1992: A LOOK BACK: Canada: contacts and controversy (12/27/92)

1992: A LOOK BACK

Canada: contacts and controversy

To begin the year, Canada's minister of external affairs, Barbara McDougall, formalized diplomatic relations with Ukraine during a trip to Kiev, on January 26-27. She arrived coincidentally with a Canadian Red Cross shipment of humanitarian aid.

A policy forum of Ukrainian and Canadian government officials and businessmen took place in Ottawa, on February 21. An address was delivered by Bohdan Krawchenko, director (on leave) of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies and member of the Council of Advisors to the Ukrainian Parliament, in which he stressed the "need to make direct access to Ukraine a reality and not ghettoize our contact," and ensure that Canadians of all ethnic backgrounds make their presence felt in the newly independent country. Many speakers alluded to the need to increase Canada's Embassy staff in Kiev, and move them out of a hotel and into proper facilities.

Nestor Gayowsky, who served as Canada's representative in the Ukrainian capital since January 1991, was upgraded to charge d'affaires in Kiev in February, and then replaced when Francois Mathys, a career diplomat, with a record of intercessions on behalf of Ukrainian dissidents, was appointed Canada's first ambassador in August. Mr. Gayowsky stayed on as chief of the trade desk.

In February, the location of Ukrainian Canadian Congress headquarters engendered another round in the ongoing east-west conflict within the Ukrainian Canadian community, with the question of the new diplomatic presence in Ottawa as the flash point. Ihor Bardyn, a vice-president of the UCC, claimed that it should be moved to Ottawa because of the arrival of the independent state's representatives in the capital and a greater probable concentration of trade and other delegations there. Dmytro Cipywnyk, the outgoing UCC president, countered that this was an age-old prejudice that ignored the reality of where the bulk of the Ukrainian population in Canada lives and has lived.

The independence referendum campaign had been assisted by emigre individuals and organizations, and their support left a controversial legacy. Erast Huculak, national president of the Canadian Friends of Rukh, was embroiled in a story that broke on the pages of Canada's "national newspaper," The Globe and Mail (March 18). Parties on both sides of the ocean had alleged that the national chapter of CFR blackmailed the Ukrainian coalition into returning surplus funds remaining from the referendum campaign. The accusers suggested that the funds were withdrawn because of the CFR national executive's antipathy to Vyacheslav Chornovil and opposition to his candidacy for the Rukh chair.

On March 24, Mr. Huculak called a press conference to give his interpretation of events. He said the funds were returned at the request of Rukh representatives in Ukraine, not in response to a demand from the CFR, and that the return of the money was in accordance with an agreement made when the funds were initially turned over to Rukh. Mr. Huculak's account was also published in the March 26 issue of The Globe and Mail.

In late May, incoming Ambassador Levko Lukianenko was feted at a triple-occasion banquet, honoring the new envoy, Canada's 125th anniversary, and the centennial of Ukrainian settlement in Canada. Mr. Lukianenko was officially installed on June 16.

In early June, the national UCC set up a non-charitable fund (because of the political nature of the cause) to provide the Ukrainian Embassy in Canada with an appropriate location and independent staff. By mid-July $300,000 had been raised. The amount doubled thanks to a grant from an entrepreneur, and then the troubles began.

Oleh Romaniw, a Winnipeg lawyer representing the UCC, said that the organization was opting out of the purchase of a targeted building in September, at a time when $1.2 million had already been raised. The dispute centered on pricing irregularities, in which Mr. Huculak of the CFR appeared to be implicated. Mr. Huculak then diffused the situation somewhat by purchasing the Metcalfe Street property outright for the higher price.

On September 29-October 1, Canada's titular head of state, Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn, visited the land of his forebears to emphasize Canada's commitment to "the new partnership between our two nations" and unveil a program that will place about 200 Canadians in Ukraine's public administration, agricultural and health sectors. A statue honoring Mr. Hnatyshyn was unveiled in Saskatoon in September.

The triennial congress of the UCC was held on October 8-11, at which Mr. Romaniw was elected president, defeating John Gregorovich, chairman of the Toronto-based Civil Liberties Commission of the UCC. The congress was also attended by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, which provoked a debate on the issue of redress for the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during the first world war.

The assembly, dominated by the "Big Six" organizations, rejected proposals for the democratization of the organization's representation, structure and voting procedures. This was in stark contrast to calls issued by Ukrainian Ambassador Lukianenko, also in attendance, and a paper presented by Professor Wsewolod Isajiw of the University of Toronto, who spoke of the UCC's organizational decay, and criticized its ossified leadership and constitutional inflexibility. Prof. Isajiw also sounded the alarm on the gradual abandonment of multicultural policies by the Canadian government and urged the UCC to take a firm stand on the issue. He further contended that the UCC must lobby to provide for the continuing influx of Ukrainian immigrants if the community wishes to remain viable in Canada.

During the policy forum held earlier in the year, Oleksiy Rodionov, a former member of the USSR embassy's staff now part of the Ukrainian contingent, had raised eyebrows with his suggestion that Mr. Lukianenko had declined an offer to serve as Ukraine's ambassador to Canada. Then came suggestions that Mr. Rodionov had been involved in improprieties surrounding the embassy purchase. In October things came to a head when Ambassador Lukianenko dismissed Mr. Rodionov and Evhen Kutcher for conduct unbecoming to embassy staff, charging them with public drunkenness and "spying." The two former consular officers initially disappeared, failed to use tickets issued them by the Ukrainian foreign ministry for a return to Ukraine, and then filed claims for Canadian citizenship. These events soured the atmosphere as the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa was formally opened on December 1, with a new staff.

A cloud also hung over the UCC as the national executive attempted to disband the Civil Liberties Commission in late October, amid suspicions that the move was politically motivated. Increasing criticism from the CLC's research director, Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk, and the presidential challenge by its chairman, Mr. Gregorovich, were suggested by some as possible factors. Contacted by The Weekly near press time, Mr. Gregorovich declined to comment beyond stating that a meeting with UCC national officers was tentatively scheduled for January, 1993.

The Ukrainian consular office in Toronto, housed in offices donated by the Ukrainian Canadian Art Foundation, was officially opened on December 19.

This year's centennial of Ukrainian settlement in Canada commemorations included the Art and Ethnicity exhibit in Hull, Quebec, at the ultra-modern earth-contoured Canadian Museum of Civilization; the Spirit of Ukraine exhibit at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which featured priceless ancient iconography, a powerful Shevchenko self-portrait, and a breathtaking constellation of modern Ukrainian art from the 1910-1930s; a special program at the Dauphin festival in August; and a special issue of "Prairie Fire" (Autumn 1992), devoted to the work of Canadian writers of Ukrainian background, among others.

| Home Page |