Hon. Senators: Hear, hear!

Hon. Donna Dasko: Honourable senators, this item stands adjourned in the name of the Honourable Senator Plett. After today’s interventions, I ask for leave that it remain adjourned in his name.

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

The Hon. the Speaker: So ordered.

Hon. Denise Batters: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-276, an act which would designate September as Ukrainian heritage month.

I am proud that all of my ancestors are Ukrainian. My grandparents, like so many tens of thousands of others, made the long journey from Ukraine to Western Canada in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Canada now boasts a huge and thriving Ukrainian-Canadian population of 1.4 million, the second-largest diaspora of Ukrainians in the world. For more than 125 years, Canada has proven to be a sanctuary for Ukrainians seeking freedom, prosperity, refuge from conflict and a better future for their children and grandchildren.

The rich heritage of Ukraine, with all her food, music, language, and religious and cultural traditions, is woven into the tapestry of Canadian history and society.

Ukrainian Canadians have contributed greatly to Canadian life and culture. Some names you will know in the sphere of politics are former governor general Ray Hnatyshyn, former deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski and former Alberta premier Ed Stelmach. There have been sports heroes, including my first favourite hockey player, New York Islanders superstar Mike Bossy. And who can forget the great Wayne Gretzky?

Ukrainian Canadian contributors to Canada’s arts and entertainment world are many: painter William Kurelek, actress Tatiana Maslany, musician Chantal Kreviazuk, comedian Luba Goy and television personality Alex Trebek are a few of the more well-known examples. Many of those Ukrainian Canadians have ancestors with stories similar to those of my own family, making the long trek across the ocean from Ukraine to Canada in pursuit of freedom and a more prosperous future.

Ukrainians emigrated to Canada in three major waves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first came in the 1890s, many emigrating from western Ukraine to Western Canada, where land was advertised as free and plentiful. Skilled at the art of agriculture, Ukrainian immigrants faced and overcame the extreme challenges of settling the vast Prairies, including harsh weather, difficult conditions, and the isolation and loneliness of life in a new land. Out of the desolate wilderness, they cleared and cultivated not only productive farmland but vibrant Ukrainian communities centred around religious and family traditions.

Xenophobia during World War I led to a dark and tragic chapter for Ukrainian Canadians. When the War Measures Act was invoked in 1914, 80,000 people considered enemy aliens, largely from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had to register and report regularly to the police. The basic rights of those immigrants were taken away, including the freedom of movement; association; and in 1917, their right to vote was revoked.

Sadly, nearly 8,600 Eastern European immigrants, around 5,000 of them Ukrainian, were imprisoned in Canadian internment or forced labour camps.

After World War I ended, a second wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada in the 1920s. It included many more agricultural immigrants bound for Western Canada; labourers and professionals who came to live in urban areas, especially in Ontario and Quebec; and those who came to work in industrial sectors, like forestry and mining.

A third wave arrived after the Second World War and consisted largely of political refugees fleeing Russia and its dictator, Joseph Stalin, who had brutally starved the Ukrainian population in the 1930s during a period of famine, violence and collective suffering known as Holodomor. Millions of Ukrainians died in Holodomor. That, along with the aftermath of World War II, led many Ukrainians to flee persecution for the shelter of safer countries abroad, including Canada.

This is, of course, a theme that has been repeated many times since, including after Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. Further, Canada has welcomed nearly 200,000 Ukrainians fleeing from devastating and unjustified Russian aggression with Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, two years ago now as of February 24. Ukrainians continue to die every day in this horrible war.

For the last 130 years, the quest for freedom and refuge has motivated Ukrainians to immigrate to Canada’s shores. That is why I find it a bit strange that in the preamble to this bill, Senator Kutcher listed universal values shared by Ukraine and Canada, including human rights, democracy and respect for international law but which did not include freedom. As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated during his address to the Canadian Parliament:

The Ukrainian Canadian community is about millions of Ukrainian destinies that have become the destiny of Canada with all its diversity of communities. Freedom-loving. Courage. Our special inner call for justice.

