Ukrainians in Canada

On September 23, 2014 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Theatre over 500 people gathered to witness the world premiere of the long-awaited film - Music of Survival, The Story of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chrous. The 60-minute documentary film was produced and directed by Emmy and Genie award winning Canadian filmmaker, and Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus alumnus, Orest Sushko. Through Mr. Sushko’s powerful and reverent lens, the film tells the story of seventeen members of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus who survived the most horrific times in the history of the modern world – World War II. Their story of defying the odds to carry their gift of music across the ocean to freedom is revealed, often poignantly, by the two surviving...

A Canadian postage stamp to honour Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko has been issued in March by the Taras Shevchenko Museum in Toronto. The Government of Canada in the 1980s appointed Andrew Gregorovich to the Postage Stamp Design Committee of Canada Post. This inspired him in 2013 to propose the Canadian Government issue a Shevchenko stamp to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the poet. The Government declined because he was not a citizen of Canada. As President of the Taras Shevchenko Museum Mr. Gregorovich, together with Museum Director Lyudmyla Pogoryelova, designed and organized a postage stamp issued by Canada Post which can be used...

A civic committee broke with policy this morning and opted to designate an honorary street name change for a 200-year period. Members of the property and development committee unanimously agreed to have the one-block stretch of Aberdeen Avenue, between Main Street and the Red River, to be known as Honorary Taras Shevchenko Way. The honorary designation was made at the request of the Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate, an Ukrainian Catholic order of nuns, which owns all the private property on that portion of Aberdeen, including the...

In 2013 the third Holodomor Writing Competition was held under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). This year’s competition, advertised across the country resulted in 26 accepted submissions from many parts of Canada including Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton, North Battleford, Ottawa, Yorkton and Mississauga. This was also the first time that the competition was promoted in Canadian school boards, and the Toronto Holodomor Education Team is pleased to announce that some of the entries from non-Ukrainians received honourable mentions. The Holodomor Writing Competition was open to high school students 14 to 19 years of age. Using historical facts of the 1932-33 Holodomor in Ukraine, students were able to choose to submit an entry in any of the...

The Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union (SUSK) supported an English language education program in Ternopil, Ukraine, led by SUSK alumnus Taras Maluzynsky (Vice-President Prairies, 1981-1983). Taras is an experienced teacher from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over the last two years, Taras has been spending part of his summers in Ternopil, Ukraine, where he teaches children English. This year’s course ran from July 14 through to August 1. As a side-project of the SUSK “Hope/Надія” Shevchenko t-shirt initiative, we partnered to ensure SUSK Shevchenko t-shirts were part of Taras’ English language program. Children aged 6-15 participated in the English language program, which is offered free-of-charge at the Ternopil Children’s Library #5. Participants learned English through interactive lessons, including speaking, listening, reading...

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the War Measures Act — adopted on August 22, 1914 during the First World War. It was used to imprison Ukrainian-Canadians and other ethnic groups into one ofCanada’s 24 internment camps. Today we are marking 100 years sinceCanada’s first national internment operations began with a "wave" of plaque unveilings. Starting in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and ending in Nanaimo, British Columbia, two of the 24 sites where Ukrainians and other Europeans were imprisoned as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920, this is the first-ever time in Canadian history that 100 plaques have been unveiled on the same date and time across the country...

This morning this House gave unanimous consent to hold a moment of silence to commemorate the 298 lives lost on Flight MH17. This is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. The people of Ukraine and the families of those lost remain in all of our thoughts during this devastating time. The unfortunate reality, Mr. Speaker, is that this is one more act of unspeakable violence in a string of civilian casualties since the crisis in Ukraine began. The dead...

The National Executive of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women welcomes the Statement issued by Prime Minister Stephen Harper announcing an escalation of punitive measures targeting the Putin regime. Today’s announcement includes economic sanctions and travel bans against specific individuals, as well as economic sanctions against entities which pose a threat to the peace and stability of the Ukrainian state, most importantly, a broad range of entities related to various sectors of the Russian economy. Concrete steps are being taken by the Canadian government to target a wide spectrum of entities within Russia’s arms industry, as well as its financial and energy sectors. The substantive, new measures impose restrictions on the...

The International Council in Support ofUkraine responded to the killing of 298 passengers of MH 17 with a Statement on July 18, 2014 and with letters of condolence on July 23, 2014 addressed to the United Nations Ambassadors of the 9 countries whose nationals were passengers on the downed airliner...

The Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine(CCSU) and indeed the broader Ukrainian Canadian community are grateful for the support provided to Ukraine by the Government of Canada, in particular by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Cabinet, and by Members of Parliament James Bezan, Ted Opitz, Bob Dechert, Erin O’Toole and many others. From the very onset of the Ukraine crisis,Canada has led the international community in this challenging, yet very necessary endeavour. Prime Minister Harper was the first G7 leader to visit Ukraine following the downfall of the Yanukovych regime, providing the transitional Government of Ukraine with strong political support when it was needed most...