Category Archives: canada

book, canada, event

198th anniversary of Taras Shevchenko, stolen statue unveiling & Ukrainian Literature day

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Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington DC

Today is the 198th anniversary of who many regard as the Ukrainian linguistic and artisanal architect, Taras Shevchenko. Fresh off a quick cameo on TV show ‘House’, his statue that was stolen from an Oakville park a decade ago was recovered last month and is on display now at the museum that bares his name in Bloor West Village, and will also have his official unveiling ceremony tomorrow from 4-6pm.

Today is also Ukrainian literature day and everyone is encouraged to read, and we’ve suggested some great books on the topic.

My Testament (Zapovit)

When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes … then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields –
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray …. But till that day
I nothing know of God.

Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants’ blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.

Taras Shevchenko
Pereyaslav, December 25, 1845
Translated by John Weir Toronto, 1961

[Shevchenko Museum]


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book, canada

Book Review: ‘Making Bombs for Hitler’

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Making Bombs for Hitler begins in the aftermath of raids of Ukrainians  kidnapped and transported to Nazi Germany as slave labour, known as Ostarbeiters. The main character Lida is separated from her sister Larissa and tries to survive the camp system with a keen intuition and quick wits, constantly in fear of what the fate or herself, her fellow children or her missing sister will be.

Lida is given quick wisdom in passing from a fellow slave labourer to ‘find a way to be useful, or they’ll kill you’. Lying about her young age and revealing a talent for embroidery taught by her mother (who was killed by the Nazis, while her father was killed by the Soviets) aids her in securing work in the laundry, avoiding the tragic fate of some of her companions who work in terrible conditions and regarded as sub-human. Her hard work ethic is noticed, and the few privileges it gains her shocks her German task masters as she selflessly shares them with her fellow slaves to help their deplorable conditions. As her reputation for quality and detail builds, Lida finds herself promoted to assembling weapons of destruction for the Nazis. This weighs heavily on her conscious, as she is haunted by the dilemma that her diligent work that keeps her useful (and therefore alive) contributes to stopping the people trying to liberate her.

Making Bombs for Hitler is a companion novel to Stolen Child which is centered around the story of Lida’s sister Larissa, whom are quickly separated at the beginning in this story.

I found this book to be quite enjoyable. While it boasts 170 pages, it is broken down into many digestible chapters and is written in a quick tempo that makes the book a surprisingly quick read. What is also refreshing is that the book does not go into too many details about World War 2, sparing the reader from all the names and places that could have turned the story into a boring history text. And while the book does bring into light the often overlooked plight of Ukrainians and even other nationalities (like the Poles or the Hungarians), one does not need to be too familiar with their back stories to understand their issues in this book.

Making Bombs for Hitler is available at local retailers and online at Chapters, Amazonand Google Books.

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is the author of Dear Canada: Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk, Spirit Lake, Quebec, 1914 and Stolen Child, which won the prestigious Crystal Kite Award and has been shortlisted for the Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award and the Saskatchewan Diamond Willow Award. She has also written several picture books and in 2008 received the Order of Princess Olha from Ukrainian President Victor Yuschenko for Enough, which depicted the great Ukrainian famine that claimed millions of lives in the 1930s. Marsha lives in Brantford, Ontario. Her website is at http://www.calla.com.

 The book launches today Wednesday, March 7th, 2012: 7:30pm at UNF Community Centre – 145 Evans Ave, Etobicoke, Ontario. The author will give a brief talk, followed by Q&A. Books available for sale and autograph. Light refreshments.

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canada, radio, tv

CBC’s getting a little Ukrainian!

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The good old CBC, our national public broadcaster. While it’s under constant attack from the right (for the benefit of its rival Quebecor and Sun News over French-language markets and beyond), it’s one of our only real Canadian culture outlets (when was the last time the private TV networks like Global or CTV aired a Canadian show in prime time?). In parliament and editorials on TV and radio, all you hear about the CBC is what a drain of tax payers money it is and the scary ‘1 Billion dollars’ it commands. But in reality that investment almost quadruples what it puts back into our economy and only costs Canadians $34 a year – a fraction of what other public broadcasters such as in Britain or Australia cost. Luckily the majority of Canadians favour the CBC, and it has been charging ahead into the digital realm even in the face of drastic budget cutbacks from the Harper government.

Today CBC launched its new free digital music service that allows users to listen, share and purchase Canadian music. Browsing through, I was happy to see artists from its youth/alternative online station Radio 3 – which includes up and coming Ukrainian bands sicj as Ukrainia, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Klooch and Zirka. And for all the readers of my site, I’ve compiled a list of their songs on one convenient playlist! I hope you enjoy it 😉

For those with the specialty TV channel CBC Bold, it has picked up a show that ran multiple years on the Natives’  APTN network called ‘Mixed Blessings‘. It’s about a Ukrainian man marrying a Cree woman and having their families live under the same roof a-la the Brady Bunch but in Fort Mac, Alberta. The show airs a few times a day except for Tuesdays and Friday.

