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NEWSLETTER!
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UCPBA TALK TO YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT JOINING:
Let them know about the benefits of membership, the fun of being a member and the potential for community service.
NEWSLETTER & MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY
MEMBER EVENTS
Speaker’s Dinners Golf Tournament Annual Barbeque Christmas Dinner Historical Walking Tours Crafts Workshops & More
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Yearly SCHOLARSHIPS: designed to assist undergraduates IVAN FRANKO LECTURE: Done in cooperation with the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, this annual lecture brings the best of academic research on Ukraine and Ukrainians in Canada to Ottawa. THE RAMON HNATYSHYN MEMORIAL LECTURE: Also run with the Chair, this occasional series takes advantage of high-calibre academics, politicians and others passing through Ottawa. DAVID BURLIUK EXHIBIT. He was the founder of the Futurist Movement in art and literature in Eastern Europe before the First World War, We have been working the Winnipeg Art Gallery to do the show
SO WHO ARE WE, REALLY? We’re a service group, bringing together business persons & professionals with disparate political, religious and generational origins and viewpoints in the service of Ottawa’s Ukrainian-Canadian community. We work hard, but also like to enjoy ourselves. If you want to be part of the most dynamic group in the Ukrainian community of Ottawa, fill in the membership form and mail it in, along with your first year’s dues. Find the membership form on: http://www.infoukes.com/ucpbaott/docs/mem_appl.htm OTTAWA
UKRAINIA ROYALS
BECOME THE NEWSLETTER’S ASSOCIATE EDITOR!
Do you want to develop your writing and editorial skills? Work
your fingers to the bone and then listen to all the complaints, It’s fun! It’s entertaining! It’s Ukrainian! Contact the editor (See masthead, upper left this page). WELL? WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE? WHY ISN’T YOUR AD APPEARING IN THE UCPBA(O) NEWSLETTER? LIKE THE BIRDS SAY, IT’S CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP! Contact the Your Humble Editor TM for rates and other information.
NEW UKRAINIAN FOOD SHOP!
There is a new Ukrainian take-out food shop in
town: COMMUNITY TRADE SHOW
for :
For more information, contact: Vicki Karpiak
REMEMBERING IN OTTAWA: November has become a somber month of commemoration for our community, in both its Canadian and Ukrainian aspects. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the whole country paused to remember those soldiers, sailors and airmen who did not return from fighting Canada’s wars. On two other days events commemorating the Holodomor were held in Ottawa. The Holodomor is the artificial famine, staged by the Soviet regime in 1932-33, that killed over six million Ukrainians. UCPBA(O) was, in one way or another, involved in all three events. It’s interesting to compare, and draw conclusions from, the different styles and content of each. REMEMBRANCE DAY
For the past sixteen years UCPBA(O) has been sponsoring a wreath to be laid at the National War Memorial on Remembrance Day, at the same ceremony that the Governor-General, Prime Minister, ambassadors and other dignitaries lay their own wreaths. For the past sixteen years Ron Sorobey has accepted the responsibility and honour of laying our wreath. Twelve years ago Ron took it upon himself to contact the local branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and offer to do the same for them. Since then, these have been the only two symbols of remembrance from the Ukrainian Canadian community to be presented at the national ceremony. As part of the diplomatic corps, the Embassy of Ukraine also regularly sends a representative to lay a wreath on this occasion. We’re all aware of the solemnity of the occasion. A few hymns. A poem. The laying of wreaths. A moment of silence. There are no passionate speeches condemning past enemies. No calls to arms. Preceding the ceremony for a number of days, even weeks, one sees and hears in the media the personal stories of living veterans, of those that did not return and of their families. All these elements combine to produce a telling, and long-lasting, effect on the mind and memory of virtually every Canadian.
BE WELL AND PROSPER MY BELOVED UKRAINE
On November 15th the Ukrainian Canadian Professional & Business Association of Ottawa (with Ron Sorobey being the organizer) & the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptysky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies sponsored the month’s first Holodomor commemoration: a performance of ‘Be Well and Prosper My Beloved Ukraine’. Written and performed by Father Ed Evanko, this one-man show was an evening of songs combined with readings from eyewitness accounts by Anatoliy Dimarov, Miron Dolot, Yevhen Hutsalo & Olena Zvichayna. No costumes, no props, no stage settings or other effects. Just the words of individuals who survived the Holodomor telling their personal stories, telling what they saw. There were no distractions from those words, from those stories. The audience was forced to face the horror of everyday life and experience in the midst of a planned, organized and deliberate famine. The emotional impact was tremendous.
