04:46 pm - Ukrainian Canadians Condemn Vandalism of Commemorative Markers at Babyn Yar

UCCLA Media Release

Ukrainian Canadians Condemn Vandalism of Commemorative Markers at Babyn Yar

 

For Immediate Release, Ottawa, 16 July 2009

 

Speaking on behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, its chairman, Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, expressed indignation at the recent vandalism of commemorative markers at the Babyn Yar memorial, in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.

 

A cross and memorial plaque commemorating the Ukrainian nationalists murdered by the Nazis during their brutal occupation were pushed over and smashed. Those responsible have not yet  been identified or arrested. Commenting, Dr Luciuk said:

 

" It is not well understood that Ukraine lost more of its population than any other nation in Nazi-occupied Europe. Millions of Ukrainians were murdered or enslaved by the Nazis, even as a heroic resistance movement struggled against both the regimes of Hitler and Stalin. That vandals would desecrate a modest memorial to the memory of Ukrainian nationalists slaughtered at Babyn Yar is outrageous. We most certainly hope the authorities in Kyiv will make every effort to bring those responsible to justice."

 

 

For more information on UCCLA please go to www.uccla.ca. To contact Dr Luciuk for an interview email him at luciuk@uccla.ca
 

04:14 pm - TERRORISTS AND SPIES NOT WELCOME IN CANADA

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 4, 2009



TERRORISTS AND SPIES NOT WELCOME IN CANADA:

Bezan Tables Motion to Uphold Integrity of the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act

OTTAWA – On April 20, 2009 James Bezan, Member of Parliament for
Selkirk-Interlake tabled a Private Members motion in the House of
Commons calling upon the government to uphold the integrity of the
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

M-356 asks the government to take necessary steps to refuse entry to
Canada to people who have engaged in, or been a member of a group that
has engaged in acts of espionage, subversion, terrorism, genocide, or
crimes against humanity. It also calls on the government to
denaturalize and deport those who have obtained Canadian citizenship
under false pretences and to enforce removal orders against all
persons who are inadmissible to Canada.

“The people of Canada have always taken strong positions denouncing
and combating crimes against humanity.  Canada has always stood on
solid ground opposing the Holocaust in Germany, the Holodomor in
Ukraine, the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, and we have been actively
engaged in the war on terrorism,” Bezan said.  “Why would we allow
people who have been involved in these crimes to come to Canada?”

This week, a Federal Court Judge refused an appeal of a deportation
order for an ex-KGB agent that has been in Canada for the last 12
years, admitted on a student visa. Bezan believes that the Department
of Citizenship and Immigration and the court have made sound decisions
in this case in accordance with existing legislation.

“Canada should not be a safe haven for terrorists or former members of
any communist state's secret police forces,” Bezan stated. “People
that have been members of organizations such as the KGB, Gestapo, Al
Qaeda, or the Taliban do not meet the requirements for entry to Canada
under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.  If they have
entered Canada, then they should be deported,” said Bezan.



-30-

For more information, please contact:

Office of James Bezan, MP

Phone: 613-992-2032

E-mail: media@jamesbezan.com



M-356 — April 20, 2009 — Mr. Bezan (Selkirk—Interlake) — That, in the
opinion of the House, in order to ensure that Canada is not a safe
haven for any individual who has engaged in or been a member of an
organization where reasonable grounds exist to believe have engaged in
an act of espionage or an act of subversion against a democratic
government, institution, process or committed terrorism or genocide or
crimes against humanity, as they are understood in Canada, the
government should take all necessary steps to: (a) allow visa entry
only to persons that meet the requirements of the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act and Regulations; (b) denaturalize and deport
all persons who have obtained citizenship, permanent residence or
refugee status by means of false pretences or the concealment of
material facts; and (c) enforce removal orders against all persons who
are inadmissible to Canada and not in possession of a valid Temporary
Residence Permit.

02:54 pm - *Government must defend the rule of law and deport KGB veteran*

UCCLA Media Release

*Government must defend the rule of law and deport KGB veteran*

_For Immediate Release (4 June 2009) - Ottawa
_
Canada's Ukrainian community is calling upon the federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, the Honourable Jason Kenney, and the Minster of Public Safety, the Honourable Peter Van Loan, to ensure that a veteran of the notorious Soviet secret police, the KGB, is removed from the country immediately.

