‘We're here for him': Ukrainian Canadian Congress meets with President Zelenskyy

CTV News11 hours ago

President of the Alberta Provincial Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Orysia Boychuk speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about their recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: You were part of a separate meeting with President Zelenskyy Tuesday. Was that just a quick meet and greet? What did the opportunity accomplish?
Orysia Boychuk: We're very grateful to have had this extraordinary opportunity to meet with him. It was a very quick meeting. It was initially scheduled to be a little bit longer, up to an hour. Unfortunately we had 15 minutes. But so grateful to have had that opportunity.
It was a very emotional, very humbling experience to meet the president after and following the G7 meeting in Kananaskis. It was an honour to be there and represent our community. There were 16 representatives across Canada that had the opportunity to gather and meet with him. We were initially meeting downtown Calgary, and then in the end, it was at the airport where we had some time to talk to him and thank him for his courageous and extraordinary leadership, defending democracy, civil society and national identity that was key for us to really appreciate him and show him that we were still supporting him.
We're here for him, wanted him to know. We can only imagine how difficult and how stressful the circumstances are for him.
MH: On that very point about both the stress you mentioned emotions a moment ago, we understand that as President Zelenskyy was flying to Alberta, news was being relayed to him about another massive Russian attack. Many dead, many more injured. How did you get a sense for how heavily that was weighing on his mind at the time?
OB: It was huge for him. It was huge for us. It was it was a bittersweet meeting. We were gathering and unfortunately, as the day unfolded, there were bombings in Kyiv. Fifteen casualties from the bombing. There were over 100 people that were injured and they were ordinary civilians in downtown Kyiv that were impacted, so it definitely was bittersweet.
Canada was unrolling its additional supports, the G7 was coming to an end, and unfortunately there was that layer of attack, of Russian brutality, in continuous invasion on Ukraine. So it was very hard for all of us.
MH: I want to ask what you're able to contribute to that conversation. From an Alberta perspective, how familiar is the President with our province as being a home to not only Ukrainians displaced by the war but so many who are of Ukrainian descent.
OB: He's very familiar with us. When he was in parliament about a year ago, he did address Alberta, he addressed Edmonton, that Edmonton had established the first Holodomor, the genocide famine monument at City Hall, and he said that he would be back to Edmonton one day to visit.
So he's very familiar. He knows that we are here. He knows that there's a large community and that there's a lot of work being done. He thanked us for our ongoing work and our support for the displaced Ukrainians and all the work Canada is doing, Alberta is doing, and all the support in Edmonton and Calgary.
He was very grateful and very supportive of us, and it was a mutual exchange of reinvigorating that hope for each other, that we continue to support Ukraine, and that we're here. He was acknowledging and supporting us and the work that we were doing. So it was revitalizing, given the circumstances and the complexities of the day.
MH: I want to quickly ask as well about that huge welcome billboard for President Zelenskyy, the one outside Calgary airport. What prompted that? Do you know if he saw it?
OB: Yes. Our community really wanted to show a warm welcome to President Zelenskyy. We were speaking with the embassy, communicating and providing a lot of different options of how we could present this warm welcome to the president.
Obviously there are restrictions. It was very high-level security. There were a lot of things going on and a lot of leaders coming in, and so we were pretty limited. Our Calgary Congress was amazing. They designed, overnight, this billboard and together the congresses across Alberta had financially chipped in to finance it and put it up.
That was the minimum that we felt we could do to welcome and show our support to President Zelenskyy and to show the world that we're welcoming him, and we're grateful. We're grateful for Canada for inviting President Zelenskyy because if Canada didn't invite him, that's a sign of further support that Canada stands with Ukraine.
This was another piece showing to the world that Canada stands with Ukraine, Alberta stands with Ukraine.
MH: As you look back now on President Zelenskyy's involvement in the G7 summit itself, even the fact that he was not able to meet with the U.S. president, who left early, would you consider the visit a success?
OB: One-hundred per cent. The fact that he was invited, that he participated, that Canada gave support. He went home and he received additional support, and the support that he received was more than he received in the past.
We're grateful to Canada, we're very hopeful for Ukraine and we're only wishing for peace. We're sending our deepest condolences to those who've lost their lives just as recently as yesterday and the day before and in the past. So we're hopeful for peace very soon indeed.

