The last couple of days were really hectic. Our group of interns met Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the leader of the Liberal party Justin Trudeau, and made final preparations for the highlight of our program – Ukraine Day on the Parliament Hill. The meeting with Prime Minister took just a few minutes but it was a great privilege to see such a skilful and capable politician. He was one of the first to take a firm position to aid Ukraine and counter Russia’s ruthless invasion of Ukraine through providing financial support and non-lethal aid. It was a great honour to speak to PM Harper and present him a letter of support of the interns of Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program due to the tragic shootings that took place on 22 October. And yesterday we tried ourselves as organisers of such a high-class event that involved dozens of MPs and their staffers from all three political parties. We started from the inter-faith prayer for the peace in the world in the memory of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo who was shot while on duty at the National War Memorial, as well as of all soldiers and civilians who perished during the war in eastern Ukraine. It was great to see the unity of members of different religions – Ukrainian Orthodox priests, Jewish rabbi, Muslim imam and also members of the church choir – who sang their prayers for the souls of the deceased. I want to thank Vasylysa Sheinina for hosting the prayer and Lenera Şeyh-Ali for a very touching Muslim prayer that shows that the actions of one extremist individual should not stigmatise the entire religious group We would like to thank the Ambassador of Ukraine, Mr. Vadym Prystayko, who addressed the audience with an introductory speech. Special thanks goes to Iryna Dobrohorska and Olga Karkhanina who have absolutely marvellous voices accompanied by the superb play on the bandura. The MPs were captivated by the music and gave a round of wild applause after the song. Big thanks goes to the hosts of the event – Alex Smith and Anastasia Melnyk. Our small team – Ann Urukova, Alex Smith and me, alongside with Lia Helska, Denis Zboroshenko and Oleksandra Brovko, have prepared their presentations about different aspects of Ukrainian politics, Canada-Ukraine relations and the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine. I had a chance to talk about the parliamentary elections in Ukraine that happened last Sunday, October 26. It is very important to show to Canada and the rest of the world that Ukrainian society has changed – the overwhelming majority of pro-European and pro-democracy parties, the absence of the Communist Party for the first time since 1917, and the willingness of the people to avoid centralisation of power as it happened under former President Yanukovych, confirm this sentiment. For me, it was also a great opportunity to talk more about young Western-educated people who joined politics. And it’s great that one of these young MPs is my big friend and Cantab fellow – Альона Шкрум! I wish her all the best at her new job and hope that my presentation made a small contribution to the development of relationships between Canada and the reformatory Ukraine. Thank you all CUPP interns for a great event! We learned a lot from it and I am sure that more great meetings and events will be coming soon!
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:29:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015