"Canadians are united in not wanting to make this country a haven for individuals who served in the secret police forces of undemocratic regimes like the Soviet Union. The KGB enslaved, tortured and murdered millions of innocent people. Any individual who was an officer of the KGB was either directly or indirectly involved in such crimes against humanity. A person who claims to be a refugee but is not found to be one by a competent member of the Immigration and Refugee Board, and whose appeal of that tribunal's ruling is subsequently heard and rejected by a Federal Court judge, must leave our country. No KGB man should have been allowed into Canada in the first place. That this Communist secret policeman now wants sanctuary in a Vancouver church basement would be hilarious if it were not in such clear defiance of our legal system. Anyone abetting this man's illegitimate behaviour should be prosecuted and he should be seized by the appropriate authorities and removed from Canada. No KGB in Canada, with no excuses and no exceptions."

For more on the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association go to www.uccla.ca

For an interview with UCCLA's chairman email luciuk@uccla.ca

07:12 pm - Divide and Conquer: The KGB disinformation campaign against Ukrainians and Jews

Divide and Conquer: The KGB disinformation campaign against Ukrainians and Jews. The article can be read here.

09:50 pm - NO KGB IN CANADA!

UCCLA Media Release

02:56 pm - NO KGB IN CANADA! campaign on track

Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association media release: 

NO KGB IN CANADA! campaign on track

For immediate release (Ottawa: 28 February 2009)

Commenting on the forthcoming expulsion of a former captain of the Soviet secret police, the chairman of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA), Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, said:

"Canada should never have become a haven for veterans of the Soviet secret police, including the NKVD, SMERSH and KGB. All those who belonged to any of these organizations, which are collectively responsible for the enslavement, torture, and murder of millions of innocent men, women and children, were supposed to have been automatically excluded from entering our country. 

"Therefore anyone found here who was a member of any Soviet secret police force, as well as those who enabled Communist war crimes and crimes against humanity before, during or after the Second World War, should be expelled, without exception, regardless of their ethnic, racial or religious heritage or ideological convictions. 

"We applaud the Government of Canada for liberating our country of those who willingly served the Soviet empire."

____ 30 ____

For an interview, please contact Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk: luciuk@uccla.ca

For more on the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association go to www.uccla.ca

03:07 pm - KGB killers enjoy life in Canada

KGB killers enjoy life in Canada

By Lubomyr Luciuk

21/02/2009

They called themselves Chekists -- the sword and shield of the Soviet Union. They were proud of what they were. Some served as concentration camp guards. Others were executioners. Many were just clerks or cooks or those ordinary guys who mop up the mess after the torturers are done. 
Over the years they had different names -- Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, SMERSH and, most notoriously, KGB. Yet their job description didn't change. They were killers. They murdered whomever their masters wanted dead. Their victims numbered in the many millions. 

There were decades when they were more active, years when they were less so, but they were always there. Some of their leaders were sadists, like Nikolai Yezhov, a bisexual dwarf who told Nikita Khrushchev during a Kremlin meeting that his shirtsleeves were speckled because he had spent the night torturing an "enemy of the people." Yezhov was later shot, at Stalin's command. 

In Yalta, chatting with President Roosevelt, Stalin described Lavrentii Beria, Yezhov's successor, as "our Himmler." Beria was later executed on Khrushchev's orders. 

Those who live by the sword die by the sword is a sharp saying. Unfortunately, it's not always true. Not only are some veterans of Stalin's secret police alive, but they are in Canada. One could be your neighbour. 

Their presence among us is not news. It has been known for years. How many there are is not certain. Probably not hundreds. Yet even one is one too many. 

Remarkably, they haven't been hiding. A few have boasted publicly about what they did. One wrote a book, obligingly including a photograph posing in his NKVD lieutenant's uniform. Another described her role in a SMERSH execution squad. 

An intrepid journalist broke this story in a national Canadian newspaper in April 2005. Yet after that original exposé, all followup stories were spiked. Even more intriguing is that the RCMP's war crimes unit, asked to investigate allegations about Communist collaborators in Canada, responded with the rather limp finding that they had insufficient evidence upon which to act. 

