Ontario UCC official is victim of hate crime (02/27/00)

Ontario UCC official is victim of hate crime

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - The leader of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee's Ontario Provincial Council has become the victim of a hate crime, apparently in response to a letter to the editor he wrote to the Toronto Star denouncing the person or persons who defaced the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Toronto back in June 1999.

Walter Halchuk, president of the Ontario UCC, received hate mail at his home in Sudbury on February 1. Concerned about an invasion of his privacy and a possible threat to the safety of his family, Mr. Halchuk filed an official complaint with the local police. In addition, he contacted the Hate Crimes Unit of the Metropolitan Toronto Police. The case is now in the hands of the Sudbury Police Criminal Division's intelligence section, as well as the Hate Crimes Unit of the Toronto Police.

Mr. Halchuk found what he described as a "poison pen letter," apparently from an individual in the Toronto area. (The letter included a name and address that may or may not be fake). Included was a photocopy of a letter written by Mr. Halchuk as president of the Ontario UCC, published on July 8, 1999, by the Toronto Star. Attached was a personal attack on Mr. Halchuk with a racial slur directed against all Ukrainians: "you sniveling coward: typically Ukrainian."

Mr. Halchuk said, "The police note that this is a calculated jab. This person may not be one for many words, but he may wish to demonstrate that he is not a coward. He seems to have taken very personally my naming of the hate graffiti at the Toronto community center as cowardly."

Engaging in hate propaganda while using Canada Post for the purpose of circulating hate mail is a criminal offense.

In a press release issued by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Mr. Halchuk commented: "Public office is not without its risks, and freedom of speech is essential in a democracy. What this means is that, on occasion, one does encounter individuals whose views might well be described as repugnant, ill-informed or absurd. Still, I continue to believe that every Canadian has the right to his or her own viewpoint. However, that right of free speech does not extend to using the Canadian postal system for the purpose of sending a letter whose contents are demeaning and racist. I therefore immediately reported the incident to the Sudbury Police and have forwarded the information to Toronto, where the letter-writer allegedly lives. I intend to pursue my complaint to the full extent of the law."

Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, director of research for the UCCLA, observed: "Racist and hate crime incidents directed against individuals within Canada's Ukrainian community and against our community centers, churches and cemeteries, appear to be on the rise. We believe that the extremists who have expended considerable resources over decades propagating the unsubstantiated allegation that there are Nazis hiding within our community should be held responsible for the threats and hate graffiti that have been aimed against our group in recent years."

He added: "We will respond vigorously, and to the full extent of the law, to expose these perpetrators and secure convictions against anyone, regardless of ethnic, religious or racial heritage, who engages in hate crimes against any member or institution in our communities. We call upon all fair-minded Canadians to join us in condemning these tactics directed at those who do not conform to their narrow versions of historical truth and justice."

Commenting to The Weekly, Dr. Luciuk stated: "We have, all too often, allowed these occasional incidents of harassment, intimidation and threats against community activists to go by the wayside. Perhaps it is time to make it plain that there are fanatics out there who, in a cowardly manner, are intent on defaming Ukrainians and undermining our efforts to ensure that justice, fair play and truth win out."

It was during the night of June 20, 1999, that the Ukrainian Cultural Center in downtown Toronto was defaced with graffiti suggesting the center was a gathering place for Nazis. At the time UCC Ontario and UCCLA activists expressed the community's outrage, and suggested that such incidents were fallout from the Canadian government's unfocused effort in prosecuting World War II era war criminals and loose reporting on the subject in the mainstream media. Officers from the Toronto Police Hate Crimes Unit were assigned to the case, but its investigations proved inconclusive. The city's Graffiti Removal Unit arrived only two weeks after the incident to cover up the hateful message that stated: "Nazi SS here: corrupting children, sh...... on them."

In his letter to the editor of the Toronto Star, Mr. Halchuk had written:

"The hateful words spray-painted on the Ukrainian Cultural Center on Christie Street are only the tip of the iceberg. Hate crimes and xenophobic incidents against Ukrainians are on the increase. We are now in the process of documenting Ukrainophobic incidents on the Internet and in our neighborhoods.

"The outrage in our community is only matched by the fear that there is tacit approval for this type of cowardly act. I have been asked what type of social and political climate permits this sort of desecration? Especially so close to Canada Day [July 1]. I don't have an answer, but I'm certain that this cannot be one of the ways we as Canadians welcome immigrants.

"I believe it is Ottawa's policy on denaturalization and deportation that may be fanning these fires of hate. Our community centers throughout Ontario have been alerted, and we trust the Toronto Police will quickly locate these perpetrators of hate."

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