Ukrainian Canadians celebrate their roots in Montreal

MONTREAL — Saint Michaels Ukranian Catholic Church is a lot like the Ukrainian community is serves: venerable, sturdy and admirable.

The church services one of five Ukranian-Catholic parishes on the island. It's also the oldest, built in 1917.

Saint Michaels is considered a home-base of the 30,000 Ukranian Quebecers which is celebrating 120 years in the province.

Many, like Bohdanna Monzczak are grateful for their lives in Canada which offered refuge from war-torn Eastern Europe where warring Russians and Germans had brought destruction to their land and many were imprisoned or killed.

"Right after the war, this was really paradise and I still think this is paradise," she said. "The church was full of people with a beautiful choir. Everybody was welcoming. We could have freedom and we could have whatever we wanted here," said Monzczak.

Read complete article here.

Source: ctvmontreal.ca

Dynamic young leader takes helm of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

The names of two esteemed religious figures resonate when Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the new head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, speaks.

One died well before the archbishop was born. The other when he was rooted in his religious career. The spirits of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky – the pious, savvy and bold leader of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic Church during World War II – and John Paul II promise to be guiding forces as Shevchuk embarks on his journey of leading a global church which numbers five million faithful.

At 41, Shevchuk is one of the youngest people to head the church, which adheres to Catholic tenets but practices Byzantine rites. He is only a few years older than Sheptytsky was when he took office in 1901.

Click here to read full article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Sheftel: Demjanjuk Verdict is a ‘Farce’

Sheftel said that he is convinced that the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Demjanjuk was the true verdict he deserved.

“Nothing has changed since then,” he said. “Even during the trial in http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifGermany,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif there was not one person who testified that Demjanjuk was Ivan from Sobibor, by virtue that he was seen there, and as such the conviction is a farce.”

Click here for complete article

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144135

St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Montreal - 100th Anniversary Celebration

Have been busy working on the 100th Anniversary Celebration Webpage for St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Montreal. We welcome you to come and visit us at:

http://www.ukemonde.com/stmichael/
Also check out the historic photo album and virtual tour of the parish at:

http://www.pbase.com/saintmichaels/stmichaels (Photo Album)

http://www.pbase.com/saintmichaels/tour&view=slideshow (Virtual Tour)

We are also on FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001116692360

If anyone has stories or pictures we welcome you to send them in to us so we can add them to our album.

Ukraine reporter's bunny costume sparks parliament scandal

Now this is creative and hilarious!!! Merry Christmas to all the clowns in Ukraine's Verchovna Rada!!!!

KYIV — A journalist for national Ukrainian television sparked a scandal Tuesday by turning up at work in parliament dressed as a bunny in protest at the sometimes farcical behaviour of MPs.

Dressed head-to-toe as a white bunny with two huge ears comically sprouting from his head, Roman Vintoniv somehow managed to keep a straight face as he conducted lobby interviews with besuited lawmakers.

He said his action was a protest against the sometimes comic behaviour of lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada who last week exchanged blows in a bloody punch-up that wounded several lawmakers.

"If the Verkhovna Rada is turning into a circus, then this needs to be officially acknowledged and people need to dress appropriately," Vintoniv told the influential news website Ukrainska Pravda.

Ukrainska Pravda said the parliament press service tried to have him expelled on the grounds that his external appearance was not in line with the rules.

But his colleagues then pointed out that the parliament has no dress code and he was able to carry out his work, carrying out interviews with some MPs, video footage posted on the Internet showed.

However some of his normal contacts refused to talk to him, Ukrainska Pravda said.


Friday's brawl -- which saw punches thrown and chairs hurled -- was one of the worst for years in the Rada and started after opposition deputies blockaded themselves inside the chamber.

Kiev prosecutors Tuesday said they had opened a criminal inquiry into the fighting, which came amid a legal probe against former prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Ukrainians regularly express exasperation over their notoriously fractious parliament, suspecting that many lawmakers act in the interests of local oligarchs rather than ordinary citizens.

Source: AFP

Bloody parliament brawl in Ukraine

Ukraine's opposition on Friday called for a criminal probe after several of its deputies were badly injured in a bloody brawl in parliament that saw punches thrown and chairs hurled.

The fight late on Thursday was violent even by the fractious standards of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and came amid tensions after a criminal probe was opened this week against opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

Deputies from Tymoshenko's BYuT-Batkivschyna party and the Regions Party of President Viktor Yanukovych slugged it out for several minutes behind the speaker's chair leaving at least three opposition MPs injured.



Click here to read complete article.

Source: News 24 and RFE/RL

Holodomor was NO SECRET IN WINNIPEG

Instead of building on everything that's already been done on this issue in Ukraine and encouraging Russia to come to terms with the genocide it claims happened there, too, he has trivialized the memories of millions of his fellow countrymen.

