For immediate release: Oct. 15, 2012
UCCLA’s 15th Conclave Held in Ottawa
Meeting in the Nation’s capital, the executive of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association held a series of discussions that touch upon some of the more pressing issues important to the organized Ukrainian community in Canada.
Top on the list is the continued presence of veterans of the notorious Soviet secret police, the KGB. Recently, two MPs of the New Democratic Party held a potluck Thanksgiving meal with an (ex) KGB Captain, Mikhail Lennikov, who remains illegally in Canada, despite an order for his deportation dating back to June 2009. UCCLA activists met with staff from the office of the Minister of Citizenship & Immigration, Jason Kenney, to press for the immediate removal of all KGB veterans found in Canada.
As well, UCCLA is committed to continuing with its efforts to ensure that all of the galleries in the taxpayer-funded Canadian Museum for Human Rights have thematic, comparative and inclusive content. UCCLA executive also voted to provide financial support for the “Tribute to Liberty” memorial to the Victims of Communism being built in Ottawa.
UCCLA also held a memorial service for two Ukrainian Canadians, Michael Bahry and Thomas Konyk, executed on 14 January 1920 in the Peterborough County Jail, members of a so-called “Russian Gang of Five,” two of whose members suffered judicial execution because of widespread anti-foreigner prejudice at the time of Canada’s first national internment operations. Their remains were finally re-interred in the Beechwood National Service, with a panachyda by Reverend Dr. Petro Galadza.
Before leaving Ottawa, the group paid their respects at military grave site of Corporal Filip Konowal, VC at the Notre Dame Catholic Cemetery.
Next year’s UCCLA conclave is scheduled for mid-June in Banff, to coincide with the opening of a pavilion dealing with Canada’s first national internment operations at the Cave & Basin site in the heart of Banff National Park.
