The Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation

CBIE conference in Ottawa
--------------------------------

On November 20 and 21 your president attended a forum sponsored by the
Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE). CBIE is "a charitable
organization to promote international understanding and development through
the free flow of people and active exchange of ideas, information and
technologies across national borders."  Its members include colleges and
universities, schools, government and non-government organizations and
corporations. CBIE itself has four CIDA projects currently operating in 
Ukraine.

The forum conducted a review and update of CIDA technical projects in
Ukraine.  It outlined the challenges and the successes faced by proponents
of these projects. The Ukrainian Canadian Professional & Business Federation
wishes to thank CBIE for the opportunity to have representation at this
forum. There were also two representatives from the Ukrainian Canadian 
Congress.

Much of the news about CIDA projects in Ukraine discussed at the forum
centred around the slow pace of progress towards real reform in Ukraine.
There is a complete report, attached  on the forum. Also, if you are linked
to the internet you can access CIDA’s complete outline of its projects in
Ukraine. The website is:

http://w3.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cida_ind.nsf/pages/index_e.htm
 
Then hit "information of developing countries" on the menu, then go to
"Ukraine" - that should get you there.


Ottawa Recognizes its Volunteers
-------------------------------------------------

On November 23rd, the Ottawa Association held its third annual Honours
Awards Dinner & Dance in support of "Help Us Help the Children". 

the Right Honourable Ramon Hnatyshyn, former Governor General of 
Canada was the featured guest speaker.

The major award of the evening was the Fillip Konowal Victoria Cross
Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to Lucy Hirniak.  Mrs. Hirniak has
spent a virtual lifetime dedicating herself to her Ukrainian community,
often without fanfare or praise. She is a retired school teacher, a
musician, a broadcaster, former president of Ottawa Ukrainian Canadian
Congress, former president of the parish council at the Ukrainian Orthodox
Cathedral, and co-chair of the 1988 Millennium Celebrations at the National
Arts Centre. Congratulations Mrs. Hirniak! 

The Ottawa Association also honoured its Member of the Year - retired
Justice Department lawyer (and Wakaw, Saskatchewan native) Peter Sorokan. In
addition, the nominees for the Ontario Volunteer Award were named:  Irena
Bell, Iris Bradley, Modest Cmoc, Rosemary Hnatyshyn, Michael Kostiuk, Ron
Sorobey and Nicholas Turinski.  

After the awards were given out, UCPBA Ottawa President Michael Kostiuk 
presented a cheque of $1500.00 to Marta Chyczij as a donation to Help Us 
Help The Children. Marta, then gave a very moving speech in 
appreciation of the donation as well as explaining the goals and purposes
 of the organization "Help Us Help The Children". The home page for 
"Help Us Help The Children" is Located at:
www.worldlink.ca/ucpbf/huhtc/huhtc.html   

The Right Honourable Ramon Hnatyshyn, former Governor General of 
Canada was the featured guest
speaker and he gave a very entertaining and interesting speech.

After the speeches, the dancing began!

Congratulations to the event co-ordinator Cornell Popyk and his 
committee of Ron Sorobey,Peter Sorokan, Michael Kostiuk, Olya Henry, 
Mark Daneka, Oksana Yarosh and Irene Wolanskyj
for a fine evening.  

UCPBF president Donna Korchinski had the privilege of attending this event 
and was specially encouraged by the large numbers of young people, some 
of whom traveled by bus from Montreal to do some real old fashioned 
Ukrainian dancing to the live music of "The Zolota Bulava Band".  Other 
attendees included members of Ukraine's embassy in Canada, national and 
international delegates to a CIDA sponsored Forum on non-governmental 
education organizations as well as some other people from Toronto, Ont. 
and Baltimore, U.S.A.