That reply took more than three years to draft. Apparently when a man admits he was in the NKVD and brags about the people he did in and provides his memoirs in English in a book available in libraries across the land, the Mounties don't define that as proof of any wrongdoing. Maybe they're waiting for Hollywood to turn the manuscript into a movie. 

After the Second World War, screening procedures were supposed to exclude Nazis and Communists from Canada, with no exceptions. So if a man declares he was in the NKVD and broadcasts that fact from Toronto, either he is a liar or else he lied to get into Canada, probably disguising his own complicity in war crimes by pretending to be a victim. The only other explanation for him being here is that Ottawa allowed such ruffians to immigrate. In any case, we know some Communist killers are here. Legally, they shouldn't be. 

All of Stalin's minions are now elderly. Yet it's not too late to see justice done. They deserve no more mercy than they meted out. And remember, they were not forced to serve -- they volunteered. Since they have no right to be here, they should be expelled to whence they came. They can then finish out their lives as burdens upon those they served. I'd bet they won't find Moscow or Minsk as comfortable as Montreal. 

Canadians are a compassionate people. Not only do we strive to do what's right, we also honour the righteous. We did in 1985, when Canada conferred honourary citizenship on Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Yet it was not the Nazis who did him in. SMERSH agents abducted Wallenberg in Budapest in January 1945, then carted him off to the notorious Lubyanka prison. 

Probably no one now here was directly involved, yet all who served Stalin in those days are complicit. Whatever they did elsewhere indirectly made it possible for their comrades to kidnap and kill Wallenberg. No one wants such scoundrels here. You'd think a Conservative government would get that. Apparently they don't. They will. 

--------

Lubomyr Luciuk chairs the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca), which has launched a No KGB In Canada! campaign. 

Find this article at: 
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/kgb_killers_enjoy_life_in_canada-40019982.html

09:03 am - "Read, Learn, Study, My Brothers" campaign launched

UCCLA - "Read, Learn, Study, My Brothers" campaign launched

(For immediate release, Ottawa, Feb. 25, 2009)

With the assistance of MPs James Bezan, Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Borys Wrezsnewskyj, the Ukrainian Canadian community has posted thousands of postcards across Canada inviting people to make use of their public and university libraries on March 9, the 195th birthday of Taras Shevchenko. 

Known as "the bard of Ukraine," Taras Shevchenko's poetry has inspired Ukrainians over many generations. In one of his most famous poems, he called upon his fellow Ukrainians to learn from others while not forgetting their own. 

Commenting, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association chair Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk said: "We believe public libraries provide an essential service in every community right across Canada. By encouraging people to make use of libraries, we hope to ensure the ongoing vitality of these centres of learning. And by asking Canadians of Ukrainian heritage to go to a library on March 9, the 195th anniversary of Shevchenko's birth, we also want to make sure that books on Ukraine and Ukrainian Canadian themes are taken out and read. We want to underscore the contribution Ukrainians have made to Canada while also recalling the long struggle Ukrainians waged to secure their independence so that they can now enjoy human rights and civil liberties of the sort that we in Canada sometimes taken for granted."

---------- 30 ----------
For more information regarding this news release, please e-mail media@uccla.ca
To contact Dr. Luciuk, please e-mail: luciuk@uccla.ca

For more information on UCCLA, please go to www.uccla.ca. 

05:23 pm - NO KGB IN CANADA! campaign launched

UCCLA - NO KGB IN CANADA! campaign launched

For immediate release - Ottawa (22 January, 2009)

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association is ramping up its campaign to get all NKVD, KGB and other Communist secret police veterans out of Canada. 

UCCLA's "No KGB In Canada!" involves thousands of its supporters mailing in pre-printed postcards to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Honourable Jason Kenney (Minister of Immigration and Citizenship) and the Honourable Peter Van Loan (Minister of Public Safety). The cards share a common message: "Veterans of Soviet secret police formations like the NKVD, SMERSH and KGB should not be allowed to enter Canada nor to remain here. No exceptions. Denaturalize and Deport them all, immediately."

UCCLA's chairman, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, explained: "For years we have alerted the Government of Canada, the RCMP and others to the illegal presence in our country of veterans of the Soviet secret police. We don't know how many there are but some openly boasted about their participation in torture and mass murder. 

