Ukraine’s Ambassador Meets the Honourable Peter Millken

On September 30, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada, Ihor Ostash, officially met with the Parliament of Canada’s House of Commons Speaker, the Hon. Peter Milliken. They exchanged thoughts on furthering the development of Ukraine-Canada cooperation at the parliamentary level. Mr. Ostash and Mr. Milliken also discussed the recognition in Parliament of the 120^th Anniversary of Ukrainian Settlement in Canada.

After the formal meeting, Mr. Ostash joined Ottawa UCPBA President Iryna Woliansky and representatives of Ottawa’s Ukrainian community in bestowing upon Mr. Milliken a Hetman’s Mace or bulava. Also participating were Mark Warawa, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group, its vice-chair MP Peter Goldring, MP Dean Allison, Chair of the Foreign Affairs and International Development Parliamentary Committee, MPs – Borys Wrzesnewskyj, James Bezan, Mike Wallace, Gerrard Kennedy and others.

Mr. Milliken spoke about his 2009 visit to Ukraine, and expressed his conviction on the need and readiness to deepen the Ukrainian-Canadian political dialogue within a parliamentary framework. He welcomed the work of the parliamentary friendship group and also emphasized the recognition of the 120^th Anniversary of Ukrainian Settlement in Canada in 2011.

In turn, friendship group chair Mark Warawa informed about Holodomor Remembrance Day in memory of the victims of the Great Famine Genocide in Ukraine 1932-33, to be observed in Parliament this year on November 29, in accordance with an Act of Parliament.

PHOTOS

1 - The Parliament of Canada’s House of Commons Speaker, the Hon. Peter Milliken

2 - Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada, Ihor Ostash