Ukrainians in Canada

On behalf of the DOF, FUDF FUND, League of Ukrainian Canadian Women-Oshawa branch, and Ukrainian Youth Association of Oshawa, we extend a most sincere THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED TO HELP US HELP Brandon – a resident of Oshawa, a non-Ukrainian, a Canadian volunteering in Ukraine. Brandon's work is in tactical defence and training. Brandon trains with an American unit, as well as with Invictus Global Response. Ukraine does not pay salary for his work; living expenses, etc. are self-funded. As previously mentioned, Brandon, along with Monty and Eric (American marines), were ...

Ukraine’s 33rd Independence Day was commemorated with an official flag raising at the Ontario’s Legislative Assembly on Friday, August 23, 2024. As the war in Ukraine reaches a 30-month mark, it is important to show support and solidarity with Ukrainians both in Ukraine and worldwide. This year’s event once again presents the hard-earned value of Ukraine’s independence and national self-determination as it is being defended with blood and immense human sacrifice. The League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) and the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW) organized the annual Ukrainian flag-raising event on the grounds of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, under the auspices of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Toronto and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Ontario Provincial Council. It was attended by members of the Ukrainian community, as well as politicians at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

Initiated in 2021, the objective of the Fellowship is to support one of the most promising junior scholars studying Ukraine/Ukrainian Canadians and thereby to advance understanding of Ukrainian politics, history and society at the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies (CUCS). The center take pride in serving as a resource center for those interested in Ukrainian Canadian studies and strengthening the relationship between the university and the greater community. The Petro Jacyk Post-Doctoral Fellowship is open to recently awarded PhDs who will be involved in both research and teaching capacities. The Fellow will spend most of the Fellowship period at the University of Manitoba, based at the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies. The Fellow is expected to complete a year-long research project on any Ukrainian Canadian or Ukrainian topic, culminating in a full, publishable...

My talk in Edmonton focused on the “crippling legacy” of Canada’s first national internment operations, the theme of a new book, Lest They Forget. While speaking, I advocated for the restoration of an internee cemetery, located in Quebec’s Abitibi region. The graves of over a dozen people, including several children and one man shot dead trying to escape from Spirit Lake, are found there. They remain unmarked and all but forgotten. Frankly, I’m surprised anyone claiming to be a “progressive” would mock my plea that we do something about this injustice. The booklets I referenced detail the wartime history of the “Galicia Division” and discuss the so-called “Hunka incident.” The former is found on the website of the Ukrainian World Congress. As for Yaroslav Hunka, a Galicia Division veteran, his case is discussed in Cui Bono? My argument is...

On Sunday, March 10, 2024, the Toronto chapter of the League of Ukrainian Canadians and the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women held its annual general meeting. This year's meeting featured a discussion among members regarding the changing landscape of the Ukrainian community and LUC's role within the community. President of LUC-Toronto, Mykova Lytvyn, reported on the past activities of the chapter highlighting the fundraising efforts for the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the FUDF Fund, support of the Baturyn archaeological project as well as the financing of the athlete Anna-Viktoriia Shevchenko, who participated in an archery event at the...

n Ukraine, Christmas will look very different this year. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians will spend Christmas Eve in frozen trenches. If Russian artillery abates long enough, they might enjoy a meal alongside the rats that take shelter in their dugouts. Their spouses, parents, grandparents and children will be in basements and bomb shelters, singing carols to keep spirits up as air raid sirens blare. Ukrainians in occupied territories will continue to be tortured, raped and killed by the Russian military. The Russians will continue to kidnap Ukrainian children from their parents, only to force these children to suffer in concentration camps for the purpose of “denazifying” them. This is genocide, and you know it. And here in Canada, displaced Ukrainians and the wider Ukrainian Canadian community will watch in disbelief, as the unity once displayed by Canada’s political parties in support of Ukraine is broken by the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC). Not long ago, the ...

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who made our Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Toronto Branch’s Holodomor 90th Anniversary Commemorative such a monumental success. Such a powerful and passionate performance, choreographed by Artistic Director Krista Samborsky and performed by Yavir School of Ukrainian Dance, moved people to tears. Many of the younger dancers and youth reading the narratives were from St. Demetrius (TCDSB) School. Over 2000 people attended the event at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Clergy from The Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches presided over the memorial prayer services. Canadian media provided ongoing and thorough coverage, and our event was broadcast on Canadian national news and news programs in Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland proudly ...

The Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada recognizes exemplary individuals in the field of Human Rights and Peace, with the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award. In 2023 the Centre instituted the inaugural Mahatma Gandhi Global Peace Award in memory of its founder Dr. Krishnamurti Dakshinamurti. This year the Centre recognized Hon. MP. Anita Anand for the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Award and Hon. First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska for the Global Peace Award. At a formal...

No Ukrainian poet or writer embodies the spirit of the Ukrainian people like Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861). His poetry made an unsurpassed contribution to the develo­pment of Ukrainian national identity and inspired the people of Ukraine to a cultural and political rebirth. These factors laid the foundation for the eventual formation of Ukraine as an independent state. Taras Shevchenko is the national poet of Ukraine. Every year around March 9 (the date of his birth in 1814) and March 10 (the date of his death in 1861), Ukrainians around the world celebrate his life and legacy with concerts; reciting his poems and singing songs with lyrics culled from his pioneering collection of poems, “The Kobzar.” Choral ensembles have been honouring him most often with a concert programme called «Slovo Tarasa» (“The Poetry of Taras Shevchenko,” or literally translated - “The Word of Taras”). The concert was initially conceived by the Artistic Director of the Kyiv Bandurist Capella, Danylo Pika, who conducted the first performance of it in 1939 during that Capella’s tour of Western Ukraine commemorating the 125th Anniversary of Ukraine’s national poet’s birth.

The Barbara Edwards Contemporary Project Space opened its doors on February 9 for a special reception featuring the works of Ukrainian-born Canadian artist Taras Polataiko. The event raised awareness about ongoing wartime orthopaedic trauma in Ukraine and BCU Foundation's special fund titled Advanced Surgical Skills and Implants for Skeletal Trauma (ASSIST). The exhibition’s curator, Barbara Edwards, delivered the opening remarks along with an insightful, in-depth lecture on the themes of Polataiko’s work, which call attention to cultural conflict, displacement, identity, and moments of cultural genocide. Polataiko's exhibited works connect to Kazimir Malevich's art with its glare, as a number of the works are paintings of photographed paintings, thus making Polataiko a painter's painter with radical visual thinking that reinvents conventionality. Edwards also brought attention to the two portraits of "Dima" and "Oleh," Ukrainian soldiers photographed in the surgical wing of the Kyiv Military Clinical Hospital for the series "War. 11 Portraits." The two photographs are images of war that present an unseen aspect since the physical injuries of the soldiers are not photographed. The aesthetic of each photo compels the viewer to look into the eyes of these soldiers and listen to what they have to say without judging them for their physical ailments. The absence of injuries in the photographs does not mean they are nonexistent, as traumatic orthopaedic injuries are substantial and present great challenges to artists and doctors alike...