2003: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Ukrainians and Ukraine in the news in Canada

Census 2001 numbers released by Statistics Canada showed that Canadians of Ukrainian origin numbered 1,071,060 (744,860 of them claiming multiple origin) out of a total national population of 29,639,035 - a slight increase from the 1,054,300 reported 10 years earlier, but a spike of sorts from the 1,026,470 in 1996. However, as a percentage of the Canadian population, Ukrainians fell from 3.91 percent in 1991 to 3.61 in 2001.

In 2001 nationwide, Ukrainian Canadians were the ninth most populous group in Canada even higher in Manitoba where they placed fifth, but were as low as the 22nd position in Quebec. Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto - each with a population of over 100,000 Ukrainian Canadians - remained the major urban centers for Ukrainians in Canada.

In terms of language, fewer Canadians claimed Ukrainian as their mother tongue: 148,090 in 2001 (nearly half age 65 and older), down from 187,015 in 1991 and far lower than the 285,115 in 1981. Yet the use of Ukrainian as a home language increased from 31,990 in 1991 and 49,985 in 1996, to 67,665 in 2001 (14,325 using it exclusively). The surge was partly attributed to emigration from Ukraine, and perhaps the result of a change in the census question between 1996, when it only asked respondents to identify a language "spoken most often at home," and 2001, when it added "or on a regular basis."

According to the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society, 23,435 Ukrainians immigrated to Canada between 1991 and 2001, most of them in Ontario (15,875), where the vast majority of them (13,835) settled in Toronto. These relatively new arrivals constituted 45.4 percent of the total Ukrainian immigrant population.

On March 18, the Canadian government announced a five-year agricultural reform project in Ukraine through the Canadian International Development Agency. CIDA would contribute $6 million (about $4.5 million U.S.) to establish the Facility for Agricultural Reform and Modernization, Canada's largest agri-development project in Ukraine to date. Three western provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) kicked in a further $3 million.

Two months later, former Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the Our Ukraine political coalition, visited Canada at the invitation of the East West Institute of Canada, a think-tank that promotes change in societies in transition whose current director is Derek Fraser, former Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine. Accompanied by his wife and two daughters, Mr. Yushchenko spent his May 10-17 visit talking about Ukraine's political situation and promoting Our Ukraine as a reform-minded, forward-looking and democratic movement.

During stops in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, he met with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham and a delegation led by Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) President Eugene Czolij; gave a lecture at the University of Ottawa on Ukraine's foreign relations; and addressed an Empire Club luncheon in Toronto, where he talked about Ukraine being at the crossroads of democracy or totalitarianism, highlighting Ukraine's underground economy and crushing poverty, and criticizing President Leonid Kuchma's administration.

Mr. Yushchenko was also guest of honor at a UCC banquet in Toronto, attended by over 1,000 people, including Ontario Premier Ernie Eves (who guests discovered claims Ukrainian heritage) and two federal ministers, Sheila Copps, minister of Canadian heritage, and Jean Augustine, secretary of state for multiculturalism. Mr. Eves' Ukrainian roots were tested during the evening: Mr. Yushchenko's 30-minute-plus, Ukrainian-language speech, delivered far into the evening, came with no English translation.

However, the former Ukrainian PM did score points for rearranging his travel plans to arrive in Canada a day earlier than scheduled to attend a May 10 Toronto gala presented by the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund and its largest project, Help Us Help The Children.

The evening event, which featured a dance program and drew more than 500 people including Toronto businessman Eugene Melnyk (who purchased the National Hockey League Ottawa Senators team this year), featured a surprise guest: one of the orphans under Help Us Help the children's care since 1997 who now volunteers for the group in Ukraine. Twenty-year-old law student Milya Mashkovtseva came to Canada especially for the gala, and was one of those who addressed the gathering.

The evening's keynote speaking duties, however, belonged to Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek, who previewed "The Natashas," his latest book on the global sex trade involving women - many of them from Ukraine - which was released later in the year.

