Ukraine’s Students Return

to Canada’s Parliament

Ottawa, (CUPP) – On September 12, thirty-four university students from Ukraine, Austria, Belarus, China, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia arrived in Ottawa for the 23^rd Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program, an internship program in the Canadian House of Commons.

The interns came to Canada from universities in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Berlin, Tbilisi Georgia, St. Petersburg Russia, Simferopol, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovs’k, Mykolaiv, Vienna, Rome, Mainz, Maastricht, and Zhejiang China.

In 1990, Toronto Attorney Ihor Bardyn founded the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program (CUPP), to celebrate the centenary of Ukrainian group immigration to Canada and the renewal of Ukraine’s Independence.

On their arrival in Ottawa, Mr. Bardyn greeted the interns and urged them “to use their time in Parliament wisely, in their daily contacts with MPs, government officials and ordinary Canadians, and to experience Canadian civil society; observe the relations between the elected MPs and their constituents and the transparency of the Canadian political system; ask questions and compare and record your observations and findings.”

Thirty-four Members of Parliament (MPs) are participating in the 23rd annual CUPP Program among them Ministers Jason Kenney, Julian Fantino, and Bal Gobal, as well as former Ministers, Judy Sgro, Dr. Carolyn Bennett, Steven Fletcher, Joyce Murray and MPs James Bezan, Joyce Bateman, Corneliu Chisu, Linda Duncan, Peter Goldring, Ed Komarnicki, Alexandrine Latendresse, Wladyslaw Lizon, Isabelle Morin, Peggy Nash, Ted Opitz and Mike Wallace.

During their internship the students will be meeting with Senators Raynell Andreychuk, Denise Batters, David Tkachuk as well as Governor of the Bank of Canada Stephen Poloz, Bohdan Hawrylyshyn, all of whom are of Ukrainian heritage as well as Ambassador Andrew Bennet, and the Ambassadors of Ukraine, Poland, United Kingdom, Georgia and Russia. The interns will publish two issues of the CUPP Newsletter and return to Kyiv on November 15, 2013.

In Ottawa the interns will participate in the CUPP-sponsored, 3-day workshop titled “Citizenship and Democracy: The Making of Ukrainians.”

Among the workshop speakers are Allan Rock, President of the University of Ottawa, Senator Raynell Andreychuk, Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, Ambassador Andrew Bennett, Phylissa Mitchell, Roman Petryshyn, Paul Migus, James and Patience Huntwork, Serhiy Leshchenko (Kyiv), Mykola Siruk (Kyiv), Zenon Zawada (Kyiv) Maryana Drach (Prague) Alexandra Hrycak (Portland, Oregon), Lada Roslycky, Taras Kuzio, Paul Magocsi and Walter Derzko.

Among the CUPP alumni who will be participating in the workshop are: Stanislava Tsarkova (College of Europe, Bruges), Roman Tashlitsky (University of Toronto), Pavlo Shopin (University of Luhansk), Yuri Kushnir (Kyiv), Jaroslava Barbieri (Universite de Paris Sorbonne), Dmytro Hys (Ottawa), Maryna Yaroshevych (Kyiv), Luba Grybkova (Yalta ), Andriy Zavialov (University of Irkutsk), Yaroslavl Kovalchuk (University of the Algarve, Portugal),Tetiana Stepykina (University of Luhansk), Olesya Trahniuk (Yaroslav the Wise Law Academy), Oleksandr Pankiv (London), Dmytro Panchuk (University of Ghent, Belgium) and two Newton Fellowship 2013-2015 recipients from Luhansk, Antonina Tereshchenko (Kings College London) and Yulia Zabyelina (University of Edinburgh), as well as Alona Shkrum CUPP 2013 (Cambridge University),

A Model Ukraine White Paper of recommendations for “Peace, Order and Good Government” will be produced at end of the workshop and will be delivered to the governments of Ukraine and Canada.

PHOTO

CUPP interns with Dr. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn