Canada's Victoria Cross winners to be honored in 2004 by Canada Post

CALGARY, Alberta - The Stamp Advisory Committee of Canada Post has announced that a stamp featuring the Victoria Cross will be issued in late October 2004, recalling all those Canadians who were distinguished with the highest military medal awarded by the British Empire.

Among them was a Ukrainian Canadian, Filip Konowal, awarded his Victoria Cross for the valor he displayed during the Battle for Hill 70, near Lens, France, in August 1917.

The stamp will feature the medal itself and, in order to recognize the many Canadians who were distinguished with this honor, the stamp pane will be printed with the names of all Canadian recipients, among them Mr. Konowal.

Commenting on this announcement by Canada Post, the chairman of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and president of Branch 360 of the Royal Canadian Legion (Konowal Branch), John B. Gregorovich, said: "Our branch has championed the notion of honoring Filip Konowal on a Canadian stamp and, as part of that initiative, we have always advocated also having stamps that recognize every Canadian so distinguished."

"This announcement by Canada Post is very welcome, for it will help Canadians of many different ethnic, religious and racial heritages remember what the Victoria Cross winners endured and suffered in order to secure us in our freedoms," he continued. "The work done by members of our branch and of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association has thus helped ensure that Filip Konowal's heroism will not be forgotten."

Mr. Gregorovich also said, "We hope that, in the near future, the government of Ukraine will likewise honor the only Ukrainian Canadian to have ever been so distinguished by issuing a Ukrainian stamp specifically in memory of Filip Konowal, who was the honorary patron of our branch."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 31, 2003, No. 35, Vol. LXXI

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