During the summer of 2003, yet another memorial to World War I-era Ukrainian-Canadian internment was dedicated. The "Behind Canadian Barbed Wire" statue, created by Ontario sculptor John Boxtel depicting three internees, was unveiled on August 2 in Dauphin, during the Manitoba town's annual National Ukrainian Festival.

At the ceremony, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association's (UCCLA) research director, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, said that the minister of Canadian heritage Ms. Copps, had been working on a long-awaited reconciliation statement from the federal government to the Ukrainian Canadian community - a task now out of her hands since she was removed from the Cabinet by Paul Martin when he became Canada's 21st prime minister in December.

In October, Canadian Heritage announced that it had given Spirit Lake Corp. $200,000 (about $150,000 U.S.) in federal government funding to develop an interpretive center at the site of a first world war internment camp near the community of Amos in north-central Quebec. It was news to the UCCLA, which had worked with the corporation to place a trilingual marker at the site in 1999 and later a statue, the "Interned Madonna," in 2001.

Dr. Luciuk said the UCCLA was "deeply troubled by the suggestion that the site might be used for artistic or recreational purposes," in light of its history as a "concentration camp where innocent people were incarcerated under very trying conditions and forced to do heavy labor." Though the federal department made no mention of having such plans, Dr. Luciuk said the site was "not suitable for development as anything other than a commemorative museum facility," adding that plans were afoot to protect a cemetery where the remains of Ukrainian Canadian internees have been buried.

Nonetheless, there was progress on the issue of redress. In a December 11 letter to outgoing Minister Copps, Dr. Luciuk wrote: "On behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, thanks for your keen interest in working with representatives of our community toward securing official recognition and some form of commemorative reconciliation for the wrongs done to Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. Regrettably, given the press of time and your other commitments, no final settlement was reached on the educational initiatives that we have discussed over the past year."

He noted that the UCCLA recognizes "the undeniable impetus you imparted to our deliberations with senior members of Parks Canada, Heritage Canada and other officials," adding that, "on the basis of those discussions we intend to continue our work with your successor and other members of Cabinet to ensure that this matter is resolved in a timely and honorable manner." Dr. Luciuk also said the UCCLA was calling upon Prime Minister Martin to designate a minister from within his new Cabinet to continue with the reconciliation talks, "building upon the solid bases for settlement that Minister Copps prepared."

As 2004 approached, Ms. Copps, the now-former heritage minister, said she hoped that a royal proclamation, issued in Ottawa on December 10, which recognizes the British government's mid-18th-century expulsion of 11,000 Acadians (French-speaking Maritimers) and known as the Great Upheaval, would serve as a "template" for the Canadian government in acknowledging other historic injustices, such as the early 20th-century internment of about 6,000 Ukrainian Canadians.

At about the same time, Member of Parliament Inky Mark, Conservative member of Parliament for the riding of Dauphin-Swan River-Marquette in Manitoba, called on Canada's new prime minister to "stand up and acknowledge the past wrongs done by the Canadian government to Ukrainian and Chinese Canadians." He stated that "Ukrainian Canadians and other Canadians of Eastern European descent were imprisoned in internment camps during the first world war for no other reason than their heritage. Similarly, Chinese Canadians were separated from their families and subjected to the Head Tax and Exclusion Act of 1923."

Mr. Mark emphasized: "It is time that the Liberal government and its new leader deal with these issues. Two million Canadians have waited too many years for the recognition that they deserve. I lobbied the previous prime minister on this issue, and I will continue to lobby the new prime minister until he stands up and agrees to right these historic wrongs."

Meanwhile, the August issue of Travel + Leisure published an article titled "Keeping the Faith" that looked at churches built by Ukrainian immigrants on the Canadian Prairies, which are now considered "treasures of rural North American architecture."

Just a short time afterwards, one of those churches became a part of Manitoba's living history. On September 6, the Ukrainian Heritage Church officially opened its doors on the grounds of Fort la Reine Museum in Portage la Prairie. Formerly St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church and located in the Manitoba hamlet of Arbakka, the onion-domed church was donated to the non-profit organization, Ukrainian Connection, which dismantled it and transported it 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) to Portage, where it was restored to its former glory.

