FOG BLOG CANADA LOG: TRUDEAU MEETS WITH QUEEN AND BORIS JOHNSON REGARDING UKRAINE INVASION!

Two weeks after announcing her COVID-19 diagnosis, Queen Elizabeth held her first in-person Windsor Castle engagement, a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Monday. Trudeau arrived in London on Sunday to prepare for a week of meetings about the conflict in Ukraine. He also met with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who forcefully condemned Russia’s attack on their neighbor in a New York Times guest essay on Sunday.

Buckingham Palace released a photograph showing the queen and Trudeau shaking hands in front of a vase of blue and yellow flowers, likely a reference to the flag of Ukraine. She was also wearing a blue patterned dress with yellow accents, cream colored pearls, and a sapphire brooch. Though the queen is usually politically neutral, she has been telegraphing her support for the country facing a Russian invasion in subtle ways, such as canceling a diplomatic reception and making a “generous” private donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine refugee fund........The photos also showed the pair laughing, and Trudeau later said that they discussed the situation with Russia. Trudeau first met the queen when he was a child in the 1970s, during a visit to the palace with his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. “I have had the particular privilege of having known Her Majesty for about 45 years now,” he said in a press conference following the engagement. “I can tell you that in my conversation with her this morning she was as insightful and perspicacious as ever, very interested in what is going on, and asked me all sorts of questions about Canada.”

The Palace announced the Queen’s COVID-19 diagnosis on February 20, 10 days after Prince Charles announced that he had contracted the virus for the second time. According to a palace source who spoke to People, she came down with mild, cold-like symptoms, including a “croaky” voice, which led her to cancel a few days worth of virtual engagements. She improved over the next week and was spotted on a walk around the Windsor Castle grounds with Prince William, Kate Middleton, Princess Beatrice, and their children during the last weekend of February.

According to an insider who spoke to People after her diagnosis was announced, the queen’s health struggles have been made more difficult by a wave of negative publicity for the family, especially after Prince Andrew settled a lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a Jeffrey Epstein accuser. “It just feels to be one thing after another for the Queen,” the insider said. “It's going to take a toll.