On June 6, 1944, in an unprecedented show of unity and coordination, the allied nations, Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Commonwealth Allies invaded France. They called it D-Day and the battles on the beaches of Normandy marked the end of fascism in Europe and the beginning of a new American-led western democratic world order.

Eighty-one years later, this world order is in tatters and Europe is at war again, but this time in Ukraine. The Allies had nearly a year to plan for D-Day 1.0, but this time the Coalition of the Willing have less than two months to stop fascism in Europe because D-Day 2.0 is July 31, 2025 — and the clock is ticking.

Get to the point

There is currently €212 billion worth of Russian cash held in the Euroclear depository in Belgium frozen under EU sanctions. This €212 billion is the free world’s largest single pile of Russian state cash and as a result, seizing it has been under furious debate for the past three years.

According to Euroclear, 8% or approximately CAD $23 billion, of this Russian cash is denominated in Canadian dollars and held in the Bank of Canada and Canadian correspondent banks. This money is physically located in Canada and therefore subject to Canadian sanctions against Russia, but none of this Euroclear money has been placed under Canadiansanction yet.

Why not?

Due to a technicality in the way Euroclear classifies their holdings of CAD, the specific accounts holding the CAD $23 billion of Russian sanctionable cash are not known by the government of Canada, so they cannot directly sanction them. Therefore, Russian cash denominated in CAD$ and physically held in Canadian banks, is technically frozen under EU sanctions, not Canadian sanctions.

Those EU sanctions against Russia are due for renewal through a mandatory unanimous member vote every six months and the next vote is July 31, 2025.

So what?

With Trump seemingly supporting Putin, and the unabashed Putin sycophant Victor Orban, it’s very possible we’ll see votes against renewing the EU sanctions on July 31st. The moment that happens EU sanctions are lifted, and at 00:00 on August 1, 2025, Russia immediately transfers the entire €212 billion, including the CAD $23 billion in Canada, back to Moscow to re-fuel Putin’s murderous war machine.

If this €212 billion of Russian money is not kept frozen and then seized to punish Russia for their crime of aggression against Ukraine, who is going to pay to arm Ukraine and then rebuild the country after the war ends? Donald Trump has made it clear that American taxpayers are not interested in funding the recovery, so that means Canadian, British, and European taxpayers will foot the bill.

We must act now to identify and freeze the Russian money in Euroclear that we control before July 31, 2025.

Hide and Seek

Identifying Russian CAD cash held in Canada was topic of a Ministerial Inquiry made by Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar of then Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in October 2024, so the Canadian government is well aware of the Russian money hiding in Canada. All the Department of Finance or the Treasury needs to do is require Euroclear to identify the accounts that hold the cash, thereby bringing them under the scope of existing Canadian sanctions against Russia.

Doing this would also prevent CAD $23 billion for Ukraine coming from Canadian taxpayers because as long as it’s frozen, we control when and how it’s released.

Bankers or beaches?

July 31, 2025, is the drop-dead date to identify bank accounts holding CAD$ July 31, 2025, is the drop-dead date to identify bank accounts holding CAD$ Euroclear cash of the Russian Federation held in Canadian correspondent banks and put them under Canadian sanctions. It’s also the drop-dead date for the U.K. government to identify the 16% or £29 billion of Russian cash held in U.K. banks and put it under U.K. sanctions. The same for the Russian cash held in correspondent banks in the U.S., Australia, Japan and Singapore.

On D-Day 1.0 in 1944, the Allies committed the lives of their soldiers to defeat fascism. This time all we need to do to defeat autocracy is ask a few bankers to take a few simple, procedural steps — not land 24,000 troops on a beach. July 31, 2025, may go down in history as D-Day 2.0 and what Canada and the Coalition of the Willing do might just determine if anyone is alive in 81 years to remember.