A New Westminster Secondary School alumna says she's honoured to be among a list of high-profile Canadians on Russia’s “stop list.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a new list of 100 Canadian citizens who are forbidden to enter Russia — and writer Maria Reva is among them.
The Ukrainian-born Reva, who was a French immersion and international baccalaureate student at NWSS before graduating in 2007, is the author of the short story collection Good Citizens Need Not Fear — a book of stories set in Ukraine around the fall of the Soviet Union.
Earlier this year, the book won the $25,000 Kobzar Book Award for Ukrainian Canadian writing, and Reva spoke to students at the NWSS Between the Lines Literary Festival in May.
Reva discovered she had been added to Russia's sanctions list when a friend reached out and told her about the Record's post — and the author couldn't be more thrilled.
"This is perhaps one of the biggest honours of my literary career, and my entire family (both in Canada and Ukraine) is celebrating," she told the Record.
Reva is joined on the Nov. 14 banned list by an array of notable names including writer Margaret Atwood, actor Jim Carrey, journalists Adrienne Arsenault, Cathal Kelly, Daniele Hamamdjian and Margaret Evans, and an assortment of political figures including Peter MacKay, Jean Charest and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
The 100 new names are part of a long list of 1,005 Canadian citizens who are banned from entering Russia, including local members of Parliament Peter Julian (NDP, Burnaby-New Westminster), Terry Beech (Liberal, Burnaby North-Seymour) and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South).
B.C. Premier John Horgan and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are also on the list.
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