Canadian issues

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is grateful to all Canadians for their strong and unequivocal support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. An overwhelming majority of Canadians believe the Canadian Government should continue to support Ukraine and expect their Government to take tougher action on Russia, a survey commissioned by the UCC and conducted by Abacus Data on September 9-14 found. “We call on the Government of Canada to substantially increase support for Ukraine and take stronger measures against Russia. As Members of Parliament return to Ottawa for the fall session – the clear and principled position of the Canadian people provides a blueprint for the government’s further action in support of Ukraine,” stated Alexandra Chyczij, National President of the UCC...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Toronto Branch) is pleased to announce that $30,587.15 was raised in support of the UCC-CUF Ukrainian Humanitarian Appeal on Sunday March 27,2022 at the Ukrainian Day at Casa Loma fundraising event. UCC Toronto Branch President Peter Schturyn thanked the Liberty Entertainment Group for donating the proceeds of the day’s admission tickets from Casa Loma in the amount of $22,000 and an additional donation of $5,000 to the Humanitarian Appeal. The additional funds came from onsite vendor sales of fresh and silk sunflowers donated by Flower Fantasy, pysanky, t-shirts and hoodies, linens, floral door wreaths, books and cd’s. Vendors included Victor Malarek, Maria Dolnycky, Mary Villalobos Majka, Marika Skrypnyk, Andrij Zvizhynskyy, Yaskrava by Maryna Hermanczuk, the Marczyk family, and Canada Worker Trades. Mary Radewych, Anna Heychuk and Margo Bock assisted the vendors. Peter thanked Nick Di Donato, President and...

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry added 61 Canadians to what it calls its "stop list," prohibiting them from entering Russia indefinitely. All are accused of being "involved in the development, substantiation and implementation of the Russophobic course of the ruling regime in Canada," said the ministry. When he heard that he'd been banned, Lloyd Axworthy, a Chrétien-era cabinet minister who now heads the World Refugee Council, laughed it off. "The old saying is that you're well known by the company you keep and by the company that doesn't like you," he said. "It's not surprising but it indicates to me how silly they really are." Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who supported installing bilingual "Free-Libre Ukraine" signs outside the Russian embassy, said he'll continue to support Ukrainians and "antagonize the Russians." "I had no plans to go to Moscow or any part of Russia and wouldn't do so because I don't want to give them any element of support," he told CBC. "But it's a serious issue. They're doing this because, quite frankly, I think...

This Ukrainian-Canadian family business has offered free deliveries of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and is running out of warehouse space due to overwhelming public response. This Ukrainian-Canadian company has been connecting the diaspora community and the old country for more than three decades. But that connection has never been as important as now when their motherland is under siege by the Russians. The phone at the Etobicoke-based family business Meest — and its branches around the world — has been ringing off the hook since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday. Concerned people in Canada were looking for ways to deliver necessities as well as medical and light military supplies to people in Ukraine, and the owner of Meest, which has 5,000 employees worldwide, responded, offering free shipping for humanitarian aid to the country. “We’re all in it together. Meest literally means bridge, so we’ve been a bridge between the Ukrainian diaspora community and Ukraine for over 30 years,” said Iryna Kisil, daughter of the...

The topic of Ukrainian museum collections in the diaspora today is very important and nowadays often painful. It involves issues of upkeep in the context of both diminishing interest in the community and a change in worldview paradigms—there is little room left for the unique, and the only content that has broad use and interest has a chance to survive. All this is accompanied by diminishing financial support. Thus, museums, around which our community’s social and cultural life revolved, are declining, while unique collections of our cultural heritage, gathered and nurtured for generations both in Ukraine and here in the West, end up at risk of rotting in basements, being sold or auctioned off. The problem is widespread, complex, and inadequately discussed, as exemplified in the recent, sad case of the Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta (UCAMA). This interview with Orysia Boychuk, president of the Alberta Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, is about the rescue of UCAMA’s collections and possible conclusions to be drawn for other museums and archival collections in our community. Let’s start from the beginning. How did UCC-APC become involved in UCAMA’s situation? — UCC-APC is an umbrella organization with 17 organizations that come under it. We support, represent, and are a unified voice for the community in Alberta. UCAMA is one of those organizations...

A community of rememberers has come to together to restore the memory of a young man who paid the ultimate price for his country. The Ukrainian Canadian Club of Kingston commissioned Alexander Gabov of Conservation of Sculptures, Monuments and Objects to professionally restore the gravestone of Ukrainian Canadian First World War veteran Pte. Nikita Natalsky in Cataraqui Cemetery. Lubomyr Luciuk, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Club of Kingston, first noticed the gravestone’s deterioration on Remembrance Day of 2019, when he went to pay his respects...

On July 17, 2020 an article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen with a shocking and misleading headline about a “Nazi monument” in Canada being vandalized. [Graffiti on Monument commemorating Nazi SS division being investigated as a hate crime by police] The article propagates the narrative originating from the Russian Embassy in Canada, that Ukrainians in general, and particularly all Ukrainians who took up arms against the Soviet Union during the Second World War, are “fascists” and “Nazis”. These Soviet-era allegations about their involvement in war crimes have never been substantiated, which is a matter of public record, not opinion, and is not reflected in the July 17 article...

You are no doubt aware of a recent controversy and discussion surrounding a memorial to “Galicia Division” veterans, given an active defamation campaign and recent acts of vandalism against our community. Please allow me to provide some critical information for your reference and context. A mature and informed perspective on the history of the Twentieth Century suggests that there were many perpetrators of many crimes against humanity. The organizational prowess and geographical reach of two lead antagonists in that conflict – The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany – means that coercion was broadly used to press surrogates into service to do much of the “dirty work” of both sides...

Yes, the Ukrainian Music Festival (UMF) conducted its 49th annual competition on December 6,7, and the closing concert on December 8, 2019. Over three days young musicians played piano, violin, bandura, sopilka and voice - in solo, duets or ensembles. The UMF has had the same format since its inception 49 years ago. It was based on Kiwanis and other festivals and carefully devised by the music visionary and founder of the Ukrainian Music Festival – Marta Krawciw-Barabash, whose goal was to introduce and integrate music of Ukrainian composers into the mainstream music repertoire. As such UMF continues to this day, now under the capable leadership of Mika Barabash-Shepherd. Young musicians learn...

In the game of dominoes that is behind the making of Justin Trudeau's second term cabinet, Chrystia Freeland's shift from the global scene to the domestic stage is the defining move. Her appointment as deputy prime minister solidifies her first place in the Liberal line of succession to Trudeau. But her lead position on the federal-provincial front also puts her in the line of fire in ways her previous brief at foreign affairs did not. Between now and the next election, a hail of provincial bullets will be headed her way and not only from the Prairie provinces. Some of those bullets could do more harm to her political future than anything the Donald Trump White House has shot her way over the course of the recent NAFTA renegotiation. (Freeland retains responsibility for Canada/U.S. relations.) In contrast with the trade file, Freeland will not be able to count on the tacit support of a Canadian...