“Read, Learn, Study, My Brothers” campaign launched by UCCLA

With the assistance of MPs James Bezan, Judy Wasylycia-Leis and Borys Wrezsnewskyj, the Ukrainian Canadian community has posted thousands of postcards across Canada inviting people to make use of their public and university libraries on March 9, the 195th birthday of Taras Shevchenko.

Known as “the bard of Ukraine,” Taras Shevchenko’s poetry has inspired Ukrainians over many generations. In one of his most famous poems, he called upon his fellow Ukrainians to learn from others while not forgetting their own.

Shevchenko wrote: “Gain knowledge brothers. Think and read, and to your neighbours' gifts pay heed, yet do not neglect your own.”

Commenting, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association chair Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk said: “We believe public libraries provide an essential service in every community right across Canada. By encouraging people to make use of libraries, we hope to ensure the ongoing vitality of these centres of learning. And by asking Canadians of Ukrainian heritage to go to a library on March 9, the 195th anniversary of Shevchenko’s birth, we also want to make sure that books on Ukraine and Ukrainian Canadian themes are taken out and read. We want to underscore the contribution Ukrainians have made to Canada while also recalling the long struggle Ukrainians waged to secure their independence so that they can now enjoy human rights and civil liberties of the sort that we in Canada sometimes taken for granted.”