Protests in Ukraine escalate

[Natalka]

May 9th. Most observances today w/o incidents as in Bakhmut, Donets'Ka Oblast'

[Natalka]

Ukraine's Got Talent a few days ago. Great traditional song, a bit more modernized; she does a great job

song is in the first four minutes or so

[Natalka]

However, I like the song done in the much more traditional way - sung in 'bili holos' - which means pure voice - and it's really hard to sing that way!

Remember Theresa Sokyrka who was on Canadian Idol years ago? This is her doing the solo, with friends.

[Natalka]

The bishop from the Eparchy of Saskatchewan, Bishop Bryan Bayda, is in Ukraine. From May 9 through May 17, a group is distributing wheelchairs in very-much needed locations in Ukraine, particularly Lviv, Kyiv and mainly Dnipropetrovsk and surrounding area. Bishop Bryan, the Knights of Columbus and the Canadian Wheelchair Foundation have partnered with Caritas Ukraine to receive the shipment,and distribute the chairs to the various locations.

Two hundred eighty wheelchairs and rehabilitation equipment (60 bearing sticks, 200 crutches, walkers 50)

[Natalka]

Another Canadian Liberals promise broken....

Dion rejects law targeting Russian human-rights violators

Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion is rejecting an all-party effort to enact an American-style Magnitsky Act, which freezes assets and bans visas of Russian human-rights violators.


The move has caused a rift within the Liberal caucus and among influential Liberals, who say Mr. Dion is reneging on the Liberal Party campaign pledge to adopt such a law and casts doubt on the government’s commitment to uphold human rights.

A senior government official told The Globe and Mail that a Canadian Magnitsky Act was a “bad idea” and Mr. Dion did not want to antagonize the Putin regime as he undertakes efforts to re-open a dialogue with the Kremlin. Relations hit a diplomatic low after President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014.

Former Liberal Party interim leader Bob Rae said Mr. Dion should not sacrifice principles to appease Mr. Putin and other regimes that violate human rights.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle30006600/

[Natalka]

Ukraine wins Eurovision!

Jamala was fantastic! Crimea IS Ukraine!

[Natalka]

She got another award - EUROSTORY AWARD 2016 for the best line of all songtexts of this year. Voted by a professional jury of writers

"You think you are gods, but everyone dies"

[Natalka]

Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two cities in Donbas that were liberated from the combined Russian-separatist forces in 2014, receive a new patrol police.
194 patrol policemen and policewomen took the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.
80% have a higher education, 27 is the average age, 34 are women, 14 are participants of the conflict in Donbas.

[Natalka]

Jamala arrives back in Ukraine today

[Natalka]

My Bishop Bryan visiting Mechnykova Military Hospital in Dnipropetrovsk



With military chaplain in Kyiv - Fr. Yaroslav at left



After Divine Liturgy was celebrated on Sunday May 15 at the Sobor of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in Kyiv, those who received wheelchairs and those who distributed them from the Knights of Columbus SK State, Knights from Kyiv and Caritas Ukraine posed for a photo.

[Natalka]

"On 18 May 1944 Crimean Tatars were deported from the Crimean Peninsula as a result of state-organized and forcible action, ordered by then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.


More than 230,000 people were deported, mostly to Uzbekistan. This includes the entire ethnic Crimean Tatar population, at the time numbering about a fifth of the total population of the Crimean Peninsula, as well as smaller number of ethnic Greeks and Bulgarians.


The lack of accommodation facilities and food, failure to adapt to new climatic conditions and the rapid spread of diseases had a heavy demographic impact during the first years of Crimean Tatars' exile. According to 1960s surveys conducted by Crimean Tatar activists, more than 109,956 (46.2%) Crimean Tatars of the 238,500 deportees died between July 1, 1944 and January 1, 1947 because of starvation and disease.


From May to November 1944 10,105 Crimean Tatars died of starvation in Uzbekistan (9% of those deported to the Uzbek SSR). Nearly 30,000 (20%) died in exile during the first year and a half according to the Soviet secret police data. As Soviet dissident information attests, many Crimean Tatars were forced to work in large-scale projects implemented by the Soviet GULAG system."


via Mission of Ukraine to NATO

[Natalka]

James Bezan, Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman

The rain could not stop us from celebrating International Vyshyvanka Day on the Hill! Thank you to all the interns of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program for organizing a great event!



Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau joins MP's and Cabinet Ministers in celebrating #vyshyvanka day.

[Natalka]

Presidential Administration of Ukraine



President @Poroshenko



UKR Mission to UN

[Natalka]

UKR Embassy in JOR Jordan

[Natalka]

The new police of Sloviansk, the city in Donetsk Oblast which experienced warfares two years ago, joined the Vyshyvanka Day.