Ukrainian World Congress moves headquarters (09/05/99)

Ukrainian World Congress moves headquarters

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - The Ukrainian World Congress on August 1 issued a terse press release, signed "UWC Presidium," informing the community that its headquarters had moved downtown, to the Ukrainian Credit Union building near the intersection of College Street and Spadina Avenue, from its long-standing seat in the area known as Toronto's Bloor West Village.

The move also ends a long-standing association with the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation (UCAF). In 1975 Mykhailo and Yaroslava Szafraniuk, both art collectors and real estate developers, co-founded the UCAF and decided to donate premises to both a UCAF gallery and to the diaspora umbrella body, then known as the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, on Bloor Street West near Jane Street.

In 1978 came a shift to larger facilities at 2118A Bloor St. W., a white-brick edifice built on the slope of Bloor Street, rising westward away from High Park; both institutions made the move.

Subsequently, they were joined by, among others, the Toronto branch and the Ontario Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada. More recent arrivals included the Consulate General of Ukraine and Kontakt-TV.

Mr. Szafraniuk died in November 1991 and Mrs. Szafraniuk in August 1996, and in recent years the terms granted to Ukrainian organizations came under increasing scrutiny by their inheritors.

Ruslana Wrzesniewska, a veteran community activist (project coordinator of the Help Us Help the Children charitable foundation) and a real estate broker, has assumed a majority share in the building and in the past year had signalled that, for various economic reasons, the almost ruinously generous terms of previous leases could not be continued.

As recently as the UWC's Presidium meetings in May, UWC President Askold Lozynskyj had been optimistic about extending arrangements favorable to the UWC, but according to UWC General Secretary Victor Pedenko, in the president's absence from Toronto, differences between lessor and leasee proved insuperable. UWC Chief Financial Officer William Sametz was urged to redouble his efforts in finding alternate accommodations.

Mr. Pedenko said that at a closed meeting of the UWC executive on July 10 (with Mr. Lozynskyj and other senior officials present), negotiations with the former landlords were broken off and a unanimous decision was made to accept an offer from the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF), which owns the UCU building.

Mr. Pedenko is in charge of the headquarters' day-to-day operations. Contacted by The Weekly at his new offices, he expressed great satisfaction with them. "Very spacious and very comfortable," Mr. Pedenko said.

Even the downsides have upsides, as the UWC official saw it: "It's somewhat removed from the center of Ukrainian life, where the former location was, but it's at the center of the city, and this has many advantages."

However, the solution is temporary. "We're not sure how long we'll be able to stay here," Mr. Pedenko averred, "we might have to move at any time from five months to five years."

The UNF itself is in flux, having decided to sell the Ukrainian Credit Union Building part and parcel with its current headquarters next door.

The transition to another facility, on Evans Avenue in Etobicoke (a Toronto suburb) has begun, but is in abeyance, pending the sale of the buildings on College Street.

The UWC's new coordinates are: 295 College St., Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1S2; telephone, (416) 323-3020; fax, (416) 323-3250; e-mail, [email protected].

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