Federal Government Announces Two Fundings With Strong Connection to Ukrainian Canadians

New Pathway – Ukrainian News.

Thursday, February 22, was marked by two announcements from the federal government which bear strong connection to the Ukrainian Canadian community. The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister responsible for Multiculturalism, announced the launch of the new Paul Yuzyk Youth Initiative for Multiculturalism. This annual funding initiative will award grants of up to $1,000 to young Canadians (aged 18-24) to fund projects that promote diversity and inclusion in their communities. While Arif Virani, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Multiculturalism) and Member of Parliament (Parkdale–High Park), announced (on behalf of Minister Joly) that the Government is providing more than $1.4 million to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation in support of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour. Both announcements came in the year of the 30th anniversary of the passage of Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988).

The Paul Yuzyk Youth Initiative honours the legacy of late Senator Paul Yuzyk, one of the most famous Ukrainian Canadians who is widely regarded as the “father of Canadian multiculturalism.” The Paul Yuzyk Award for Multiculturalism was created by the Government of Canada in 2009. The new initiative aims to empower young leaders to make a positive impact on their communities, while addressing racism and discrimination, and advancing cultural understanding and inclusion. Canadian citizens or permanent residents can submit their applications for funding online by April 20, 2018.

Paul Yuzyk’s daughter, Vera Yuzyk, on behalf of the Yuzyk family, said (via the Ukrainian Canadian Congress): “Our father personally experienced discrimination as a youth leader and teacher of Ukrainian origin living in Saskatchewan that later motivated him to call for a more inclusive Canadian identity by promoting multiculturalism. He encouraged youth to be proud of their ethnic origins and to engage in the dialogue in support of multiculturalism, so it is a fitting tribute to him that the grants encourage youth to play a key role in building a better Canada.”

The funding for the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, $1,459,730 in total, will allow the project to continue for the next three years. The project has launched a Holodomor Mobile Classroom, so-called Holodomor Bus, that tours the country to raise awareness of the genocidal famine Holodomor, perpetrated by the Soviet regime in Ukraine in 1932-33. The project is expected to reach 65,000 participants across the country.

During the announcement made at the Ukrainian National Federation Toronto Branch, MP Arif Virani stressed the importance of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour by admitting that he did not know a lot about the Holodomor until he became an MP and found out about this genocide through the project in particular: “It is the entities like that very [Holodomor] bus right outside that have been instrumental in opening my eyes, and I have no doubt, opening thousands of eyes of people around the country to the horrors of the state-imposed famine-genocide of 1932-33, where Stalin planned deliberately the death through starvation of millions of Ukrainians. It is only … by learning about these atrocities, by keeping their memory alive that communities and we as a nation can work to ensure that the hatred and intolerance that led to the Holodomor do not ever recur.”

Arif Virani, Member of Parliament from Parkdale–High Park, has personal connection to the issues of genocide and human rights. Prior to becoming an MP in 2015, he worked as an analyst with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa; an investigator at la Commission des droits de la personne et droits de la jeunesse in Montreal; and as an Assistant Trial Attorney prosecuting genocide at the United Nation’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He came to Canada as an Asian refugee from Uganda in the 1970s.

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