Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union requests visas for Ukrainian farmers (04/04/99)

Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union requests visas for Ukrainian farmers

CALGARY - The Ukrainian Canadian Students' Union (SUSK) has requested that the Canadian government issue six special visas to the Alberta-Ukraine Agricultural Exchange Society.

The society, which has been in existence since 1992, is a program that strives to improve the state of agriculture in Ukraine by teaching young Ukrainian farmers the methods of Canadian agriculture.

The program is in jeopardy this year, as the Canadian government has rejected the society's request for temporary visas for six to 10 Ukrainians to work on selected Alberta and Canadian farms and learn the methods of more efficient farming.

Art Mykyte of Waskatenau, Alberta, the society's president, noted that "Ukraine was under the Soviet yoke for 75 years, and was forced to conduct farming in inefficient, collectivized farms. The newly independent nation and the young agriculture students who are interested in visiting Canada stand to learn a lot from Canada's long history of world-leading agricultural methods."

"Ukraine needs this program to help get on her feet," he added.

The Canadian government has effectively shut the door on the program the Alberta-Ukraine Agricultural Exchange Society has run since Ukraine's independence.

Officers of SUSK, the governing body of Ukrainian Canadian students from across Canada, said this is a small request, but one that will pay big dividends in Ukraine's economy, and for future relations between Canada and Ukraine.

SUSK President Michael Ilnycky commented: "This program is essential to the development of Ukraine's post-Soviet economy. Their training stipend is paid for entirely out of the pockets of private citizens. All SUSK and the Alberta-Ukraine Agricultural Exchange Society are asking for is for Canada's government to issue six permits for six students. That's all."

He added, "We ask that [Prime Minister] Jean Chrétien honor the promise he made to Ukraine in Kyiv when he said: 'Ukrainians played a key role in nurturing a young Canada. It is only natural that Canadians now return that favor by helping to nurture the new Ukraine, to be at her side as she builds a durable democracy, as she fosters free markets, and as she continues her opening to the world. My first priority is to reaffirm the support of Canada for the political and economic reform for which [Ukraine has] been striving since independence.'"

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