FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES STUDY ON UKRAINE
Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine (CCSU)
League of Ukrainian Canadians, League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM), Society of Veterans of UPA, Homin Ukrainy/Ukrainian Echo
TORONTO, June 21, 2012 The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development in the Canadian Parliament completed its Study on Ukraine and submitted to the House of Commons its final report "The Rule of Law, Democracy and Prosperity in Ukraine: A Canadian Parliamentary Perspective.”
“The Canadian Conference in Support of Ukraine (CCSU) welcomes the report by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development,” said Orest Steciw, National President of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC). “Following Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s trip to Ukraine in October 2010, the LUC and its fellow organizations in the CCSU initiated the call for hearings and worked with Members of Parliament to convene the hearings. We also are pleased that the CCSU was of assistance in the logistics, identifying issues to be addressed and proposing witnesses to appear before the hearings,” added Steciw.
“That the comprehensive report focuses on key concerns of Ukrainian Canadians is most important. It is gratifying to us that the LUC and its partners in the CCSU, League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW), Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada (CYM), Society of Veterans of UPA, and Homin Ukrainy/Ukrainian Echo, worked together and in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) on the hearings and on many other relevant projects during the first half of 2012,” Steciw concluded.
Olyana Grod, National President of CYM, also underscored the importance of united action. “Local chapters of our CCSU member organizations, in cooperation with the UCC, worked over the course of more than a year in engaging Members of Parliament to convene the hearings. This endeavour was based on civic activism and grass-roots initiatives to work with our government on issues of concern not only to Ukrainian Canadians, but to all Canadian citizens,” she said.
During the March hearings in Ottawa, Ihor Kozak, International Affairs Committee Chair of the LUC, testified before the Standing Committee. In addition to Mr. Kozak, all other witnesses at the March hearings also were speakers at the “Ukraine at the Crossroads” conference held in Ottawa the same week as the hearings. The international conference was convened under the auspices of the UCC and chaired by the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF), with the participation of the LUC in the conference Steering Committee. Subsequently, Borys Potapenko, Executive Director of the LUC, Taras Zalusky, Executive Director of the UCC, and Bob Onyschuk, President of the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF), attended the sessions convened by the Standing Committee in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv in May this year. A month earlier, Mr. Potapenko, Mr. Zalusky and Taras Pidzamecky, President of the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF), were members of the delegation to Ukraine headed by Hon. Beverley Oda, Minister of International Cooperation. Contemporaneous to these developments was the convening of the international conference “Assessing Ukraine/NATO Relations on the Eve of the Chicago NATO Summit” on May 19, 2012 in Chicago, which was co-organized by the CCSU and the American Conference in Support of Ukraine (ACSU), and held under the auspices of the UCC, the Ukrainian World Congress and others. Finally, on May 31, 2012, the annual meeting of the Canada Ukraine Advisory Committee (CUAC) was held in Ottawa, including a working lunch chaired by the Hon. John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“The organizations of the CCSU were important contributors to the process of our Ukrainian Canadian community coming together to either initiate, convene, conduct or participate in no less than six major events in such a short time frame,” said Borys Potapenko. “Without the requisite sense of common purpose many of these important developments would not have been possible,” Potapenko said. “Therefore, the Standing Committee Report to the House of Commons is also the culmination of many organizations working together on multiple projects and programs over the course of many months,” he concluded.
The 84-page report covers all aspects of the status of civil society, media freedoms, rule of law, and climate for business and investment. Separate attention is directed toward the parliamentary elections to be held in Ukraine in October 2012. In this regard, and as noted in the report, the elections are of immense importance especially with regards to Ukraine’s position within Europe and in its relations with the West.
Of special note are the report’s 8 recommendations to the Canadian government that address terms and conditions for long term engagement with Ukraine, including medical treatment for and the release of political prisoners; rule of law, respect for human rights, media freedom, religious freedom and academic freedom; free and fair elections in Ukraine in October this year, including a large Canadian - long and short term - election observer mission; making ratification of a free trade agreement conditional on progress on human rights; directing CIDA to focus on strengthening civil society organizations that are working on rule of law, human rights and governance issues; increasing participation in the Youth Mobility Agreement; directing Canada to play a leadership role in the G8, G20, International Monetary Fund in combating money laundering in and through Ukraine and in restricting travel and illicit "business" activities of corrupt oligarchs, government officials and their families. The full report can be found at:
“The Standing Committee has earned the deep appreciation of the Ukrainian Canadian community for conducting the Study on Ukraine,” said Adriana Buyniak Willson, National President of the LUCW. “Especially the trip to Ukraine by the Standing Committee, led by MP Bob Dechert, Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Minister, to see first-hand the situation on the ground in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv showed the commitment by the Standing Committee to gathering as much information as possible in compiling its recommendations to the government. For this the MPs deserve our sincere thanks,” said Buyniak Willson.
