UKRAINIAN CANADIAN COMMUNITY UNITY AND ADVOCACY ON BEHALF OF UKRAINE ON DISPLAY IN OTTAWA
(LUC for “Ukrainian Echo”. Ottawa, March 12, 2012). — The first week of March 2012 will go down as a watershed in the annals of Ukrainian Canadian community unity and advocacy on behalf of Ukraine. From March 5 to March 10, 2012 a virtual non-stop succession of events in the nation’s capital dominated the attention of relevant Canadian government and diplomatic corps officials, policy analysts and formulators, academics and journalists, NGOs and community leaders.
The week-long events began with Parliamentary Hearings on Ukraine at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development held in the House of Commons on Monday, March 5, 2012 which were followed by a second day of hearings on Wednesday, March 7. That same day, a prestigious banquet was held at the Chateau Laurier Hotel signaling the convening of the international conference, “Ukraine at the Crossroads,” the proceedings of which were conducted throughout the next day. And on Friday, March 10, dignitaries from the hearings and conference joined the Ukrainian Canadian community at the recently unveiled Taras Shevchenko monument in Ottawa to pay homage to the Bard of Ukraine on his day of birth in 1814 and death in 1861.
These seminal events brought together government officials and experts of the highest order to discuss the complex paradigm of consolidating the independence of Ukraine and its integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, while, simultaneously, supporting fundamental change in Ukrainian government policy, towards one that respects democratic governance, rule of law, and human rights. Probing analytic statements were made by internationally eminent experts on the policies of the Ukrainian government, and the roles of the EU, US, Canada, Poland and Russia in supporting or undermining Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic future and democratic change. Of particular interest were the policies of Russia, US, Germany and the Yanukovych government itself, as to whether they fostered or hindered the consolidation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, democracy and Euro-integration.
Conference speakers from Canada included Honourable Beverley J. Oda - Minister of International Cooperation, Honourable Peter Van Loan - Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, former Ambassadors to Ukraine - Derek Fraser and Andrew Robinson, Attorneys - Robert Amsterdam and Danylo Bilak, international journalist - Chrystia Freeland, Dr. Dominique Arel - University of Ottawa, Dr. Bohdan Harasymiw - University of Calgary, Eugene Czolij - Ukrainian World Congress, Paul Grod - Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), Bob Onyschuk - Canada Ukraine Foundation, Jars Balan - Canada Ukraine Committee, Ihor Kozak - League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), Markian Shwec - UCC, Zenon Potoczny - Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce.
Speakers from the U.S. included: Thomas O. Melia – U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bohdan A. Futey - Federal Judge, Dr. Anders Åslund - Peterson Institute, Morgan Williams - US Ukraine Business Council, Dr Serhiy Kudelia – George Washington University, Dr. Ariel Cohen - Heritage Foundation, Dr. Walter Zaryckyj - Center for US-Ukrainian Relations.
Speakers from Europe included: Halyna Coynash - Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Kharkiv, Alyona Hetmanchuk, Director of Institute of World Policy, Kyiv, Oleh Rybachuk -“Centre UA” NGO, Kyiv, Borys Tarasyuk, Chair Verkhovna Rada Committee on Euro-Atlantic Integration, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko - past Director of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Kyiv, Marcin Swiecicki - Member of Polish Parliament, Warsaw, James Sherr - Senior Fellow Russia and Eurasia Programme Chatham House, Royal Society of International Affairs, London, Andrei Piontkovsky, member Russian United Democratic Party “Yabloko” and Federal Council of Russia, Ihor Kozak, Former Canadian and NATO military officer/diplomat and Member LUC National Executive, Amanda Paul - European Policy Centre, Brussels, Nico Lange - Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Berlin.
The stature of the internationally distinguished speakers is of such eminence that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the House of Commons of Canada held hearings on Ukraine on March 5 and 7, 2012, in order to take testimony from many of the conference speakers including civil society advocates: Halyna Coynash, Alyona Hetmanchuk, and Oleh Rybachuk; as well as national and regional geopolitical analysts: Borys Tarasyuk, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Marcin Swiecicki, Dr. James Sherr, Dr. Andrei Piontkovsky, and Ihor Kozak.
Attending the hearings were 17 Members of Parliament including 9 members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 8 Acting and Associate members of the Committee: Chairman Dean Allison, Vice-Chairs Helene Laverdiere and Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, Members: Bob Dechert, Lois Brown, Nina Grewal, Jean-Francois Larose, Gary Ralph Schellenberger and Dave Van Kestener. Acting and Associate Members present: Ted Opitz, James Bezan, Hon. Laurie Hawn for John Williamson, Alexandrine Latendresse for Sadia Groguhe, Marc-Andre Morin and Jasbir Sadhu for Jinny Jogindera Simsad, Hon. Mark Eyking and Kevin Lamoureux.