Regina UCPBA Honours Premier Roy Romanow
--------------------------------------------------------------------

On November 24th, the Regina Association honoured Premier Roy Romanow with
his NATION BUILDING award on at a reception and dinner at the Saskatchewan
Centre of the Arts. The award, which was announced at the bi-annual
convention in Calgary in August, recognizes outstanding Ukrainians in
Canada. Mr. Romanow was selected for the award for his contribution to
Canadian unity and his lasting contribution to the Ukrainian community.  We
congratulate Regina president Ed Lysyk and his eager team for regenerating
his association and staging this elegant event. 

There was a contingent from Saskatoon at the dinner, including Federation
board advisor Morris Cherneskey, UCC representatives Adrian_Boykiw and Ostap
Skrpynyk. Harry Krunek, our Yorkton president also came all the way from
Springside, Saskatchewan. Your Federation executive vice president Doris
Watson and president Korchinski also attended.

Besides the presentation of the NATION BUILDING award, Mr. Romanow was
presented with a limited edition lithograph of a sheaf of wheat, a "Didyh",
entitled Harvest Gold. It was a gift of Edmonton artist Larisa Sembaliuk
Cheladyn.  Larisa’s husband Michael (Mich) Cheladyn (vp for Alberta/British
Columbia) also came from Edmonton for the dinner.  Mr. Romanow acknowledged
this fine Canadian Ukrainian artist and said that it would become part of
the permanent art collection which hangs in the office of the premier of
Saskatchewan.  A hearty thank you to Larisa for her generous donation.


Edmonton Media Forum
---------------------------------

On November 25th, the Edmonton association presented a forum on ideas to
increase Ukrainian presence on television. Vlododymr Boychuk of Edmonton
presented the strategic plan for the newly-formed Ukrainian Media Initiative
(UMI) – a unique method of partnerships to produce for-profit television
productions.  Your president Donna Korchinski also presented specific
suggestions as to how a group can get "air time" for its projects and
issues.  The two presentations are on our website at:
http://www. worldlink.ca/~ucpbf 


1999 Convention
------------------------

Your Federation past president Raya Shadursky has diligently prepared a
preliminary outline for your 1999 Convention in Toronto.  Doris Watson, who
was co-chair of the 1997 Calgary convention is reviewing this outline with
Raya and we will have updates as they become available.  Thank you Raya for
all your work on this important plan.


UCPBF Board Member Honoured
----------------------------------------------

Nadja Piatka, Corporate Sponsorship representative on your UCPBF board was
named Alberta regional finalist for the 1997 "Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of
the Year" Award. Nadja was recognized for her "start-up" company "Three
Blondes and a Brownie Inc."  whose main product is the fat wise muffin sold
in all MacDonalds restaurants across Canada as well as other outlets. The
awards were initiated in Toronto in 1992 to recognize Canada’s outstanding
women entrepreneurs.  The selection committee picks a finalist from each
region based on a due diligence investigation of its financial statements by
the award auditors, Price Waterhouse.  Congratulations Nadja!


Ukrainian Canadian community mourns

 Supreme Court Justice John Sopinka


Sixty-four year old Justice John Sopinka died November 24th in an Ottawa
Hospital of an undisclosed blood disorder.  Born in Saskatchewan of
Ukrainian parents, Justice Sopinka had been a lawyer in Toronto prior to his
appointment to the high court in 1988. Our condolences go to his wife Marie
and his two children.  He was buried in Oakville, Ontario. 