Ukrainians have proven time and again their willingness to risk everything to obtain freedom and democracy. That is why it’s so vital that we continue to support them in their fight for their very survival. Sometimes, that support has repercussions, such as in 2022 when Russia banned a number of Canadians who had been outspoken in support of Ukraine. Many Canadian politicians were on that list, and I was gratified to find that I was one of them. Even though my Ukrainian language skills are fairly rudimentary, I was able to decode my name written in the Cyrillic alphabet, only to discover that they had spelled my name wrong, as “Denez Betters.”

In the face of Putin’s horrendous atrocities with Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, I could not be prouder to stand with Ukraine.

I come from a long line of Ukrainians committed to freedom and hope. Three of my own grandparents were part of the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants who came to settle in Western Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s. All of my ancestors were from Western regions in Ukraine: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.

Three of my grandparents entered Canada through Pier 21 in Halifax. My mother’s father was born shortly after his parents had already arrived in Canada, but his parents came through Ellis Island in New York.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit both of these landing sites. It is an incredible experience to stand in the place where your ancestors stood so long ago and where they faced their unknown futures in a new world with optimism and, I’m sure, trepidation.

I took the ferry to Ellis Island where I marvelled that the majestic Statue of Liberty would have also welcomed my great-grandparents to their new lives 100 years earlier.

While at Halifax’s Pier 21, I visited their museum’s exhibit about trunks. It reminded me of seeing my own grandmother’s trunk, knowing that she had fit everything she owned in there to make the long journey to Canada. Then a 20-year-old young woman, not speaking a word of English, my grandmother travelled alone across the ocean to Canada on a very big ship, fittingly the R.M.S. Regina. I recall looking at that trunk in her basement as a child and thinking, “I don’t think I could even fit all my toys in there.” The bravery and sacrifice required for her to make that trip alone to this country was remarkable.

The bill before us today gives us an opportunity to celebrate the courage of those early Ukrainian immigrants and to mark the contributions they made to building this country we call home. For those of you who might not be familiar with Ukrainian customs and traditions, I thought I would give you a taste directly from my own experience.

I was raised in Regina in a Ukrainian-Canadian home fully steeped in Old World traditions. I was baptized in, and still attend, a Ukrainian Catholic church there, the same church my grandparents attended. My family has always been involved in our church, helping with church governance, events and fundraising. The church held an annual Christmas concert with an appearance by St. Nicholas every year who was on hand to give the good kids candy.

Religion is central to Ukrainian-Canadian heritage. Major life cycle events, whether joyous or sorrowful, are linked to Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox churches. The masses are very long and, of course, when you’re a child, they seem even longer. The complex liturgy is often matched by the elaborate decor.

Ukrainian churches convey a sense of mystery and awe with glorious singing and beautiful domed ceilings stretching to the heavens. Our church has intricate wooden carvings, including the beautiful iconostasis, which separates the altar from the rest of the church.

My sisters and I all attended a half-day of Ukrainian school weekly where we learned Ukrainian religion, history and language. As my parents spoke Ukrainian to each other when they didn’t want us kids to know what they were talking about, the language lessons from Ukrainian school came in handy.

From age 5 to 18, I took Ukrainian dance lessons, the last several years of which I danced with the Tavria Ukrainian folk dance ensemble. The highlight of my years in that excellent group was performing at the Canada Pavilion at Expo ’86 in Vancouver. My sisters danced with groups that performed at Canada’s National Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin, Manitoba, the biggest Ukrainian festival in Canada.

Every year, our Ukrainian dancing groups would perform at the Kyiv Ukrainian Pavilion at Mosaic, Regina’s multicultural festival. Mosaic has pavilions showcasing the food, culture and entertainment of many different ethnic groups.

When my three sisters and I were in Ukrainian dance, my mom had to sew the costumes for all of us — a pile of work — as I alone required five different costumes in one year, representing various regions of Ukraine. The costumes required intricate embroidery, and, as a result, my sisters and I became quite good at embroidery to help our mom. The work required was intense. My mom always had a tongue-in-cheek way of marking time. When you’d ask when something else could be done, she’d reply, “A.M.!” — after Mosaic.

For several years, Regina’s Ukrainian community held a large competitive event for young women called Miss Kyiv. The judges evaluated the contestants in talent, interview, speech and modelling components. When I was 18 years old, I was thrilled to win the title of Miss Kyiv 1989. Some of you may be surprised to know I also won Miss Congeniality — it was a big year.