"While we have always championed the principle that any person found in Canada alleged to be a war criminal should be tried in a criminal court, politics is the art of the possible. Since the federal government insists upon using denaturalization and deportation for dealing with persons who should not be in Canada, we call upon Ottawa to apply its preferred standard in every case, without exceptions. There should be no KGB men in Canada, not now, not ever. Indeed Canada should not be a haven for anyone who admits that they were involved in war crimes, regardless of their ethnic, racial or religious heritage, their ideological convictions, or the period or place where they committed or enabled such crimes against humanity. Justice cannot be selective."

-- 30 -- 

For more information, please contact Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk at luciuk@uccla.ca

10:02 am - NO KGB MEN IN CANADA! campaign launched

   *NO KGB MEN IN CANADA! campaign launched*
      


Ottawa (22 January 2009) - For immediate release:

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association is ramping up its 
campaign to get all NKVD, KGB and other Communist secret police veterans 
out of Canada.

UCCLA's "No KGB In Canada!" involves thousands of its supporters mailing 
in pre-printed postcards to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the 
Honourable Jason Kenney (Minister of Immigration and Citizenship) and 
the Honourable Peter Van Loan (Minister of Public Safety). The cards 
share a common message: "Veterans of Soviet secret police formations 
like the NKVD, SMERSH and KGB should not be allowed to enter Canada nor 
to remain here. No exceptions. Denaturalize and Deport them all, 
immediately."

UCCLA's chairman, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, explained: "For years we have 
alerted the Government of Canada, the RCMP and others to the illegal 
presence in our country of veterans of the Soviet secret police. We 
don't know how many there are but some openly boasted about their 
participation in torture and mass murder. While we have always 
championed the principle that any person found in Canada alleged to be a 
war criminal should be tried in a criminal court, politics is the art of 
the possible. Since the federal government insists upon using 
denaturalization and deportation for dealing with persons who should not 
be in Canada we call upon Ottawa to apply its preferred standard in 
every case, without exceptions. There should be no KGB men in Canada, 
not now, not ever. Indeed Canada should not be a haven for anyone who 
admits that they were involved in war crimes, regardless of their 
ethnic, racial or religious heritage, their ideological convictions, or 
the period or place where they committed or enabled such crimes against 
humanity. Justice can not be selective."

-- 30 -- 

06:52 pm - UCCLA approves Parks Canada plans for interpretive museum at Banff

UCCLA approves Parks Canada plans for interpretive museum at Banff

For Immediate Release (Canmore, Alta.)

Oct. 5, 2008

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) recently concluded
its annual conclave for 2008 in Canmore, Alta. 

For three days at the end of September, members of the non-profit group from
across Canada gathered in the Rocky Mountains to spent a few hours touring
Banff’s Cave and Basin, the site of an internment camp for Ukrainians and
other east Europeans during Canada’s First National Internment Operations
during and after the First World War. 

While there, the group received a short presentation by Rob Harding of Parks
Canada. He detailed his department’s plans to spend the $2.5 million it
received from the federal government in 2008 to commemorate the details of the
internment operations, including the building of an interpretive centre near
the site of the actual camp. The UCCLA was pleased to learn that Parks Canada's
work towards the development of an interpretive centre and museum at the Cave
and Basin in Banff is proceeding well. 

The UCCLA further discussed the nature of the endowment that was received by the
Ukrainian community from the Government of Canada during a briefing from the
Shevchenko Foundation, and was brought up to speed on developments with the
Spirit Lake Corporation's plans for a separate internment interpretive centre
in the Abitibi, Que. 

The UCCLA also discussed the presence of alleged Soviet War Criminals in Canada,
and laid down plans for the further pursuit of justice regarding Soviet war
crimes. 

The UCCLA also made preliminary plans to install memorial plaques at the four
Canadian internment sites that have not yet been commemorated: Edgewood, B.C.,
Lethbridge, Alta., Montreal, and Halifax. 
Plans were laid preliminarily for holding next year's UCCLA conclave at Vernon,
B.C. 
For more information, please visit www.uccla.ca. 

