Month: May 29, 2020 4:26 am

Ten years ago, on June 2, 2010, members of the National Assembly of Quebec unanimously passed Bill 390 – An Act to Proclaim Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day.

Introduced in November 2009 by Member of the National Assembly Louise Beaudoin, the bill received unanimous approval at its first reading. The legislation recognizes the Holodomor as “the famine and genocide that occurred in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 where millions of Ukrainians perished as victims of a famine deliberately induced by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin to quash the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a free and independent Ukraine.”

Moscow must understand that the forced dissolution of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in Crimea will have identical consequences for the Russian Orthodox Church in mainland Ukraine (known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate), Archbishop Klyment, head of the beleaguered Church in Crimea has said.

The archbishop was commenting on a vital, albeit extremely belated, resolution passed by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers at the beginning of March. While Crimea is occupied, this transfers the Cathedral of Ss. Volodymyr and Olha in Symferopol to state ownership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that flats be provided for former Ukrainian enforcement officers who betrayed their oath to Ukraine on Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. Since the individuals need to have been on Ukraine’s register as needing housing, we can only guess whether the turncoats who have zealously helped Russia persecute Crimean Tatars will be thus rewarded.

This is not the first time that Moscow has rewarded traitors. However, Mr. Putin’s order that the Russian government get on to this before February 1, 2021, comes less than two months after the Russian president issued a decree effectively declaring Ukrainian citizens “foreigners” and forcing those Ukrainians without Russian citizenship to either sell their land or risk losing it. Since the decree will apply to the land of many Ukrainians forced to leave their homes after Russia’s invasion, it is possible that their flats could end up “allocated” to traitors.

Dear Editor:

Тhe Russian Federation (RF) is attempting to use a global pandemic to pull off an incredible scam: bartering masks and medical equipment for Ukrainian lives.

In 2014, the RF invaded and seized Crimea, and then mounted an overt and vicious military aggression in eastern Ukraine that is into its sixth consecutive year. Despite repeated attempts by Ukraine, and the international community, in particular Germany and France, to negotiate a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, including Minsk I, Minsk II and the 2020 Normandy Four summit in Paris, the RF’s military aggression continues.

Dear Editor:

I enjoyed the commentary written by George Woloshyn, “Ukraine’s land sale law: Boom or bust” (April 19). Land reform is extremely important for Ukraine. This thoughtful article goes into the pro and cons of passing such a law at this time.

 I worked for a major Western company in the agricultural sphere in Ukraine from 1993 to 2004 and feel that with the present political situation now is definitely not the right time for such an undertaking. Why? Because good land will be legally swallowed up by Ukrainian oligarchs and by Western mammoth companies, leaving the poor Ukrainian peasants again with nothing and virtually no employment in that sphere.

With the onset of COVID-19 and all the emergency lockdowns and physical distancing measures that have been enacted in order to slow the spread of the pandemic, people have begun to use various online platforms to conduct church services, meetings, seminars and so on. What has become very popular is a new medium called “webinar,” basically a seminar held on the web.

Many of these, particularly those sponsored by the Washington-based Atlantic Council, deal with Ukraine. The advantage of such online discussions is the ability to link globally, thus allowing experts from both Ukraine and North America to discuss issues simultaneously. Recently one such webinar, sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, brought together both Ukraine’s ambassador to Canada, Andriy Shevchenko, in Ottawa, with Canada’s new ambassador to Ukraine, Larisa Galadza, in Kyiv.

Will the drop in oil prices change the Kremlin’s Ukraine plans? Why should the European Union and the U.S. extend sanctions on Russia? Can the Normandy format be effective? Is Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine a realistic scenario? Why are any direct talks between Ukraine and the occupied territories not an acceptable format? The Ukrainian media outlet Glavkom sat down with Valeriy Chaly, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine, to ask him these questions and speak about a broader range of issues.

Mr. Chaly devoted a large part of his professional life to the Razumkov Center, where he chaired international programs, and he served as deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Petro Poroshenko, advising him on foreign policy. Between 2015 and 2019, Mr. Chaly was Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States.

He was described by some as another Marcel Dionne. They called him “Pee-Wee,” and he is for sure the most unheralded of the 19 players in NHL history to have scored 60 goals in one season.

Diminutive in stature at 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, but with the inner fortitude of a true hockey player, Ukrainian Dennis Maruk broke into the league in 1975 during the golden days of goon hockey. The extremely talented center compensated for his lack of size with a gritty style of play, a confident attitude and a mean-looking Fu Manchu mustache.

TORONTO – The COVID-19 Children’s Relief Initiative was launched on May 20 as an online appeal to provide support to children in Ukraine in need of basic supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.

Almost 100,000 children in Ukraine were living in government-run residential institutions or rehabilitation centers prior to the quarantine announced on March 11. In an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, approximately 50,000 children were sent home to their biological families, many of whom are unable to provide or care for them.

MONTREAL – The Canadian Centre for the Great War (CCGW), a non-profit organization, has launched an online exhibit, “Confined: Reflections on Internment in Canada during the First World War.”

The exhibit shows images from the internment operations in Canada during World War I that targeted, among other ethnic groups, Ukrainians, who were labeled as “enemy aliens.” The exhibit can be found on the center’s website, www.confined.greatwarcentre.com, with additional photos on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/greatwarcentre/photos.

KYIV – On May 18, Ukraine remembered the victims of Joseph Stalin’s genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea. On that day in 1944, the first trainloads of Crimean Tatars were forcibly resettled from the peninsula to Central Asia and Siberia. In total, about 200,000 people were deported via cattle cars by the Stalin regime. Thousands died en route, and tens of thousands more died due to the harsh conditions of exile.

In 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine had declared May 18 as the annual Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide.

The Mejlis, the highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars, called for raising the Crimean Tatar flag with a mourning ribbon and urged the public to light candles in their windows on the night of May 17-18.

KYIV – While attention in Ukraine has remained focused on coping with the coronavirus pandemic and meeting the conditions to secure further financial support from the International Monetary Fund and others, there have also been some notable developments in the foreign policy sphere.

The occasion of the first anniversary of Volodymyr Zelenskyy assuming office as president has also encouraged both the president and the press to reflect on his performance in the area of external relations – and especially those concerning Russia. The president has provided his own thoughts on what has been achieved and where things stand.