In the two years that followed, I served at the Kyiv Ukrainian Pavilion as youth ambassador and as a youth member on the Ukrainian Canadian Congress executive for the Regina branch.

My mom always prioritized our family’s participation in Ukrainian-Canadian culture and in Regina’s Ukrainian-Canadian community. She was the memory keeper of Ukrainian heritage in our family. She collected a big book of photos and records from our family’s history and has passed that precious legacy on to my sisters and me. I will always be thankful for my mom’s commitment to ensuring we valued and celebrated our Ukrainian heritage.

Honourable senators, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that family celebrations are a huge part of Ukrainian-Canadian culture. Wedding celebrations are large, joyous affairs. At the ceremony, the bride and groom are crowned with wreaths symbolizing the crowns they will wear in the kingdom of heaven. Ukrainian weddings are three-day events, complete with overwhelming quantities of food and lots of dancing, including Ukrainian dancing.

Some of you may know the tradition of the kolomeyka, often performed at weddings and celebrations, where the guests form a big circle and take turns showcasing their best Ukrainian dancing moves in the middle. I even taught a few steps to my Irish-English husband-to-be for our wedding so he could participate too. Dave did very well.

I’m very happy that my own 12-year-old nephew has followed in our family’s Ukrainian dance tradition. Last month, he performed in his group’s annual Malanka — Ukrainian New Year — concert, where they also held a kolomeyka during the dance later that night.

Christmas is a big family holiday, which many Ukrainian Canadians celebrated according to the Julian calendar on January 6 and 7 rather than the Western tradition of December 24 and 25. Many, including my own family, also celebrated on December 25.

This year, to align itself more with the Western world and away from Russian influence, Ukraine decided to celebrate Christmas on the December 25 date, a big change for many in the Ukrainian diaspora.

The usual Christmas Eve — or Sviat Vechir — tradition goes something like this: The youngest child goes to the window to announce when the first star is out so that the meal can commence. An empty place is set at the table to honour those family members who are deceased. Traditionally, twelve meatless dishes are served, symbolizing the twelve apostles.

While I’m not sure how widely it’s practised anymore, one old tradition involves tossing a spoonful of kutia — the traditional first dish, a type of wheat soup — at the ceiling. If it sticks, superstition dictates that you can expect a prosperous year. If it doesn’t, well, I guess you’re probably on cleanup detail. In any case, the meal is followed by opening gifts and then attending mass.

Easter is a key religious and family celebration in Ukrainian culture. Many of you will know the tradition of pysanky, or decorated Ukrainian Easter eggs. Perhaps you’ve even seen the giant pysanka in Vegreville, Alberta.

As with so many elements of Ukrainian holidays, the designs on the eggs are rich with religious symbolism. The colours used are significant: green for fertility; white for purity; black for death. The symbols of the design are also representative: a straight line around the egg for eternity; dots for the Virgin Mary’s tears; and a sieve symbolizing that which divides good and evil.

Baskets that were blessed the day before or at the Easter Sunday mass are prepared for the Easter meal, with delicious contents that also have symbolic meaning: eggs symbolizing life; butter carved into the shape of a lamb to represent the Lamb of God; and a rich, circular bread called paska, served with salt, to symbolize good will and hospitality.

Like most kids who grow up in Ukrainian-Canadian households, my family culture was closely linked with wonderful traditional Ukrainian food. My grandmothers were superb cooks. My grandmothers and mom taught my sisters and me how to make borscht, perogies (perohe), cabbage rolls (holubtsi) as well as kutia. We also loved nalasnyky (Ukrainian crepes) and pereshke.

My dad’s mom made perogies that were so good we could eat them cold out of the fridge. She had a secret recipe for the filling, and she never did give it to anyone. When we girls would go over to help her make perogies, even if we arrived there early, the filling would already be made to allow her to keep her recipe secret. We were only allowed to form and pinch the perogies closed. She was a crafty one, my baba.

Of course, no Ukrainian home was complete without Ukrainian garlic sausage, or kubasa. When Christmas carollers would come to our home from our Ukrainian Catholic church, it was customary to invite them in for a drink and some kubasa.

The Ukrainian Co-op, a staple in the Ukrainian community for decades in Regina, still has its own smokehouse to make their sausages. It’s a great day when you can drive down 11th Avenue past the Ukrainian Co-op, roll down the window and smell that wonderful aroma of the sausage being smoked. I always roll my window down, even if it’s 40 below. In fact, I just did this last weekend.

In 2014, as a senator, I had the amazing opportunity to participate as an election observer in the Government of Canada’s monitoring mission for Ukraine’s presidential elections. What hit me when I arrived, even though I had never been to Ukraine before, was the feeling that I was home. And the food — the smells, the spices and the ingredients in the food — even if not the traditional dishes, was so familiar to me. I felt like I was back in my grandmother’s kitchen. All of this was an incredibly powerful feeling. I told the bellman at my hotel in Kyiv that all my ancestors were Ukrainian. He looked at me and then said, “Well, you didn’t even have to tell me that.”

During this awe-inspiring week in Ukraine as an election monitor, I was deeply moved by how the Ukrainian people do not take their democracy and their right to vote for granted. They were so grateful for the right to exercise their relatively newfound freedom. Many elderly women even brought beautiful flowers from their gardens to the polling locations to show their gratitude for the opportunity to vote. Walking along the Maidan, where more than 100 Ukrainians died only three months earlier fighting for that very election, was a profound experience.

During my time in the Kyiv oblast, and especially in its surrounding villages and farming regions, I was reminded repeatedly of my own Ukrainian grandparents. They, like so many others, left Ukraine seeking freedom and opportunity in Canada’s wide open Prairies — seeking a better future for their children and descendants.

That came full circle for me when I had the unbelievable opportunity last fall to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when he visited Ottawa. I wore the traditional Ukrainian blouse that had been hand-embroidered by my grandmother right before she sailed from Ukraine to her new life in Canada 100 years ago. And I was able to tell President Zelenskyy this and thank him for so bravely defending the Ukrainian homeland.

It was a moment 100 years in the making. As I sat in the centre aisle of the House of Commons, only a few steps away from the Ukrainian president, I thought, “What would my grandmother be thinking at a time like this?” I think she would say, “Mission accomplished.” She came to Canada for freedom and for a better life for her children and grandchildren. Now here’s her granddaughter — 100 years later — a Canadian senator, trying to make Canada an even better country and trying to help her Ukrainian homeland.

I touched the beautiful embroidery on my grandmother’s blouse and thought about how my family’s story was emblematic of so many Canadian immigrant families. I commend their courage and their sacrifice.

As we welcomed President Zelenskyy to Parliament that morning, I was honoured to have Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre beside me. Mr. Poilievre introduced me to President Zelenskyy, stating that he was proud to be from Western Canada, where so many Ukrainians had immigrated and contributed so much toward building Canada. Our party and our leader remain steadfastly committed to supporting Ukraine through not only this horrific war, but also into Ukraine’s future as a strong, free and sovereign nation.

The Conservative Party of Canada has a long tradition of supporting Ukraine. It is important to recall the many firsts achieved by Ukrainian Canadians and for Ukraine under Conservative governments. In 1957, former prime minister John Diefenbaker appointed the first Ukrainian-Canadian cabinet minister: Minister of Labour Michael Starr. In 1959, he also appointed the first Ukrainian-born senator: Senator John Hnatyshyn. John Hnatyshyn was the father of Ray Hnatyshyn, who would serve as a senior cabinet minister in the Mulroney government. In 1990, Prime Minister Mulroney appointed him Canada’s Governor General. Under Prime Minister Mulroney’s leadership, Canada became the first Western nation to recognize Ukraine’s independence in 1991.

Canada’s support for Ukraine was further strengthened under the leadership of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper. In 2005, former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin officially recognized Canada’s dark past of Ukrainian internment camps, but the $2.5-million funding commitment — for memorials and education on the issue — promised by the Liberals did not materialize.

Three years later, it was Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper who established and delivered a $10-million fund in conjunction with Ukrainian-Canadian partners for education and recognition of that lamentable period of Ukrainian internment in Canada.

Canada was the second country after Ukraine to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide in 2008 with a private member’s bill from Conservative parliamentarians. It was introduced by Conservative MP James Bezan, sponsored in the Senate by Senator Raynell Andreychuk and seconded by Senator David Tkachuk — all of them proud Ukrainian Canadians.

