Dramatic changes that began with the collapse of the Soviet regime provided Ukrainians with a chance to re-establish their statehood. On July 16, 1990, the Ukrainian SSR Parliament passed the Declaration of State Sovereignty proclaiming the need to build the Ukrainian state based on the rule of law. On August 24, 1991, the same Parliament adopted the Act of Declaration of the Independence of Ukraine, which was subsequently supported by Ukrainian citizens in the referendum of December 1, 1991.
After prolonged Russian occupation, Ukrainians received the opportunity to govern their own state. However, Ukraine suffered from lack of talents to share and promote Western democratic values. The ruling political establishment was made up mainly of former members of the Communist Party and needed to be replaced by a generation of intelligent and determined Ukrainians motivated to implement best democratic practices in all areas of social life.
Understanding the need to generate such talents, Ukrainian Canadians proposed several ideas, including establishment of a university based on the Canadian model, as well as a parliamentary internship program between Canada and Ukraine. Among the various projects, only the internship program was destined to be implemented.
Centennial celebrations in Canada
In 1991, Canadians celebrated the centennial of Ukrainian immigration to Canada. To mark the event, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, with the assistance of the Canadian government led by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, established the Ukrainian Canadian Centennial Commission (UCCC). The UCCC was given the mandate, with a budget of $1.5 million, to promote the centennial celebrations with projects of significant and lasting value. At that time, Ihor Bardyn, a lawyer from Toronto, was appointed as the vice-president of the UCCC. He was also the president of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation at the University of Toronto. (He would later become the director of the internship program between Canada and Ukraine, known today as the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program).
As its centennial project, the Ukrainian Studies Foundation at the University of Toronto established a parliamentary internship program for university students from Ukraine. Although the UCCC approved the idea of an internship program, the initiative had no funding. Convinced that a parliamentary internship program would benefit both countries, Mr. Bardyn embarked on a fund-raising campaign for the program among the Ukrainian community in Canada. At the same time, to get approval for an internship program, he lobbied the speaker of the House of Commons, John Fraser, and the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ivan Pliushch.
For Mr. Bardyn, this was the opportunity of a lifetime to assist his ancestral homeland and build bridges between Canada and Ukraine in order to share Western democratic governance.
CUPP
CUPP alumni meet Canadian MPs in Kyiv in April 2019: (first row, from left): Marta Franchuk (2018), MP MaryAnn Mihychuk, MP Hedy Fry, Alyona Shkrum (2013), Anna Novosad (2013), Alina Shymanska (2018), Bohdana Nosova (2004), Roman Tychkivsky (2012), (second row) Yevhen Konovalov (2018), Artem Shaipov (2014), Yuri Kushnir (1998), MP Wayne Easter, MP Kerry Diotte, Serhiy Petukhov (2005), Volodymyr Reznichenko (2017), Iryna Musiychuk (2000), MP Jim Eglinski and MP James Maloney.
The idea of the CUPP
The idea for a student internship program began to take shape during Mr. Bardyn’s visits to Ukraine in 1990 and 1991 on behalf of Amnesty International in support of imprisoned Ukrainian National Deputy Stepan Khmara. During those visits, he met and discussed his proposal for the internship program with Ukrainian national deputies who were members of the Communist Party, with members of Rukh – the People’s Movement of Ukraine, and with leading governmental and judicial officials. Communicating with representatives of the Ukrainian establishment, Mr. Bardyn realized that few if any understood or knew how Western democracy and civil society work. In the Soviet system – the only system they knew – decisions came down from above and were executed without much discussion.
Approval of the program
Mr. Bardyn recalled that approval for the program in both the Ukrainian and Canadian Parliaments came relatively easily. Chairman Pliushch of the Ukrainian Parliament was persuaded that the internship would benefit both countries. At the same time, a number of ministers of the Canadian government supported Mr. Bardyn to get permission from Speaker Fraser of the House of Commons to allow Ukrainian students security access to work at the Canadian Parliament. At that time, only interns from Canada, the United States and NATO countries had access to the Canadian Parliament.
Arrival of the first interns
Originally known as the Centennial Parliamentary Internship Program, the CUPP began in 1991 with the arrival of three university students from Kyiv and Lviv. Funding for the program had been provided substantially by eight Canadian families. The first and most significant donation was from the Mazurenko Family of Toronto. Danylo Mazurenko had been Mr. Bardyn’s client and a devoted Ukrainian patriot. Though there was not yet a complete blueprint for the program, Mr. Mazurenko understood and believed that what Mr. Bardyn outlined to him would be an important building block once Ukraine emerged as an independent state. Before his death in 1990, Mr. Mazurenko designated $250,000 for the project. This generous gift was placed into an endowment fund with Toronto’s Ukrainian credit unions and together with seven additional substantial donations formed a $1 million permanent fund from which the interest would be used to fund the CUPP.
The first three Ukrainian students came from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Ivan Franko University of Lviv. The Canadian MPs who welcomed them to the House of Commons were Alan Redway, Progressive Conservative from Toronto; Jesse Flis, Liberal from Toronto; and Dr. Chris Axworthy of the New Democratic Party from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Everything was a first-time experience for the three Ukrainian interns: Canada, Canadians, the diaspora, Parliament and the cities of Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. After the end of the first internship program, the Canadian MPs unanimously pronounced it a success and urged Mr. Bardyn to continue the program.
