#auuc

Association of United Ukrainian Canadians Branch 2 Edmonton

11018 97 street NW, Edmonton, AB, T5H 2M9

29 September, 2023

The Edmonton Branch of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC) condemns the honoring of a nazi Ukrainian World War II veteran, a member of the notorious 14th Waffen SS Division "Halychyna," in the House of Commons during the visit of Ukrainian President Zelenskiy last Friday, 22 September, 2023.

Our Association, founded in 1918 in Winnipeg as the Ukrainian Labor Temple Association, has an unblemished record of opposing fascism, in word and deed, before and after WWII, in Canada, in the Ukrainian-Canadian community, and abroad. Our members fought heroically in the Spanish Civil War, on the side of the Republican government, against fascism. They fought for Canada, allied with the Soviet Union, against nazi Germany and fascist Italy in WWII.

It is therefore unbelievable to us, as to most other Canadians, that when the individual in question, Yaroslav Hunka, was introduced in parliament as a Ukrainian veteran of WWII who fought against Russia, no one in attendance, all of whom gave him two standing ovations, realized what this meant. We know exactly what it meant.

Now this shameful spectacle has been publicized to all Canadians, and throughout the world. We welcome this publicization. We hope it will lead to a reckoning. Some steps in this direction have already been taken. The speaker of the House of Commons has resigned. An endowment in the name of Yaroslav Hunkaat the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, at the University of Alberta, has been returned. We welcome these steps. But they are only first steps. Much more must be done. The problem is greater than simply one nazi, one speaker, and one endowment.

It is estimated that two thousand members of the 14th Waffen SS Division "Halychyna" were allowed into Canada after WWII. Our Association, immediately at that time, publicized and opposed their entry, to our everlasting credit. This figure does not include other nazis and nazi-collaborators, of various nationalities. That means thousands of Yaroslav Hunkas, several of them went on to occupy prominent and leading positions in certain other Ukrainian-Canadian organizations, in religious institutions, educational institutions, and state institutions. The Canadian state supports, with funding and semi-official recognition, Ukrainian-Canadian organizations that unapologetically honor these nazis. If honoring Yaroslav Hunka in the House of Commons was a shameful act that had to be corrected, then so must all these other cases be corrected.

We therefore call on the Canadian state at all three levels (federal, provincial, municipal) to halt all state funding to all Ukrainian-Canadian organizations which honor any Ukrainian nazis or nazi-collaborators, including especially veterans of the 14th Waffen SS Division "Halychyna," until such time as these organizations explicitly and unequivocally apologize for having done so, severing all connections with all these nazis and nazi-collaborators, in all forms whatsoever.

We call for the removal and dismantling of two monuments to nazi Ukrainians in Edmonton: the monument to the veterans of the 14th Waffen SS Division "Halychyna" located in St. Michael's Cemetery, and the bust of Roman Shukhevych located at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex, preferably by their respective property owners, and if not by them, then by state compulsion.

We call on the government of Canada, and on the Liberal Party of Canada which formed the government at the time, to issue official apologies to our Association (the AUUC), in consultation with our ASsociation, for banning it (then named the Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple ASsociation) by an order in council in June 1940, seizing its properties, our halls and their contents (furniture, musical instruments, dance costumes, books, etc, most of which were destroyed), and interning our leaders in internment camps, acknowledging this as a terrible miscarriage of justice and act of oppression.

We call on all Canadians, all progressive Canadians, all decent Canadians, all anti-fascist Canadians, individually and through their various organizations, to support us in these calls for justice, by publicizing this statement and pressuring their political representatives.

Alex S. Boykowich, President, AUUC Branch 2 Edmonton

June 26, 2016

This was a big day for my two eldest children, Meghan, and Cameron. Both have been Ukrainian dancing since the age of 3 and now it was time for their group “Dovbush Dancers” to shine. It was the first time they were to display their talents in their own featured concert.

The concert, called “Mosaic”, featured Dovbush Dancers (12 dances), AUUC School of Dance (2 dances), Tropak (2 dances), Vostok (Female A Capella group) and The Wheat in the Barley (Canadian roots music).

Dovbush Dancers consists of a group of 22 passionate dancers who love Ukrainian dance and culture. They strive for excellence, perfection and authenticity in their performance. They’ve been practicing at least 6 hours/week for many years.

As a proud dad, I was fortunate to help in many areas (Audio mixing, stage hand, and Social Media). In fact, many parents volunteered to make this concert a reality.

The concert started about 10 minutes late as people were still lining up for tickets from the box office. Once the curtains opened, Dovbush Dancers had done it. They had sold out their concert!!! A great feat accomplished. Working as a stagehand, I could see the nervousness in the dancers, but that soon passed as the audience started cheering them on from the onset. The dancers emitted energy to the audience and the audience returned it back to the dancers. As the music played, Dovbush, became more confident, from the twists, leaps, splits jumps, squatting kicks and spins of the boys, to the graceful, finesse and synchronous steps from the girls.  It was a truly amazing night.

My favourite dance was called “Na Hutsulsky Polonyni”. This dance portrayed a time of celebration and evoked a series of mysticism steeped in traditions of rebirth, renewal and the awakening in joyous revelry around the fire, while young maidens were invited to dance and share in the celebration of a young couple’s love. The dance was the opening number in the 2nd half and as the curtains opened, the stage was already filled with fog and haze. 5 boys started off the dance with one carrying a goat’s head on a stick and the others with axes and whips. Eventually, the other dancer joined into the 7 + minute dance. The movement of the dance was really exciting to see and some of the steps were, in my opinion, hard to achieve by a non-professional group.

Dovbush Dancers was also fortunate to have a videographer (Deepak Sahasrabudhe of Soma TV) film the concert. This was primarily for the dancers to see how well they performed. The agreement was to have one camera in the back with a wide shot to capture everything. However, Deepak wanted to do something special for Dovbush and placed 5 cameras of various angles to capture the emotions of the dancers. He wanted the dancers to tell their story through the dances. I have seen one of the dances and all I can say is WOW!!!!. The agreement with Deepak did not include any editing and just raw video. With the success of the concert, Dovbush would like to create DVD for everyone to enjoy. The audience was asking for this prior to the concert. As some of you know a lot of time is required to edit all the video footage.

Dovbush Dancer has asked me to start a crowd funding effort to make this become a reality. If you would like to donate to this cause, please go to https://www.gofundme.com/dovbush. They have offered some perks as well.

Finally, they are preselling the DVD and have offered a limited time offer (before July 10) where you can purchase it for $20 (including shipping). After this date, the price will go up to $25.