Kassandra Luciuk

I am not that old but already I know that I am lucky to have been born in Canada.

Why?

Because my grandparents and great grandmother have told me what they went through before they came to Canada. And I am pretty sure that they don’t tell me everything.

They survived Nazi and Soviet oppression. Even before the Second World War, when they lived in Ukraine, they would often find themselves at the mercy of governments that persecuted them, only because they were Ukrainian. They suffered under governments that denied them their basic religious, cultural and political rights. Under regimes that denied them education. That prevented them from speaking their own language. Which even claimed there was no such thing as a people called Ukrainians.

How different is the world we live in, here in Canada. Laws govern our society. Together we have built a society where everyone is free to believe whatever they want to, to speak openly about their beliefs, and to do so without having to worry about being arrested – or worse.

My grandparents and great grandmother never enjoyed those basic freedoms.

Not until they came to Canada. And so they are very grateful for the sanctuary and the liberty Canada gave them.

All Canadians, whether we were born here, or came here as immigrants, or were political refugees like my family, enjoy the same rights and freedoms. We are all Canadians regardless of where we came from, or when, or the faith or race or beliefs of our ancestors.

I have learned about this from both my parents. My mother became a lawyer in the very same year that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was proclaimed. Her copy is in Ukrainian! Imagine that! Canada issuing one of its most basic documents, not just in our two official languages, but in Ukrainian, a language that my grandparents had to struggle to preserve when those who occupied their homeland tried to stamp it out!

My father is a professor. He has also told me about how important the Charter is. He served as a Member of the Immigration and Refugee Board. I used to visit his office and even went into a hearing room. He explained how our Charter protects people who come to Canada to seek our protection, refugees like my grandparents.

I also know, because my father writes about these things, that before the Charter there were dark periods in Canada’s own history, when the human rights and civil liberties of innocent people were not respected.

Many of us know about how badly Japanese Canadians were treated in World War Two. But fewer people know that in World War One many thousands of Ukrainian Canadians and other European immigrants were put into Canadian concentration camps, and labeled “enemy aliens.” Not because of anything they had done but only because of where they came from.

My father writes a lot about that sort of thing. He can do that because the Charter exists and protects his freedom of speech, and ours. And the Charter also makes sure that the injustices that happened decades ago in Canada will never happen again.

Like many others I watched the terrorist attacks against New York and Washington. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It did not look real. I don’t pretend to understand why those who killed so many innocents did what they did.

I can’t believe those responsible were truly religious for I do not believe God wants us to take other peoples’ lives. I think we must now fight against terrorism. But, even as we do, I am glad to know that in Canada we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That will help ensure that the mistakes that were made in Canada’s past, when innocent people were arrested and interned in times of hysteria and prejudice, do not happen again.

We must stand on guard for Canada. We can do so with confidence. For guarding all of us, as Canadians, is our Charter. For that all of us should truly give thanks.

Kassandra Luciuk is a Grade 6 student at Josyf Cardinal Slipyj Ukrainian Catholic School, in Toronto. She spoke recently at Osgoode Hall, for the opening of Law Week, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Charter.