UCCLA activists confer at annual retreat (12/03/00)

UCCLA activists confer at annual retreat

CANMORE, Alberta - Following an intensive weekend of discussions, Ukrainian Canadian activists from across Canada tabled a series of proposals aimed at further articulating the community's interests in the public domain and with the federal government.

Chaired by UCCLA President, John B Gregorovich, the discussion focused on several major issues. There will be an ongoing campaign to secure federal recognition of the injustice of the internment operations and an accounting of how the confiscated wealth of the internees' has been disposed of.

In addition, the UCCLA will try to promote an official review of the manner in which naturalized Canadians are being treated as second-class citizens, subjected to denaturalization and deportation hearings that do not allow them the most fundamental protection, namely that of being considered innocent unless proven guilty.

In regard to the November 27 federal election, the UCCLA has circulated a letter to all MPs with over 1,000 Ukrainian Canadian voters in their ridings, alerting them to the dissatisfaction felt by the community with the current Liberal government's broken promise on redress and continued support for denaturalization and deportation hearings. In particular, the community is being alerted not to vote for Minister of Justice Anne McLellan, who is running in the Edmonton West riding, because of her support of what is described as a "two-tier justice system."

The UCCLA also plans to continue unveiling plaques and statues commemorating the internment operations across Canada and to develop a more effective national communications, fund-raising and educational strategy.

Commenting on the events of the weekend, Mr. Gregorovich said: "The UCCLA continues to be an effective, representative and cutting edge group of tried and true activists who have come to our Canmore meetings now for three years and, every year, develop new initiatives that, I believe, will remind all Canadians, and especially the government, that we have every intention of seeing justice done to the memory of the victims of the internment operations, and to those being victimized today by discriminatory and unjust denaturalization and deportation procedures."

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