Ukraine's ambassador prompts meeting of Ukrainian and Jewish organizations (04/20/97)

Ukraine's ambassador prompts meeting of Ukrainian and Jewish organizations

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Prompted in part by Ukraine's ambassador to Canada, Volodymyr Furkalo, Presidents Oleh Romaniw of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and Goldie Hershon of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) met in Winnipeg on March 13, prior to a jointly sponsored roundtable on Canadian unity that featured senior Cabinet Minister Stéphane Dion.

Jack Jedwab, the CJC's executive director for the Québec region who also attended the brief one-hour conclave, told The Weekly on April 2 that in March Ambassador Furkalo had invited David Sultan, his Israeli counterpart in Ottawa, and representatives of the CJC to discuss matters of mutual concern at the Ukrainian Embassy.

Mr. Jedwab related that during the course of this meeting, Mr. Furkalo urged the CJC "to formalize relations on a bilateral basis" with the UCC. The McGill University lecturer said that the March 13 roundtable at the Collège Universitaire St. Boniface presented the earliest opportunity to do so. Mr. Jedwab added that the UCC and CJC have had long-standing relations through common membership in the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, but that ties between the two groups had not been formalized bilaterally.

Also at the meeting were Adrian Boyko, president of the UCC's Saskatchewan Provincial Council and chair of the national body's Government Relations Committee; fellow committee member Dr. Bohdan Kordan, who, along with Mr. Jedwab, spoke at the Canadian unity roundtable; and Evelyn Hecht, the Winnipeg Jewish Community Council's director of community relations.

Following the discussions, UCC President Romaniw commented on the importance of the meeting in promoting harmony in Canadian society: "We applaud the CJC initiative on Canadian unity and look to further cooperation on this issue." Ms. Hershon concurred that there should be future meetings to discuss other issues of mutual interest.

"We were extremely pleased to be participating in a jointly sponsored roundtable," Mr. Jedwab said. "It sent out a good message." The CJC activist and lecturer on Canadian minority issues also said the discussants at the CJC-UCC meeting covered considerable ground in addressing the role of multiculturalism and the place of ethnic communities in Canada. In particular, representatives of both organizations agreed on the importance of recognizing Québec's role in the country's history, the province's distinctiveness in the broader context of Canadian pluralism, and of the "French fact."

Mr. Boyko told The Weekly on March 24 that among the points on which the Ukrainian and Jewish umbrella bodies reached consensus was that "multiculturalism is a guarantor of distinctiveness, and not an agent of divisiveness."

Mr. Jedwab agreed, saying, "it is important to dispel the notion that there is a contradiction between affirming multiculturalism and recognizing the French fact."

In parting, Ms. Hershon agreed to visit Saskatchewan's Ukrainian community in the coming months along with Mr. Jedwab to explore possible joint projects in the area of promotion of multiculturalism and heritage language instruction.

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