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Donor Profile: Viru Vanemad Raivo and AnneMari Remmel Raivo and Anne-Mari Remmel are proud of what Estonians have accomplished in Canada and excited about the possibilities for even more growth with the development of the new International Estonian Centre (IEC). “It’s very important to have a facility that instills pride in the coming generations – if we don’t do this, then we won’t have a future for our community,” Raivo said. This is why Raivo and Anne-Mari have stepped forward as “Viru Vanemad” donors to the new centre’s Capital Campaign. The couple have been involved in Estonian communities since they were both children growing up in Toronto: Estonian school, folk dancing, summer camps, guides/scouts and gymnastics. They are delighted that the tradition lives on, as their four year-old granddaughter Kalli (daughter of son Tarmo and daughter-in-law Tiiu) has just started going to her first folk-dancing classes. “She loves it!” Their son Esko and daughter-in-law Lisa have two children: Aelwen, 8, and Rowan, 6. They’ve attended Estonian summer camps, which were established over 50 years ago by the generation that first settled here. Raivo, a chemical engineer and owner of specialty chemical companies Nortek Inc. and Aqua-Tek Inc., jokingly says he has spent half his life in the Estonian House on Broadview Avenue in Toronto, and stepped inside the building for the first time as a rookie scout. Raivo is the former president of the board of the Estonian House and
Donor Profile: Merike Remmel and Eric Jakobson For Merike Remmel and Eric Jakobson, the reason they have stepped forward with a donation to the new International Estonian Centre (IEC) is simple: they want to be part of the palpable excitement that this new gathering place presents and help make it a reality. “This whole project captures the imagination, it’s exciting and will breathe new life into the community,” said Merike. Merike, who is Director of Admissions at the University of Toronto and Eric, a contractor, live in Toronto. Both grew up in the city’s Estonian community and participated in nu merous events and organizations such as folk dancing, Estonian schools, summer camps, gymnastics and scouts. They remain active in their respective sorority and fraternity and Merike continues to sit on a number of Estonian boards. The couple have two children: Liis, 26 and Hendrik, 23. “We continue to feel very involved in the community. We go to and enjoy the many Estonian events that go on in Toronto,” Eric said. “The new centre gives us a focus – it will also provide a place for people to get together, to socialize informally and meet up with friends.” The IEC vision is very appealing to Merike and Eric. “It’s a live vision, not just bricks and mortar,” Merike explains. “We have such a feeling of pride in what we are doing as a community.” The couple say they are also very
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Canada, Wexit, and the federal election targeted in Russian disinformation campaign, academics say Zach Laing, Calgary Herald, November 2019 What academics are calling a Russia-backed propaganda campaign targeted last month’s Canadian election, focusing on divisive topics served in that role for over two including an Alberta secession decades – he has seen first-hand how movement. Sputnik, a news the community has evolved. The way the new IEC is shaping up agency sponsored by the reflects the strong vision of the board, Russian government and cited by the New York Times of he says. “We created objectives for our new engaging in sharing disinfor home over ten years ago. We wanted a mation, sent a correspondent dynamic centre that would meet to Canada to cover some community needs, that would make us aspects of the country’s 43rd proud and attract all ages and general election. generations, have flexible space, re One such article, released the flect our culture and heritage and have day before the Oct. 21 election a modern and striking design that that saw Prime Minister Justin incorporates energy efficient features.” Trudeau retain office via a mi “This is exactly how the IEC is coming together, and the go-ahead nority Parliament, highlighted a was supported by a majority Estonian separatist movement led by House shareholder vote.” Albertan Peter Downing dubbed Anne-Mari, a business graduate Wexit. Marcus Kolga, a Canadian from Ryerson University, says the family expert in Russia and disinfor is very much looking forward to becom- mation, said it was an article ing frequent users of the new centre. likely commissioned by the “We envision holding family celeRussian government. brations there, and attending the many “These are agencies that are Estonian events that go on in the directly linked to the Kremlin – community,” she said. “It will also be a and if they’re linked to the place where we can invite our non- Estonian friends to share our culture Kremlin, they’re directly linked and heritage.” to Vladimir Putin and the presi The couple say that Estonia has ac- dent’s office in Russia,” said complished a great deal in the last two Kolga. “(It’s) to break us apart, decades and that it’s time we think to divide us … to push the left beyond just our community in Toronto and right further apart from and reflect, connect with and be a vital each other, so that the divide part of what it means to be a “global becomes bigger and bigger. And Estonian”. “It will be wonderful for all of us to it’s not just Canada where they say that ‘it’s part of me, I belong try to do that.” here.’” Kolga said this is just another example of what Russia does by targeting foreign countries, citing similar efforts to disrupt the 2016 U.S. Presidential elec tion, as well as the Brexit pro cess in the U.K., among others. Downing, the founder of the Wexit movement, said he was contacted by Sputnik reporter Denis Bolotsky about a month impressed with the calibre of the before their interview. “He was people who are involved in guiding the easy to talk to … He’s obviously project – from the design and construc- knowledgeable about geopoliti tion to the legal and financial aspects. cal issues,” said Downing, who “We really appreciate the complexity added he’s also spoken with of the project and the way things are journalists from Spain, the U.K. being managed in such a competent and elsewhere. “We have had and professional way,” Merike said. quite a bit of a reach and Developing the new IEC is also a obviously people take quite a way to pave the way for future generabit of interest. tions. “I knew that Sputnik was a “As parents you want to do the best for your children. This project will Russian news outlet. Everybody help give them a strong future as knows the reputation that Estonians,” Eric said. Russia has – I didn’t fall down “It elevates us as a community, and dead poisoned, I’m still here. broadens our connection with each I’m not doing business with other, locally and globally. It’s inspir- Russia, I just took an interview. ing.” I knew a little bit about Russian culture, so I dropped the phrase Get involved and help ‘the birth of the western republic support our future being the heart cry of Albertans The International Estonian Centre’s capital campaign donor categories and Western Canadians’ just for are Kalevipoja Laud for gifts over $100,000 (including naming rights for specific areas), Viru Vanemad for gifts over $10,000, and Kungla Rahvas for gifts up to $10,000. The Kungla Rahvas campaign will launch in early 2020. To make a donation, please contact Urve Tamberg at donations@estoniancentre.ca. Donations may be made as a family gift, or in honour of an individual or family. All Canadian and U.S. donations will be issued a tax receipt.
