In whirlwind visit, Ukraine's justice minister signs series of judicial agreements in Canada (10/13/96)

In whirlwind visit, Ukraine's justice minister signs series of judicial agreements in Canada

by Andrij Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Over one intensive work-week in late September, Ukraine's Justice Minister Serhiy Holovaty met with Canada's legal establishment as part of his government's ongoing effort to reform its justice system and consolidate the rule of law in his country.

On the first day of official meetings, September 23, Mr. Holovaty was in the host nation's capital, Ottawa, to sign a bilateral treaty "On Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters" with his Canadian counterpart, Allan Rock.

The charter, which goes into effect on November 1, provides for assistance in the investigation and prosecution of all offenses proscribed by the respective Parliaments of Ukraine and Canada, specifically mentions those offenses concerning "taxation, duties, customs and international transfer of capital or payments," and provides for the freezing, seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime.

According to a press release issued by Canada's Department of Justice, the intent of the treaty is in part to make Ukraine part of "an international network of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties ... an important step in the fight against organized and transnational crime."

Canada has now signed a number of these agreements with other states, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and France.

The two ministers also signed an Understanding in Principle on cooperation in the field of justice. With this understanding, Canada's Department of Justice and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine agreed to offer each other the widest measure of mutual assistance in promoting a better knowledge of their respective systems of justice and sharing their expertise on issues such as legislative drafting and organization of a ministry of justice.

This kind of sharing was already going on immediately prior to the signing. Earlier that morning, Minister Holovaty met with Canadian Deputy Minister of Justice George Thomson and Associate Deputy Minister Richard Thompson to discuss administrative and managerial issues concerning Ukraine's efforts to reorganize its Justice Ministry.

He also talked with Robert Bergeron of the Canadian Justice Department's legislation section, on issues such as technical problems in legislative drafting, distinctions between policy-making and legislative drafting, and the various avenues through which Canada could provide further assistance in this area.

The following day, September 24, Mr. Holovaty's delegation met with officials of the Canadian International Development Agency, including the director of CIDA's Former Soviet Union Division, George Saibel, to discuss Ukraine's priorities regarding justice reform and the agency's "rule of law" programs.

Also on that day, Mr. Holovaty met with Pierre Pettigrew, Canada's minister for international cooperation, to discuss the academic programs and public sector initiatives CIDA will fund to the tune of $2.5 million (Canadian) over two and a half years.

According to a September 11 CIDA press release, the non-profit, Ottawa-based Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) will manage assistance provided to Ukraine's Academy of Public Administration and the Ukrainian government, and will coordinate exchange and internship programs with the Carleton, Victoria, Saskatchewan and Ryerson Polytechnic universities; the École Nationale d'Administration Publique du Québec; Partners in Training Canada; and the Ontario Municipal Management Institute.

Minister Holovaty also met with Associate Deputy Minister Justice Mario Dion, to discuss reforms contemplated in Ukraine and the experience of the Canadian Justice Department's recent reorganization and other matters of judicial administration.

Montreal and the civil code

The next two days of Minister Holovaty's tour brought him to Montreal, together with the other members of his delegation, which included Ukraine's Civil Code Reform Commission Chairman Anatoly Dovgert; Minister Holovaty's chief of staff, Kostiantyn Mazur; and his special adviser, Daniel Bilak.

On September 25, the delegation attended a roundtable discussion on civil code reform hosted by McGill University. Messrs. Holovaty and Dovgert spoke from the Ukrainian side, while four scholars from the host institution's faculty of law (Profs. Paul-André Crépeau, Madeleine Cantin-Cumyn, Nicholas Kasirer and Rod Macdonald) addressed issues concerning optimal civil code structure, current practices in codifying private law, the legal regulation of business and the organization of corporate bodies.

Minister Holovaty then addressed an assembly gathered at the McGill Law Faculty's Moot Court.

Minister Holovaty also had a reunion with a longtime fellow colleague in matters legal in Ukraine, Marc Lalonde, senior partner at the prestigious law firm of Stikeman & Elliot, a former Canadian justice minister and a current member of the Council of Advisers to the Parliament of Ukraine.

On September 26, the Ukrainian delegation met with the Order of Notaries of Québec; present were its president, Dénis Marsolais; chairman of its international relations committee, Jeffrey Talpis; former president Louise Bélanger; the order's communications director, Antonin Fortin; notary Caroline Fortin; and Ukrainian Canadian notary Petro Choma.

They discussed a proposed program of assistance that would be run by the order in privatizing Ukrainian notaries, issues of freedom of practice and the future establishment of an Order of Notaries of Ukraine.

Later that day Minister Holovaty and his delegation met with senior officials of Québec's Office des Professions, to discuss professional organizations in the province, with an accent on the organization of private bar associations.

Toronto's meetings and address

After arriving in Toronto on September 27 the delegation met over breakfast with officials of the Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce, led by CUCC President Gerald Fedchun, in anticipation of a visit to Ukraine by a Canadian delegation headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy.

Mr. Holovaty also met with representatives of the Ontario Civil Justice Review (CJR), including Project Director Ann Merritt. CJR is a provincial agency formed as a joint initiative of the province's Court of Justice, General Division and the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario.

Minister Holovaty then delivered an address on the implications of Ukraine's newly adopted Constitution to the Empire Club of Canada in the posh environment of the Royal York Hotel's Ontario Room.

A press conference held on the premises following the address closed out the official program of the visit, although the minister and his delegation spent the weekend in Ontario's provincial capital before being whisked off back to Ukraine on a Lufthansa jet.