Chrystia Freeland

Freeland was born in Peace River, Alberta, on August 2, 1968.[14][15][16][17] Her father, Donald Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer and a member of the Liberal Party,[18] and her Ukrainian mother, Halyna Chomiak (1946–2007), was also a lawyer, and ran for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Edmonton Strathcona in the 1988 federal election.[19][20] Her paternal grandmother was a Scottish war bride.[1][21] Freeland's parents divorced when she was nine years old, though she continued to live with both of them.[1]

Freeland was an activist from a young age, organizing a strike in fifth grade to protest her school's exclusive enrichment classes.[22] She attended Old Scona Academic High School in Edmonton, Alberta[23] for two years before attending the United World College of the Adriatic, in Italy, on a merit scholarship from the Alberta government for a project that sought to promote international peace and understanding.[24]

She studied Russian history and literature at Harvard University.[22] During 1988–89, she was an exchange student at the University of Kyiv in Ukraine, where she studied Ukrainian, although she was already fluent in the language.[25] While there, she worked with journalist Bill Keller of The New York Times to document the Bykivnia graves, an unmarked mass grave site where the NKVD (the Soviet secret police) disposed of tens of thousands of dissidents.[1] The official Soviet story held that the graves were the result of Nazi atrocities. She translated the stories of locals who had witnessed covered trucks and "puddles of blood in the road" that predated the Nazi invasion, adding evidence that the site was actually the result of Stalinist repression.[1]

While there she attracted the attention of the KGB, which tagged her with the code name "Frida", and Soviet newspapers, who attacked her as a foreigner meddling in their internal affairs over her contacts with Ukrainian activists. The KGB surveilled Freeland and tapped her phone calls, and documented the young Canadian activist delivering money, video and audio recording equipment, and a personal computer to contacts in Ukraine. She used a diplomat at the Canadian embassy in Moscow to send material abroad in a secret diplomatic pouch, worked with foreign journalists on stories about life in the Soviet Union, and organised marches and rallies to attract attention and support from western countries. On her return from a trip to London in March 1989, Freeland was denied re-entry to the USSR.[26] By the time her activism within Ukraine came to an end, Freeland had become the subject of a high-level case study from the KGB on how much damage a single determined individual could inflict on the Soviet Union; a 2021 Globe and Mail article quoted the report by a former officer of the KGB, which had described Freeland as "a remarkable individual", "erudite, sociable, persistent, and inventive in achieving her goals".[26]

She worked as an intern for United Press International in London in the summer of 1990.[22] Afterwards, she completed a Master of Studies degree in Slavonic studies from the University of Oxford in 1993 having studied at St Antony's College as a Rhodes Scholar.[3][27]

Freeland began her career in journalism as a stringer for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist while working in Ukraine.[28] Freeland later worked for the Financial Times in London as a deputy editor, and then as an editor for its weekend edition, FT.com, and UK news.[28] Freeland also served as Moscow bureau chief and Eastern Europe correspondent for the Financial Times.[28]

From 1999 to 2001, Freeland served as the deputy editor of The Globe and Mail.[28] Next she worked as the managing director and editor of consumer news at Thomson Reuters.[29] She was also a weekly columnist for The Globe and Mail.[30] Previously she was editor of Thomson Reuters Digital, a position she held since April 2011.[31] Prior to that she was the global editor-at-large of Reuters news since March 1, 2010,[32] having formerly been the United States managing editor at the Financial Times, based in New York City.

Enrique Peña Nieto, Donald Trump, and Justin Trudeau sign the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 30, 2018.

Freeland speaks at a 2018 press conference as Mike Pompeo and Jim Mattis look on.

On July 26, 2013, Freeland left journalism to enter politics. She sought the nomination for the Liberal Party in Toronto Centre to replace Bob Rae, who was stepping down to become interim leader. She won the nomination on September 15, and would face NDP candidate Linda McQuaig in the November 25 by-election.[34][35] During the campaign she received criticism for purchasing a $1.3 million home, although the price was consistent with Toronto's home prices.[36][37] Freeland won 49 per cent of the vote and was elected.[38]

During the demonstrations leading up to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, Freeland wrote an op-ed for The Globe and Mail, in which she excoriated the government of Viktor Yanukovych.[39] She supported seizing personal assets and banning travel as part of economic sanction programs against Yanukovych and members of his government.[40] That March, during the annexation of Crimea by Russia, Freeland visited Ukraine on behalf of the Liberal Party. She met community leaders and members of the government in Kyiv, including Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars; Vitaly Klitchko, leader of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform; and Ukrainian MP Petro Poroshenko, who was later elected president of Ukraine in May 2014.[41]

Freeland was one of thirteen Canadians banned from travelling to Russia under retaliatory sanctions imposed by Russian president Vladimir Putin in March 2014.[42] She replied through her official Twitter feed, "Love Russ lang/culture, loved my yrs in Moscow; but it's an honour to be on Putin's sanction list, esp in company of friends Cotler & Grod."[42]

In the riding redistribution of 2012 and 2013, much of Freeland's base was shifted from Toronto Centre to the new riding of University—Rosedale, where she ran in the 2015 federal election. She defeated NDP challenger Jennifer Hollett with 50 percent of the vote.[43]

Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017–2019)

Freeland speaks during an appearance with Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman in 2019.

