians at War" did.

"Russians at War" Producer Speaks

On October 25, 2024, a "Russians at War" producer, Cornelia Principe, spoke with CBC Windsor Morning host Amy Dodge about the film.

Waiting to get a transcript to unpack what was said in order to analyze.

In the meantime, the #NHL just rocks.

Hockey Hall of Fame: Follow the Money Datsyuk

On November 11, 2024, Canadian Remembrance day, the National Hockey League's (NHL) Hockey Hall of Fame is inaugurating former NHL Russian player Pavel Datsyuk. Remembrance Day is Canada's highest honour of its soldiers, military and their families who sacrificed for Canada.

So on November 11, 2024, here is what the #NHL Hockey Hall of Fame adores:

"Pavel Datsyuk announced his retirement from the NHL on June 18, 2016. His NHL regular season totals are 953 games played, with 314 goals and 604 assists for 918 points. His NHL playoff totals are 157 games played, scoring 42 goals and assisting on 71 others for 113 points.

During the NHL lock-out in 2004-05, he returned home and played with Moscow Dynamo in the Russian Superleague and helped the team win the Continental Cup and the Russian Superleague championship while being named the RSL’s Most Valuable Player. After retiring from the NHL, Pavel returned to the KHL to play three seasons with SKA St. Petersburg from 2016-17 to 2018-19, and helped SKA St. Petersburg win the Gagarin Cup championship in 2016-17. He played two seasons with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg from 2019-20 to 2020-21, and announced his retirement from hockey on July 2, 2022.

Datsyuk represented Russia at the 2002 Olympics, winning a Bronze Medal and finishing the tournament with the best plus/minus (+8). He represented Russia at seven IIHF Men’s World Championships, winning five medals (Gold in 2012, Silver in 2010 and Bronze in 2005, 2016, and 2017). He was the recipient of the IIHF Directorate Award Forward at the 2010 IIHF Men’s World Championship and was named a member of the Media All-Star Team.

Pavel is a member of the IIHF Triple Gold Club by winning Olympic Gold in 2018, the World Championship in 2012 and the Stanley Cup in 2002 and 2008. In 2017, the NHL’s centennial season, Datsyuk was named one of the 100 NHL Greatest Players of All Time. He was awarded the Kharlamov Trophy as the Best Russian NHL Player as selected by peers, the Russian NHL players, in 2011 and 2013.

In 2024, Pavel Datsyuk received the highest honour given to any hockey player when he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Player Category."

Fine.

But can this guy get a Government of Canada visa to enter the country as Russian national who publicly supported Putin and the Russian military in the last 12 months?

Will the NHL pay off the Government of Canada to get him into Toronto on, of all days, Remembrance Day on November 11, 2024, which honours Canadian soldiers who died, fighting in World War I, World War II, never mind Afghanistan, or supporting the hundreds of Canadian military officials training Ukrainian soldiers since 2014 as part of UNIFIER?

Or is there some other way for this Russian national who supports #genocide in #ukraine able to enter Canada?

Dissonance. According to Oxford Languages: "lack of harmony among musical notes". Or maybe between government policies, corporate values and contracts or just plain people who don't get it.

Datsyuk inaugurated into the 2024 NHL class is a case study of dissonance on Canadian soil.

If the Government of Canada allows this, then our government needs a retool.

Big time.

Chrystia

vision | voice | visual mine