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06.07.2012
Germans view the interwar period and World War II through the lens of Nazism and the Holocaust. Central and East Europeans view the interwar period and World War II through the lens of Nazism and Stalinism as well as the Holocaust and Communist genocides and atrocities. Their moral issues are infinitely more complex than Germany’s, whose can more or less easily be viewed in black and white terms as a struggle of good versus evil and victims versus victimizers... |
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06.07.2012
First protestors, now activists: Russian President Vladimir Putin is working on a yet another way to go after his opponents. Deputies in his party have proposed a new law that will force human rights and environmental activists receiving support from abroad to submit to audits and publicly acknowledge their status as "foreign agents."... |
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06.07.2012
I have visited the Ontario Provincial Parliament many times over the past decades in my capacity as an officer of the League of Ukrainian Canadians. On one such recent occasion, I had the honour of being invited to meet privately with the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Hon. Dave Levac, who has been a strong supporter of the Ukrainian community. However, it was an event involving the former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, that proved to be a rare and special occasion. For on June 5, 2012 the official portrait of the Hon. Steve Peters was unveiled in the Main Hall of Parliament. It was special because in 2008 and 2009, I had the privilege of consulting with Speaker Peters and his staff to move forward the recognition by the Ontario Parliament of the Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine as an act of genocide... |
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06.07.2012
Through the kindness of Rev. Peter Galadza, PhD, Kule Family Professor of Eastern Christian Liturgy at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, I just received a copy of this important little tome. As all of the source material is translated into English, it is destined to a broad reading audience. With notes and all not reaching 100 pages, I would think that no history professor should hesitate to put it on the reading list of any serious course in 20th Century European History. In preparation for my own mission as Apostolic Nuncio here in Ukraine, I had read another book actually describing the drama of this famine through the eyes of a young boy who survived... |
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06.07.2012
Stepped-up engagement by the Government of Canada with Ukraine during the first half of 2012 was the focus of a Town Hall meeting at the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Community Centre in Etobicoke, Ontario on Thursday, May 24, 2012. Three Members of Parliament: MPs Bob Dechert (Mississauga-Erindale), Ted Opitz (Etobicoke Centre) and Bernard Trottier (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) were guest speakers at a meeting attended by national and local Ukrainian community representatives. Also attending were Paul Grod, National President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC); Orest Steciw, National President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC); Bohdan Onyschuk, President of the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF); Chrystyna Bidiak, past President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW); Olyana Grod, National President of the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM); Mykola Koshyk, National President of the Society of Veterans of UPA; Lisa Shymko, National Vice President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women and Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Centre; Ihor Kozak, Chair of the LUC International Relations Committee; Oksana Rewa, President of the UCC Toronto Chapter; Peter Kardasz, President of the LUC Etobicoke/Mississauga Branch; Maria Kret, President of the LUCW Etobicoke Branch; Andrea Kardasz, President of the CYM Etobicoke Branch... |
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29.06.2012
It is no longer possible to distinguish where organized crime ends and the state begins in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. An extraordinary 17-minute video just exhibited by the anti-corruption website Russian Untouchables shows how an elite crime syndicate headed by a longtime gangster, Dmitry Klyuev, and including active agents of the Russian Interior Ministry and Moscow tax offices, managed to steal close to $1 billion from state coffers in fraudulent tax claims... |
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29.06.2012
I was sitting in a restaurant in Kharkiv, Ukraine, chatting to the owner. He was trying to decide which country to move to. His restaurant was doing well, he said. In fact, that was the problem. Increasingly, local officials were coming round demanding payoffs. Several Ukrainian business people told me that these shakedowns were becoming more common. If you didn’t pay, the officials suddenly began to inspect your tax payments, or your sanitation. No wonder someone here has set up an Italian-Japanese restaurant chain called Mafia... |
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08.06.2012
 The NATO Summit in Chicago was the immediate incentive for the Ukrainian Diaspora to conduct an international conference: “Assessing Ukraine/NATO Relations on the Eve of the Chicago NATO Summit” that took place on May 19, 2012 in Chicago at St. Volodymyr and Olga Conference and Convention Center. Held under the auspices of the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), International Conference in Support of Ukraine (ICSU), Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), and Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), the conference sought to draw international attention to the situation in Ukraine where Ukraine’s democratic future and national security are in jeopardy... |
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08.06.2012
Following the failed attempt on the part of both the United States and Ukraine to provide Ukraine with a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the April 2008 Bucharest NATO Summit, Ukrainian membership in NATO has become a dormant if not a non-issue. The United States once a strong advocate of Ukraine has been silent. Much of it can be explained by a change of administrations in both countries. Certainly, the Obama administration has been less forthcoming on Ukraine than the Bush administration. Undoubtedly, the Yanukovich regime has stifled what was once a grand design of European integration by President Yuschenko and has transformed Ukraine into a global pariah. So then what is Ukraine’s current outlook for NATO membership. The answer is unclear... |
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08.06.2012
 The delegation from the Canadian Parliament concluded five days of meetings (May 14-18) in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv as well as Kharkiv and L'viv. Meetings were held with a broad spectrum of experts and monitors of the social, political, and economic and human rights situation in the country. Also, attending the meetings were representatives of the organized Ukrainian Canadian community including: Taras Zalusky, Executive Director, Ukrainian Canadian Congress; Bohdan Onyschuk, President, Canada Ukraine Foundation; and Borys Potapenko, Executive Director, League of Ukrainian Canadians. The delegation heard a consistent message in Kyiv, in Eastern Ukraine and in Western Ukraine about the importance of this fall's Parliamentary elections in Ukraine and the importance of a strong international election observer presence as well as the importance of Canada supporting Ukraine's fledgling democracy and civil society groups in the face of increasingly authoritarian trends... |
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