Category: News

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation lost a friend, Bohdan Kovaluk, who for decades supported CUF in diverse ways.

Despite all of life’s challenges, Mr. Kovaluk was a great gentleman and highly regarded within the community. He was exceptionally committed to honouring his heritage and family.

Bohdan’s daughter, Melanie Kovaluk, shared his life story:

“Bohdan passed away peacefully with his loving wife at his side on Sunday, July 11, at the age of 92 after suffering from Alzheimer’s for the last ten years.

He is survived by his loving wife of 64 years Maria Matwijas Hasiuk, daughters Melania Kovaluk, Tetiana Kovaluk and son Markian Kovaluk. Grandfather to Kalyna Lewycky, Zachary Lewycky, Luba Chabursky, Greg Chabursky, Eva Kovaluk, Alexia Kovaluk and great grandfather of Maxime Arcand and Emma Arcand. Uncle to nephews and nieces residing in the US, Sweden and Lviv, Ukraine.

Born in Kolomya, Ukraine, on January 22, 1929, the family moved to Lviv, Ukraine. His father, Mykola Kowaluk, ran a family publishing company called Vidavnitstvo Record.

After the war, Bohdan joined his five sisters and his mother in Berchtesgaden, Germany, where he became an active member of the Ukrainian scouting organization Plast. He completed his High School diploma and began his Engineering studies in Luvin, Belgium.

In 1953 Bohdan moved to Montreal where he completed his engineering degree at McGill University and continued working devotedly in the Plast Ukrainian community where he was a leader and example to all.”

Together with his sisters, Bohdan Kovaluk established the Melania Kovaluk Memorial Fund at the Canada-Ukraine Foundation in memory of their mother to provide scholarships to high school graduates from Melania Kovaluk’s home village of Zabolotivtsi to pursue studies at a higher level. Throughout the years, Mr. Kovaluk personally helped manage the Fund, communicated with the CUF and schools in Ukraine, greeted scholarship recipients and much more.

The family asks to donate to the Melania Kovaluk Memorial Fund at the Canada Ukraine Foundation in lieu of flowers. The Foundation thanks the Kovaluk family for continuing Mr. Kovaluk’s legacy.

He was a man of action and great respect, and we are grateful for the gift of his life!

Вічная Пам’ять!

To make donating more accessible, the CUF suggests making donations towards the Melania Kovaluk Memorial Fund in memory of Bohdan Kovaluk online by clicking here or by mailing cheques to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, 620 Spadina Ave., Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario M5S 2H4 Canada. Please indicate in the cheque memo that the donation is for the Melania Kovaluk Memorial Fund.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is proud to congratulate Roman Yereniuk on being recognized as an Honour 150 recipient in honour of the 150th anniversary of the Province of Manitoba.

Honour 150 recognizes 150 people from across the Province who give back to the community and enrich the places in which we live, work, play, and come together in unity. Nominated by members of their own communities in 2020, these 150 individuals represent the diversity of the province.

CUF Past President Victor Hetmanczuk said: “Roman’s work on the Liubov-Love Fund dovetails wonderfully with the humanitarian mission of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. We are profoundly grateful for his efforts in organising the volunteers of the Fund for these many years and applaud this recognition as he sets an example for all Canadians to emulate.”

Read Roman’s full writeup here.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation (“CUF”) went through a changing of “the Diplomatic Guard” at its recent Board of Directors meeting on January 30^th, 2021.

Canada’s former Ambassador to Ukraine Derek Fraser – one of CUF’s longest serving Board members – where he served for over 13 ½  years – retired from active service, and was replaced by Roman Waschuk, Canada’s most recent former Ambassador.

The Board of CUF heartily thanked Ambassador Fraser for his service to Canada and to CUF, and warmly welcomed Ambassador Waschuk to the Board.

Derek Fraser served as Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2001, during the latter part of the Kuchma Presidency and Victor Yuschenko’s Prime Ministership. He also served as Canada’s Ambassador to Greece and Budapest during the years of the Fall of the Soviet Union, and had previously served in Saigon, Bonn, Moscow, and Brussels – all major postings during critical times. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after his Kyiv posting, and was considered as one of the Deans of the Diplomatic Corps. He retired from the service to move to Victoria, B.C., became Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, and shortly thereafter in 2007 joined the CUF Board.

