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Conference Summary
Note: This summary was composed from notes during the conference. The following should not be considered as being a transcript of the conference.
7:30 p.m.
Welcome reception (Century Plaza Hotel). UCPBF president Raya Shadursky held an opening night reception in her Hotel Suite. Great view of downtown Vancouver!
9:00 a.m.
Keynote speaker Commander Yaromyr Koropecky Retired, discussion about his involvement with OSCE(Organization for Security in Central and Eastern Europe) in setting up an office in Ukraine to deal with the Black Sea and Crimea situations. Here are some of his comments:
The OSCE is comprised if European countries as well as Canada and the United States of America. Ukraine joined the OSCE in 1992. This was one of its first actions as an independent state. The OSCE had a mandate to establish information on the Black Sea Fleet, and Crimean minority rights, for example: the Crimean Tartars. The OSCE had limited success with the division of the Black Sea Fleet. The main problem was a general lack of co-operation from Russia on this issue. The OSCE also went o Chechnya, but again Russia was not interested in co-operating.
Commander Koropecky also had some personal comments about his time in Ukraine:
Yaromyr was originally thrilled to work in Ukraine. He like worked out of a hotel in Kyiv and he travelled extensively throughout Ukraine, especially in Crimea. Yaromyr met and worked with other organizations such as the World Bank and the Soros Foundation. After the first "thrill" of visiting Ukraine wore off, Yaromyr became quite concerned on the decay and collapsing infrastructure he observed throughout Ukraine. He was particularly concerned with the lack of pride in the maintenance of common properties. On the positive side of things, Yaromyr was quite impressed with the modern Ukrainian language as compared to his "antique" version. His negative impressions are beginning to fade now as he has seen the dedication that so many people are demonstrating to build a new Ukraine. He is particularly impressed with the dedicated work of investigative journalist and the parliamentarians who worked so hard to produce the new Ukrainian constitution. There was also Ukraine's good performance at the summer Olympics and the Introduction of the new Ukrainian currency, the Hryvnia. The exchange rate is et at 1.76 to the American Dollar.
In summing up, Commander Yaromyr Koropecky said that the Ukrainian Diaspora can assist Ukraine through investment, training programs and helping to fight discrimination and bad reporting in the media such as the recent Forbes article on Ukraine. "Five years done and many more to come."
Peter told the conference that there are nine colleges of this type around the world, and the LB Pearson College is the only one in Canada. LB Person is located 20 miles outside of Vancouver "in the bush". The language of instruction is in English. The entrance requirements are high School Diploma or completed grade 11. Student gain admission to the college on the basis of merit. LB Pearson offers a two year program and the students live on campus four persons to a room. The college is designed to comprise students from all over the world. The cost of tuition is $17,500 a year. The college would like to have two students from each country but due to the high cost of tuition a higher proportion of the students come from the richer counties. There are private Foundations that help sponsor students from the poorer countries. Peter Shostak would like to Canada's one million plus population of Ukrainian heritage to donate money to the college for a scholarship fund. The scholarship fund is managed by Pearson College and money gave specifically be directed to students from Ukraine if desired. The scholarship fund qualifies for a Canadian tax receipt and information about this fund can be found on the UCPBF main page under "Pearson College".
Two of the Ukrainian students attending the also gave brief presentations on their enriching experiences at the college. They were:
Next Tanya Haluk
10:30 a.m.
There were two workshops held from 10:30 until noon addressing the 1) Federations' role within Canada and the U.S. and 2) with the different levels of Canadian Government. The results of these workshops can be found in the main section of the 1996 Western Canada Conference report.
12 noon Lunch
1:00 p.m.
Keynote speaker Roman Onufrijchuk,
There is a desire to rebuild Ukraine ,but on what model and from when? The Ukraine of Kyiv-Rus, the Kozak period or of 1917? After the independence of 1991, there were hopes for business as well as possibly returning to Ukraine to live. There were also opportunities for short term exploitation due to the new and ever widening exchange rates. After the initial euphoria of Ukrainian independence, the Diaspora discovered "discontent" for example: the washrooms. There were also political discontents such as: "who came to power, and who did they represent and from where"? Other discontents were the collapse of people's savings, workers not being paid for months at a time, and images of abandoned cats and dogs on the streets. How do we relate to this scenario? Is this liberal democratic society? Can the elected people deal with these problems?
Ukrainian's self definition is now having to deal with all of these images. What connects us to Diaspora? What are our common shared values? Is it: language, custom, dancing cooking, etc.? How do we accommodate the new immigration? What are we going to do with our fragmented and fragile structures? What are we going to do with all of the expensive realty that the Diaspora are stewards to?
"What do we owe to Baba and what are we going to do about it? What about the foundations? Who is it for. If it is for Ukraine, then for "who" in Ukraine?
"To what extent are we going to honour Baba?"
2:30 p.m.
U.C.P.B.F. Vice President for Communications Michael Kostiuk gave a brief seminar on the origins of the Internet and its evolution to the present applications of the World Wide Web. The federations home page was demonstrated as well there was an explanation of the UCPBF List Server. Each of the local associations was encouraged to set up their home page and to use the Internet as a method for communications. A suggestion was made to pay local SUSK students to create basic home pages for each association that lacked the knowledge or expertise since most university students today have a solid background in the Internet.
3:00 p.m.
Workshop addressing the Federations' role with Ukraine
The results of this workshop can be found in the main section of the 1996 Western Canada Conference report.
6:00 p.m.
Dinner at the Robson Square Conference Centre.
Keynote speaker, Jerry Gangur, former President Royal Westminster Regiment Association, presented a historic review of the debate and current status of the plaque to honour Victor a Cross winner Filip Konowal. After much debate among various groups and individuals, the issue was settled. The plaque will be placed at the Royal Westminster Regiment and it will be in Ukrainian, English and French.
Finalise recommendations that will be presented at the Federation's 1997Biennial Convention in Banff, Alberta.
12:00 Noon
Conference closed
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