Ukrainian named to Race Relations foundation (12/08/96)

Ukrainian named to Race Relations foundation

TORONTO - Keeping the promise made to Japanese Canadians about establishing a Canadian Race Relations Foundation, the government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced recently that such a board has been constituted, under the chairmanship of Lincoln M. Alexander, the former lieutenant governor of Ontario.

Among the 15 members of this newly appointed foundation is Calgary-born Andrew J. Hladyshevsky, a practicing lawyer with an Edmonton law firm. Mr. Hladyshevsky is past president of the Ukrainian Professional and Business Club of Edmonton and a member of the board of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko.

Commenting on this announcement, representatives of UCCLA in Edmonton and Calgary, Taras Podilsky and Borys Sydoruk, issued the following statement:

"We are delighted that a Ukrainian Canadian community activist has been appointed to this new foundation. Mr. Hladyshevsky brings both a legal perspective and a sense of our community's priorities to this new board. We look forward to meeting with him in the very near future and further briefing him about the Ukrainian Canadian community's ongoing campaign to secure an acknowledgment from Ottawa that the internment operations of 1914-1920 were unwarranted and unjust, and a restitution of that portion of the wealth confiscated from the internees that was never returned. Those funds would be used entirely for educational purposes consistent with the mandate of this new foundation.

"Therefore, we hope Mr. Hladyshevsky will become a forceful advocate of our own community's claims within the foundation. And, at the same time, we expect that he will work with our friends in the Chinese, Italian and Indian communities to see that their legitimate historical grievances are also addressed. We anticipate that this foundation will deal not only with contemporary racial problems and prejudice, but will also ensure that these 'blank pages' in Canadian history are considered and atoned for. That would be the best possible use of both resources and the mandate entrusted to the members of the foundation."