From rci_action’s twitter page:

It’s now official. Colleagues have received their letters of "redundancy" today as part of the CBC budget cuts at Radio Canada International

From the Toronto Star:

Levac (L–Brant), Klees (PC–Newmarket-Aurora) and DiNovo (NDP–Parkdale-High Park) come from three different parties, so their collaboration was as novel as it was uplifting. Together, they had drafted the province’s first-ever tri-sponsored private members’ bill. And it had just passed third reading to establish the fourth Saturday in November each year as Holodomor Memorial Day.

The memorial day, Levac said, will provide an opportunity to reflect on and to educate the public about crimes against humanity that occurred in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 under the Stalin regime, when as many as 10 million people perished in a man-made famine and genocide.

In winning passage of the bill, there was, Levac said, a compelling human imperative at play – an obligation to "speak of the unspeakable."

There was no better bill than this to have produced such historic collaboration, DiNovo has said.

"A very ugly silence has been broken," she said. Voices have been raised around the world now in Ontario to say "This happened."

All the bill needs now is the Royal Assent to make it a law. You can view the bill here.

From the Ukrainian Canadian Congress:

Winnipeg, March 26, 2009 – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) calls upon CBC Radio Canada International (RCI) to overturn their decision to permanently shutdown the Ukrainian Section of RCI effective this week after 57 years of service to Canada.

“We understand that the Ukrainian Section of RCI is the only foreign language department to be terminated,” stated Paul Grod, UCC National President. “Such a decision is unconscionable and is out of line with the Government of Canada’s commitment to Ukraine as one of its top strategic bilateral partner countries.”

Canadians should write to:

Hubert T. Lacroix
President and CEO
CBC/Radio-Canada
1400 René-Lévesque Boulevard East
P.O. Box 6000
Montréal, QC H3C 3A8
EMAIL: ht.lacroix@cbc.ca

encouraging him to reconsider the decision to permanently shutdown the Ukrainian Section of RCI and find ways to increase its resources due to its strategic importance to Canada.

We encourage you to sign the online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ucc/.

Continue reading Tell the CBC to keep their Ukrainian RCI broadcast →

TIME Magazine has posted their 100 Most Influential people, and tech-saavy Russophiles have been upvoting Vladimir Putin to the top. As of this writing he’s at #3, where do you think he belongs? Vote!

His bio is just plain ridiculous, who writes this stuff:

PRO: His steely-eyed fondness for Cold War–era diplomacy led to the invasion of Georgia and a showdown with the Ukraine over Russian-controlled gas lines.

CON: Anti-Putin protests are mounting, thanks in part to the country’s economic mess. And, as if you needed further proof that he’s the world’s most powerful ’70s nostalgist, Putin recently hired an ABBA tribute band to play a private gig.