Three Ukrainian institutions are burglarized in Toronto (04/07/02)

Three Ukrainian institutions are burglarized in Toronto

by Petro Lopata

TORONTO - During the last two weeks of March three Toronto Ukrainian institutions have been burglarized, leaving some in the community pointing to the start of a crime wave targeting Ukrainians in this city. The three organizations targeted in the burglaries - the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center (UCRDC), the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF) and the scouting organization Plast - are all charities.

The Plast and CCCF break-ins were assessed by the same police officers, who made the observation that the two break-ins had much in common and that investigators suspected the same burglars were responsible for both. When the UCRDC break-in was brought to their attention, they said they would compare the evidence found at all three. The police investigation is continuing.

The first robbery occurred overnight on March 14-15 at the UCRDC, located in the St. Vladimir Institute building near downtown Toronto. According to Nadia Skop, UCRDC executive administrator, staff left the building on March 14 at 7 p.m. after a meeting. When she arrived for work the next day at 10 a.m., Ms. Skop said she found the offices had been ransacked, and that computers and a safe were missing.

Ms. Skop said although there wasn't any money in the safe, it contained the master betacam cassette of "Harvest of Despair," the award-winning UCRDC-funded documentary on Ukraine's artificial famine of 1932-1933, valued at $6,000. She pleaded for the return of the cassette, which has no re-sale value, saying that "no questions" would be asked.

Ms. Skop also expressed her surprise over the fact that of all the organizations housed in the St. Vladimir Institute, only the UCRDC had been targeted by the burglars. Though it appears the UCRDC was singled out in this incident, "We're going to be enhancing security throughout the whole building," Ms. Skop explained.

After the burglary at the UCRDC, the spate of crimes shifted to Bloor West Village, a strip of Bloor Street West spanning from streets High Park to Jane, with a significant and visible Ukrainian presence. Here, over the evening of March 25-26, both the Plast headquarters and the building at 2118 Bloor Street West - within five minutes walking distance of each other - were burglarized by unknown perpetrators.

According to Plast employee Zenon Waschuk, missing from the scouting organization's offices are two older-model computers, while a fax machine and printers were left behind. Though there were no immediate signs of forced entry into the building, Mr. Waschuk said that the safety-glass doors to Plast's second-story offices were broken with such force that glass shards lay as far as seven meters away from the doors.

At 2118 Bloor Street, where the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund is headquartered, again, only the second story was targeted.

Andy Cottrell, who handles maintenance and is part-owner of the building, said a hole had been broken through a wall to enter the joint offices of the CCRF and Help Us Help the Children. A music school and an information technology company that also are found on the second floor were burglarized as well.

Mr. Cottrell breathed a sigh of relief as he told The New Pathway that steel doors in a second-story hallway prevented the burglars from entering the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, "Kontakt" television studio and other tenants' offices.

The ground floor of the building houses a number of retail shops, the Consulate General of Ukraine in Toronto and an office of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation .

(The article, which was originally published in The New Pathway, a Toronto-based newspaper, and is reprinted with permission, has been edited for clarity by The Ukrainian Weekly.)

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