Alberta UCC supports redress bill (05/06/01)

Alberta UCC supports redress bill

EDMONTON - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council has joined the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation and the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association in voicing its public support for Bill C-331, the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act.

It is also urging UCC National, all other provincial councils and all local branches to do likewise.

The Private Member's Bill, which was tabled on April 4 in the House of Commons by Inky Mark, MP for the Manitoba constituency of Dauphin-Swan River, calls for restitution for and an educational program about the 1914-1920 internment of people of Ukrainian origin and other Europeans.

At its monthly board meeting on April 11, the Alberta Provincial Council unanimously passed a resolution which reads as follows.

"The Alberta Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is pleased to support the MP for Dauphin-Swan River, Inky Mark's, Bill C-331, the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act.

"If passed, this act would provide for the recognition of this unfortunate episode in our national history, in part through the development of educational materials for Canadian schools and a permanent museum about Canada's first national internment operations, the latter to be situated in Banff National Park.

"A total of four camps were located in Alberta (Cave and Basin, and Castle Mountain in Banff National Park; Jasper, Lethbridge and Munson/Eaton near Drumheller). There can be no doubt that these internment operations had a profoundly traumatic impact on our community, both in this province and elsewhere across Canada.

"To date, the Alberta Provincial Council of the UCC and its constituent organizations have supported the work undertaken by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which has seen to the installation of trilingual historical markers, interpretative panels and a statue at Jasper National Park, Banff National Park (both the Castle Mountain, and the Cave and Basin sites). We have also learned that a marker was installed in Lethbridge, through the efforts of the local UCC branch and the Lethbridge Historical Society.

"To ensure that this unfortunate episode in Canada's history is not forgotten, so that no other Canadian ethnic, religious or racial minority ever suffers as ours once did, we wholeheartedly endorse Mr. Mark's proposed act, and call upon MPs of all parties represented in the House of Commons, and particularly upon all MPs from the province of Alberta, to call for a vote on Bill C 331, and to join us in endorsing it. Doing so would resolve the Ukrainian Canadian community's calls for acknowledgement and restitution in a timely and honorable fashion.

"We also urge the National Board of the UCC, all other provincial councils, as well as all UCC local branches, to pass similar resolutions in support of this act."

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