Indeed, the victims of the Holodomor were robbed of dignity
in life by the way they were forced to live their last few months.
They were robbed of dignity in death by the way they died. They were
robbed of dignity in burial by the way their corpses were dumped en
mass in unmarked pits or subjected to unspeakable horrors. IN THE CENTER BLOCK On Wednesday, November 28, in the Centre Block of Parliament, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Group and Ukraine's Embassy in Canada held a ceremony honouring the victims of the famine. The Board of UCPBA(O), and other community representatives, were invited to attend. While the audience waited for the parliamentarians to arrive, a short film was shown. Sponsored by Leo Ledohowski, President of Canad Inns of Winnipeg, the film consisted of a series of interviews with survivors of the Holodomor now living in Winnipeg. One sees the figures of these now-frail individuals against a neutral background. One hears now-tremulous voices describe the indescribable. Senator Reynell Andreychuk (a UCPBA(O) member) acted as mc, introducing Peter Goldring (Conservative MP and Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Group) then called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper. After the Prime Minister, In short order Joy Smith of the Conservatives, Borys Wrzesnewskyj of the Liberals and Peggy Nash of the NDP spoke. Newly-elected UCC president Paul Grod spoke for our community and Ambassador Ihor Ostash for Ukraine. Survivors of the Holodomor from the Ottawa region were introduced and Ukrainian clergy held a short molebyn. The speeches, all short, worked around two major themes: the condemnation of Soviet crimes and calls for Canada’s House of Commons pass a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide. Slight diversions from these themes came when Paul Grod called for the government to stand against despots everywhere and Borys Wrzesnewskyj called for concrete action against genocide in Darfur. Somehow, after hearing the victims themselves speak, the words of the politicians, no matter how sincerely felt, rang a touch hollow and empty. They appeared to use a tragic circumstance to score political points. Any event on Parliament Hill, by the very nature of the venue, will be political. This is the opportunity for us to make know key points to our representatives and for them to respond. Yet somehow, one wanted more, or perhaps less. In the end, the only one who seemed to grasp the true significance of the occasion was Senator Andreychuk, who ended the evening by stating that the event was the beginning of a long march to bring back the dignity of the Ukrainian victims of the Holodomor. At the conclusion of the formal part of the event, there was an opportunity to speak with individual MPs.
FREE ADVERTISING!
Do you provide a service or a product to the Ukrainian community? Are you of Ukrainian heritage? You can get a free listing in the nationally-distributed Ukrainian Maple Pages. Just send in your name, the type of service or commercial operation you maintain (lawyer, real estate agent, food store, undertaker, etc). Include your business phone number and fax, as well as your website (e-mail addresses are not published- to prevent spam). Your entry will appear in the 2008 edition, due out in April. In the meantime, it will be online at the website: maplepages.net. If you want to place a full ad in the printed version, up to full-page in full colour, these are available through UCPBA(O). The commissions we make will go to our community activities. Contact Borys Gengalo at 613-744-8367 or at borys.gengalo@sympatico.ca Over 20,000 copies of the Ukrainian Maple Pages are distributed nationally. Some 1,000 of these find their way to Ottawa. The majority (10,000) are distributed in Toronto. The easiest way to get your free copy is to visit Buduchnist Credit Union at 913 Carling. New e-mail address!
To assist in the electronic distribution of the newslet ter, we now have a new, permanent e-mail address: You can use it to communicate with us.
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LISTEN TO OTTAWA’S UKRAINIAN RADIO
(In Ukrainian and English)
Saturdays 8:00 –9:00 a.m.
the Ottawa Ukrainian radio program on CHIN CJLL 97.9 FM
can also be heard live via the Internet at
http://www.chinradio.com/ottawa979.html
Eclectic music/information/events
Producer and Host: Irena Bell
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