Yanukovych is either being cynically and purposefully deceitful or somebody else's "useful idiot" when it comes to this tragic page in Ukraine's history.

As was the case with the Winnipeg communists who denied the Holodomor in 1933, only time will tell.

Click here to read complete article by Stephen Bandera

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Visit UKEMONDE site for more information about Ukrainian Holodomor. A schedule of events to be held in Montreal commemorating this tragic page of Ukrainian history HERE. You can also view events being held across Canada by visiting UCC website.

Will Ukraine survive?

Moscow is on the march. Vladimir Putin's Russia is the most destabilizing - and reckless - great power on the world stage. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia could have become a stable democracy at peace with its neighbors.

Instead, Mr. Putin is erecting a Great Russian empire. He has imposed a brutal police state at home. Journalists routinely are killed. Critics and dissidents are jailed. Media freedoms and opposition parties are under assault. A gangster elite runs the Kremlin, plundering the country's vast wealth.

Mr. Yanukovych's base is in the Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine - the Sovietized industrial east. His Party of Regions seeks to make Russian an official language; in fact, its website refuses to use Ukrainian. He has put joining NATO and the European Union on the back burner - bowing to Moscow's demands. Slowly, but surely, he is splitting Kiev from the West. In short, he is Mr. Putin's poodle.

Read complete article here.

Source: Washington Times

Ukraine's topless protesters gain fame

They have shed their shirts to promote women's rights, to support an Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery and murder, and, most brazenly, to protest a visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Femen's initial targets were prostitution and discrimination against women. It has branched out to tax policy, freedom of speech and, as seen with Putin's visit last month, foreign affairs. "We won't sleep with Kremlin midgets" read one of the placards.

Click here to read complete story.

Source: USA Today

Local elections in Ukraine did not meet standards of previous presidential elections

Canada expects Ukraine to improve its electoral legislation, Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine Daniel Caron has said.

"We were a little disappointed that these local elections did not meet the standards of the previous presidential elections, although we are pleased that [Ukrainian] President [Viktor] Yanukovych is open to the adoption of new electoral legislation that would correspond to international standards," he said at events to mark the 15th anniversary of the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU) in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He also said that Canada was firmly committed to its commitments with respect to Ukraine, where the relations between the two countries are based on democracy, access to information, economic freedom, and the observance of human rights.

Source: Kyiv Post

Their own words

No amount of PR support or spin doctoring can fully cover up what people really think, especially those who hold powerful or influential positions. From the top down, some of Ukraine’s elite routinely reveal their true thoughts in unguarded moments – and they aren’t pretty.

“I will pull off their heads if they don’t deal with the sewage system, water and gas supplies,” President Viktor Yanukovych said on Nov. 11 in Kalush of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, referring to recalcitrant opposition mayors. His choice of words is more befitting that of a twice-imprisoned offender, which he is, rather than the leader of a democratic nation. No wonder many people fear the return of a 1990s mafia-like nation that existed under authoritarian ex-President Leonid Kuchma.

Only last week, in response to allegations that police are conducting a racist and illegal crackdown on merchants at Troyeshchyna market, Kyiv police spokesman Volodymyr Dmytrenko said: “Even if they are citizens of Ukraine, what positive contribution are they making to this country? None. They stand on their market, and sell goods of bad quality.” Such statements basically confirm the accusations.

Also last week, 12 journalism students at Taras Shevchenko National University were betrayed by their own instructor for having the bravery to create a calendar posing tough questions to Yanukovych. For instance, one asked: “When will authorities be held accountable for taking bribes?” “These kids are only 18 to 19 years old; they are too young and too inexperienced to ask such questions,” scoffed Volodymyr Shevchenko, deputy rector of the Journalism Institute.

It’s clear that, from the president to police to the universities, the nation's leaders are failing Ukrainians, young and old.

Source: Kyiv Post

Westerners, local observers rip Oct. 31 elections as undemocratic

If the fix wasn’t in during Ukraine’s Oct. 31 local government elections, the contests sure didn’t pass the smell test to a host of reputable domestic and international observers.

As much as Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych tried to put the elections behind him and say all was fine, an international consensus is taking shape that he failed his first big democratic test since taking power on Feb. 25.

The judgment could derail Yanukovych’s stated goal of integrating Ukraine into the European family of democratic nations.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Kyiv Post

Harper accused of exaggerating Ukrainian genocide's death toll

KYIV, Ukraine — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is being accused of exaggerating this week the extent of the 1932-33 famine that was declared a genocide by Canada's Parliament two years ago.

