A quick look at some of the Ukrainian festivals happening around Canada this summer:
Vegreville Ukrainian Pysanka Folk Festival: July 4-6 (THIS WEEKEND) – Vegreville, Alberta
Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival: August 1-3 – Dauphin, Manitoba
Montreal Ukrainian Festival: Sept 6 – Montreal, Quebec
Toronto Ukrainian Festival: Sept 12-14 – Toronto, Ontario (Back at Bloor West Village!)
Edit:Â Also this Fall is the 8th Annual Ukrainian Festival: Oct. 25 – Barrie, ON.
Happy Canada Day to all my readers. Enjoy reading the history of Ukrainians in Canada.
Toronto native Tetiana Ostapowych was eliminated from the first round of Canadian Idol last night after singing ‘Feelings’. This was her second attempt as Idol fans may have recognized her from American Idol auditions in San Diego at the beginning of the year. She grew up in Etobicoke (a West Toronto suburb), attending Ukrainian-Catholic elementary school Josyf Cardinal Slipyj and then onto Etobicoke School of the Arts for highschool. You can visit her MySpace page for more info.
Last Thursday was the final sitting of the Manitoba legislature before it breaks for the summer, and a historic bill passed that received little media fan-fare:
The lone opposition bill passed was one establishing the fourth Saturday in November as Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Holodomor Memorial Day.
Bill 217 received royal assent on June 12, 2008 and was introduced by Selkirk-Interlake MP James Bezan who also got a similar bill passed in the Senate along with Etobicoke-Centre MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj to recognize the genocide nationwide.
First Saskatchewan, now Manitoba and Ontario is next with Bill-C61 that has been ordered referred to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills.
From the Toronto Sun:
Leaders of an “insulted” Ukrainian community last night blasted the Toronto District School Board for approving a genocide class that doesn’t include the 1932-33 Holodomor in its list of three atrocities to be studied in-depth.
The TDSB last night unanimously approved the course design for the Grade 11 genocide class, which will focus mainly on three mass murders — the 1915 Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
But a board superintendent, Nadine Segal, said other genocides, including the current Darfur crisis as well as the Soviet-engineered Ukrainian Holodomor famine, will be touched upon in a broader, survey context. Students will have the opportunity to choose other genocides for independent study, Segal said.
From the Globe and Mail:
A group of Ukrainian-Canadians sat in the board meeting’s audience in support of an effort to have the Holodomor, the 1932-33 Ukrainian genocide, included as a core case study.
The board passed some minor amendments aimed at bolstering the profile of the Holodomor in the curriculum, including a mandatory statement that crimes against humanity not used as one of the three core case studies were not of lesser importance than those that were, and that other atrocities could be included as case studies.
While most of the media focused on the Armenian-Turkish battle over the course, it was refreshing to see some bring up the issue and keep the topic fresh in the media. The course unfortunately will not be reviewed for another three years.
Meanwhile in 2009 Alberta will start teaching the Holodomor and the internment of Ukrainians during WWI in its schools, the League of Ukrainian Canadians have had their Holodomor education plan posted for quite some time, and there are plenty more resources in the US.