05:37 pm - Toronto Book Launch: Prisoners in the Promised Land

12:24 pm - Plaque unveiling and book launch -- Montreal

                 *YMCA being honoured by Ukrainian Canadians*


_UCCLA Media Release - For Immediate Distribution_ (Ottawa, 25 September 2007)


The public is invited to the unveiling of a trilingual, bronze plaque recalling the help offered to Ukrainian and other European internees by the YMCA's Military Service Department, under the direction of Mr F S Shepard. During Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920, YMCA educational and recreational services were provided to internees at the Fort Henry, Petawawa & Kapuskasing camps in Ontario, at the Spirit Lake in Quebec, at the Morrissey and Vernon camps in British Columbia and at the camp in Amherst, Nova Scotia. It is likely that other camps were also visited by the YMCA's Internment Camp Work committee.

The plaque is being unveiled at the YMCA, 1440 Stanley Street, Montreal, on Saturday, 29 September 2007, at 11 am. The event will be followed by a reception and the launch of Marsha Skrypuch's most recent book, /Prisoners in the Promised Land The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk /(Scholastic Canada, 2007).

***********************

for more on the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties (UCCLA) please go to www.uccla.ca
for more on Marsha Skrypuch and her novels, please to to www.calla.com

09:50 pm - Internee Descendant Becomes Honourary Chair of National Redress Council

For Immediate Release (Ottawa, 1 September 2007)

    Following the recent death of the last known survivor of Canada's first national internment operations, Mary Manko Haskett, 98, who was only six years old when she and the rest of the Manko family were confined at the Spirit Lake concentration camp, in Quebec's Abitibi region, her daughter, Ms Fran Haskett, has agreed to take on her mother's role as honourary chair of the National Redress Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

    Commenting on Ms Haskett's willingness to take on this responsibility, UCCLA's chairman, John B Gregorovich, said:

    " We have always been conscious of how important it is to take into consideration the sentiments of the descendants of those unfortunates who were interned without just cause during Canada's first national internment operations. They were forced to do heavy labour for the profit of their jailers and suffered other state-sanctioned indignities, including the confiscation of their wealth and disenfranchisement. For several years two survivors of that unfortunate episode in Canadian history were the co-chairs of UCCLA's National Redress Council. Now that the last known survivor has passed away, without a timely and honourable settlement having been reached, we are very pleased that Mary's daughter, Fran, has stepped up to assume this role. Fran has been a consistent supporter of UCCLA's campaign for recognition, restitution and reconciliation and so we welcome her involvement in this role. We hope this government will soon meet its legal obligation to negotiate a settlement with our community's designated representatives, as they are required to do under the terms of Bill C 331 - The Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, which received Royal Assent in November 2005."

_______________________________________________________

For more on UCCLA please go to www.uccla.ca

04:18 pm - "The death of Mary Manko: Righting a historical injustice," by Lubomyr Luciuk

"The death of Mary Manko: Righting a historical injustice," by Lubomyr Luciuk, 1
August 2007, The Kingston Whig-Standard

We buried her under a maple. Seeing Mary’s grave sheltered by a tree whose
leaf symbolizes our country was comforting. Nearby stands a spruce. That
evergreen would have reminded her of the boreal forest she knew as a young
girl. Even though she was born in Montreal, Mary was branded an “enemy
alien” and transported north to the Spirit Lake concentration camp, along
with the rest of the Manko family. Thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans
like them were jailed, not because of anything they had done, but only because
of where they had come from, who they were. What little wealth they had was
taken, and they were forced to do hard labour for the profit of their jailers. 
The Mankos lost something even more precious, their youngest daughter, Nellie,
who died there. 

Mary Manko Haskett passed away 14 July, the last known survivor of Canada’s
first national internment operations. She was 98. For years she lent her
support to the Ukrainian Canadian community’s campaign to secure a timely and
honourable redress settlement. Disappointingly, she did not live to see that
happen, despite the Honourable Stephen Harper’s own words. On 24 March 2005
he rose in the House of Commons to support fellow Conservative Inky Mark’s
Bill C 331 – The Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act, saying: “Mary Haskett,
is still alive…. I sincerely hope that she will live to see an official
reconciliation of this past injustice.” The Prime Minister might now ask the
bureaucracy why his wish was ignored. 