Back in August, North America's largest Ukrainian festival was held in Toronto. Highlights of the seventh annual Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, held on August 22-23, included the Kyiv-based musical group, Vopli Vidopliassova, whose performance attracted some 250,000 spectators, and a spotlight on a multiple-city twinning involving Toronto paired with Kyiv, Chicago with Kyiv and, naturally, Toronto with Chicago.

Weeks later, Winnipeg's Rusalka Ukrainian Dance Ensemble marked its 40th anniversary with two concerts on September 12-13 at the Centennial Concert Hall. A special luncheon was also held to honor founder Peter Hladun and former presidents of the board of directors: Benjamin Hewak, retired chief justice of the Court of Queen's Bench, and Oleh Romaniw, past president of the UCC.

Also in Winnipeg, one of the city's school divisions announced that it would offer Ukrainian language and culture courses at the high school level next September. Seven Oaks School Division agreed to institute the specialized programming for Grade 9 and 10 students at Garden City Collegiate in September 2004. Expectations are that enrollment for the Ukrainian program will be up to 100 students.

In reporting the new development, the Canadian Broadcasting Company quoted Lesia Szwaluk, provincial council president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, as saying there has been a gap in Ukrainian education. Right now, students can only learn the language in elementary school, then in university. "From Grade 9 to Grade 12, you don't have a Ukrainian language course," she noted, "so basically if you don't have the support systems at home or in the community - if you don't belong to a Ukrainian organization or some other supports - then you basically can lose over those number of years the ability to use the language."

Meanwhile, in Edmonton, Ukrainian Canadian Archives and Museum of Alberta (UCAMA) announced that on March 5 the acquisition of the Lodge Hotel and the Brighton Block on Jasper Avenue was finalized as a new home for the museum. The Lodge Hotel, formerly the Pendennis Hotel, was first opened in 1904; the Lodge Hotel's sister, the Brighton Block, began construction seven years later in 1911-1912, and is one of Edmonton's most illustrious pre-World War I commercial buildings. Both the Lodge Hotel and the Brighton Block have been designated as Municipal Historic Resources and both are also under consideration for designation as Provincial Historic Resources.

Khrystyna Kohut, president of the UCAMA board of directors, exclaimed, "I couldn't be more pleased with the prominent location of these buildings for our new home. I very much look forward to contributing to the revitalization of the Jasper East Block." Founded by Hryhory and Stefania Yopyk, the UCAMA first opened its doors to the public in 1974 in a former bakery. Since then its museum, along with its archival and library holdings have far outstripped the capacity of its original home.

For the past two years UCAMA had been undergoing a major planning exercise to locate a new home of sufficient size to not only properly house its existing collections but to allow for future growth. The UCAMA is actively seeking partners, such as other Ukrainian Canadian museums and archives, in the development of the new museum. Support is being sought from municipal, provincial and federal levels of government, and a major fund-raising campaign will be launched for the renovation of the UCAMA's new home.

"Between Hitler and Stalin - Ukraine in World II - the Untold Story," a 60-minute documentary produced and directed by Slavko Nowytski (known for his documentary on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 titled "Harvest of Despair") for the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center and narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Jack Palance, premiered in Toronto on September 28. (For more information see section on the arts.)

In October, Mr. Czolij, the UCC president, sent a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Graham expressing the congress's condemnation of "Russia's blatant disregard of Ukraine's borders" regarding the issue of Russia's attempt to connect its mainland to the Ukrainian island of Tuzla. The Canadian government later issued a statement calling for a negotiated settlement of the dispute.

In early December, the UCC's Mr. Czolij sent letters to Canada's provincial and territorial education ministers, asking them to develop a curriculum about the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933, in accordance with a resolution adopted unanimously on June 20 by the Canadian Senate.

Introduced as a motion by Saskatchewan Conservative Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, the resolution also calls on the Canadian government to recognize the Great Famine and to designate the fourth Saturday in November "of every year throughout Canada as a day of remembrance of the more than seven million Ukrainians who fell victim" to it.

