President-elect Oksana Bashuk Hepburn to steer Canadian Ps and Bs from nation's capital (09/05/99)

President-elect Oksana Bashuk Hepburn to steer Canadian Ps and Bs from nation's capital

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Delegates of the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation's biennial convention, held in Canada's largest city on July 1-4 under the slogan "Catch the Global Spirit," voted Oksana Bashuk Hepburn of Ottawa as their president - the third woman in succession to hold the post.

At the UCPBF's Nation-Building Awards Banquet at the Holiday Inn on King Street, the convention venue, Ms. Bashuk Hepburn announced that Canada's former Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn had agreed to serve as the organization's patron, and that entrepreneur William Teron, chairman of a highly successful development firm, had been designated honorary president.

At the initiative of Toronto-based lawyer Eugene Zalucky (UCPBF president, 1991-1993), it was decided that a Past Presidents' Club would be formed as an executive advisory body. Raya Shadursky of Toronto (1995-1997) and Oshawa's Peter Zakarow (1987-1989) agreed to play an active role.

Assuming office unopposed was a slate that included Executive Vice-President Peter Sorokan and Secretary Marilyn Dolenko (both also from Ottawa); Treasurer Mike Stebila of Windsor, Ontario; seven regional vice-presidents, two communications directors and five ex-officio representatives from affiliated organizations.

The composition of the core executive body suggests a shift eastward after a troubled two-year term that saw Donna Korchinski of Calgary, Alberta, resign as president mid-term, and other officers also finding it difficult to serve out their commitments. Doris Watson of Calgary, who took over as acting president when Ms. Korchinski stepped down, will stay on as past president.

The directorship of Internet communications moved westward from Ottawa (Michael Kostiuk, who held the post since its inception in 1995) to Calgary (Roman Zakaluzny).

The convention adopted no formal resolutions, but Ms. Bashuk Hepburn is no stranger to taking initiative. Judging from her acceptance speech following her acclamation, her address at the banquet later that evening, and her comments during the new executive's first meeting on July 4, the UCPBF's agenda is likely to be full.

The president's many ideas

At the awards banquet the president announced that the UCPBF, the umbrella group for organizations of professionals and businesspeople (popularly referred to as Ps and Bs) will undertake a "Millennium Project" focusing on the contributions of Ukrainians in Canada, which will include a publication to be issued in cooperation with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and a mentoring program between Canadian and Ukrainian counterparts.

Ms. Bashuk Hepburn, who is also Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) Ottawa Branch president (since June 1998), noted that "As a major constituent member of the UCC, we [the UCPBF] support the UCC as the leading voice representing our community, since the UCC is very strong in this area [Ottawa], as demonstrated by its initiatives concerning denaturalization and deportation, the internment of Ukrainian Canadians in 1914-1920, the Museum of Genocide/Reconciliation and immigration policy." She added, "However, perhaps the federation can undertake some initiatives of its own."

The new president expressed hope that life would be breathed into a Friends of Ukraine Parliamentary Committee at the federal legislature, and suggested the UCPBF could play a role in evaluating the Canadian International Development Agency's programs for Ukraine. She raised the possibility that the federation could sponsor or conduct a survey concerning the often-decried brain drain of Canadians to the United States in order to determine what effect this has had on the Ukrainian community.

"We should explore the possibility of asking the federal government, which is about to embark on a $170 million study of the reasons for the waning of French culture in western Canada, to afford Ukrainian culture, also part of the Canadian multicultural mosaic, similar attention," Ms. Bashuk Hepburn said.

As a measure of balance for the often critical stance taken by the community towards the government, the Ottawa-based activist suggested that the federation could initiate a "Thank You Canada" program to "celebrate the various advantages that our community has been afforded in this country."

"We should also focus on the various vacancies in our country's institutions and nominate individuals for positions such as governor general, director of the National Arts Center, Supreme Court justice, Federal Court justice," she said, adding, "We should reacquire the mindset that is directed at the very top spots in the country and help one another in striving for them."

As another "Millennium Project," Ms. Bashuk Hepburn said the UCPBF could establish a special scholarship. "Our forebears' focus on education in the 1930s was so strong that it produced a wave of strong leaders and professionals.

"We want our children to be the best qualified, so that we and they can capitalize on what this country and the world at large have to offer."

Optimistic opening

The optimistic tone of the convention was set by its opening act: a "Canada Day Gourmet Boat Cruise" on Lake Ontario aboard the Jubilee Queen Showboat on the evening of July 1. Also notable was that among the 200 attending, there was a significant number of new immigrant professionals and businesspeople seeking involvement in the established community.

About 60 people attended the formal opening of the convention on the morning of July 2. A former UCPBF president and convention organizer Raya Shadursky began the proceedings with a speech noting that the organization effected a group of Canadian nation-builders, who contributed to the authoring of Section 26 of Canada's Constitution, which describes the country as multicultural.

She commended past members for their instrumental roles in creating the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (its founding director, Prof. Manoly Lupul, was UCPBF president in 1973-1975) and the Ukrainian Resource and Development Center at Edmonton's Grant MacEwan College; for supporting the publication of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine; for traveling to Ukraine in 1989 on a fact-finding mission and establishing the first business council formed with a country of the former Warsaw Pact.

Biennial meeting

The UCPBF's biennial meeting, held July 3, began with outgoing Treasurer Ron Maleshewski's report which indicated that while many of the local associations are behind in the payment of dues, the overall financial health of the organization is sound, showing a small surplus of $4,270.

Acting President Doris Watson presented a sketch of the past two turbulent years, concentrating on positives such as the UCPBF's assistance to Natalia Polataiko in her efforts to compile an updated directory of Ukrainians in North America and humanitarian aid work in the form of assistance in organizing soup kitchens in Ukraine.

In her first official act as UCPBF President, Ms. Bashuk Hepburn asked the assembly to stand for a moment of silence "in memory of one of us," Prof. Danylo Husar Struk, who died in Munich, Germany, on June 19.

Asked to comment on the low number of registrants, as compared to the 900 attracted to the Joint Conferences of Ukrainian American Organizations, Ms. Shadursky said: "I see our convention as successful. We may not have a multitude assembling here, but we do have representation from across the country of the leaders of the local associations. Those are the people who want to meet, those are the people who will go back to their associations, who are going to make plans and provide leadership for the community."

"I think we have to get away from the thinking that demands that you need to fill a room to be successful. What you need is good people who will make good suggestions, take action and provide leadership."

The former federation president added: "We've had discussions about this and have decided that instead of spending 80 percent of our time chasing after membership numbers, we'll start concentrating on issues that are more important. If anything, this also allows for a more realistic separation of the social aspect of belonging to an organization of professionals and businesspeople from the actual work that has to be done."

Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation

National Executive for 1999 - 2001

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