Canadian issues

On Friday, November 1, SickKids was be joined by representatives from the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), as well as two Ukrainian paediatric neurosurgery fellows currently undergoing clinical training at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), to formally launch the Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program. A national fundraising campaign to raise $1 million in support of the Program wasl also unveiled, calling on the Ukrainian-Canadian community to raise funds that will improve paediatric health care in the eastern European country. In addition, the campaign’s first major gifts were announced. The Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program was made possible thanks to a $1.05 million gift from the CCCF. The Program will provide physicians from Ukraine with...

Professor Bohdan Kordan of the University of Saskatchewan has been invited to curate an exhibition of seventeenth and eighteenth century maps of Ukraine from the Orest & Olesia Talpash and Chrysant & Leslie Dmytruk collections at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta. The collections were recent donations to the University of Alberta. The exhibition entitled “Shared Treasures: Antiquarian Maps of Ukraine” draws on selected items from the two collections. "It is important that we celebrate gifts such as these to the library and university," said Robert Desmarais, Head of the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta. "They strengthen our current holdings in Ucrainica and...

The Senator, Honourable Dr. Don Meredith, presented the Jubilee Medal to Dr. Boyko at the S1. John Council of Ontario Annual Awards dinner on March 22,2013. Dr. Boyko is the Provincial Medical Advisor of St. John Ambulance inOntario. He received this award for the development of the Home Caregiver Support Program for caregivers of palliative care patients. The Parliamentary Committee on Palliative Care recognizes the heroism of compassionate family caregivers who provide 70% - 80% of care in Canadian homes and communities. St. John Ambulance has developed a new Home Caregiver Support Program to address the needs of family caregIvers...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) urges all Canadians to voice their concerns over the content and layout proposed for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Museum). "On a recent site tour of this taxpayer-funded museum, I was shocked to discover how shamefully Ukrainian Canadian and Ukrainian themes are to be presented in this national institution. We are deeply troubled that neither Canada's first national internment operations nor the Holodomor will have permanent and prominent exhibits and galleries in the Museum," stated UCC National President Paul Grod. "It is outrageous that in the province of Manitoba, which has the highest proportional percentage of Ukrainians in Canada, the human rights stories that have impacted our community have either been ignored or minimalized. We have attempted to work in good faith with the Museum for the past 2 1/2 years, yet they remain...

Help Us Help The Children, a project of Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund is a voluntary, non-profit charitable initiative dedicated to improving the quality of life of children living in orphanages in Ukraine. The purpose and mission of Help Us Help The Children (HUHTC) is to provide immediate aid to those most vulnerable in Ukraine - the children. 20 years ago, Help Us Help The Children made at least two humanitarian trips a year, personally delivering supplies to orphanages in all parts of Ukraine. To date, outreach teams have traveled a combined distance of over 170,000 km throughout 25 Oblasts (Provinces) of Ukraine. Over 35,000 children in more than 205 orphanages, 16 hospitals, rehabilitation centers and clinics, have benefited from supplies of medication, infant formula, clothing, as well as educational toys and materials. Members of the Help Us Help The Children and our Ukrainian team have distributed over 980 tons of purchased and/or donated goods with a retail value of approximately $16,000,000 CAD. With improvements in...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) welcomed the Final Report of the Canadian government sponsored International Election Observer Mission for Ukraine's October 2012 parliamentary elections released by Head of Mission Senator Raynell Andreychuk. "The Ukrainian Canadian community is grateful that the government of Canada sent this largest ever independent Election Observer Mission to monitor the election process in Ukraine. We noted with interest that the mission concluded that the elections fell short of meeting international standards in regard to free and fair elections," stated UCC National President Paul Grod. "We are thankful to the Canadian government for placing Canada at the vanguard of nations when it comes to promoting and monitoring democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Ukraine." The government of Canada sponsored a 500 person electoral observation mission including 422 through CANADEM and the remainder through the OSCE. These were in addition to the nearly 300 self-financed observers under the...

On Tuesday, January 15, 2013 the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Hon. Dave Levac, met with Ukrainian community leaders - the president of the League of Ukrainian Canadians Orest Steciw and the editor of the community newspaper “Ukrainian Echo” Oleh Romanyshyn. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss issues pertaining to Holodomor education and the upcoming 80th anniversary of the Holodomor as a genocide by famine of the Ukrainian people in 1932-1933. After the meeting, the Speaker was presented with various materials on the subject of the genocide: Documentary films, a Holodomor anniversary calendar, and the latest publication by the Canadian Institute...

During the week of November 19th 2012, the Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) commemorated the 79th Holodomor Memorial Day, the Ukrainian Famine/ Genocide. To honour and acknowledge this tragic event in history, DPCDSB set up a visual display in the main foyer to remember the Holodomor. Staff and visitors to the Catholic Education Centre had an opportunity to browse through the display which included a wide variety of images and information about the Holodomor genocide. In addition to the display, schools across DPCDSB commemorated the day by raising student awareness about Holodomor Memorial Day during morning announcements. Schools also participated in prayers for the victims of the Holodomor and all genocides. In addition...

After observing the October 28th Ukrainian parliamentary elections as a member of the largest election observation mission assembled by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), James Bezan, Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake shared his views on how the elections were handled. “While there were some problems with the openness of this election, it was very promising to see Ukrainians exercise their democratic rights in strong numbers despite an unlevelled political playing field,” said MP Bezan. MP Bezan served as the regional co-ordinator of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA) team deployed in the Chernivtsi oblast and was a member of the OSCE PA Advisory Board for the Ukrainian election. Bezan also acted as the team leader of the Canadian OSCE PA delegation, which consisted of parliamentarians from all official parties in both the House of Commons and the Senate. “I would like to applaud everyone from Canada who...

As you know, last year the Board of Trustees approved the designation of the 4th Friday in November as “Holodomor Memorial Day”. This year, the day falls on Friday, November 23rd. Holodomor Memorial Day is dedicated to the loss of millions of Ukrainian lives at the hands of the Soviet Regime during the great famine of 1932L1933. Brochures from the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Toronto Branch) are being distributed to our school communities to help explain the significance of this catastrophe to our students and staff. We recently paid tribute to the contributions of our service men and women and all those who suffer during times of conflict. We ask you to remember those of Ukrainian descent in our school communities and parishes. To the survivors and their descendents, we extend our prayers and sympathy for the great loss of life and irreversible effect the famine had on the entire world during that time period and for generations to come. The fabric that...