The federal government is moving closer to gaining full control over a massive Russian cargo plane parked in Toronto and hopes to use the proceeds to support Ukraine.
In June 2023, the federal government officially seized an aircraft that had been sitting on the tarmac at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport since February 2022.
The plane hasn’t moved since then and Ottawa has issued new cabinet orders that clarify the plane’s ownership, pointing to foreign subsidiaries and affiliates of the Russian corporation thought to own the plane.
William Pellerin, an Ottawa-based trade lawyer with the firm McMillan LLP, says these steps bring Canada closer to taking full possession of the plane, and he believes this will happen “imminently” in spite of court challenges.
Russia has claimed that Ottawa is undertaking an illegal expropriation and is violating the terms of the foreign investment protocol Moscow signed with Ottawa decades ago.
The Canadian Press has contacted Global Affairs Canada and the Russian embassy in Ottawa for comment.
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Moscow warned that relations with Canada were “on the verge of being severed” after the Trudeau government seized the aircraft and announced it would be forfeited eventually to the government.
Canada is the first G7 country to introduce a law that allows it to both seize assets held by sanctioned people and divert the proceeds to victims of a sanctioned regime.
A Senate report warned last month that the law could put Canadian companies abroad at risk, and could undermine the rule of law if the provisions aren’t enforced through due process.
