Mr. Chair, there are a number of reasons why I am pleased to speak today about the events that have taken place in Ukraine since the beginning of August.
First of all, my reasons are personal. I will come to the point:
[Member spoke in Ukrainian.]
[English]
I love Ukraine.
It is a magnificent country with extraordinary people. The people are talented and courageous. The history of Ukraine is a series of incredible, tragic and grand events. It is a country of great poets, courageous warriors, tiny grandmothers who gather mushrooms, and dedicated workers who are proud of their country. When the train makes its way through the hills that are yellow with sunflowers, a sense of happiness falls on the traveller, like that experienced in childhood. Those who come into contact with Ukraine fall under its spell forever.
I have wonderful memories of Ukraine and I am filled with nostalgia when I think of the time I spent there.
This personal relationship echoes a much deeper and older relationship that all honourable members of the House are surely familiar with. Canada has a very close relationship with the Ukrainian people, which has spanned more than 100 years. How many millions of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in the Prairies at the beginning of the 20th century? So many came that we are almost justified in calling Canada “the little Ukraine”, or “Malaukraïna”. How many older Canadians still remember their grandparents from Galicia living in conditions of extreme poverty? How many younger people still call their grandmother “Baba”? How many of our elected officials were and are of Ukrainian descent?
The numbers speak for themselves. With the exception of Russia and the other former Soviet countries, Canada has the largest Ukrainian population in the world. That is saying something.
In late 2004, we all saw thousands of people gathered in Independence Square in Kiev demanding the annulment of the fraudulent results of the presidential election. We remember President Yushchenko, disfigured by an attempt to poison him, losing the presidential race. The election irregularities were as clear as the sky is blue: ballot tampering, fraud, abuse and cynicism unlike any that Canada will ever see, fortunately.
Cynicism was an acquired habit that expressed itself automatically. It was nothing new. Almost all the former Soviet republics had a great deal of difficulty instituting true democratic reform. All the experts were saying that it was a Soviet legacy, that it was inevitable, that the old habits and old traps of an era had left too great a mark, and that it was sad but that we had to respect the political reality and not judge it.
But this underestimated the Ukrainians. The events that followed were extraordinary. Protestors stood their ground for weeks. In the cold, the wind and the snow, they stayed there, refusing to let their country be betrayed again. And to everyone's surprise, in the end, it worked. With key slogans, orange flags and courage, thousands of outraged citizens got the better of a quasi-criminal and undemocratic administration. The Cossack nation's unbelievable history was unfolding before our eyes. It was what everyone now refers to as the Orange Revolution.
It was during this Orange Revolution that the main subject of tonight's debate appeared on the scene. I remember it well. For the rest of Europe, it was as though she had fallen from heaven. Yulia Tymoshenko climbed up on the barricades and spoke on behalf of Ukrainians. With her symbolic braid, she resembles the poet Lesya Ukrainka. She expresses herself beautifully in Ukrainian and fires everyone's imagination.
Yulia Tymoshenko would become the great heroine of a country that no longer wanted to be forgotten by the western world. I remember seeing posters of Yulia looking like Joan of Arc in the souvenir markets in Kiev and Odessa. This can be regarded as either an exaggeration or a valid metaphor; we can take our pick. However, we cannot deny the fact that this woman represented an important symbol for her people.
Yulia quickly positioned herself in Ukraine's new democratic government, which saw the light of day following the victory of the orange protestors. She had an unbelievable talent for politics. Suddenly, she was everywhere. Just as quickly, she became the one and only way to a democratic, prosperous and stable European Ukraine. This is what the country had always aspired to and, with Yulia Tymoshenko, it was closer to achieving that goal than ever before. This was the main thrust of her election platform and she would never change it.
But, Ukraine is a huge and diverse country. Its population is enormous: close to 46 million. Its transition toward the market system has been difficult and the disappearance of the Soviet state left large portions of the country in poverty. We are talking here about conditions that are very difficult to manage. And, for the first time, it seemed that there was real hope.
But the election results revealed and confirmed a fear. Although it has a united national identity, the country seems divided in half along the Dnieper. One the one side is a majority of pro-Europe, pro-democracy and pro-reform voters, and on the other side are the more conservative voters, who still hold onto cultural ties with Russia and who live in a working class area nostalgic for industrial Sovietism.