In thanking Derek for his years of service to CUF, the Chair of the Board, Bohdan Onyschuk, said: “The Ambassador gave us great advice for almost 14 years on civil society, politics, who was who in Ukraine, and what directions we should go. But Derek also went well beyond that expected of a Board member, when in 2012 he agreed to take on the role of Head of Mission and Chief Observer of the Long-Term Observer (LTO) Mission that CUF fielded for the 2012 Parliamentary Elections -the most critical Ukraine election during President Yanukovych’s term in office as President from 2010 to 2014. CUF fielded the first LTO to a Ukrainian election by any NGO (other than that of the OSCE) from July 5, 2012 to the October 28 elections. His reports on the gerrymandering of electoral boundaries, vote buying, pressure on journalists and attack on the TVI news channel and its owner, were all important findings that lead to only one conclusion on that election.”

Derek Fraser will continue to serve on the CUF/International Foundation Fundraising Committee for the new National Holodomor Museum being built in Kyiv, for which CUF is the North American and European fundraising partner of the International Foundation for the Museum in Kyiv.

The CUF Board then turned to welcoming former Ambassador Roman Waschuk to its Board.

Ambassador Waschuk is very well known for his achievements in diplomatic circles, particularly for his double tour of duty during trying times as Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine from 2014 to 2019,  and the Russian invasion of Crimea and the Donbass.

He previously served as Ambassador to Serbia, with concurrent accreditation to Macedonia and Montenegro in the Balkans. Before that he had served as second secretary for politics in Moscow, as minister-counsellor in Berlin, and senior advisor in Kyiv in counsellor positions going back to 1994-98. In Ottawa, between postings, he held positions of deputy director of the EU Division, deputy director of the Policy Planning Division, director of the Global Partnership for Biological and Chemical Weapons Non-proliferation, and director of the Stabilization and Reconstruction Program Division.

Derek Fraser commented on Roman Waschuk’s achievements, saying: “Roman was identified as one of the brightest people dealing with Eastern Europe after only one month of service as a very young man in the Canadian embassy in Moscow in the 1980’s.” As Director of Relations in Eastern Europe and in subsequent postings Derek followed Roman Waschuk’s career closely. He opined that he was “very confident Roman will be able to provide a lot of diplomatic background relating to CUF”.

Roman Waschuk will be a terrific replacement to Derek Fraser and will serve alongside CUF’s other Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine, Andrew Robinson, who served in Kyiv during the Orange Revolution. Ambassador Waschuk’s knowledge of the current situation on the ground in Ukraine, in economics, politics, civil society and rule of law will be invaluable to CUF in its strategic planning and delivery of projects in Ukraine for its development as a strong democratic post-Soviet nation. He will also join the CUF/International Foundation Fundraising Committee for the new National Holodomor Museum project in Kyiv.

The CEO of CUF, Orest Sklierenko, said: “Ambassador Fraser – we are truly grateful for your years of service to the people of Canada, the people of Ukraine and as a board member of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. Your advice has helped CUF deliver on its mandate of providing assistance projects to Ukraine for over 13.5 years. Ambassador Waschuk, we are equally grateful to you for your service and we look forward to learning from your experiences, insights, and knowledge. Today’s transition between the former ambassadors on CUF’s Board of Directors demonstrates the importance of institutional memory and thoughtful succession planning. The continued commitment from both Ambassador Waschuk and Ambassador Robinson underlines the importance of the role CUF will continue to play in providing assistance to Ukraine in the areas of Healthcare, Education and Civil Society for many years to come.”

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Canada Ukraine Foundation,

As we approach the holiday season, it is my pleasure to give a brief update from the Canada Ukraine Foundation. It is my hope this update will remind you of the important role CUF plays in the Ukrainian Canadian community and overall supporting much needed projects and programs in Ukraine, give you a glimpse into how CUF is evolving, and motivate you to consider supporting CUF’s continued work by making a donation today.

New faces on the CUF Board and Leadership Team

A year ago, CUF’s board evolved and brought in several new faces, and I am delighted have assumed the role of President partway through this year, at the AGM in June.