MP Bob Dechert, Foreign Affairs Committee member and Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Minister, made a statement on the floor of the House of Commons on the second day of the hearings wherein he thanked the conference and hearings organizers, inter alia, “I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Borys Potapenko of the League of Ukrainian Canadians, Jars Balan of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and Bob Onyschuk from the Canada Ukraine Foundation for making this conference possible. Slava Ukraine, Slava Canada.”
At the hearings themselves, MP Ted Opitz also noted the conference organizing efforts of the UCC and LUC and singled out the Director of International Relations of LUC Ihor Kozak, a witness at the hearings and conference speaker: “I'd like to thank Mr. Kozak for being here, a former brother-in-arms. We're both now retired. He has done tremendous work for Canada at NATO, and was in fact voted one of the top 25 immigrants to Canada. He has demonstrated his leadership within his community.”
The Chairman of the Committee MP Dean Allison also singled out for praise the BCU Foundation’s Young Leaders Program that brought 25 young Ukrainian Canadian community leaders from across Canada to the hearings, conference banquet and proceedings. Through the financial support of the BCU Foundation, young community leaders from Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa had the opportunity to witness and participate in these unique events and gain valuable experience and insights into civic involvement and advocacy at the highest level of our government and at international academic forums. Through these efforts the BCU Foundation not only contributed to the success of the conference but also to the future of our organized community.
The “Ukraine at the Crossroads” Conference was convened under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC). It was co-organized by the Canada Ukraine Foundation, University of Ottawa and the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations. The work of the Conference Steering Committee was coordinated by the Canada Ukraine Committee (CUC) of the UCC.
Members of the Conference Steering Committee were: Jars Balan Chair, UCC Canada-Ukraine Committee, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies; Dr. Dominique Arel Professor of Political Science, Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Ottawa; Ambassador Derek Fraser (ret.) University of Victoria; Dr. Bohdan Harasymiw (ret.) Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary; Bohdan Onyschuk Chair, Canada Ukraine Foundation; Borys Potapenko Executive Director, League of Ukrainian Canadians; Anna Szyptur Ukrainian Canadian Congress, National Executive; Taras Zalusky Executive Director, UCC; Dr. Walter Zaryckyj Adjunct Associate Professor, New York University.
All of the members of the Steering Committee made major contributions to the success of the Conference. However, the efforts of Jars Balan, Taras Zalusky, Dr. Walter Zaryckyj and Borys Potapenko deserve special mention with regard to coordination, implementation and speaker recruitment, respectively.
Also, the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), its President, Orest Steciw, and LUC chapters across Canada, in cooperation with the UCC, initiated and successfully pursued the convening of parliamentary hearings on Ukraine. In this regard as well, LUC Executive Director, Borys Potapenko was the interlocutor with the Committee on Foreign Affairs on behalf of the LUC and the “Ukraine at the Crossroads” Conference Steering Committee.
In his statement at the opening of the Conference the President of the UCC, Paul Grod, noted: “As a co-organizer and patron of this conference I would like to thank the conference organizing committee .… I would like to thank and recognize Bob Onyschuk, Jars Balan, Borys Potapenko, Vlodko Zarytsky and Taras Zalusky…. Also I would like to thank and recognize all the conference sponsors as well as the League Ukrainian Canadians for in addition to being a conference sponsor they brought (with BCU Foundation support) a large youth contingent to this conference. I’d also like to thank the League for their leadership in organizing with the support of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress the Hearings by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs this week.”
The “Ukraine at the Crossroads” Conference and the hearings at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development were made possible by the generous donations of Platimum Sponsor: Community Trust; Gold Sponsors: Temerty Family Foundation, Prombank Investment Limited, UCU Ukrainian Credit Union, Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, and Ian O. Ihnatowycz of First Generation Capital; Silver Sponsors: Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), Heritage Foundation of Chicago; and Corporate Sponsors: Andrew and Vera Witer, BCU Foundation, Caravan Logistics, Community Trust Company, Olzych Foundation, Shelton Canada, The Temerty Family Foundation, UCU Ukrainian Credit Union. In this regard, the efforts of Bob Onyschuk, President of Conference co-organizer, Canada Ukraine Foundation, deserves special mention.
The “Ukraine at the Crossroads” Conference, taken together with the Parliamentary Hearings at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, constituted a historic, precedent-setting sequence of events at a critical time for Ukraine. Indeed, two days of hearings at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, the conference banquet and next day program were attended by overflow crowds cumulatively exceeding 600 participants.
However, what is most important is that these events specifically addressed and focused Canadian and international attention on the most pressing issues confronting Ukraine’s quest for mature nation-statehood: support for Euro-Atlantic integration, standing-up to the Russian government’s efforts to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence, and support for democracy and civil society, including free and fair parliamentary elections in Ukraine later this year.
The Ukrainian Canadian community as a whole, as represented by the UCC, can collectively take pride in that the cumulative impact of these interrelated and internationally significant proceedings will further affirm Canada’s leadership in supporting Ukraine.