Category Archives: video

canada, easter, event, video, weekend-watching

Weekend Watching: Ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland documentary & don’t forget it’s Palm Sunday

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Here’s a little something to fill your weekend calendar:

Ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians in Poland documentary

Saturday at 4pm at the Revue Cinema in Roncesville (just south of Dundas West TTC station) is the airing of ‘The Last Journey Home’, features stories of some of the 150,000 Ukrainians forcefully deported from their homeland annexed to Poland after World War 2 under ‘Operation Wesla’ and returning 63 years later.

These Ukrainians were scattered among the hostile Polish population and condemned to assimilation. They were expelled from over 1000 villages and towns, hundreds of churches were destroyed, some 4,000 people were imprisoned and tortured in the Jaworzno concentration camp, and around 1,000 were killed during the operation and added to the list of the thousands of victims of previously carried out pacifications, executions, and torture. As the consequence of Operation “Wisla”, the most western part of the Ukrainian ethnic territory ceased to be inhabited by Ukrainians.

Admission is available at the door for $15

[Full preview from the Canadian Lemko Association]

 

Palm Sunday

For those of you who forgot, this Sunday is Palm Sunday. Лоза б’є, Я не б’ю, від нині за тиждень, буде Великдень!

canada, ukraine, video, weekend-watching

Weekend watching: Ukrainian dancing doc in Roncesville & Bigfoot in Ukraine

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Saturday at 4pm at the Revue Cinema of Roncesville (just south of Dundas West TTC station), UNF is showing an encore of the Ukrainian dancing documentary Folk!:

Folk! is a documentary that explores the unique underground and acrobatic world of Ukrainian folk dancing through the eyes of narrator/filmmaker Roxy Toporowych. Featuring the legendary ballerina and choreographer Roma Pryma Bohachevsky and the Syzokryli Dance Ensemble of New York, “Folk!” is relevent to anyone trying to balance ties to one’s heritage and culture. Also featuring the Virsky National Dance Company of Ukraine, the Kashtan School of Ukrainian Dance in Cleveland and The Voloshky Dance Ensemble of Philadelphia, Folk! is the first film to be a joyful embracement of Ukrainian culture and dance in North America today.

You can get more information on their Facebook page

Also a quirky video coming out of the internets, as someone in Ukraine claims to have identified the legendary Big Foot:

MSN doesn’t allow embedding of their videos, click the picture to go to the video

canada, video

92 year-old Ukrainian Canadian track star Olga Kotelko made famous again on BBC

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Looking for Olga’s interview on the CBC’s Sunday Edition?

The BBC is running a video on 92 year-old Saskatchewan track star Olga Kotelko – the oldest long jump competitor in the world, holding 23 world records and considered one of the world’s greatest athletes:

BBC doesn’t allow embedding of their videos, click the picture to go to the video

We last heard from Olga when we covered her as an Olympic Torch bearer in Vancouver’s Winter Games last year. At around 1:17 in the video, she mentions her parents are Ukrainian.

Here’s a quick run down of the Women’s world records she holds:

  • 200 metres
  • High Jump – 2
  • Long Jump
  • Triple Jump – 2
  • Shot Put
  • Discus Throw – 3
  • Hammer Throw – 3
  • Javelin Throw – 2
  • Weight Throw
  • Throws Pentathlon – 2
  • 4×100 metres relay

It’s also worth nothing her birthday is March 2nd, 1919 – making her 92 and not 91 as the BBC article states, which I wasn’t at all impressed with:

perhaps most remarkable is that most people Olga’s age consider it an accomplishment – and exercise – simply to be breathing in and out

I hope it’s not a sign to come as the BBC deals with massive cuts.

news, ukraine, video, weekend-watching

Weekend Watching: BBC investigates government shut down of Maidan (Independence) square

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The BBC investigates the closing down of the Maidan (Independence square) by the Yanukovych government – the home of the Orange Revolution and recently protests over unfair changes to the tax code:

BBC doesn’t allow embedding of their videos, click the picture to go to the video

While the video addresses Maidan square and even interviews Yanukovych about it, for some reason it is described (as many others on the BBC news site) as being about the Ukrainian people’s disillusionment with the Orange Revolution! The Revolution ended over a year ago, but the BBC editors for some reason do not place the spotlight instead on the current Yanukovych government leading the country into the bottom third of the world’s most corrupt countries.

news, ukraine, usa, video

American Ukrainian groups ignore Yanukovych talks, protest his arrival to USA instead

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Heading to the UN in New York last week, Yanukovych’s administration attempted to create ‘dialogue’ with several Ukrainian American groups. The groups, not impressed by the lack of response on their issues – deteriorating civil liberties and press freedoms, selling of national interests to Russia and denying genocide among them, have decided to ignore his requests and instead protest his visit:

The issue which strongly turned Ukrainian-Americans against the Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych is his controversial gas-for-fleet deal with Moscow in April. Yanukovych received a 30 percent discount on Russian natural gas imports in exchange letting the Russian Black Sea Fleet remain based on the Crimean peninsula through at least 2042.

Yanukovych seemed to be trying in recent days to win over his American critics ahead of his trip to New York.

…

Also, coming several days before the U.S. trip, Yanukovych sent a letter to the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America calling for dialogue. But, upset with what they view as his pro-Russian and anti-democratic policies, the congress responded to his overture by organizing street protests on his visit.

Some pictures of the protest from Unian:

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