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their readers back home to realize we are people, too.” Two other articles were writ ten by Sputnik: one highlight ing the Liberal party’s troubles in gaining ground in Western Canada, and another looking at the People’s Party of Canada’s from their headquarters on elec tion night. On election night, Wexit rocketed into the spotlight after the term began trending on Twitter – but public relations company H+K Strategies told CTV News Edmonton the push was partially generated by bots. Roughly 72 per cent of real users were tweeting about it, H+K Strategies told the outlet, but that while not all of the accounts were new, they all at one point pushed other conser vative messages in the past. When contacted by Post media for comment and clarifi cation on the bots’ origins, H+K Strategies spokesperson Jillena Oberparleiter said the firm was “unable to share data at this time” and did not give a reason for it. The timing of the Wexit article, published the day before the election, was likely no coin cidence, said Benjamin Decker, lead analyst at the Global Disinformation Index. “What the Russians will often do via RT and Sputnik is to highlight and amplify fringe voices that are not accepted by either mainstream research, or mainstream politics,” he said. “And by amplifying them, it in turn creates a perception that something is more popular than it actually is.” The ultimate goal isn’t just to influence an election, Kolga said, but rather to undermine democratic processes and free speech in Western society. “That’s the deal with all of this, which is far more terrifying
than just affecting a few votes in the election,” he said. “Vladimir Putin himself has shut down all free speech, all free democratic processes within his own country. Russian state media – because all media in Russia is state-controlled – take the images of the chaos and make it worse, and they feed it to the Russian people.” Ahead of the 2019 election, a protocol overseen by five senior civil servants was estab lished to inform Canadians about potential incidents that could threaten the country’s ability to have a free and fair election. “The Panel did not observe any activities that met the threshold for public an nouncement or affected Cana da’s ability to have a free and fair election,” Government of Canada Privy Council Office spokesperson Stephane Shank said in a statement. When asked if this meant there was some activity that occurred, Shank said further information could not be pro vided. Sergey Sukhankin, a University of Alberta lecturer on Russian foreign and security policies, said he sees Russia trying to gather information on divisive topics in Canada to dis rupt the country in future years. “Russian disinformation isn’t as homogeneous, as universal, as one may think,” said Sukhan kin, who wrote a policy paper in September warning of poten tial political interference from Russia in the recent election. “I think that the potential infor mation confrontation between Russia and Canada might drop in 10 to 15 years, when in terests of two countries cross in the Arctic region.” Sputnik’s Denis Bolotsky has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Ministry preparing to regulate lobbying
Corruption (GRECO) require ments would have the guide lines cover ministers and politi cal advisers. “But we aim to ex pand it to also include state and local government officials who are authorized to make indepen dent decisions and/or can affect the decision-making process,” Tuulik explained. GRECO found in its 2018 assessment that Estonian minis ters’ meetings with interest groups should be public in the future, which is something some ministries are complying with,” head of Transparency International Estonia Carina Paju wrote on ERR’s news portal last week. Former justice ministers Kristen Michal and Urmas Reinsalu have promised to create a register of lobbyists. Head of the Riigikogu AntiCorruption Select Committee Katri Raik told ERR on Mon day that the committee plans to tackle the subject matter of po litical lobbying after concluding outstanding work.
ERR, October 2019 The Ministry of Justice is making preparations for regu lating lobbying in Estonia and aims to have guidelines by summer. “We plan to take it step-bystep. First, we want to have guidelines for high-ranking offi cials on how to avoid conflicts of interest and communicate with interest groups and lobby ists next summer,” the minis try’s spokesperson Maria-Elisa Tuulik told ERR. She said the ministry will propose disclosing officials’ contacts with interest groups and their representatives (lobby ists). For this purpose, informa tion including the lobbyist’s name and contacts, the interest groups they represent and topics discussed, as well as a summary of proceedings, would be pub lished on a website after the meeting. Group of States Against