If you get a chance, do give these a try and let me know what you think about them in the comments 🙂

Edit: Since I’m posting about the CBC, perhaps you would like to know if any of the staff are Ukrainian… well some are!

The above picture of the varenyky done up as the CBC logo is courtesy of radio host and producer David Shumka.

If you ever watched the show Being Erica that wrapped up this winter, you’d be happy to know the lovely star Erica Karpluk is of Ukrainian descent. The show, while not currently airing on TV right now can be seen on its CBC page as well as on NetFlix (which is an awesome service that you should definitely try!).

And if you’re into cooking, the host of Best Recipes Ever, Kelly Osmond is also of Ukrainian descent. Her parents owned a Ukrainian deli and catering business in Mississauga

canada, news

Stolen Taras Shevchenko statue returned after 10 years [Article]

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A modern day miracle happened this week as the Taras Shevchenko bronze statue that was stolen 10 years ago in Oakville has been successfully recovered:

A police investigation led nowhere and a $10,000 no-questions-asked reward went unclaimed.

As the years passed, the statue’s owners — the few volunteers who run the Taras H. Shevchenko Museum and Memorial Park Foundation on Bloor St. W. — had lost hope of ever again seeing the statue, worth an estimated $25,000.

But a remarkable coincidence, 10 years after the fact, has led to an unlikely reunion.

In November, the foundation received an email from a Hamilton antique dealer inquiring as to their interest in a statue he was trying to sell.

They opened the attached picture and there he was: Shevchenko, seated and scowling, as he had in Oakville’s Palermo Park for more than 50 years.

Three of the foundation’s staff excitedly drove to Hamilton to meet the dealer, Dan Rotko, and to see the statue with their own eyes.

“After 10 years, I couldn’t believe it!” recalls Bill Harasym, the foundation’s 87-year-old vice-president. “You could knock us over with a pin. . . . . It was like meeting an old friend again.”

Harasym and the other staff did not immediately reveal to Rotko they were the rightful owners — trying to learn more about how he had obtained the statue.

Rotko bought it a year earlier from a collector, who had picked it up at a flea market around the time it was stolen. Neither Rotko nor the other collector had any idea of its ill-gotten past.
RHarasym handed Rotko a cheque for $2,500, and explained to him how the statue was stolen.

otko couldn’t believe it. He refused the foundation’s money and said he is keeping the cheque as “a memento” of the fateful encounter.

“It was meant to be,” said Rotko, who is Ukrainian himself. “Call it fate or whatever . . . it’s a great coincidence that I get it and send them an email of the item that was stolen.”

Rotko stumbled upon the foundation’s website as he searched online for prospective buyers in the area.

When he described the story to his mother, Rotko said she told him she used to take him to the park to see the statue when he was a child. “She told me, ‘Don’t you dare cash that cheque!’ ”

The statue was a gift from the sculptor, Ivan Honchar, to Ukrainian-Canadians in 1951 to mark the 60th anniversary of the first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada.

It was only the first Shevchenko statue to be stolen from the foundation. A second, much larger statue was stolen from the same park in 2006. Two men were charged with theft, and the head of the statue was recovered (it’s currently on display in the Shevchenko museum). The bulk of the statue is believed to have been melted down or broken up and sold for its copper.

Read the rest of the article

The statue will be re-presented to the public at the Shevchenko museum (1614 Bloor St. W.) on March 9th (Shevchenko’s birth)

canada, event, video

King of the Kovbasa, only in the Praries (hilarious video!)

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Here’s something you’d only see in Saskatoon, the ‘Paris of the Praries’:

Kovbasa makers from Saskatoon and surrounding area will again go head-to-head on Feb. 9 in a taste-testing competition/party that celebrates local food purveyors and Saskatchewan’s Ukrainian history.
…

(It) welcomes experienced kovbasa tasters and those unfamiliar with the traditional sausage. Everyone will have a good time, she said.

“When you get a group of Ukrainians and wannabe Ukrainians together, you can’t help but have fun,” she said. “If I were you, I’d wear your ‘forgive-me’ pants.”

The event is also picking up a lot of attention online, with a video going viral of the Global Saskatoon news flubbing the announcement with hilarious results:

The event will also feature the Yevshan Ukrainian Folk Ballet Ensemble, and tickets are $25. It starts 7pm this Thursday Feb. 9th at Prairieland Park - 503 Ruth Street West, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.