OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is welcoming Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Canada today, at a time when American and European leaders warn of democratic backsliding in Poland.
The two are set to talk about economic and military ties, both of which deepened since the signing of a free trade deal with Europe as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
But the visit comes the same week the Polish government moved to create a commission to probe Russian interference, under vague rules that academics and civil-rights groups are warning about.
On Monday, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over the law could be misused to interfere with Poland's free and fair elections.
That same day, Trudeau announced Morawiecki's visit by praising their shared commitment to democracy, which surprised Polish political scientist Marcin Gabrys (MAR'-tcheen GAH'-brish).
The government has also outlawed truthful statements that some Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes, and a local MP stopped a Canadian professor from giving a lecture in Warsaw because it would have discussed Polish complicity in crimes during the Holocaust.