The following letters were sent to the Edmonton Journal concerning the article by David Marples. Thus far, letters #3 and #4 have been published.

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Letters to Editor
[email protected]

Re: Attack on McLellan off base, by David Marples, Edmonton Journal,
Fri., Nov. 24, 2000

The reader will note how Dr. Marples cleverly attempts to portray the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) as a small splinter group, not representative of the general Ukrainian community, as opposed to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), the umbrella organization specifically created to represent all Ukrainian Canadian organizations before the federal government. As such, the UCC cannot enter into partisan politics and cannot target any individual Minister.

Nevertheless, let me assure Dr. Marples that the vast majority of the Ukrainian Canadian organizations represented by the UCC, as well as individuals, support the position of the UCCLA. Only a few individuals "feeding at the trough" are supporting Anne McLellan.

Dr. Marples also neglects to mention that his wife is working on Anne McLellan's campaign.

Regards
Will Zuzak

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The Editor:

David Marples ends his op-ed ("Attack on McLellan off base," The Edmonton Journal, November 24, 2000) by suggesting the "attack" on Anne McLellan by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association "seems misdirected."

Whether it is or only "seems misdirected," the fact remains that for many Albertans of Ukrainian ancestry McLellan the Justice Minister symbolizes an arbitrary policy that, in the decade past, has targeted a number of elderly Ukrainian-Canadians for denaturalization and deportation "on the balance of probabilities" that they may have been less than completely forthright while applying for Canadian citizenship 50 years ago by failing to declare a Nazi affiliation, however tenuous the link.

For many of them, what "seems misdirected" are the legal contortions by government lawyers to foster the illusion that something is being done about alleged "old Nazis" in our midst, at the price of true justice, all in order to appease the various lobbies that demand that it be done.

Sincerely yours,
Orest Slepokura

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27 November 2000������� FAX:498-5677

Letters Editor
The Edmonton Journal
PO Box 2421
Edmonton AB T5J 2S6

Dear Editor:

On Friday, November 24, 2000, Dr. David R. Marples wrote a column in the Edmonton Journal in which he claimed that the opposition to Justice Minister Anne McLellan on the part of Ukrainian groups concerning the legal process by which Canada deals with suspected war criminals was "off base" and "counterproductive." Since the byline identified Dr. Marples as the director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, I have received numerous phone calls and e-mail messages inquiring whether Dr. Marples is speaking for the Institute. Let me underscore that Dr. Marples's article represents his private opinion. He neither consulted me nor even informed me of the contents of the article. The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies is an academic institution and does not take political positions. Therefore, Dr. Marples's article does not and cannot reflect the position of the Institute.

Sincerely,

Zenon E. Kohut,
Director, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies
352 Athabasca Hall
University of Alberta
Edmonton, CANADA
T6G 2E8
(780) 492-2972,� FAX (780) 492-4967
[email protected]

[The above letter was published with only slight modifications as
Writer speaks for himself, not group
Edmonton Journal A19, Thu., Nov. 30, 2000]

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Edmonton Journal
Fri., Dec. 1, 2000
Ukrainian group responds

Perhaps David Marples does not know that the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Ukrainian Canadian Congress have enjoyed a good working relationship for several years. (Journal,Nov.24) Neither group took an official position on whom voters should support in the federal election.

However we in UCCLA have expressed dismay over the Liberals' broken promise on redress for the harm done to our Ukrainian community during Canada's first national internment operations.

And we also remain alarmed over the continuing injustices being perpetrated by this government's commitment to denaturalization and deportation proceedings, which have essentially targeted Ukrainians, Marples' disclaimer and government propaganda notwithstanding.

As for Marples' suggestion that we do not represent everyone in the community, he is quite right. No organization does. We have never made any claim otherwise and find posturing about such a status to be disingenuous.

But UCLA's views on the need for redress, and our condemnation of the ongoing denaturalization and deportation hearings, are in line with those of the UCC, which Marples might know if he were a member of either group, which he is not.

His article might also have been more useful if he had openly declared his own political sympathies, which reportedly are with the Liberal party of Canada.

Your readers now know that his comments were inaccurate. We suggest they were also politically partisan.

Borys Sydoruk, Director of Special Projects, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Calgary