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09.03.2012
The 56th Session of the Committee on the Status of Women of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) will convene at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on February 22. The theme of this year’s session is “The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges”. According to current UN estimates, approximately 70 percent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion people living in extremepoverty live in rural areas. The large disparities in wellbeing that exist between urban and ruralresidents throughout the world are a consistent cause of concern. They affect the opportunities, resources, and services available to women and girls in rural areas in significant ways... |
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13.02.2012
The good news is that President Viktor Yanukovych has finally gotten around to firing some of the deadbeats in his Cabinet. The bad news is that he’s replaced them with two individuals with absolutely no connection to or roots in Ukraine. The worse news is that they’ve been placed in charge of the “power” agencies, the Ministry of Defense and the Security Service (SBU)... |
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10.02.2012
The historic inauguration of Camp Spirit Lake Internment Interpretative Centre, the first such Centre to be established in Canada, took place on November 24 in La Ferme, near Amos, Quebec. Representatives of the Government of Canada took part in the official opening, affirming the significance of the Centre as well as giving recognition to the entire region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the Province of Quebec. Their participation also acknowledged the outstanding contribution of the Camp Spirit Lake Corporation, chaired by James Slobodian of Rouyn Noranda, in creating this unique museum. The Centre tells the story of the Spirit Lake internment site, which was the second largest of the 24 internment camps established across Canada during World War One. Over 1,200 immigrants, mainly Ukrainians, were unjustly interned here as “enemy aliens” between 1915 and 1917, during Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 - 1920. Many were taken from Montreal and surrounding areas, a connection which has made Sprit Lake part of the collective memory of many families in Quebec... |
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10.02.2012
The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development moved to hold hearings on Ukraine. MP Peter Goldring (Edmonton East) made the request to undertake a study on “the progression of rights and democracy over the past 10 years.” “The member organizations of the Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine deeply appreciate the impending study on the human rights situation in Ukraine, and that the hearings will be conducted before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development,” said CCSU Chairman, Oleh Romanyshyn... |
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10.02.2012
The only potential presidential candidate, Grigory Yavlinsky (who wasn’t admitted to the presidential campaign), addressed the rally, saying politics should get back to morality and that “it’s just the beginning.” Characteristically, an “anti-Orange” rally was staged simultaneously on Poklonnaya Mountain. According to the Interior Ministry, it gathered some 100,000 persons (a number of journalists and analysts doubt this statistic), including Moscow residents and people from other parts of Russia. Some media reported that people were forced or paid to attend this rally. Such pro-Putin rallies showed a Ukrainian trace in the events that are taking place in Russia. Ukraine’s experience is obviously being used, even though never publicly admitted... |
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27.01.2012
“There, but for an accident of geography, stands a corpse!” thundered Max Shachtman—once known as Leon Trotsky’s “foreign minister”—in New York City in 1950. By popular account, the line had been cooked up that night by a young Shachtmanite named Irving Howe; it ended the debate between the anti-Stalinist socialist Schachtman and his opponent, Earl Browder, former head of the Communist Party USA, who had been expelled from the party in 1946 at the behest of Moscow Central after suggesting that Soviet Communism and American capitalism might coexist after all... |
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27.01.2012
Оn January 23 the prime minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta another policy article called ‘Russia: the national question. Self-determination of the Russian nation: a multi-ethnical civilization sealed with the Russian cultural core.’ It seems that Putin covets Lenin and Stalin’s laurels, known in the post-Soviet space as “experts” in solving national questions. It is known that Lenin wrote the article called ‘Working Class and the National Question’ and Stalin wrote the article ‘The National Question and Social Democracy.’ Everyone remembers well the results of this national policy whose consequences are still felt by all the countries put into the “prison of nations.” ... |
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13.01.2012
Despite losing the cold war some twenty years ago, Russia is determined to regain super -power status without concessions to a new world order. The policy issue for Canada and others is this: how far to tolerate Russia’s aggression in the name of good relations? And: will it change, if criminal behavior is accommodated? Russia’s lawlessness is evident. It invades sovereign territory, issues passports to citizens of other states and fails to honour agreements to withdraw troops. It ranks in the top ten percent of the world’s most corrupt states; the only G-20 country with such a distinction. There’s mischief making in Transdnistria, cyber attack on Estonia, interference in Kyrgyz Republic's internal affairs. Relations with neighbours are consistently confrontational. It even uses orthodoxy to spread 19-century pan-Russianism world-wide... |
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13.01.2012
 The official inauguration of Spirit Lake Internment Interpretive Centre, the first such Centre of its kind to open in Canada, took place on Thursday, November 24, by-invitation only, with a reception to follow. Among the special guests were representatives of the federal, provincial and municipal governments, representatives from Montreal, Quebec City as well as, the surrounding cities and towns of La Ferme, including Rouyn-Noranda and Val d’Or. Since the Centre’s opening to the general public on June 28, 2,500 visitors have visited the historical site in La Ferme, situated in the Abitibi-Temiscaminque region, 8km from Amos. The Centre, established at a cost of 1.2 million dollars, was made possible with a major grant from the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund set up by the Canadian government and administered under the Shevchenko Foundation... |
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13.01.2012
On September 15, 34 Ukrainian interns arrived in Canada to participate in the 21st annual Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program. The Internship Program, established by Toronto attorney Ihor Bardyn, gives university students from Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora the opportunity to serve a 2-month internship with a member of the Canadian Parliament or Senate... |
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