In a Cabinet shuffle on January 10, 2017, Freeland was appointed minister of foreign affairs, replacing Stéphane Dion as the head of Trudeau's foreign policy.[47] With National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, Freeland announced Canada's military training mission in Ukraine would be extended until March 2019, maintaining the 200 soldiers previously mandated by the Harper government.[48]

That August, she instructed her department and officials to "energetically" review reports of Canadian-made Terradyne military vehicles being used against civilians in Shia-populated city of Al-Awamiyah by Saudi Arabian security forces.[49] The government briefly suspended Terradyne's export permits to Saudi Arabia before reinstating them; a Canadian investigation stated that it "found no conclusive evidence that Canadian-made vehicles were used in human rights violations."[50] This conclusion was challenged by human rights groups such as Project Ploughshares for not considering the risk of human rights abuses.[50] Freeland sponsored bill C-47, which allowed Canada to join the Arms Trade Treaty in 2019.[51]

Freeland condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. She said the violence against the Rohingya "looks a lot like ethnic cleansing and that is not acceptable."[52]

Freeland issued a statement via Twitter on August 2, 2018, expressing Canada's concern over the arrest of Samar Badawi, a human rights activist and sister of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. She advocated their release.[53] In response to Canada's criticism, Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador, and froze trade with Canada.[54] Freeland asked for help from allies including Germany, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.[55][56]

In September 2018, Freeland raised the issue of Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.[57]

In January 2019, at the request of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Canada granted asylum to 18-year-old Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed, who was fleeing her abusive family in Kuwait; Freeland personally greeted Mohammed at Toronto Pearson International Airport.[58]

Freeland condemned Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who had "seized power through fraudulent and anti-democratic elections."[59]

On April 18, 2019, she was ranked 37th among the world's leading leaders in Fortune Magazine's annual list.[60]

Freeland voiced support for the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[61] In October 2019, Freeland condemned the unilateral Turkish invasion of the Kurdish areas in Syria.[62]

Deputy Prime Minister (2019–present)

Freeland with Janet Yellen in 2021

After the 2019 federal election, she was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs. As deputy prime minister, Freeland was entrusted with several key planks of Trudeau's domestic policy such as: strengthening Medicare, implementing the Canada's national climate strategy, introducing firearms regulations, developing a pan-Canadian childcare system, facilitating interprovincial free trade, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.[63] As minister of intergovernmental affairs, her primary task was to address renewed tensions between the federal government and the western provinces, most notably with the rise of Alberta separatism.[64]

She remained in charge of Canada-US relations, including the ratification of the renegotiated free-trade agreement with the United States and Mexico (CUSMA), roles that have traditionally resided with the minister of foreign affairs.[65] The CUSMA was ratified in March 2020, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[66] That August, Freeland was appointed Minister of Finance.[67]

Freeland's paternal grandfather, Wilbur Freeland, was a farmer and lawyer who rode in the annual Calgary Stampede; his sister, Beulah, was the wife of a federal member of Parliament, Ged Baldwin.[84] Her paternal grandmother, Helen Caulfield, was a WWII war bride from Glasgow.[85]

Freeland's mother, Halyna Chomiak, was born at a hospital administered by the US Army; her parents were staying at the displaced persons camp at the spa resort in Bad Wörishofen in Bavaria, Germany. Halyna's Ukrainian Catholic parents were Mykhailo Khomiak (anglicized as Michael Chomiak), born in Stroniatyn, Galicia, and Alexandra Loban, originally of Rudniki, near Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk).[19][86]

Freeland's maternal grandfather, Michael Chomiak (Ukrainian: Михайло Хомяк, Mykhailo Khomiak), had been a journalist before World War II. During the war in Nazi-occupied Poland and later in Nazi-occupied Austria he was chief editor of the Ukrainian daily newspaper Krakivs'ki Visti (News of Krakow) for the Nazi regime.[87] After Chomiak's death in 1984, John-Paul Himka, a professor of history at the University of Alberta, who was Chomiak's son-in-law (and also Freeland's uncle by marriage), used Chomiak's records, including old issues of the newspaper, as the basis of several scholarly papers focused on the coverage of Soviet mass-murders of Ukrainian civilians. These papers also examined the use of these massacres as propaganda against Jews.[88][89][90] In 2017, when Russian-affiliated websites, e.g. Russia Insider and "New Cold War", further publicized Chomiak's connection to Nazism, Freeland and her spokespeople responded by claiming that this was a Russian disinformation campaign during her appointment to the position of minister of foreign affairs.[91][92][93][94][87] Her office later denied Chomiak ever collaborated with the Nazi Germany.[95] However, reporting by The Globe and Mail showed that Freeland had known of her grandfather's Nazi ties since at least 1996, when she helped edit a scholarly article by Himka for the Journal of Ukrainian Studies.[91]

Freeland is married to Graham Bowley, a British writer and reporter for The New York Times.[96][97] The couple have three children.[98]

She has lived in Toronto since the summer of 2013 when she returned from abroad to run for election.[28][99][35] She speaks Ukrainian at home with her children.[100] She also speaks English, Russian, Italian, and French.[101] In 2014, John Geddes reported that Freeland and her sister co-owned an apartment overlooking Independence square in Kyiv.[102]

• List of female finance ministers
• List of female foreign ministers

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• Official website
• Chrystia Freeland – Parliament of Canada biography
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