(UCCLA) Canada’s Ukrainian community has reacted favourably to the appointment of Jean Augustine, MP (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) as Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and the Status of Women. Speaking for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association its chairman, John B Gregorovich, said:

“Ms Augustine represents a working class riding in west-central Toronto which is home to a large number of Ukrainian Canadians. In the past she has said that that she would personally take up the case for redress to the Ukrainian Canadian community for the wrongs done to us during Canada’s first national internment operations, in her capacity as parliamentary secretary to our Prime Minster, the Right Honourable Jean Chretien. Just last April, she wrote to Lubomyr Luciuk, UCCLA’s director of research confirming her personal support for a private member’s bill, Bill C-331, the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act, first tendered by Inky Mark, MP (Dauphin-Swan River). We hope that, as Secretary of State for Multiculturalism, Ms Augustine will now act on her pledges and meet with representatives of our community to resolve this matter in a timely and honourable fashion. She is in exactly the right place to do so, and will, we hope, accept the request we sent yesterday asking for a near-future meeting to begin the necessary discussions. We are hopeful that her appointment indicates a willingness on the part of this government to finally work with us to right this historical injustice.”