The government did, at least, send a representative to Mary’s funeral,
Conservative MP Mike Wallace, (Burlington) who read a prepared statement,
subsequently added to the website of the Secretary of State for
Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney: “ We were saddened to hear of the death of
Mrs. Mary Manko Haskett, the last known survivor of Canadian internment camps
during the First World War and the postwar period. On behalf of Canada's New
Government, I would like to extend my condolences to Mrs. Haskett's family, as
well as the Ukrainian-Canadian community. Born and raised in Montreal, Mary was
six years old when she and her family were detained in the Spirit Lake
internment camp. Despite advice from British officials that ‘friendly
aliens’ should not be interned, Ottawa invoked The War Measures Act to detain
8,579 ‘enemy aliens’ including Poles, Italians, Bulgarians, Croats, Turks,
Serbs, Hungarians, Russians, Jews, and Romanians - but the majority (perhaps as
many as 5,000) were of Ukrainian origin. Many were unwilling subjects of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire and thus not ‘enemy aliens’ at all. For years. Mrs
Haskett and others argued that ‘Canada's first internment operations’
herded together individuals based on nationality - many of them Canadian-born -
and compelled them into forced labour. Despite the original wartime
justification for these measures, many were kept in custody for two years after
the Armistice of 1918. We are all grateful for Mrs. Manko Haskett's dedication
to the cause of remembering and commemorating this important event in Canada's
history.”

Official condolences for those recently deceased, for example Bluma Appel and Ed
Mirvish, can be found on the Canadian Heritage website. The innocuous text cited
above wasn’t included, however, being deemed “too political.” And so yet
another indignity was heaped upon Mary, posthumously. Remembering her means
recalling what was done to her and by whom. That’s a no-no. While this gaffe
may be corrected, even if Mary wasn’t rich or a patron of the arts, it’s
too late. We got the message. 

Years ago Mary provided a prescription for the redress campaign. She insisted we
should never demand an apology, or compensation for survivors, or their
descendants. Instead we should ask, politely, for recognition and the
restitution of what was taken under duress. Those funds, to be held in a
community-based endowment, would underwrite commemorative and educational
projects that, hopefully, will ensure no other ethnic, religious or racial
minority suffers as Ukrainian Canadians once did. 

While no survivors remain, and even their descendants are senior citizens, a new
generation of Canadians of Ukrainian heritage took up Mary’s cause nearly two
decades ago, even though none of us had any ties to the victims. That changed
on the day of Mary’s funeral, when my mother and sister returned from western
Ukraine. They knew about Mary but, being away, did not know she had died. They
brought the news that my cousin, Lesia, had married Ivan Manko, himself
distantly related to Mary’s parents, Katherine and Andrew, whose graves are
found in Mississsauga’s St. Christopher’s Catholic cemetery, not far from
Mary’s mound. 

This crusade was always about righting an historical injustice and, in that
sense, is political. It just got personal too. 
----------------
Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk is director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil
Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca)

08:03 pm - LAST SURVIVOR OF CANADIAN INTERNMENT OPERATIONS, MARY MANKO HASKETT, DIES

UCCLA MEDIA RELEASE
 
LAST SURVIVOR OF CANADIAN INTERNMENT OPERATIONS, MARY MANKO HASKETT, DIES
 
For Immediate Release (15 July 2007) – Ottawa
 
The last known survivor of Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920, Mary Manko Haskett, died yesterday at a senior’s residence in Mississauga, Ontario. She was 98.
 
Born Mary Manko, in Montreal, she was only 6 years old when she was transported to the Abitibi region of north-central Quebec, to the Spirit Lake concentration camp. So-called  “enemy aliens,” mostly Ukrainians who emigrated to the Dominion from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were held there not because of anything they had done but only because of who they were, where they had come from. Most internees were forced to do heavy labour for the profit of their jailers, had their wealth confiscated, and were subjected to other state-sanctioned indignities, including disenfranchisement. Mary’s younger sister, Nellie, died at the Spirit Lake camp.
 
