![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nOff the side of the stage, she held a large makeshift helmet replicating the one Heraskevych planned to wear, which led to his disqualification from the Olympic skeleton competition <\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about honour. It\u2019s about courage,\u201d Shum told The Canadian Press on why the helmet \u2014 which took her two days, a balloon, and a roll of duct tape to make \u2014 was an important symbol to bring to the rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was brave enough to just sacrifice his possible medals. It\u2019s not a surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n
The International Olympic Committee, and the sport\u2019s international governing body, barred Heraskevych from competing after ruling his helmet \u2014 depicting more than 20 athletes and coaches killed since Russia\u2019s invasion \u2014 violated the IOC\u2019s rules on athlete expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn athlete who chose the remembrance versus the medals \u2026 this too is the cost of this war,\u201d said Maryna Vyatkina, the president of the Ottawa branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we are talking about Olympics, bans on participation, about neutrality in sport, you must remember this helmet. There is no neutrality in aggression. And there is no neutrality in injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Rebecca Patterson was one of several Canadian political figures at Sunday\u2019s rally.<\/p>\n
Representatives \u2014 some among them ambassadors \u2014 from the embassies of Spain, Latvia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Portugal, Slovakia, Lithuania, Denmark and Greece were also in attendance, organizers said.<\/p>\n
Patterson pointed to Shum\u2019s makeshift helmet as a \u201cvital message of truth\u201d that \u201cwar is devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHonouring the dead should not be controversial. Remembering fallen teammates is not propaganda or political,\u201d Patterson told the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is actually grief made visible. And that helmet, this helmet, carries a truth that statistics cannot convey: that every loss is personal, every face is a life interrupted. Shame on the IOC for such a disgraceful decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week marked the third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which the U.S. has helped organize. Central to a peace deal for Russia is control of land in Ukraine, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said his country would not surrender.<\/p>\n
\u201cSustained peace is far more complex than a real estate deal,\u201d Patterson told the crowd on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n
Liberal MP Mona Fortier was also among the speakers at the event, highlighting the more than $20 billion the Canadian government has provided in support for Ukraine. Fortier called Russia\u2019s targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure \u201cabhorrent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar followed Fortier, and said Canada\u2019s support for Ukraine \u201cremains unwavering and absolute.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2026. <\/p>\n
\u2014 With files from Catherine Morrison and The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
Nick Murray, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off the side of the stage, she held a large makeshift helmet replicating the one Heraskevych planned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-492998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}