WillZuzak.ca > Wizeus > GRC Reports > zuzak20070502GRC.html

Zuzak GRC Report; Wed., May 02, 2007 

(1) Battle of Vimy Ridge: (e-Poshta, 08Apr2007; W. Zuzak)
The Canadian news media has been highlighting the Battle of Vimy Ridge of April 1917 for the past week. Many commentators claim that this was the defining moment of Canadian identification. Perhaps so. For this is about the time when Filip Konowal was earning his Victoria Cross and 6000 or so Ukrainians were languishing in 26 concentration camps scattered across Canada courtesy of "British Empire loyalists" implementing the War Measures Act. 

Please remember that the inhabitants of Canada at that time were "British subjects" and remained so until the passage of the Citizenship Act of Canada on Feb. 16, 1947. Perhaps that explains why Canadian politicians and elite are so reluctant to apologize for and provide restitution to the victims of the WWI internment operations -- even some 90 years after the fact.

Let us hope that these commemorations do not contribute to the "glorification of war" in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and other areas of the world. 

 [The above letter was also submitted to, but not published in, the Edmonton Journal.] 

(2) Pre-term Elections in Ukraine: (AUR#833, Article 4, 24Apr2007; W. Zuzak)
Since the 02Apr2007 decree by Viktor Yushchenko dissolving the Verkhovna Rada, politics in Ukraine has been in a turmoil. In this article, I argue that the constitutional changes concocted during the Orange Revolution crisis of Nov-Dec, 2004 were illegitimate and that a new constitution must be formulated by the Ukrainian people and not by politicians. I point out that pre-term elections are a perfectly legitimate and useful exercise to solve intractable problems and to avoid violence and social upheaval.

To me, the “kto, kovo?” [who will destroy whom?] modus operandi of the Party of Regions is reminiscent of the Stalinist period. Instead of “dictatorship of the proletariat”, the Ukrainian people will now be subjected to the “dictatorship of the Oligarchs”. 

(3) NATO for Ukraine ? : (to AUR and e-Poshta, 30Apr2007; W. Zuzak)
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, both Ukraine and the Russian Federation had developed positive relations with NATO. Unfortunately, NATO involvement in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and the very recent U.S. proposal to establish ten missile sites in Poland and radar installations in the Czech Republic has brought prospective collaboration to virtual collapse. 

An article in the March issue of Vanity Fair indicates that President Eisenhower’s warning of a military-industrial complex dominating American policy has now morphed into a “military-industrial-counterterrorism complex”.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703

In my article, I make the facetious suggestion that NATO be invited to place its ten missile sites on Ukraine’s northern border aimed at Moscow and that Russia be invited to place its missiles on Ukraine’s southwestern border aimed at Europe -- at an annual fee of $1 billion per site. In reality, my personal view is that Ukraine should maintain relations with NATO as in the past, but to insist that the legitimate concerns of the Russian Federation be taken into account. Furthermore, to avoid fragmentation of the country, it is incumbent upon all patriotic Ukrainians to refrain from polemics on NATO. 

These three articles are archived in the centre column under Will Zuzak Letters at
http://www.willzuzak.ca/tp/

Respectfully submitted
Will Zuzak,  2007-05-02