The federal government has taken administrative measures to help take full control Massive Russian freight aircraft Garnidated in Toronto, which Ottawa hopes to use to generate financial support for Ukraine.
“It seems that the government is preparing for its confiscation of this plane,” said William Pellerin, a business lawyer based in Ottawa with McMillan LLP.
He says he expects the government to “move this confiscation very quickly, imminently” by asking for an order from the court to make the property of the crown.
In June 2023, the The federal government has officially seized A plane that had been sitting on the Tarmac at Pearson International Airport in Toronto since February 2022. The plane has not moved within 25 intermediate months.
The Antonov AN-124, recorded in Russian, belongs to the Volga-Dneper company, which Canada has sanctioned. It is one of the greatest planes in the world, and Ottawa fears that Russia can use it to provide military supplies in its invasion of Ukraine.
In June 2023, Ottawa made an official prescription from the cabinet to enter the plane, before an official process to make it lose the crown. At that time, Moscow warned that relations with Canada were “about to be cut”.
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Months later, Ottawa has effectively retracted its Origin of Origin of the Cabinet and revised it, to apply for the subsidiaries of the Volga-Dneper company. This includes the sanction of the subsidiaries of companies based in Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as individuals that the Canadian government suspects “property interests” on the plane.
The modifications appear in an order as an opinion of an official gazette, which was both dated February 14.
“Normally, when you sanction (a company), all its subsidiaries are expressly sanctioned. And so you would therefore never expressly sanction the subsidiaries, in particular non -Russian subsidiaries, under Russian regulations, “said Pellerin.
He said he seems to be that Canada is trying to make sure it has everything it needs when it moves to justice “because the two regulatory changes” have no sense, unless the government is about to officially renounce this crown plane “.
Russia has said that Ottawa undertakes an illegal expropriation, and Volga-Dneper maintains that Canada violates the terms of the 1989 foreign investment protocol that Moscow signed with Ottawa, which has applied since the time of the Soviet Union.
The company allegedly allegedly allegedly cost it more than $ 100 million US dollars
Mark Kersten, professor of international law at the University of the Valley to Fraser, said that it was “remarkable” that Ottawa had not in fact filed documents to take total control of the plane, more than a year after having seized the property and undertake to take control of it.
“These movements that Canada makes have the potential to create incredible precedents,” he said, arguing that Ottawa should regularly put Canadian modules on its efforts to grasp Russian assets and send income to Ukraine.
It is not clear if Ottawa would sell the plane in its current state, would use it to generate profits or eliminate the plane for the parts. Kersten noted that it is possible that the plane is unable to fly in its current state, given the need to maintain planes and regularly flying to be operational.
The Canadian press contacted World Affairs in Canada and the Russian Embassy in Ottawa to comment.
Canada is the first G7 country to introduce a law which allows it to seize the assets held by sanctioned persons and to divert the product of the victims of a sanctioned regime.
A Senate report warned last month that the law could endanger Canadian companies abroad and could undermine the rule of law if the provisions are not applied by a regular procedure.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