Bringing together this big beautiful country requires ongoing efforts. In 2010, the candidate from the left bank of the Dnieper was elected. Viktor Yanukovych won the prime ministerial election by a very small margin. And his election immediately undermined the progress made since the fall of 2004. All of the real democratic reforms were put on hold.
Of course, he claimed to be a reformed and reliable democrat to the western world and carried on with the European agenda. He even chose Brussels over Moscow when the time came for his first official visit abroad. Furthermore, the electoral irregularities were so minimal that foreign leaders were forced to acknowledge the validity of the election. But reality was quite different. The Ukrainian government seemed to be taking a much different path.
On August 5, former presidential candidate Yulia Volodimirivna Tymoshenko was formally accused and arrested. A bit earlier, she had responded to her accusers and addressed the nation on television and the Internet, proclaiming her innocence loud and clear: “I did not steal the money I am accused of taking.” She immediately indicated that the accusations against her were motivated by simple political revenge. No one, anywhere, has refuted that statement.
Worse yet, President Yanukovych does not really deny it. After all, under the Soviet regime, it was quite normal to lose one's good name for nothing. This entire legal charade is the same old, same old. Without any valid reason whatsoever, as though they were still in the U.S.S.R., once it achieved power, the regime took revenge on its detractors.
I repeat: someone did try to take the life of Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 election. Now the regime prefers to throw its opponents into prison. It is getting soft.
Nonetheless, this goes beyond simple vengeance. It is a pure and simple repression of opposition. Today the people's committee opposed to Yanukovych said, “It is an attempt to exterminate the opposition, and resistance to democracy the world over. This show trial is not just the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, but also that of the Ukrainian government. It no longer has a place in the civilized world. Such brutality is an impediment and it must be defeated”.
After all, that is what this trial was: a show trial, like those under Stalin; less brutal, but heir to a tradition founded on illegitimacy and violence. Ukraine deserves better. Ukraine, as I know it, deserves better and, with a little help, will be better.
Fortunately, the rest of the world is reacting to the situation. The European Union and especially Poland are expressing their fears quite well. Poland is the country working the hardest on helping Belarus and Ukraine complete the transition to democracy. President Komorowski is considering diplomatic sanctions against the Yanukovych government. Ukraine's European future is seriously compromised. If Poland is taking action, then Canada has a duty to follow suit.
Ukraine is a rich country with an intelligent, educated and talented population. Its people are dynamic, young and full of ambition. I have a number of friends in Ukraine, people who live as though these underhanded practices did not exist. They have no choice. To them, the path Ukraine must take is clear. Ukraine is a European country, the largest European country in fact. Ukraine is a country with an abundance of resources of all kinds. If Europe loses Ukraine it is a catastrophe. If this great country falls to dictatorship, it is a tragedy.
If we have to add human rights protection clauses in our agreements with this government, then let us do so. If Poland, which has been working so hard for such a long time on integrating Ukraine into Europe, does not hesitate to take action, then it is a fine example and we should follow it.
The efforts Canada has made through CIDA are commendable. Our country has truly understood that we have much to gain from getting to know the Ukrainians and helping them develop their country. A stable, developed Ukraine is something positive for the whole world.
We cannot forget that the Ukrainian people are innocent bystanders in these schemes. We need to think of them first. Ukrainians should have greater access to travel in Europe and the west in general. They need to see the validity of their efforts in the fight for democracy. The dream of a stable, democratic Ukraine needs to be given a chance. To quote Yulia Tymoshenko, “Razom peremojemo! ” Together, we can overcome!
We must think about Ukrainian youth. We need to let them come study here. We need to show them something other than the universities in their country and in the former Soviet republics that they have access to. We need to wager that in 25 years, if an entire generation of Ukrainian youth has the Canadian education system opened to them, the errors that led to this sad situation will not be repeated. Everyone wins. It is simple: “Razom peremojemo!”
To conclude, I would like to read a few lines from a letter that Yulia Tymoshenko wrote during her trial and was able to get out to journalists, “The courage and unity of honest people are what frightens dictators the most. And, at the end of the day, that is what topples oppressive regimes.”
Slava Ukraïni!
