“Ukraine at the Crossroads” – Conference to Offer Directions

The New Pathway’s John Pidkowich recently interviewed Bohdan Onyschuk, Q.C., President of the Canada Ukraine Foundation prior to the international forum and conference “Ukraine at the Crossroads” to be held on March 7 and 8, 2012, at the Chateau Laurier Hotel, Ottawa.

John Pidkowich: Who is the organizer of the “Ukraine at the Crossroads” conference and what is the role of the Canada Ukraine Foundation?

Bohdan Onyschuk: The primary organizers of the Conference are the Canada Ukraine Foundation as well as the University of Ottawa Chair of Ukrainian Studies, and also the Center for US-Ukrainian Relations. It is being held under the patronage of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – National, which has been integrally involved in planning the conference. The Canada-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and the US-Ukraine Business Council in Washington have also been very instrumental, and will be speaking to the business issues – economic freedoms, bureaucracy, and corruption – in Ukraine.  We at the Foundation started planning this conference almost a year ago now as a result of the first clear signs by the Yanukovych government showing that they were seriously backsliding on economic and democratic freedoms in Ukraine.

JP: What is the purpose and intended outcomes of the Conference, and are there any planned deliverables or action items to be carried out?

B. Onyschuk: The purpose of the conference is to bring together a very large group of experts from the mainstream of current thinking from the UK, US, European Union, Canada, and from some of the democratic institutions in Ukraine, to discuss where Ukraine stands right now at the crossroads, and the direction it should take to resolve its major economic and democratic problems seen in Ukraine.

The intended outcomes, firstly, is to inform MPs and the Canadian government on the current state of events in Ukraine in the key areas of concern – about the steep slide in democratic rule, the rule of law, human rights, elections, economic freedoms, corruption and geopolitics.

Secondly, its intended purpose is to underscore to the Government of Canada how important are the October parliamentary elections, and having a very large observer corp there from Canada to make sure that the elections are fair as opposed to the local municipal elections of October 2011.

Thirdly, it is proposed to come up with a series of policies, directives and specific items that Western governments can do to try to bring Ukraine over to the West. We picked the name “Ukraine at the Crossroads”, because Ukraine has a choice to go “east” or “west”, but it has been wavering. The current government thinks that it does not need to make a choice – well they do. The EU is concerned about human rights and democracy, but offers Western markets. Russia offers another set of incentives, but with its strong hold on energy and gas powers could very easily bring Ukraine to its knees. In the mean time, the economy is in very deep decline; it has de-stabilized. No country in Europe has had a 15% decline in GDP over the last year. A lack of leadership and vision have contributed to a strong danger threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty, along with government corruption and kleptocracy.

Overall, it is hoped that the Conference will produce some directives for where Ukraine should go, but also how the Western governments can offer incentives for Ukraine to make the right choice.

JP: What is the special significance of the conference?

B. Onyschuk: Of special note, because the Conference brings together 28 of the top experts on Ukraine in the Western World, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs has decided to hold two special sessions on the Monday and Wednesday immediately before the Dinner and Conference to hear 8-10 of these experts. There has been great interest expressed by Members of Parliament of Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, many of whom will attend the parliamentary hearings, and Dinner and Conference. 

In terms of the key highlights, we are privileged to have Genya Tymoshenko and Hryhoriy Nemiriya attend. Ms. Tymoshenko will give testimony at the Foreign Affairs Standing Committee meeting, attend the Dinner and the Conference Morning Session on March 8. She will speak, of course on behalf of her mother being in jail, but will address this as an example of what is happening in Ukraine - the issue being that most of the democratic leadership opposed to the Yanukovych regime is either in jail or under prosecution or persecution.

JP: More specific to the Conference program, what are the highlights of the March 7 Opening Forum Dinner and panel discussion “Quo Vadis Ukraine”?

B. Onyschuk: Quo vadis is a famous phrase from Biblical time – Where are you going?  In the novel and Hollywood movie of the same name, the answer is – There, go I. And that is part of the issue and part of the problem, because where goes Ukraine, so we go – the Western diaspora will be forced to follow or accept whatever decision Ukraine makes, and then we don’t know what the consequences might be. The Opening Dinner Panel… brings forward representatives of four governments to speak about the position of each vis--vis Ukraine. We have the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, a senior member of the European Union, the Government Leader in the House of Commons, The Hon. Peter Van Loan, who will be speaking on behalf of Canada, and well-known former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk will be speaking as Chair of Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Euro integration. He will lay the background for where we see Ukraine today. The panel will be moderated by Chrystia Freeland who is very well-known, not just from The Economist, but from Financial Times and Thompson Reuters.

JP: What are the highlights of the next day’s conference sessions?

B. Onyschuk: Another key highlight is that the Conference is happening four days after the March 4 Russian presidential elections and we have invited three of the best Sovietologists in the Western World to speak at the Plenary Luncheon “Ukraine and the Russian Question” on March 8. James Sherr is well-known at Chatham House and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. He is an expert on Russia and will make his commentary presentation based on the outcome of the Russian elections. As well, he will address the relationship between Russia and Ukraine and how to approach the issues. He will be moderated by Robert Amsterdam, a Canadian lawyer of international repute, who was Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s attorney in the Russian oligarch’s two trials for contesting Vladimir Putin’s first election as President. What is significant is that Amsterdam was denied an entry visa and had to instruct his junior counsel by phone in defence of Khodorkovsky who was denied legal representation. The session’s discussant is Andrei Piontkovsky, Senior Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences. This exceptionally interesting session as the Russian elections will have its impact on the region and indicate what Ukraine can expect from its northern neighbour.

JP: Would you comment more on the participation of the US State Official, Ukrainian and other guests?

B. Onyschuk: We are told that the US State Department wants to announce at the conference an important position on Ukraine, delivered by Tom Melia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The US will be well represented by speakers: Anders Aslund, economist; Ariel Cohen (Heritage Foundation); Morgan Williams (US-Ukraine Business Council); Bohdan Futey, Federal Judge and constitutional expert on elections; and Walter Zaryckyj (Center for US-Ukrainian Relations).

Some of the other key Ukrainian speakers include Oleh Rybachuk who was the former Minister of Euro Integration and Ukrainian Ambassador to Brussels under the Yushchenko government, and knowledgeable on the Ukraine EU accession negotiations. Now, he runs the NGO New Citizen, a think-tank organization building a grassroots framework of younger people defining policies for Ukraine to follow in the 21^st Century. Journalist Mykola Riabchuk, from Krytyka in Kyiv, and Halyna Coynash, Chair of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, are also important players in Ukraine.

In conclusion, it is sincerely hoped that most of the leaders of the Ukrainian community across Canada in various organizations come to the Conference, first of all to underscore and show Members of Parliament, The Senate, and the Government of Canada how important Ukraine is to the Ukrainian Canadian community and the diaspora. But secondly, to give community expertise and take part in the Conference. The Conference is not just for listening to the experts, but it is also intended to provide a forum for questions and answers, discussion and create an iterative learning process. 

For full conference programme and registration, visit www.cufoundation.ca 

For more information, email olenka.reshitnyk@ucc.ca / call 613-232-8822 or visit www.ucc.ca

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Bohdan Onyschuk, Q.C., President of the Canada Ukraine Foundation