Program's Future at Risk

By Ihor Bardyn

In 1991, three university students arrived in the House of Commons to take part in an internship in the Canadian Parliament.  The purpose of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program (CUPP) was to give Ukrainian university students an opportunity to observe the workings of a Western government. It was established in the Canadian Parliament, with the approval of the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The number of participants grew and reached a high of 52 in the late 1990s. In some years, two programs were held: one each in the spring and fall sittings of Parliament. 

In addition to the practical skills the students learned, an unforeseen benefit emerged.  The young and industrious Ukrainian students became ambassadors of the newly reborn independent Ukraine. The Canadian Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, senior civil servants and other government officials, through meetings, debates and exchanges between them and the students, began to better understand the conditions and situation in Ukraine and the challenges which lay ahead for a country that, after more than 200 years under foreign political rule, was slowly beginning to chart its independent path.

The students registered their presence through their work in Parliament, attendance at committee meetings, the publishing of a CUPP Newsletter, which was distributed to every Member of Parliament and senior civil servant, and through their volunteer work in Ottawa in connection with Ukrainian churches, the Tulip Festival, the Big Brother/Big Sister Derby for Youngsters, the Food Bank and other activities.

One vivid example of the impact that the program and the students had on the Federal Government was demonstrated recently during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.  In their introductory statements, a majority of the committee members stated that they had become more familiar with the needs of Ukraine and its government through their participation in the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program.   The CUPP students made an impression on the MPs and their staffs and, when it came time to vote on whether Ukraine would remain on the list of countries for which Canada would continue to provide aid, these MPs had no difficulty voting in favour of this support.

But the CUPP program, after 16 years, and after graduating close to 1,000 university students, has reached a critical juncture.  The endowment fund, which was created 16 years ago to cover the program’s annual costs, no longer earns enough income to sustain it. The current low interest rates earned on the endowment fund and the encroachment on it, which the program has had to make to maintain the participation level at 20 students per year, has forced the program organizer, The Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation of Toronto, to now reduce the number of participants and the program’s duration. If this trend continues, in a few years, the CUPP program will have to be discontinued.

The European Union country representative for Ukraine in 1999 in a speech at the Ivan Franko University declared that through education and exchange programs such as the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program, Western countries are providing the best type of assistance to Ukraine.  His reasoning and the opinion of many Western aid providers is that only through the education of a new generation of Ukrainians can the Parliament and government of Ukraine attain European standards and practices.

Another beneficial aspect of CUPP is that its participants have been encouraged by program organizers to pursue studies at Western universities. Over one-half of all CUPP graduates have received scholarships to pursue graduate degrees at Western universities. Among the Canadian universities the students have attended are the Universities of Calgary; Alberta; Manitoba; Saskatchewan; Toronto; Ottawa; Queen’s University; and McGill. They have also attended Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the U.K.; the Universities of Paris and Dunkerque in France; the University of Amsterdam; and, in the United States, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Duke University, among many others.

Partial assistance for their studies has been provided by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation, Dopomoha Ukraini-Shafraniuk Foundation, The Curkowsky Family Foundation, The Hume Foundation, The East-West Institute, as well as other Ukrainian community-based foundations. Acquiring, a Western education complements the parliamentary experience in Canada of this maturing generation of Ukrainians.

The oldest CUPP alumni are approaching their mid-30s and have not yet entered the political life, other than serving as volunteers in parliamentary and presidential elections, in Ukraine.  It is expected that, soon, the most mature of the CUPP graduates will begin to actively seek public office in order to share their knowledge acquired in the Canadian Parliament and in their studies abroad to bring about the necessary changes in their government and society.

If you support the goals of CUPP and would like to see the program continue, the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation would be grateful for any financial donation that you can make.  The need to support CUPP is greater today than ever before.

For information please contact the Director of the CUPP Program, Ihor Bardyn at 416-234-9111 ext.235, or write to CUPP, 620 Spadina Ave. Toronto,ON M5S 2H4.