Ottawa Banquet Honours Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, with the patronage of the Embassy of Ukraine, recently hosted a banquet honouring former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for Canada’s role in being the first Western country to recognize the results of Ukraine’s historic 1991 referendum on independence. Some 400 people attended the sold-out gala dinner, held Wednesday, April 18 at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa. Head table dignitaries included the current Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen, The Honourable Roy Romanow, former Premier of Saskatchewan, and Gerda Hnatyshyn, widow of the late Governor General of Canada, Ramon Hnatyshyn.

To symbolically thank Canada for its support of Ukraine’s independence, Ukraine’s Ambassador Ihor Ostash presented Mr. Mulroney with the Order of Kniaz Yaroslav the Wise on behalf of President Viktor Yushchenko. The President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Orysia Sushko, also used the occasion to award Mr. Mulroney with the UCC’s prestigious Shevchenko Medal, in recognition of his staunch backing of Ukraine at a critical moment during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

More than a dozen cabinet members were in attendance at the dinner, among them Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney. The evening was jointly emceed by Senator Raynell Andreychuk and James Temerty, CEO of Northlands Power. As part of the program, UCC Board Member Bohdan Onyshchuk related an account of Mr. Mulroney’s visit to Kyiv in the fall of 1989, almost a year before Ukraine’s declaration of sovereignty in July 1990, highlighted with a CTV news clip documenting the landmark trip.

There was a large turn out of national media at the banquet, impressing even long-time observers of the political scene in Ottawa. Indeed, it is doubtful if in the entire history of the Ukrainian community in Canada there has ever been such a high-powered assembly of politicians and journalists at a Ukrainian sponsored gathering. In the words of one UCC National Board Member, “It was a win-win situation for Ukrainians. Ukraine was placed in the national spotlight in a positive way, and Ukrainian Canadians had their profile boosted with the current government.”

In his graceful and eloquent thank-you speech, Mr. Mulroney spoke fondly and emotionally about his friendship with his former cabinet colleague, Ray Hnatyshyn. He also vividly recalled some of the details of his 1989 trip to Soviet Ukraine during the brief era of perestroika, including a moving incident involving Roman Waschuk, then a young Canadian diplomat. Mr. Mulroney’s remarks served as a timely history lesson highlighting the importance of Ukrainians and an independent Ukraine to Canada.