1986: A LOOK BACK: Ukrainian community in Canada (12/28/86)

1986: A LOOK BACK

Ukrainian community in Canada

Ukrainian Canadian leaders evidently decided in October that it's finally time to give their umbrella organization a new look.

The election of Dmytro Cipywnyk, 59, to president of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, brings to helm of that organization a man who is said to have what it takes to attract the growing number of Ukrainians that were born in Canada.

That's a responsibility which has left other UCC presidents scratching their heads. Canadian-born Ukrainians make up 90 percent of the community in the prairie provinces, and all attempts to make the UCC responsive to their needs have yielded little.

The more than 500 delegates that came to Winnipeg for the 15th UCC congress took part in a parley that will probably go down in history as one of the most quiet and orderly Ukrainian community gatherings: there was little dissension between rival groups; student and youth groups kept a safe distance from the controversial policies presented at other congresses by their predecessors; and the usually critical Ukrainian Canadian right-wing organizations even found room in their publications for up-beat reports of the congress.

The newly elected UCC president is expected to have few problems adapting to his national responsibilities. A former president of the Saskatchewan Branch of the UCC, Dr. Cipywnyk leaves an organization which maintains an annual budget of upwards of $700,000, and uses state-of-the-art computers to prepare funding proposals to government agencies.

At year's end, the newly elected president had already met with senior government officials on Parliament Hill, and he is looking forward to cutting the ribbon soon on a new Ukrainian community lobbying office in Ottawa.

Dr. Cipywnyk's plans include ridding the organization of its obsolete Winnipeg office, and streamlining UCC operations with new computers and communications equipment.

Other than choosing a new president and executive, the UCC delegates quietly endorsed the findings of a major study conducted by the Ukrainian Community Development Committee - a UCC subcommittee charged with the arduous task of finding ways to increase the involvement of Ukrainians born in Canada.

The report - which was expected to stir a considerable amount of controversy but sailed through with just a tad of huffing and puffing from emigre community leaders - was touted by its architects as a document that spells out policies which the Ukrainian community needs to guarantee its survival into the next decade.

According to the report, the community requires such government initiatives as: dramatic increases in funding for bilingual education programs and cultural endeavors; a major restructuring of the federal multiculturalism program; and provincial legislation that will entrench existing bilingual education programs in western Canada.

It didn't take long for the report to make waves in western Canada. Wilson Parasiuk, a Ukrainian in the Manitoba cabinet, promised the group he would "popularize" the report's findings among his Cabinet colleagues.

Other western provinces are expected to take a serious look at the report, which was described by one pundit as a blueprint for currying favor among Ukrainians on the prairies.

But the report is not expected to attract many supporters on Parliament Hill, where a Conservative government is desperately struggling to find ways to reduce a huge federal deficit before the next election.

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