Since its inception in 2005, the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group (CUPFG) has proved to be an invaluable tool in promoting and enhancing relations between our two countries. As an all-party group, it serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas between Canadian parliamentarians and their counterparts in Ukraine, and to promote and enhance the political, economic and cultural relations between Canada and Ukraine. This is not unlike the U.S. Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, founded in 1997, and its Senate counterpart, established in 2015.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj
Many parliamentarians of all stripes have participated in it over the past 14 years, but this year marks a watershed as three of the group’s most venerable members will no longer sit in Parliament. The first to go was Raynell Andreychuk, a Conservative senator who reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on August 14 (See The Ukrainian Weekly August 9). She had been the leading Senate representative on the CUPFG since the beginning. Two more longstanding members will be out after the October 21 elections to the House of Commons, because they are retiring. They include the founder, Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj and the longest-serving member of the third major party in Canada, the left-of-center New Democratic Party, Linda Duncan.
Linda Duncan
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj was first elected on June 28, 2004, and within six months was thrust into a major crisis when the first two rounds of the Ukrainian presidential elections were deemed to be fraudulent by international observers and a third-round runoff was called to choose between Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych.
Mr. Wrzesnewskyj leapt into action and convinced then-Prime Minister Paul Martin Jr. to send an unprecedented 500 government-sponsored election observers (in addition to the 500 that came from the community itself). This served as a shining example for other countries to follow, and helped to assure a fair and honest third round of presidential elections and Ukraine’s emergence as a democratic state.
Another file he worked on very diligently during his first term was to obtain a redress agreement to make up for the 1914-1920 internment of Ukrainian Canadians. Although this agreement was not approved within the tenure of the minority Liberal government that was ousted in 2006, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj’s work contributed greatly to the signing of the final agreement with the new Conservative government.
He also worked behind the scenes to get the 2008 Holodomor memorial bill through Parliament, pulling his own legislation in favor of a Conservative’s Private Member’s Bill in order to get it passed.
Defeated in 2011 by 25 votes, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj was re-elected in 2015, and one of his major efforts was to get recognition of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars, or Sürgünlik as it is known in the Crimean Tatar language, as genocide. (See The Ukrainian Weekly, June 28)
Throughout his parliamentary career, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj has been a maverick – that rare kind of politician who is willing to put principle ahead of partisan interests if it is for the better good. This has cost him in terms of promotion, but has gained him a reputation as a truly honorable member who can be counted on to do what is right.
Although, unlike MP Wrzesnewskyj and Sen. Andreychuk, Ms. Duncan is not of Ukrainian origin, she considers Ukrainians to be her other family since the community welcomed her so warmly both in Edmonton and in Ottawa. She has steadfastly stood up for issues that affected the Ukrainian community and has established a very deep relationship with it. In fact, on October 6, she was presented with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Alberta Provincial Council’s Executive Hetman Award, which had only been presented three times earlier and only once to a politician. That was to former Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach in 2011.
First elected for the Alberta constituency of Edmonton-Strathcona in 2008, she has been an active member of CUPFG since then. She has participated in a number of emergency and other debates on Ukraine during the course of her tenure, participated in two election monitoring missions in Ukraine, met numerous times in Ottawa with government delegations from Ukraine, met several times with Mustafa Dzhemilev (chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars and commissioner of the president of Ukraine for the affairs of Crimean Tatars), and participated in events expressing support for their rights.
Her first visit to Ukraine was as a member of a study mission of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs examining the erosion of democracy and rule of law under the government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. The committee met with representatives of the national, regional and local governments, human rights organizations, media, and family and legal counsel for arrested or expelled elected officials. It tabled a report in Parliament calling for reforms, including a supplementary report by the NDP calling for additional action by Canada.
Another major cause she championed was that of film director Oleh Sentsov, who was arrested by the Russians for opposing their illegal annexation of Crimea, and she has especially embraced the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program, which provides an opportunity for Ukrainian students to learn about the principles of democratic government and parliamentary procedures in Canada.
Ms. Duncan also pushed both Conservative and Liberal governments to impose stronger sanctions against Russia, in particular against those like the Russian oil monopoly boss Igor Sechin who had considerable interests in Canada. Although representing a different party, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland herself personally acknowledged “the longstanding commitment of the member for Edmonton-Strathcona to Ukraine and the work she has done over many years in supporting Ukraine, very much in collaboration with and on behalf of her constituents.”
The retirement of three very pro-active parliamentarians from the CUPFG will leave a huge vacuum in that organization that needs to be filled. Because, despite representing three different parties, Sen. Andreychuk and MPs Wrzesnewskyj and Duncan have left an indelible mark on Parliament and upon the Ukrainian community’s relationship with government. For that they deserve acknowledgement, our gratitude and many happy years.