I have had the pleasure to work with many of you in the past. Some of our paths may have crossed as far back as my time with the Ukrainian Students’ Club at U of T more than 20 years ago now, or in various performing and leadership roles at the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America for over 3 decades. More recently, perhaps we collaborated during my time leading the committee in support of Ukrainian Schools at UCC Toronto and helping coordinate this key stakeholder group for UCC National over the past 5 years. I have also had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors of the Shevchenko Foundation over the past 5 years, contributing to the governance and nominating committee’s accomplishments, as well as supporting important projects including: MITACS, The Tryzub Awards, and the REACH program.

I am excited about my new role with the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and am honoured to help lead the organization over the next several years as President. One of my early tasks in this role is to lead the creation of a new strategic plan to ensure CUF programs and projects are relevant in today’s world, aligned to the needs of their recipients, and properly and appropriately coordinated as we play a lead role in the overall diaspora efforts in helping Ukraine.

As I assume this role, it is my hope to bring my experiences from my professional career and my community involvement to build on the foundation of excellence that exists in the foundation. Although there are new faces joining the board and assuming some of the leadership roles, we are blessed to have the support of not one, but three(!) former presidents of CUF on the board… a laudable example of dedication and care, as well as respect for the importance of institutional memory and succession planning. We are grateful to those who have come before us and those continue to be involved for helping make CUF what it is today. What this means it the executive will be steering the ship with the help of a strong and diverse board. I will also endeavour to support and enable the programming committees as they build, launch, and execute the identified priority programs to the best of my ability. Today’s CUF leadership is merely helping hand the Foundation over from those who made it what it is today, to the generations who follow us and will make it even better than our wildest dreams.

The Pandemic

As you know, in March, everything ground to a halt. The board called a snap meeting and decided to postpone all CUF-related travel until at least labour day. That was subsequently extended to end 2020 and beyond.

We need to recognize that many among us experienced a significant increase in workload in both professional and home schedules despite being home-bound through much of the ongoing pandemic. However, we have found a way to get it done… in many instances in with the support of our partners, parents, children, and grandchildren. And it is those youngest members of our community who have had to be the most resilient through this, those who unfortunately will be paying for this the longest, and at the end of the day, the reason we do what we do here at the Foundation. This is not “our foundation”. We are merely biding our time here as caretakers of this foundation for the future generations who will make it greater than any of us would have ever imagined.

Times of crises bring out the best in people and the worst in people. At times of crises we see some leaders shine while others crumble or fade into obscurity. We see evil thrive while good must galvanize to resist it. The need for the good work accomplished by our projects is greater than ever, and the external environment in which we must operate is more complex than ever. Although slowing and delaying some CUF programs and projects, the pandemic did present opportunities for launching and partnering on new projects which emerged from needs stemming from the pandemic. These projects are highlighted in other stories/posts you can find here: www.cufoundation.ca and on our social media channels.

CUF Evolution

The pandemic also offered an opportunity to evolve CUF, do some housekeeping, and take advantage of being homebound. We focused on refreshing the strategic plan and I’d like to commend the board for their commitment over an extensive process, four planning sessions, three working sessions, 8 guest speakers and over 400 total man-hours spent between early July and October. A summary of the outputs of this process, CUF’s strategic direction over the next 3-5 years, will be included in a separate post/story. In short, internally we will focus on capacity building and the requisite fundraising, improving communications and board engagement & succession planning. We have also identified external opportunities to expand collaboration, streamline the project funding process and leverage technological support across all our projects and programs. Finally, we have also started work on evolving our technological capabilities, our communications with stakeholders, and our financial systems and processes, so in short, lots of work underway… stay tuned!

As a part of our evolution, it is our intention to have more regular communications with our ever-growing pool of stakeholders. As such, you will see a CUF newsletter coming several times a year, with regular social media posts profiling key projects and programs, partner organizations and board members, as well as key events, commemorations, anniversaries, and milestones.

We thank you for your support over 25 years and look forward to your continued support over the next 25. Please visit www.cufoundation.ca to make a donation today.

On behalf of the leadership team of the Canada Ukraine Foundation, please accept our most sincere wishes for a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season, and a blessed, prosperous, and joyous 2021.

Христос Рождається!

Merry Christmas!

Orest Sklierenko