1998: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Canada-Ukraine: exchange of envoys (12/27/98)

1998: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Canada-Ukraine: exchange of envoys

Canada and Ukraine had exchanged new ambassador by year's end, but otherwise 1998 marked one of the less eventful years for relations between the two countries.

Given the volatility in global markets, particularly their effect on Russia, a planned "Team Canada" trade mission to be led by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (his fifth) early next year to that country and to Ukraine was downgraded to an official visit by the PM.

Still, 1998 began on an upbeat note, with the Toronto branch of Canadian Friends of Ukraine announcing plans to help establish a Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Resource Center at the Verkovna Rada in Kyiv, which would house Canadian federal and provincial laws, as well as regulations concerning various agencies and quasi-governmental institutions. Leonid Kravchuk, former president of Ukraine, agreed to serve as the project's honorary patron in Ukraine.

Perhaps the center's resources would include information on Canada's immigration rules, which came under fire from the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society.

According to the society's president, Bohdan Mykytiuk, "recent [Canadian] internal Immigration Department documents indicate[d] that there is in fact a quota system for visa offices and that Ukrainians are near the bottom of the targeted groups." While the annual visa limit for Ukraine is 750, it's 22,000 for the United States, he said.

Calling the process discriminatory, Mr. Mykytiuk blamed much of the problem on the downsizing of the immigration staff at the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv.

In October the 19th triennial convention of the UCC also raised the issue of Ukrainian immigration to Canada and resolved to demand a review of administrative procedures at the Canadian Visa Office in Kyiv to ensure equitable and timely visas, and address the allegations of bribes being taken by Ukrainian citizens working for the Embassy of Canada.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government announced it would send 10 observers to monitor Ukraine's March 29 elections to the Verkhovna Rada. Earlier in the month, Canada's minister for international cooperation, Diane Marleau, spent two days in Kyiv and later told The Weekly that she had expressed Canada's concern over the "slow pace of economic reform" occurring in Ukraine.

"My message to them was that if they make it impossible for us to help, then help becomes impossible," said Ms. Marleau, who is responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that oversees Canada's financial assistance program to Ukraine.

In July, that much-anticipated Team Canada trade trip to Russia, Poland and Ukraine was announced by Prime Minister Chrétien. He said that, by visiting the three countries, "we are making sure that Canadian businesses can explore the opportunities offered by these growing economies."

While Canada's Embassy in Kyiv geared up for the prime minister's visit, they also had cause to celebrate one of their own. Toronto-born Roman Waschuk, a counselor at the Embassy, was one of four members of Canada's 4,000-strong diplomatic corps to receive this year's Foreign Service Award, presented annually by the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers.

Mr. Waschuk, 36, was recognized "for his personal and distinctive contributions to the advancement and close relations between Ukraine and Canada."

Meanwhile back at home, Dmytro Ostapenko, Ukraine's minister of culture and arts, joined his colleagues from 20 countries at a cultural summit in Ottawa hosted by Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps in early July. While in Canada, Mr. Ostapenko discussed the establishment of a bilateral cultural agreement between Canada and Ukraine, which Prime Minister Chrétien is expected to sign when he visits Ukraine next month.

On July 15, Canada named a new ambassador to Ukraine, veteran diplomat Derek Fraser, who had recently represented the country in Greece. Predicting that Ukrainian trade "should grow naturally," Mr. Fraser assumed his duties in Kyiv in late August.

His expectations for Ukraine's performance had some merit when, in early September, officials of Lviv's Electron Bank signed an agreement with their counterparts at the Buduchnist Credit Union to facilitate the "easy exchange of funds between individuals and companies in each country at reasonable rates."

As the year wound down, Ukraine's third ambassador to Canada, Volodymyr Furkalo, 45, left for his new posting in Yugoslavia after serving in Ottawa for three years. He was replaced by one of Ukraine's former vice ministers of foreign affairs, Volodymyr Khandogiy, 46, who presented his diplomatic credentials to Canadian Governor General Roméo LeBlanc in early December.

While Mr. Khandogiy was hobnobbing with his hosts at his official welcome-to-Canada event, his Canadian counterpart in Kyiv created a minor furor back home over remarks he made to the Kyiv-based newspaper Den (Day) about the Ukrainian Canadian community's request for an apology from Ottawa over the internment of some 5,000 Ukrainian Canadians between 1914 and 1920. In a December 1 news release issued by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Ambassador Fraser was quoted as having said that "there were no camps for Ukrainians as such in Canada, [the] camps were for enemy aliens, including Austrian citizens."

The UCCLA communiqué added that Mr. Fraser said that what had occurred during World War I is now "ancient history." In response, UCCLA Chairman John Gregorovich chastised the Canadian ambassador for being "clearly unaware of the facts" and suggested Mr. Fraser "should probably be better briefed on this subject before he publicly pronounces on it, embarrassing Canada in Ukraine by revealing his ignorance of this unfortunate episode in Canadian history." The UCCLA planned to ask Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy for both an explanation and apology from Mr. Fraser.

At year's end, it turned out that provincial prime ministers would not be heading east to Kyiv and Warsaw with their federal colleague. According to Prime Minister Chrétien, the events of the second half of 1998 made it clear "that what Russia needs now is not a large-scale trade mission." Nor did it appear that Russia needed a visit by the Canadian PM, based on late-October reports that ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin had told Mr. Chrétien to effectively stay at home.

So, come January, the prime minister is scheduled to make his first trip to Ukraine and Poland - alone.

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