Holodomor Remembrance Flame barred from Russia

From Newswire:

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) condemns the recent and blatant abuse of human rights by the Russian government which has banned events planned in Russia to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor – famine genocide in Ukraine of 1932-33.

Prior to the arrival of the International Remembrance Flame in Russia, the Ukrainian Embassy received notice on October 6 from Russia’s Foreign Ministry that ommemorative events must fall in line with the Russian position on the famine or be cancelled. Russia continues to claim that the Holodomor was not a genocide and that Ukraine’s effort to secure such recognition is “a political matter that is aimed against Russian interests.”

It has been confirmed by the Ukrainian World Congress that Ukrainian community activists in Orenburg, Tumen, Ufa, St. Petersburg and Krasnodar have been subjected to undue pressure and scare tactics by government officials in the region resulting in the cancellation of planned events.

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Barrie Ukrainian Festival 2008 this weekend!

From the Barrie Examiner:

Barrie will be caught up in a whirlwind of festivity and entertainment at the ninth annual Ukrainian Festival.

The festival, which began in 1999, began with just 100 people crowded into St. Mary’s Church and has grown in size in recent years. This year, the festival takes place on Oct. 19 at the W. A. Fisher Auditorium in Barrie Central Collegiate.

“Every year the crowd gets bigger and people from all over Ontario attend,” says Diane Lubinski, festival co-ordinator.

The festival is the largest indoor Ukrainian festival in Ontario. It will include numerous kiosks filled with various items, including embroideries and pysanky. Pysanky is the traditional name for decorated eggs. The meal will have many favourite dishes, including perogies and kapusta, which is like Kraut, yet very Ukrainian.

The 9th Annual Ukrainian Festival of Barrie, Ontario:
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 – 11:30 am to 4:30 pm.
Barrie Central Collegiate at 125 Dunlop St. W – Barrie, Ontario.

Ukrainian news round-up – Oct 16 2008

Judge rules Axel defames Borys

From the Toronto Star:

OTTAWA – A Toronto Liberal incumbent has won a court injunction ordering his Conservative rival to yank a defamatory campaign flyer that alleges he has a poor attendance record.

Ontario Superior Court Justice George Strathy has ruled that Tory hopeful Axel Kuhn and his staff must stop publishing and distributing a brochure that makes false claims about Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

The pamphlet claims Wrzesnewskyj skipped dozens of parliamentary committee meetings, but the Liberal says he’s only a full-time member of one of the six committees listed in the brochure.

In his Sunday ruling, the judge wrote that the words in Kuhn’s flyer are “clearly defamatory.”