Ukrainians in Canada

Since August 25, 2015, the Mayor’s Office has been engaged with the Board of Governors of Exhibition Place, The Holodomor Memorial Committee and members of the Ukrainian community to place a monument at Exhibition grounds in commemoration of Holodomor. The Mayor has championed the need for a monument by bringing it to his Executive Committee and passing it through City Council unanimously. At the ground breaking, the Mayor said, “Despite the years that have gone by, we must not – and we never will – forget Holodomor and the victims of this tragedy. The monument we dedicate will help keep that solemn vow.” The monument...

On one of the first spring afternoons in early April, the Svitanok Choir hosted an afternoon tea at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Hamilton. Those attending were treated to songs, tea, biscuits and some fun with pysanky. The choir sang a few songs which included sing-alongs that many in the crowd knew, including “ChervonaRuta”. The tables were also encouraged to draw their own pysanky designs that were then hung up along the walls. The tea was delivered...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) is pleased to announce the launch of its project, Celebrating the Strength of Canada's Diversity: Youth Engaging Youth. The project is undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada's Department of Heritage Canada 150 Fund. With the Celebrating the Strength of Canada's Diversity: Youth Engaging Youth Project, the UCC will work with its member organizations across the country to organize youth-led and driven Canada 150 celebratory events in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. Ukrainian Canadian youth will organize ten events in each province (ranging from sport to celebratory to cultural activities) working in partnership with youth from other ethnocultural, linguistic, and Indigenous communities...

The Canadian Museum of History is pleased to announce that BCU Foundation is donating $100,000 in support of the Museum’s new signature exhibition, the Canadian History Hall. The Hall will be the largest, most comprehensive and engaging exhibition about Canadian history ever created. It opens July 1, 2017 as Canadians celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation. BCU Foundation is a leading Ukrainian-Canadian charitable institution which promotes the vibrant growth and long-term development of the Ukrainian-Canadian community. Launched in 2006, the foundation delivers assistance to cultural and educational endeavors in Canada...

The Nineteenth Toronto Annual Ukrainian Famine Lecture was delivered on November 11, 2016, by Serhii Plokhy, Mykhailo Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) at Harvard University. His presentation, attended by a full auditorium at the University of Toronto, was titled "The Fields of Sorrow: Mapping the Great Ukrainian Famine."...

Dear Prime Minister, We are very fortunate in Canada to have the right to provide input to our country’s policy deliberations. We thank you for having previously considered our positions, including that on NATO, formulated in our letter of June 22, 2016. We sincerely hope that our ongoing inputs will continue to be helpful in determining the best options possible for these complex and uncertain times. No doubt, you and your officials will be communicating further with President-elect Donald Trump and the counterparts of his transition team. Through you, we extend our best wishes to the newly elected leader of our fine neighbour and hope that our relations will continue in the amicable and productive manner...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) issued the following statement on National Internment Commemoration Day: "In 2014, the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund and the UCC Internment Committee adopted resolutions designating October 28 as National Internment Commemoration Day in Canada. On this day, we commemorate Canada's First National Internment Operations (1914-1920) - the forced internment of 8,579 Ukrainians and other Europeans, who were branded 'enemy aliens' and sent to 24 internment camps across Canada. Men, women, and children suffered during Canada's First National Internment Operations, not because of anything they had done, but only because of who they were and where they had come from. On this day, we remember the victims of this injustice...

In 1916 several Ukrainian families sat around a table and decided to form a parish. That parish was called Holy Spirit Ukrainian Catholic Church and in October 2016 it is celebrating its 100 year anniversary. While this is a time for celebration, the new priest at Holy Spirit, Father Andrija Petresin, also wants to remind everyone of the hardships the parish has faced over its 100 year existence. In 1916 there were several hundred families that were active participants in the religious and national life of the Ukrainian community in Hamilton,and since thenthat number has ebbed and flowed. The original church was built by the first wave of Ukrainians to Canada, while the...

The Holodomor National Awareness Tour is traveling to Saskatchewan and Manitoba this fall, with the first stop of its Holodomor Mobile Classroom in Yorkton, SK on September 23, 2016. The fall tour will focus on visits to schools, engaging students through a specially designed interactive lesson. In addition, the HMC will be featured at the XXV Triennial Congress of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress taking place in Regina, SK Oct 1-2 and at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, MB October 22nd – 23rd, as well as at other community events during the tour. The fall tour is being coordinated with the assistance of Val Noseworthy of the Instruction, Curriculum and ...

Mr. Speaker, today marks the 75th anniversary of the Babyn Yar Massacre. On this date in 1941 in Kyiv, 34,000 Jewish men, women, children and infants were rounded up, stripped of their possessions, shot and dumped into the Babyn Yar Ravine by the Nazis. So began the “Holocaust by Bullets in Eastern Europe.” This week a series of commemorative events are being held on this horrific anniversary. The Babyn Yar memorial project was spearheaded by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, a ground-breaking group founded and funded by Ukrainian Canadian businessman and visionary James Temerty. Thousands of forgotten “Holocaust by Bullets” sites are...