Harper indicated on both days of his first-ever journey to Ukraine that "almost" 10 million people died in what is known as the Holodomor — or "death by starvation."
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Critics, while stressing that the death toll of the famine caused by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's policies is massive and remains one of history's great crimes against humanity, said the true figure is roughly a third of Harper's.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Montreal Gazette

Mystery surrounds Vladimir Putin's black

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has kept his countrymen guessing after he arrived for talks with Ukrainian leaders sporting what appeared to be a black eye covered up with heavy make up.

Being a black-belt in judo, some reports say it may have been due to the hazards of the combative sport.

I personally think in was his buddy Plushenko giving him a little skate massage... :-))






Source: hellomagazine

Harper in Lviv, Ukraine: Remember that in Canada, you have friends

Here is the a lightly-edited speech Prime Minister Stephen Harper that was given at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine on the last day of his five-day trip to Europe:

“There are strong people-people links between our two countries.
Ukrainians have been emigrating to Canada for more than 100 years and one and a quarter million Canadians have Ukrainian roots. That's about 4 per cent of the total population. And that percentage is much higher on the Canadian prairies where I reside. As a part of Canada that looks like parts of Ukraine and where you would recognize many of the surnames, as you would for members of the distinguished Ukrainian delegation that is travelling with me here.

Click here to read complete speach

Source: Toronto Sun

Also visit Friends of UCU Montreal

T.M.R. Mayor Vera Danyluk laid to rest

Vera Danyluk was laid to rest in a service attended by the city’s top political brass, uniformed police and army officers. But most of the roughly 600 in attendance were T.M.R. residents.

“She was a woman with a vision and she had a great heart,” said Frosini Costy, 79, a longtime T.M.R. resident. “I only met her a few times, but you could tell there was something special about her person. It was almost as if she had an aura around her.”

“She was a person of such integrity and passion,” said Heather Macleod, a T.M.R. resident in her 60s. “Her passing was such a sad loss.”

Danyluk died Oct. 14 at age 66 after a two-year battle with a rare disease.

Click here to read full article.

Also click here to view news video clip of Vera Danyluk's funeral.

Source: Montreal Gazette / CTV Montreal

Also visit UKEMONDE site to read more about Vera Danylul

Breaking News The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION Harper begins trip to Ukraine with message on rights, democracy

KYIV, Ukraine - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will tug on the deep familial ties that bind Canada and Ukraine, in an attempt to pull that struggling republic's attention back toward the friendly West and away from a less-democratically minded Russia.

Harper's first visit to the former Soviet republic, which kicked off Sunday, will touch bluntly on some of the darkest points of Ukrainian history and the most sensitive subjects of its contemporary political landscape — a charged itinerary likely to resonate with the more than one million Canadians of Ukrainian descent.

Click here to read full article.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Politician set the bar high - Vera Danyluk

Vera Mystic grew up in Rosemont and took the Danyluk name upon marriage to Victor Danyluk of T.M.R. Like Victor, she was of Ukrainian origin. She declined an offer to run for the Quebec Liberal Party as a candidate in the 1998 general election because Victor didn't want her to be away in Quebec City so much.

We will miss you Vera, your smile and charming personality. You were too young to leave us. Vichnaya Pamyat

Click here to read more and see video clip of Vera Danyluk

Source: Montreal Gazette

Yanukovych in Wonderland

Very intersting article by Alexander J. Motyl.

Claim: “for the first time in the modern history of Ukraine – the President, the Government and the Parliament (to be exact the coalition majority that has been formed) are moving in the same strategic direction, not in the three different ones as was the case earlier.”

Reality: Yanukovych fails to mention that this unprecedented unanimity is the product of crude constitutional shenanigans that enabled his Party of Regions to form a majority in the Parliament and thus a government.

Click here to read complete article.

Source: Atlantic Council

Thugs attack pro-Ukrainian rock festival

Eyewitnesses said about two dozen men carrying baseball bats attacked a rock festival at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 26 in Irpen, a town outside Kyiv.

Several security guards at the festival received injuries during the melee. Several well-known Ukrainian rock groups, such as Sun Shadow, TNMK, Dead Rooster and Tartak, from performing at the venue, named "Gaidamaka.ua." Police made no arrests.

The 2-day festival was sponsored by Last Barricade, a non-profit organization co-founded by Oles Doniy, an opposition parliament deputy from the Our Ukraine - Self Defense faction.

"No one was drinking alcoholic beverages at the concert and none of the bands performed controversial ultra-nationalist songs," Doniy said, adding that several security gaurds received injuries requiring hospitalization. "We have filed compaints with the police and are waiting for their response," he told the Kyiv Post on Sept. 27.

Pro-presidential deputy Vadym Kolesnychenko had asked the State Security Service to check whether organizers of the venue obtained necessary permits for staging the concerts, noting that several of the songs of the bands promoted fascism and xenophobia, a charge Doniy denied.

Source: Kyiv Post