Ukrainians in Canada

On Sunday, March 10, 2024, the Toronto chapter of the League of Ukrainian Canadians and the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women held its annual general meeting. This year's meeting featured a discussion among members regarding the changing landscape of the Ukrainian community and LUC's role within the community. President of LUC-Toronto, Mykova Lytvyn, reported on the past activities of the chapter highlighting the fundraising efforts for the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the FUDF Fund, support of the Baturyn archaeological project as well as the financing of the athlete Anna-Viktoriia Shevchenko, who participated in an archery event at the...

n Ukraine, Christmas will look very different this year. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians will spend Christmas Eve in frozen trenches. If Russian artillery abates long enough, they might enjoy a meal alongside the rats that take shelter in their dugouts. Their spouses, parents, grandparents and children will be in basements and bomb shelters, singing carols to keep spirits up as air raid sirens blare. Ukrainians in occupied territories will continue to be tortured, raped and killed by the Russian military. The Russians will continue to kidnap Ukrainian children from their parents, only to force these children to suffer in concentration camps for the purpose of “denazifying” them. This is genocide, and you know it. And here in Canada, displaced Ukrainians and the wider Ukrainian Canadian community will watch in disbelief, as the unity once displayed by Canada’s political parties in support of Ukraine is broken by the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Not long ago, the ...

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who made our Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Toronto Branch’s Holodomor 90th Anniversary Commemorative such a monumental success. Such a powerful and passionate performance, choreographed by Artistic Director Krista Samborsky and performed by Yavir School of Ukrainian Dance, moved people to tears. Many of the younger dancers and youth reading the narratives were from St. Demetrius (TCDSB) School. Over 2000 people attended the event at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Clergy from The Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches presided over the memorial prayer services. Canadian media provided ongoing and thorough coverage, and our event was broadcast on Canadian national news and news programs in Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland proudly ...

The Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada recognizes exemplary individuals in the field of Human Rights and Peace, with the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award. In 2023 the Centre instituted the inaugural Mahatma Gandhi Global Peace Award in memory of its founder Dr. Krishnamurti Dakshinamurti. This year the Centre recognized Hon. MP. Anita Anand for the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award and Hon. First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska for the Global Peace Award. At a formal...

No Ukrainian poet or writer embodies the spirit of the Ukrainian people like Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861). His poetry made an unsurpassed contribution to the develo­pment of Ukrainian national identity and inspired the people of Ukraine to a cultural and political rebirth. These factors laid the foundation for the eventual formation of Ukraine as an independent state. Taras Shevchenko is the national poet of Ukraine. Every year around March 9 (the date of his birth in 1814) and March 10 (the date of his death in 1861), Ukrainians around the world celebrate his life and legacy with concerts; reciting his poems and singing songs with lyrics culled from his pioneering collection of poems, “The Kobzar.” Choral ensembles have been honouring him most often with a concert programme called «Slovo Tarasa» (“The Poetry of Taras Shevchenko,” or literally translated - “The Word of Taras”). The concert was initially conceived by the Artistic Director of the Kyiv Bandurist Capella, Danylo Pika, who conducted the first performance of it in 1939 during that Capella’s tour of Western Ukraine commemorating the 125th Anniversary of Ukraine’s national poet’s birth.

The Barbara Edwards Contemporary Project Space opened its doors on February 9 for a special reception featuring the works of Ukrainian-born Canadian artist Taras Polataiko. The event raised awareness about ongoing wartime orthopaedic trauma in Ukraine and BCU Foundation's special fund titled Advanced Surgical Skills and Implants for Skeletal Trauma (ASSIST). The exhibition’s curator, Barbara Edwards, delivered the opening remarks along with an insightful, in-depth lecture on the themes of Polataiko’s work, which call attention to cultural conflict, displacement, identity, and moments of cultural genocide. Polataiko's exhibited works connect to Kazimir Malevich's art with its glare, as a number of the works are paintings of photographed paintings, thus making Polataiko a painter's painter with radical visual thinking that reinvents conventionality. Edwards also brought attention to the two portraits of "Dima" and "Oleh," Ukrainian soldiers photographed in the surgical wing of the Kyiv Military Clinical Hospital for the series "War. 11 Portraits." The two photographs are images of war that present an unseen aspect since the physical injuries of the soldiers are not photographed. The aesthetic of each photo compels the viewer to look into the eyes of these soldiers and listen to what they have to say without judging them for their physical ailments. The absence of injuries in the photographs does not mean they are nonexistent, as traumatic orthopaedic injuries are substantial and present great challenges to artists and doctors alike...

BCU Foundation encourages applications for its annual $10,000 “Canada 150 Fund” Graduate Scholarship as part of its ongoing commitment to foster the development of future generations of scholars and young professionals. The funding is awarded to a Ukrainian Canadian graduate student or young scholar pursuing a graduate degree, including Master’s, MBA, PhD, or post-doctoral research, at a recognized North American institution in the fields of science, engineering, technology, business, finance, and other disciplines...

Russia is a state supporter of terrorism as it both supports individuals and entities that have carried out terrorist activities and engages in such activities itself. Indeed, Russia’s military and mercenaries, supported by the state, are resorting to summary executions, torture, sexual violence, starvation, nuclear saber-rattling, and targeted missile and kamikaze drone attacks. They target hospitals, schools, religious buildings, cultural sites, railway stations, residential homes, and critical civilian infrastructure to cut access to gas, electricity, food, water, and the Internet with the clear aim of terrorizing the Ukrainian population into submission. Russia has not succeeded in this heinous endeavor since...

In the month of July, a charity camp for children who were forced to leave their homeland was held at the CYM campsite Veselka near Acton, Ontario. The camp was planned in two tours, July 4-15 and July 18-29. The programs of these camps were different because the aim of the camp was to integrate all the campers when the educational and recreational camp took place in parallel in the last two weeks of July. In general, the goal of our camps and the CYM program is to educate patriotically conscious youth in the spirit of Christian principles. The first two weeks of the camp included 150 Ukrainian children who came to the camp on five different buses from different points of Toronto and its surroundings, namely OId Mill, the school of Joseph Cardinal Slipyj, UCC Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Mississauga, UCC St. Spirit in Hamilton and from north Toronto. The participants of the camp took part in a program that...

The historic XXVII Triennial Congress of Ukrainian Canadians concluded yesterday in Winnipeg, MB. The delegates set the priorities and elected the leadership of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for the next three years. The Congress was attended by over 400 delegates and guests. The theme of the Congress – Stronger Together – В Єдності Сила – Tous ensemble – set the stage for three days of deliberations, workshops and discussions that developed the policy directions for the UCC for the next three years. The Triennial Congress unanimously re-elected Alexandra Chyczij as National President for a second term. “A dynamic and energetic Triennial Congress set the direction for the UCC for the next three years. We will continue to prioritise support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the heroic defence of their country and freedom in Europe,” stated President Chyczij. “I am honoured by the ...