A Canadian journalist, Eric Margolis, was honored in 2003 for focusing attention on the Famine-Genocide. The contributing foreign editor of the Toronto Sun newspapers and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist whose articles appear in some of the leading newspapers of the world, Mr. Margolis was honored for his contribution to the field of international journalism, in particular for his articles about Ukraine's Famine and the demise of the Soviet Union. The testimonial came at the Statesmen Dinner held on November 30 in Toronto, which was attended by a delegation from Ukraine headed by Yulia Tymoshenko (see below).

Earlier in the year the UCCLA, spearheading an action that involved Ukrainian organizations worldwide, launched an international campaign to persuade The New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. to return the 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to the newspaper's Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty.

Calling Duranty "Stalin's apologist" who covered up the Soviet-engineered Great Famine, Dr. Luciuk said the prize should be revoked to ensure it "is not denigrated by being associated with the name of a self-serving apologist for mass murder," and that The Times should "do the right thing" so that it "is not befouled by any continuing association with Walter Duranty or a prize that he did not merit, given his betrayal of the most fundamental principles of journalism."

Though The Times and the Pulitzer Prize Board agreed Duranty's foreign reporting fell short of today's rigorous journalistic standards, the board issued a statement in late November noting that it decided not to revoke the prize since it was specifically awarded for 13 articles in 1931 entered for Pulitzer consideration, and "not for the author's body of work or for the author's character."

Speaking on behalf of the UCCLA, Dr. Luciuk said that, "For the Pulitzer Prize Committee to render this tartuffish decision and announce it on the eve of the fourth Saturday in November, a day officially set aside in Ukraine for national mourning, is base." He added, "All who hold a Pulitzer Prize should think about whether what was once the most prestigious distinction in journalism still is." (For more on the campaign revocation of Duranty's Pulitzer, see section on the Famine-Genocide.)

As the year wound down, Yulia Tymoshenko, one of Ukraine's most vocal opposition leaders, paid her first visit to Canada from November 28 to December 4 at the invitation of the Canadian Friends of Ukraine. Ms. Tymoshenko, who heads an eponymous bloc in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and served as the country's vice prime minister, arrived with fellow National Deputies Borys Tarasyuk, Stepan Khmara and Serhii Holovatyi, Ukraine's former justice minister.

Prof. Jurij Darewych of the Canadian Friends of Ukraine explained the aims of the visit: "Among the goals of the CFU are the strengthening of ties between Canada and Ukraine and this includes closer contacts between Ukrainian and Canadian parliamentarians. The current visit is the most recent of invitations that our organization has hosted for Ukrainian parliamentarians." Ms. Tymoshenko had three public appearances, and the Ukrainian delegation also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Graham. The delegation also attended the November 30 Statesmen Dinner.

But what got the most attention was Ms. Tymoshenko's endorsement of Mr. Yushchenko as the man with the best chance of defeating President Leonid Kuchma in the 2004 presidential election, which she made in Toronto before members of the Ukrainian Canadian community on December 3 and in Ottawa the day before during an address presented by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Roy Romanow's achievements were in the spotlight when the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Toronto presented the former Saskatchewan premier and chairman of the Royal Commission on Medicare - whose first language growing up in Saskatoon was Ukrainian - with its fifth Presidents' Award at a November 5 banquet. Mr. Romanow was a member of the group dubbed by the media as the "Tuque and Uke Show," which resolved the impasse over the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution from Great Britain. (The "Tuque and Uke Show" group comprised of Mr. Romanow, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Justice Roy McMurtry.)

Dr. Manoly Lupul, founder of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta and noted promoter of multiculturalism and Ukrainian-language studies, was named on August 5 to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor for lifetime achievement.

In October Canada Post Corp. released a stamp featuring the Victoria Cross and recalling the Canadians, including Ukrainian Canadian Filip Konowal, who were awarded the highest military medal in the British Empire.

Meanwhile, the 51-year-old Ukrainian-language service of Radio Canada International, which marks its 60th anniversary in 2004, hoped things would go its way as a new year dawned. Though it reaches an estimated audience of 2 million Ukrainian listeners, the news program faced either being cut in half to 15 minutes, or being dropped entirely. A decision was expected in mid-January.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 11, 2004, No. 2, Vol. LXXII

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