Montreal, Ottawa (October 4, 2010) - On the
40th anniversary of the War Measures Act being deployed during the
“Quebec Crisis,” the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA)
held a brief but poignant memorial service at City Hall in Montreal, near a
site where almost 100 years earlier the War Measures Act was first used
during Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914–20. In September
1914,
“Three times the Government
of Canada has made use of martial law in this country,” said Roman Zakaluzny,
newly elected chair of the UCCLA. “We purposely picked
With the assistance of
Father Volodymyr Kouchnir, UCCLA and its supporters held a brief prayer service
near
In addition, UCCLA during
its October 1–3 conclave extended its support for the
As well, UCCLA:
– will move ahead with
plans to secure a proper Christian burial for the remains of two internees,
Messrs Bahriy and Konyk, in a Ukrainian Catholic cemetery in Southwestern
Ontario;
– intends to play an active
role in a content advisory capacity as Parks Canada works toward the
development of a major internment museum at Cave and Basin in Banff National
Park;
– will help collect
archival materials having to do with the Ukrainian Canadian redress campaign,
working to help ensure that they are then deposited in the Queen’s University
Archives and made available to researchers;
– will actively work to
ensure that Conservative MP, Tim Uppal’s Bill C-442, “An Act to
establish a National Holocaust Monument (National Holocaust Monument Act),”
will be inclusive and include references to all victims of the Holocaust,
regardless of ethnicity or faith;
– approved funding for the
production of a professional informational commercial to combat Ukrainophobia
in the Greater Toronto Area;
– initiated a national
postcard campaign aimed at convincing the Conservative Government of the Right
Honourable Stephen Harper to enforce Canadian immigration laws by acting to
remove all veterans of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD/KGB, from
Canada; and
– selected
Concurrently meeting in
Montreal, the executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation,
an educational and charitable group, (www.ucclf.ca and #ucclf) briefed UCCLA
delegates about their scholarship programs and donation toward the construction
of the Maple Leaf / Klenovi Lyst Safe House in Ukraine providing
sanctuary for orphans, children at risk and women escaping the evils of trafficking.
News Release