For a full tribute you can access it on  Web  at:
http://www.infoukes.com/lists/announce/1997/11/0119.html


Edmonton P&Bs mourn lifetime member 
------------------------------------------------------

Honourary lifetime Edmonton Ukrainian Canadian Professional & Business
association member Wasyl Kunda died recently at the age of 84.  Mr. Kunda
had been a noted Canadian scientist, professional engineer, and chemist with
Sherritt Gordon of  Fort Saskatchewan near Edmonton.  Mr. Kunda’s
professional achievements were impressive: he patented 38 chemical
processes, including the recycling of silver from X-rays; he authored or
co-authored 31 important scientific papers, and was a noted lecturer across
the continent.  "He was a real scientific inventor" remembers his friend
Peter Savaryn of Edmonton. Mr. Kunda had been president of the Ukrainian
Catholic Council of Alberta, and held memberships in many organizations,
including the Shevchenko Scientific Society (since 1954), Ukrainian
Professional Engineers, PLAST (since 1923), and he was a member of the
Alberta Ukrainian Commemorative Society, which, among other projects, was
responsible for erecting a statue outside Edmonton city hall honouring
victims of the 1932 Ukrainian famine.  Our sincere condolences are extended
to Mr. Kunda’s family.


Newsletter Comments 
------------------------------

Your Federation is encouraged by reaction to its monthly newsletters.
Recently, executive vice president Doris Watson spoke with Andrew Kuchtaruk,
president of Sudbury and learned that the organization  had been
semi-dormant for some time.  Andrew was happy to report that since they
started getting communication from the Federation, it was incentive enough
for them to become revitalized.  Now the folks in Sudbury are planning a
"zabava" for February.  Congratulations to all the volunteers in Sudbury and
best of luck with your "coming out event".

We welcome all comments on the newsletter and if there is any news from
your organization that you would like to have mentioned here, or any members
you would like acknowledged for their achievements, please let us know and
we’d be happy to oblige.  We’d also like to suggest that member
organizations contact one another – (write, fax, phone or e-mail) share
ideas and talk about our victories – large and small. And sometimes
organizations – like Sudbury – need a little encouragement from a sister
organization – so don’t hesitate to give one another a needed boost.

And now you can write, phone, fax or e-mail one another, thanks to Doris
Watson and our secretary Hanya Skibo, who completed the directory of our
association presidents and board members. Please inform Hanya Skibo of any
changes, revisions, or corrections.

The Importance of "Thank You"
---------------------------------------------

Speaking of "thanks", as a Federation which relies entirely on volunteers
and their good will, I would like to emphasize how very important it is to
say "thank you". Since we cannot use "cash" or other material incentives to
motivate our loyal members, we must repay those who dedicate themselves to
our projects and events with many, many "thanks".  We not only need to thank
people personally, but also in writing and publicly for jobs they perform,
no matter how large or how seemingly insignificant or small.


Publicity Assistance
----------------------------
Our Federation welcomes Bree Verity, a new volunteer, as assistant
publicity director.  Bree is a graduate of the Broadcasting program at Mount
Royal College in Calgary and has worked as a television news reader  in
Yorkton. More recently she spent a year touring Australia and now is back in
Calgary working with Telus Corporation. When we put out a request for a
publicity assistant, Bree came forward.  She works with Doris and Daria
Luciw, our Director of Publicity and has enthusiastically been learning
everything she can about our organization.  If you need help with news
releases or need to contact media for your events, please don’t hesitate to
contact Bree at:   verity@cadvision.com . 


Convention Video
-------------------------

Joe Karapinka, producer of the Ukrainian television program, Echoes of
Ukraine, which airs twice a week on Cable 61 in Calgary, has informed us
that edited copies of the video of our 1997 Calgary Convention,
"Trailblazers" are now available for $25 a copy, shipping included.  We
thank Joe for his diligent work in editing hours and hours of tape from the
entire convention.  His address is 116 Pumphill Place S.W., CALGARY, Alberta
T2V 4C6. Make cheques out to Joe Karapinka.


UCC Presidium
---------------------

Our three Ukrainian Canadian Congress board representatives, Mikhailo
Wawryshyn, John Petryshyn and Nestor Budyk attended the organization’s
Presidium in Winnipeg on November 29th and 30th.  We will have a full report
in future newsletters.

We wish every one of you a very Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas and 
Happy New Year!.  May the spirit of the birth of Christ stay with you
all year long.

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