We're bad at this, and for good reason. In this country we coexist with people we disagree with, and nowhere is that more true than at the rink. We sit next to someone who votes the other way and argue about a power play instead. Sport is the one place we agree to let it go.

So let me say what this isn't: it's not about politics. I wish it was. Political differences, I know how to live with. This is about war.

A couple weeks ago a campaign ad began running on Russian television. The ad is for United Russia, Vladimir Putin's party. At the centre of it is Sergei Lavrov, Putin's foreign minister, whose job is explaining why the war in Ukraine is totally justified. In the video he says: "Whoever comes to us with a sword, expect no mercy." He's talking about Ukrainians defending themselves, and standing behind him is Alexander Ovechkin. Yes, that Ovechkin: the captain of the Washington Capitals.

Asked about it at training camp this week, he didn't deny a thing. "They asked me to do that. I say yes. So, it's simple as that." Did he hesitate? "No." Why do it? "I'm Russian and I support my country." And then, twice, that he hopes for "peace and love."

Take that apart. Peace and love, from a man standing behind a foreign minister promising no mercy. And "I support my country" is a substitution, not an answer. United Russia is not Russia. It's a party. The Russians sitting in prison for opposing this war love their country too.

We've heard this from him before. In 2014, as Russia seized Crimea, Ovechkin posted a photo of himself in a shirt reading "No War," holding a sign reading "Save children from fascism." That phrase was the Kremlin's own justification for attacking Ukraine.

In 2017 he founded Putin Team, to help get him re-elected. His Instagram profile picture is of himself with Putin. He is, by any measure, Russia's most prolific and important athlete, and he's using that popularity to help Putin hold power. Canada has sanctioned Lavrov and other propagandists since 2022. The judgment was clear: people who market this war are not bystanders. They are complicit participants. By Canada's own standard, Ovechkin has an active role in Putin's war, and should be held accountable for his choices.

He plays in Ottawa on November 10 and Toronto on December 21, with Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver in between. He's a Russian national with no US citizenship, so he needs a visa to enter Canada. Our Immigration Minister, Lena Diab, decides whether he sets foot here. She should say no.

Nobody is asking Canada to bar all Russian citizens. Almost every Russian player in this league has said nothing about the war. Ovechkin didn't choose silence. He has been volunteering, propagating, deliberately, since 2014. What's remarkable isn't that he did it. It's that it took 12 years for the sports world and the press to notice.

The Capitals' answer this week was that he lives in Moscow. The NHL said nothing at all. It isn't hard to work out why. When Ovechkin passed Gretzky last April he set a league record for single-day merchandise sales, outselling every athlete in every sport. Resale for one home game ran up 500%. Gary Bettman turned out for the ceremony. A league making that kind of money off one player is not going looking for a reason to toss him.

Canada has a choice to make. Section 22.1 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act lets the Minister, on her own, bar a foreign national from entering when public policy justifies it. It exists for exactly this: someone who has broken no Canadian law, but whose presence would make a mockery of what we claim to stand for. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress asked Ottawa to use it in 2022 and never got a real answer. He's been back many times since.

A visa is a privilege Canada extends. It's owed to no one, least of all a man who has used his influence and power to enable Putin. Our Canadian principles feel real right up until they cost the NHL a sold-out game.

Minister Diab, the puck drops in Ottawa on November 10. You have 8 weeks. He says he wants peace and love. Let him have it in Moscow.

Laryssa Waler is the founder and CEO of Henley Strategies. She is personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation.

The views expressed are those of the author(s). National Newswatch Inc. publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.