Royal Canadian Air Farce takes its last flight Wednesday

The Royal Canadian Air Farce is a popular comedy show in Canada that is having its final episode tomorrow night after 38 years with some of its original members intact.  One of them is Ukrainian Canadian Luba Goy who joined in 1971 and was featured on the program for 35 years.  Luba is an active member of the Ukrainian Canadian community.

From the Toronto Star:

All things must end, and we’ve had a great one. Most shows learn of their demise second-hand. CBC gave us the great gift of returning for a 10-week “final flight” and a last New Year’s Eve special – the show that started us on TV 16 years ago. Our 10 episodes this fall ranked us No. 3 on the network. And for New Year’s Eve Final Flight, who knows? If enough fans tune in Wednesday night at 8, we’ll go out at No. 1.

You can watch their latest episodes online, and also see below some classic skits:

Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta

From Wikipedia:

In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, enacted the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act, drafted to protect the gene pool, allowed for sterilization of mentally disabled persons in order to prevent the transmission of undesirable traits to offspring.

Examination of sterilization records demonstrates that legislation did not apply equally to all members of society. Specifically, the Act was disproportionately applied to those in socially vulnerable positions, including: females, children, unemployed persons, domestics, rural citizens, unmarried, institutionalized persons, Roman and Greek Catholics, persons of Ukrainian, Native and Métis ethnicity.

It took over 40 years to get this act repealed which effected almost 3,000 people with a slew of justifications including growing fear that new immigrants were inferior, generating fears over the protection of land and jobs. Many eugenics programs in North America were financed by the very wealthy Rockefeller family.

Ukrainian news round-up – Dec 23 2008

Orange Revolution lesson plan

Got this e-mail from a teacher about the Orange Revolution in her lesson plans:

The Orange Revolution Project.

Lesson plans that explore the themes of Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance. Included is an online simulation using the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine as the context. Please go to: http://www.tiged.org/orange and http://www.teachmag.com

There is a neat little flash game that lets you make the decisions through the 2004 crisis, playing the roles of both Yushchenko and Yanukovich.

Canadian History vignette – Ukrainians introducing medicare

Remember those Canadian history vigenettes you (sed to see on TV?  I almost forgot about the one featuring Myrnam Hospital – where the Ukrainian community in Alberta along with others volunteered their time and effort in the post depression era to provide all medical services, except hospitalization, for free.

Click here to view the site to watch the video and read more.  For some reason the movie wouldn’t play in Firefox, but worked in Internet Explorer just fine.

Edit:  A YouTube version is now available: