Government Issues Committee Report; Wed., Sep. 03, 2003

(1) Invitations were sent to Stephen Harper, Peter MacKay and Jack Layton in June 2003 to meet with UCC-APC to discuss issues of concern to the Ukrainian community in Alberta. Although there was a perfunctory response from assistants to all three parties, no meeting was scheduled. Nevertheless, our request has presumably been filed for future action on their part.

(2) Some 1100 “Citizenship brochures” of Bill Pidruchney et al calling for the rescission of the revocation of citizenship provisions in Bill C-18 and the current Citizenship Act was distributed during Ukrainian Day August 10, 2003 at the Ukrainian Heritage Village as part of the package given to all visitors. Further distribution is pending.

(3) The Ukrainian Self Reliance Association, Edmonton Branch (headed by Eugene Harasymiw) is sponsoring an informational meeting on d&d, Bill C-18 and the case of Wasyl Odynsky with Olya Odynsky as the guest speaker at an evening banquet on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2003 to be held at St. John’s Orthodox Hall, 110 Ave. – 106 St., Edmonton. Banquet tickets at $20.00 each will be available from Will Zuzak, as well as from others.

(4) On Monday, Sep. 02, 2003, Paul Grod of the UCC National Justice Committee sent an Email informing the Ukrainian community that bureaucrats from the Canadian War Crimes Unit of the Dept. of Justice are insisting that the Wasyl Odynsky defence make any further submissions in the case by Sep. 08, 2003. It appears that these bureaucrats are proceeding with their attempt to revoke the citizenship of Mr. Odynsky, despite the declaration by Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Denis Coderre that such an undertaking has been put on hold until Bill C-18, the new Citizenship of Canada Act, has been passed in parliament. Further developments are pending.

Respectfully submitted
Will Zuzak, 2003-09-03
UCCreport20030903.doc