Prime Minister Harper was the first G7 leader to visit Ukraine after Russia’s illegal occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and it was his Conservative government who started Operation UNIFIER to train Ukrainian soldiers to NATO standards, and who provided legal support to strengthen Ukraine’s justice system and combat corruption. Ukraine still credits Canada for this vital assistance, and the Operation UNIFIER training is proving to be invaluable in current Ukrainian war efforts.

Prime Minister Harper was a leader in pushing for Russia to be ousted from the G8 in 2014 after Putin annexed Crimea. And in November 2014, Prime Minister Harper boldly admonished Putin at a G20 meeting, when Prime Minister Harper told him point-blank:

I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine.

It was Harper’s Conservative government that successfully negotiated the first Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement in 2015; it’s an agreement — it is key to remember — that continues to this day.

Stephen Harper’s Conservative government donated military equipment and material to Ukraine immediately after Putin’s annexation of Crimea. Canada’s provision of RADARSAT images to Ukraine in 2015 was later shamefully cancelled by the Liberals in 2016.

In recent years, Conservative support for Ukraine has not wavered. As far back as 2018, the Conservative Party has been pressing the Trudeau government to give Ukraine surplus and retired equipment from our Canadian military, including our light armoured vehicles. Earlier this month, our Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre demanded that the Trudeau government send the Ukrainians our surplus CRV7 attack rockets, which had been specifically requested by Ukraine. Yet, the Trudeau government continues to drag its feet, even while the very lives of Ukrainians hang in the balance.

Our national Conservative caucus has pushed the Trudeau government to apply meaningful economic sanctions on Russia for its illegal actions in Ukraine. Furthermore, we have called upon the Trudeau government to develop Canada’s energy resources for export, particularly natural gas, in order to reduce the reliance of countries around the world on Russian energy. But the Liberal government has stood in the way on this too. Meanwhile, the Trudeau government appallingly exempted Gazprom turbines from its own export sanctions, returning them to Russia, and undermining the international sanctions regime against Russian aggression.

In recent days, some have questioned our stance on the carbon tax amendment that the Trudeau government has forced into the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. Our Harper Conservative government negotiated the existing free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine. If the Trudeau carbon tax amendment is not accepted, the existing free trade agreement will continue to be in full effect.

We tried to remove the carbon tax amendment in the House of Commons, but the Liberal and NDP coalition prevented it. Frankly, I find it especially reprehensible that Prime Minister Trudeau would put his personal political agenda and ideology ahead of helping Ukraine — a desperate country fighting for her very existence in the face of Putin’s murderous aggression.

Ukrainians’ raw determination to defend themselves against the odds has spawned the slogan “Fight like Ukrainians.” It is that same dogged persistence, that impulse for self-determination and that yearning for freedom that has spurred Ukrainians to reach for new horizons on Canada’s shores. That fighting Ukrainian spirit was the same spirit that compelled my own grandmother to summon her courage and step onto that giant ship bound for Canada — all alone. And it is the spirit and the story of the 1.4 million Ukrainian-Canadian immigrants whose determination and resilience have formed new destinies for generations in this great country.

The rich histories of Canada and Ukraine are intertwined — our united heritage built on the values common to both cultures: the values of freedom, democracy and hope. By designating September as Ukrainian heritage month, Bill S-276 would give us an annual opportunity to reflect on our shared heritage and the future we will continue to forge together. For these reasons, I hope you will give this bill your support.

Thank you. Dyakoyu. Slava Ukraini.

(Debate adjourned.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Boehm, seconded by the Honourable Senator Forest:

That the twelfth report of the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, entitled More than a Vocation: Canada’s Need for a 21st Century Foreign Service, deposited with the Clerk of the Senate on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, be adopted and that, pursuant to rule 12-23(1), the Senate request a complete and detailed response from the government, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs being identified as the minister responsible for responding to the report.

Hon. Senators: Agreed.

(Debate adjourned.)

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the inquiry of the Honourable Senator Klyne, calling the attention of the Senate to the ongoing business and economic contributions made by Indigenous businesses to Canada’s economy.

The Hon. the Speaker: Is leave granted, honourable senators?