For years, Mary served as the honourary chairwoman of the National Redress Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association. She was committed to ensuring that what happened to her and thousands of other innocents would be remembered. Despite being a victim, Mary never sought an apology for the wrongs done to her, nor personal compensation for herself or any of the descendents of the internees. Instead she asked the community to try and secure an acknowledgement of what happened and a restitution of the contemporary value of the internees’ confiscated wealth and forced labour, that money to be placed in a community-managed endowment fund to be used for educational and commemorative initiatives to help ensure that no other Canadian ethnic, religious or racial minority would ever again suffer what Ukrainians once did.
 
Although Royal Assent was given to Conservative MP Inky Mark’s Bill C 331 – The Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, 25 November 2005, the Government of Canada has not yet met its legal obligation to negotiate a unique Ukrainian Canadian Redress and Reconciliation Settlement.
 
Commenting on Mary Manko’s passing, UCCLA’s director of research, Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, said:
 
“ We always hoped we would secure a timely and honourable redress settlement that Mary could bear witness to as the last known survivor of Canada’s first national internment operations. We grew especially hopeful after Stephen Harper, then Leader of the Opposition, and now the Prime Minister of Canada, endorsed Bill C 331 in the House of Commons in March 2005, saying that he too hoped Mary would be alive to see this matter resolved. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, that did not happen. But we remain committed to Mary’s cause. Negotiations toward a settlement should begin when we meet with the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Honourable Bev Oda, and the Secretary of Sate for Multiculturalism, Mr Jason Kenney, on 30 July. We are calling upon the Prime Minister to intervene and make sure that our deliberations lead to the kind of settlement Mary always hoped we would secure. It is truly sad that she won’t be with us to see how the wrongs done to her, and so many other Europeans, are finally undone. But at least she knew that we will never give up until that just end is reached.”

10:40 am - Canadian Ukrainians Reject Community Historical Recognition Program

Canadian Ukrainians Reject Community Historical Recognition Program

For Immediate Release (Toronto, 15 June 2007)

Ukrainian Canadians have rejected the Government of Canada’s proposed Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), which  received Treasury Board approval yesterday.  The $24 million historical recognition program would oblige ethnocultural communities to apply for funding for projects aimed at recalling past government wrong doings. This fund is to be administered by the Ministry of Canadian Heritage.
  
Over 80,000 Ukrainians were branded as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. Almost 5,000 Ukrainians, including men, women and children, were interned as forced labourers in 24 Canadian concentration camps during and after the First World War. "People were interned not because of anything they had done, but only because of where they had come from, who they were. There was no evidence then, nor has any been found since, of divided loyalties on the part of the victims of these internment measures," said Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, a director of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.  
  
In an article published in The Toronto Star yesterday, the Ukrainian Canadian community called upon the Prime Minister to personally intervene to right this historical injustice:.  “We are disappointed that the Government of Canada has ignored it’s obligation to negotiate a settlement with the Ukrainian Canadian community,” Paul Grod, vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, said.   
  
The Ukrainian Canadian community has called for a series of commemorative, educational and cultural initiatives to be funded through a community administered foundation, with an endowment based upon a determination of the present day value of the economic losses suffered by the community (approximately $47 million).  Under the approved CHRP framework, in contrast, Ukrainian Canadians would, in effect, says Dr Luciuk, "be required to go cap in hand to ask Ottawa to give back some of the money they took from the internees, under duress. Forcing us to do so is unconscionably paternalistic and we have said so, repeatedly, for years."
  
“We call upon the Prime Minister to immediately intervene to ensure a timely and honourable settlement, as mandated by the Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, to which he gave his support in the House of Commons in March 2005, and which received Royal Assent in November 2005,” said Andrew Hladyshevsky, QC, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, a body created in 1963 through an Act of Parliament. He went on to say: "“We would like to secure the Prime Minister’s personal assistance so that we might together craft a reconciliation settlement while the last known survivor, Mary Manko, is still alive. We believe that will reflect well upon this government's record, as did Prime Minister Mulroney's much-lauded Japanese Canadian Redress Settlement."

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For more on UCCLA please go to www.uccla.ca
To contact Dr Luciuk please email   luciuk@uccla.ca




 

    

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Innocent Man Finally Cleared of Unfounded Allegations of a Nazi Past

09:44 am - significant websites

Here's a new one:

www.luciuk.ca

and the classic:

www.uccla.ca

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UCCLA Media Release

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