Chrystia Freeland
Chrystia Freeland is the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada under Justin Trudeau, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of International Affairs. She was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in November 2019, and has been described as Trudeau's “heir apparent”.1) 2)
Background
Polish and Ukrainian historical records seem to demonstrate that Freeland's grandfather aligned with the Nazis during World War II, and successfully relocated to the Province of Alberta after evading Polish capture in 1948.3) 4) 5) 6) 7)
Education
Freeland attended Harvard University, then moved to the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Exchange to Ukraine
While a student at Harvard University the 1980's, Freeland participated in a university exchange program that brought her to live in Kiev, Ukraine for a time.8) While there, she was involved in 1988 and 1989 in the Ukrainian independence movement, and was tailed by the KGB. She was given the codename “Frida”, and described as a “well-known troublemaker”.9)
Descriptions of Freeland's activities in Russia and Ukraine seem to indicate she was performing foreign intelligence duties. She allegedly evaded interception from the KGB by sending material out of Ukraine via a diplomatic pouch at the Canadian embassy in Moscow. “I am aware that my work with pro-democracy and environmental activists invoked the ire of the Soviet KGB. I remember being the target of smear campaigns in the Soviet press,” she told the Globe and Mail in October 2021.10)
Career
Journalism
Freeland began her career as a journalist in Ukraine working freelance for the Financial Times, the Washington Post and The Economist, before landing various positions at the Financial Times of London. She moved on to become Deputy Editor of the Globe and Mail between 1999 and 2001 before returning to the Financial Times as Deputy Editor and then United States Managing Editor. In 2010, she joined Thomson Reuters as Managing Director and Editor of Consumer News until she returned to politics in 2013.
Government of Canada
From 2015-2017, Freeland served as Canada's Minister of International Trade, credited for negotiating CETA (free trade agreement with the European Union). She then served as Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, wherein she lead the renegotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Affiliations
World Economic Forum
Freeland was a participant in the World Economic Forum's Forum of Young Global Leaders Inaugural Group in 2005, where “their discussions have led them to consider the probable state of the world in 2020, part of the 2020 Initiative.”11) 12) Among the primary points of discussion in the 2020 Initiative is “Communicable diseases, outbreaks and pandemics,” with the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak specifically mentioned.13)
She now sits on the Board of Trustees for the World Economic Forum alongside Klaus Schwab, Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock), former U.S. Vice President Al Gore among others.14) 15) In this capacity, she also appears on Dr. David Martin's list of “orchestrators” behind the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.16) 17)
Publications
Freeland has written at least two books - “Sale of the Century: The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution” in 2000, and “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else” in 2012.18) 19)