Alberta UCC fund-raising banquet heightens awareness of election monitors' importance (03/19/06)

Alberta UCC fund-raising banquet heightens awareness of election monitors' importance

EDMONTON - Over 200 people gathered on Tuesday, February 28, here at St. John's Cultural Center for an election observer fund-raising banquet initiated to raise awareness for the need to have observers for Ukraine's upcoming elections, and to assist with the funding of the observers.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Alberta Provincial Council (UCC-APC) was successfully involved in the observer mission to Ukraine for the presidential election in 2004, which was deemed fair and democratic by the international community.

"The upcoming parliamentary elections on March 26 are just as important, if not more important, for Ukraine to secure its democratic and free-market economic reforms. There is no guarantee that a democratic process will automatically extend to the parliamentary elections, and for this reason, it is vital that again a significant number of International Observers be present," said Luba Boyko-Bell, who emceed the evening.

Ms. Boyko-Bell herself is travelling to Ukraine as an observer and was present as an observer during the presidential election in 2004.

Dave Broda, president of the UCC-APC, welcomed the gathering, and Catherine Chichak, Observer Project chair, provided a status report on the fund-raising efforts to date. The event included both live and silent auctions.

Special guests included Metropolitan John, archbishop of Winnipeg and the Central Diocese and metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada; Laurie Hawn, MP for Edmonton Center and his wife, Judy; John Williams, MP for St. Albert; Lorraine Goldring, wife of Peter Goldring, MP for Edmonton East; Ed Stelmach, member of the Legislative Assembly for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, minister of international and intergovernmental relations; Gene Zwozdesky, MLA for Mill Creek Constituency, minister of education; Dan L. Backs, MLA for Edmonton-Manning; City Councillors Kim Krushell and Mike Nickel; Janice Sarich, trustee, Edmonton Catholic School Board; Terese Szlamp-Fryga, president, Canadian Polish Congress, Alberta Branch.

The keynote address was given by Volodymyr Kulyk, Ph.D., of the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies at the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, who is currently a visiting professor at Stanford University. He spoke on "The 2006 Elections and Ukraine's Democratic Evolution."

Dr. Kulyk recalled the events of 2004, "the resolute but peaceful protests of hundreds of thousands people in Kyiv and many other cities and towns against a cynical electoral fraud" and noted the "courage, persistence and wisdom of Ukrainians who went into the squares and stayed there until their demands were met."

He went on to note that this success "was greatly assisted by the devotion and competence of those foreign citizens, especially members of the Ukrainian diaspora in the West, who had come to Ukraine on the eve of the election to participate in the international monitoring effort."

"It is they - or, rather, you, since many of you were there or supported those who were there in various ways - who provided Western governments, non-governmental organizations and the media with undeniable evidence of the flagrant violation of democratic rights by the regime of the former president, Leonid Kuchma, and thus of the legitimacy and moral value of our protest," he said. "This invaluable contribution should not be forgotten, and you have every right to be proud of it."

Mr. Kulyk went on to point out: "... the upcoming elections are vitally important for the implementation of democratic changes in Ukrainian politics, economy and society for which people on the maidan, and those who supported them in Ukraine and abroad, so greatly hoped. In other words, it is these elections ... that will determine whether or not the promises of the maidan are kept."

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