OTTAWA, January 14. /TASS/. An issue of lifting sanctions on behalf of the Canadian government against Russia is not on the agenda, Canada’s newly sworn-in Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said in an interview with CBC television channel.
"We wouldn't look at lifting sanctions," she was quoted by CBC as saying.
"The sanctions were imposed by the previous government but with strong support from us in opposition in response to very clear violations to international law by Russia with the invasion and annexation of Crimea and for a war against Ukraine in the Donbass," she said.
"So those sanctions are there for a reason," Freeland, who officially took the post of the Canadian foreign minister on January 10, added.
Freeland used to serve as Canada’s minister of international trade from November 2015 and before joining the politics she worked as a journalist. She was elected to the parliament of Canada in November of 2013.
Beginning in March of 2014, Freeland had been included in the list of Canadian state officials, members of parliament and public figures, who are barred from entering Russia as a counter-measure to Canada’s sanctions over Ukraine and Crimea. The relevant list is posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
Freeland, who has Ukrainian roots on her mother’s side, is known for her tough anti-Russian position due to Crimea’s reunification with Russia and the conflict in the Donbass area in east Ukraine.