CUPP in the next decades
In succeeding years, the CUPP program grew rapidly. In some years, there were spring and fall programs to correspond with the spring and fall sittings of Parliament. In the late 1990s, the number of applicants from Ukraine reached over 7,000 per year, but the program could accept a maximum of only 52 students per year.
In 1994, the interns began to publish their own Newsletter, which in the last decade has turned out to be a publication of between 60 and 90 pages filled with interviews and articles.
Support for the CUPP
The CUPP’s success would not have been possible without the help of Lucy Hicks, Alexander and Irene Hordienko, Bohdan Bardyn and Vasyl Kereliuk in organizational matters over the years. Walter Tarnopolsky, John Sopinka and Ray Hnatyshyn also provided considerable input into the CUPP’s development.
The most loyal supporter of the CUPP has been Sen. Raynell Andreychuk from Saskatchewan. When she retired in 2019, the CUPP lost a very valuable Ukrainian Canadian friend on Parliament Hill.
There were other loyal supporters of the program, such as Stephanie Hlynka, widow of Antin Hlynka, a Member of the Canadian Parliament from 1940 to 1949; Robert Magocsi, holder of the Ukrainian Chair at the University of Toronto; Bohdan Vitvitsky; Volodymyr Stretovych, member of the Verkhovna Rada; John Yaremko, former Cabinet minister in the Ontario government; who supported the program with sound advice. Supreme Court Justice John Sopinka organized mock trials with the Ukrainian interns to introduce them to the common law system. Governor-General Ramon Hnatyshyn and Paul Migus held seminars to introduce the interns to the Canadian political system.
Financing for the CUPP
Financial support for the CUPP came from Danylo Mazurenko (as noted above), Anna Mazurenko, Ivan Mazurenko, the Malanchuk family, the Atamanchuk family, Wolodymyr Hrynyk, Ivan Bodnarchuk, the Halushka family, Josef and Maria Siecinsky, Emil Telizyn, John and Julia Stashuk, the Fedyna family, Stefan and Roma Franko, Alexandra and Eugene Sukniarsky, the Obal family, the Bardyn family, William and Antonina Bazylewych, Dr. Roman Humeniuk, Jerry Humeniuk, James Temerty, Dr. Taras Fecycz, Natalia Bundza, and two Canadian and U.S. educational foundations
Ukraine’s best and brightest
CUPP interns have made their presence felt during their time in Ottawa by organizing the Ukrainian Day on Parliament Hill, the Prayer for Peace in Ukraine (an interfaith service), and informational meetings for MPs and senators. They have attended standing committee hearings and interacted daily with MPs and their staff. The CUPP annual reception at the Embassy of Ukraine is attended by government leaders, MPs and senators; it provides interns with an opportunity to network with Embassy officials and Canadian leaders.
During the CUPP’s 29 years, the interns have established a reputation as proactive and enthusiastic specialists able to act immediately to support any pro-Ukraine initiative with their own input. The Ukrainian Canadian community could not ask for better lobbyists than the bright university students who, while in Parliament, interact with MPs, executive assistants, leaders of parties and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Importance of the CUPP
After nearly 30 years of operation, the importance of the CUPP for Ukraine’s future is obvious. The program has graduated the cohort of leaders who are shaping Ukraine today. Andriy Pyvovarskyi and Volodymyr Omelyan (CUPP 1998) recently served as ministers of infrastructure. Anna Novosad (CUPP 2013) was named minister of education and science. Markian Malskyy (CUPP 2004) was recently appointed the head of the Lviv Oblast State Administration. Oleksiy Soshenko (CUPP 1995) became one of the most prominent lawyers in Ukraine’s banking and finance sector. Alona Shkrum (CUPP 2013), Solomia Bobrovska (CUPP 2010), Roman Lozynskyi (CUPP 2016) and Rustem Umerov (CUPP 2003) were elected as national deputies to the Verkhovna Rada in 2019. Serhiy Petukhov (CUPP 2005) has served as the deputy minister of justice. Natalka Mykolska (CUPP 2000) has served as the deputy minister of economy. Viktor Dovhan (CUPP 2000) is serving as the deputy minister of infrastructure. Elena Shyshkina (CUPP 2003) served as a national deputy in previous years.
What’s next for the CUPP
With Ukraine’s path to further integration into the community of rule-of-law countries, it is expected that even more former CUPP interns may get an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s contemporary history demonstrates that democracy takes time. By educating a new generation of leaders, Ukraine will produce talents that can assume the stewardship of government and govern in the interest of both the people and the state. In this context, the CUPP gives Ukrainian students a unique opportunity to work and study in the Canadian Parliament, allowing them to gain experience from which generations of Canadian, American and Western European students had benefited.
Indeed, Ukraine’s young people should know and learn first-hand – not from a manual or a one-week seminar – how democratic governance is practiced in the West. They ought to understand the importance of democratic institutions and principles of free society, such as inviolability of private property, freedom of speech and due process. They need to defend the impartiality of the police and the independence of the judiciary. They must learn the lessons of over eight centuries of evolution of the legal and political tradition.
The CUPP has sent back to Ukraine a small group of devoted supporters of Canadian democracy. But Ukraine needs more. Canada can provide such talents through the continuation of the Canada Ukraine Parliamentary Program.
Artem Barabash, a CUPP 2020 applicant, is a lawyer. He holds a master’s degree in law from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.