Commentary

The first piece of advice to the West is to help rather than brake. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top advisors have made clear that they want to carry out key reforms swiftly. One of the first votes in the new parliament should abolish parliamentary immunity, as Zelenskyy demanded in his inauguration speech. The likely new Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka wants to clean up the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office and thoroughly reform that dysfunctional institution. Strong voices in the Zelenskyy team want to abolish the odious Department K for organized crime and corruption in the SBU. During his recent visit to Turkey, the president declared that he wanted to abolish the moratorium on private land sales this year. The West must not raise concerns about the speed of reforms in vital areas and call for delays, as it has done in the past. Progress in...

Russia’s $12 billion Nord Stream 2 is not a natural gas pipeline. It’s a weapon, in the form of an underwater pipeline, that will give President Vladimir Putin the power to plunge the Soviet Union’s former satellites and republics in Europe into darkness or recession. It must be stopped. The pipeline is an all-water route linking Vyborg, Russia to Lubmin, Germany, and will bypass Ukraine’s pipeline and strand Poland, the Baltics, and others. Germany supports the line and would become the hub and distributor throughout the region for Gazprom, Russia’s giant gas corporation...

A passion for justice and human rights, and a commitment to public service, are some of the defining qualities of the long and illustrious career of Conservative Senator A. Raynell Andreychuk. The well-known Saskatchewan resident was appointed to the Upper House in 1993 on the advice of former prime minister Brian Mulroney. On August 14, after 26 years in the Senate, Andreychuk will retire on her 75th birthday. Canadian senators are required to retire when they reach this age. During an interview on the University of Saskatchewan campus, where she obtained her arts and law degrees in 1966 and 1967, Andreychuk referred to herself as the “dean” of the Senate. She noted it feels strange to be facing retirement, given that she’s been employed in some capacity since the age of 15...

A Russian court has rejected the appeal against an almost four-year prison sentence passed on Ukrainian coach driver Oleh Chaban despite the lack of any proof to back the charges against him. Everything about this case and the virtually identical circumstances behind the arrest and imprisonment in Moscow of Ukrainian train conductor, Serhiy Buhaichuk, suggest that was really only one reason for the two arrests and for Chaban’s sentence, namely their Ukrainian citizenship. The clear signs of discrimination on the grounds of nationality in Chaban’s case are just one of the reasons why the defence will now be taking this case to the European Court of Human Rights...

Your Holiness: As a Ukrainian Catholic I find myself even more deeply disturbed by your recent meeting with the Russian President. Frankly, I have questioned your authority in my relationship with God and the Catholic Church, more specifically the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church since your earlier meeting with Moscow Patriarch Kirill. They say that time heals wounds, but my wound has been reopened, aggravated and deepened by the latest meeting. Inasmuch as no tangible good came from your earlier meeting, I fail to comprehend the benign or strategic purpose of the latter as well as your thinking in this regard...

Canada will continue “to stand with Ukraine against Russian interference and aggression,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, as an international conference on the Eastern European country’s future began in Toronto. The two leaders shook hands in front of Canadian and Ukrainian flags and, speaking in English, Mr. Zelensky thanked Mr. Trudeau for the welcome. Mr. Zelensky is making his North American debut at the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto more than a month before he is to visit the United States and Ukraine’s envoy says that’s no mistake...

Ten representatives of the organized Ukrainian Canadian community came together under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Toronto on July 2, 2019. As President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) I attended the meeting and had the opportunity to ask the first questions of the new President: The Institute of National Remembrance is considered to be the leading state institution for the further development of Ukraine as a political nation. The director of the institute is Volodymyr Vyatrovych. Do you support the work of the Institute and its leader? Also, a follow-up question arose: What is your position on Ukrainian as the single state language, and on legislation adopted to strengthen...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is scheduled to travel to Canada in July to take part in a major donor conference and hold talks with top Canadian officials. The Ukrainian presidential office said in a statement that during his July 1 to July 3 visit, Zelenskiy will hold meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, members of parliament, and business representatives. Zelenskiy with also attend the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto, which is due to run from July 2 to July 4. Co-hosted by Canada and Ukraine, the gathering will bring together more than 300 people, including foreign ministers, heads of international institutions, and civil society activists to discuss and support Ukraine's reform process...

On June 19, 2019 Michael Levitt, M.P., Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, tabled the Motion to recognize the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars by Stalin as a genocide, which passed unanimously in the Foreign Affairs Committee on June 13, 2019. “I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 31st report of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, entitled ‘Human Rights Situation in Russia’. Following the testimony of Mr. Mustafa Dzhemilev, the committee supports recognizing the Crimean Tatar deportation of 1944 as a genocide and designating May 18 a day of remembrance for the Crimean Tatar deportation,” stated Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael Levitt, M.P. Etobicoke Centre M.P. Borys Wrzesnewskyj tabled the “Notice of Motion” in the Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, June 10 following the testimony provided to the Committee by iconic Crimean Tatar leader and Soviet Gulag survivor Mustafa Dzhemilev and twice poisoned journalist and Russian democratic opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza...

A trilingual educational plaque and commemorative statue were unveiled and consecrated Saturday, June 22, 2019, to the civilian internees held in Yoho National Park’s internment camp during the First World War. More than 125 people from Calgary and the surrounding community in the British Columbia Interior attended the unveiling, near the Natural Bridge in the Park. The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA), in co-operation with Parks Canada, as well as with the support of the Ukrainian community of Calgary and the region, unveiled a trilingual (English, French, Ukrainian) plaque and on the site where, from 1915 and 1916, some 200 men, mostly East and Central Europeans and mostly Ukrainians, were unjustly interned as enemy aliens under the War Measures Act. At the same time, the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) unveiled a statue by sculptor John Boxtel, of an internee titled “Last Man Standing”...