Hashtags

#UkrainianCanadianCongress

#support

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday

Vancouver Sun

an hour ago

Vancouver Sun

In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday

OTTAWA — Cameron Davies, the leader of the separatist Republican Party of Alberta and the party's candidate for Monday's Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills byelection, admits that his party's name and MAGA red branding are causing some confusion at the doors . 'It certainly has come up in conversation,' Davies told the National Post on Thursday. 'People want to know more about it, what it means and that's just an opportunity to explain why the word 'republican' and why a constitutional republic is something we want to look at.' Davies' Republican party isn't formally aligned with the more well-known one south of the border — notably swapping out the latter's elephant for a more local buffalo as its logo — but it does aspire to make Alberta an independent republic governed similarly in principle to the U.S. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'The form of government Canada has doesn't work for Alberta, and the form of government we have here in Alberta doesn't work for Alberta,' said Davies. Davies, an ex-UCP organizer , is one of two separatist candidates who'll be on the ballot in Monday's byelection in the south-central Alberta riding, where the governing United Conservative Party won more votes than anywhere else in the province in 2023's provincial election . The other is employee benefits specialist Bill Tufts, running under the banner of the Wildrose Loyalty Coalition. Under normal circumstances, the byelection would be a tap-in for first-time UCP candidate Tara Sawyer. But these are anything but normal circumstances, with support for Alberta separatism spiking on the heels of the federal Liberals fourth straight election win. What's more, Davies and Tufts have a fortuitous piece of Alberta election lore to point to. Western Concept candidate Gordon Kesler notched a surprise 1982 byelection win in predecessor riding Olds-Didsbury, briefly becoming the first and only separatist to hold a seat in Alberta's legislature. Kesler is still active in the area's politics and is backing Davis in the byelection . Ex-Alberta MLA Derek Fildebrandt, whose now-defunct riding of Strathmore-Brooks crossed into the riding's east end, says he expects the Republicans to place a strong second, possibly even pushing the UCP below a majority vote share. 'Based on my gut, nothing hard,' said Fildebrandt. The UCP's Nathan Cooper won in dominant fashion with 75 per cent of the vote in 2013. Davies says he'd be happy with 20 per cent of the riding's vote, around what the populist Wildrose party got in its first election in 2008 . '(Wildrose) got around 20 per cent of the vote, and that was after being a party for close to a year,' said Davies. The Alberta Republicans, formerly the Buffalo Party of Alberta, formally launched on February 11 . Davies was acclaimed as leader two months later in April. 'Anything at or above 20 per cent is a significant gain, given how short of a runway we've had,' said Davies. Davies, who lives just outside the riding in south Red Deer, says he typically gets between 12 and 18 volunteers each day and has knocked on 20,000 doors in the riding, which is home to about 50,000 people. Tufts, for his part, says he's in it to win it. 'Well, we would like to win,' said Tufts. Tufts said that the contest's timing, outside of a general election, gives him an opening. 'Byelections can be quite tumultuous events, typically because of the low voter turnout. So I think we've had an opportunity to go out there and work hard, knock on the doors and explain our position.' Tufts pointed out that both Kesler and Alberta's first Wildrose MLA Paul Hinman won office in byelections. He said he was optimistic that his party's brand recognition would propel him past Alberta Republican candidate Davies and into the winner's circle. 'The Wildrose has been around for a long time … so I think there's a lot of credibility with the name, the recognition of our brand and our policies that resonate with a lot of voters,' said Tufts. The populist Wildrose Party merged with the rival Alberta Progressive Conservatives in 2017 to form the UCP but Tufts' Wildrose Loyalty Coalition lives on as a splinter group. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith led the Wildrose Party from 2009 to 2014 before defecting to the PCs in a disastrous floor-crossing. Tufts says that a revitalized Wildrose caucus could hold the UCP to account and keep it from getting weak-kneed in seeing through the results of a successful referendum on independence, drawing a comparison to the recent Liberal-NDP supply and confidence agreement . 'Look at who the most powerful party in Ottawa was over the last few years: that was the NDP,' said Tufts. Katherine Kowalchuk, a separatist who lives in the riding, says she'll be voting Republican. 'The sense that I get from Cam (Davies) is that he's prepared, he has conservative viewpoints on things… and I think that he has the ability to stand by those convictions,' said Kowalchuk. 'We need to fight for our strong Alberta heritage rooted in family and freedom, and Cam is really the only candidate that's talking about this.' Kowalchuk ran in the riding for the Alberta Independence Party in 2023, winning 4.7 per cent of the vote. Pollster Dan Arnold, an executive with Pollara Strategic Insights says that Alberta's budding separatist movement could hardly have picked a better time and place for its first electoral test. He noted that support for Alberta independence among committed voters was at 24 per cent in mid-May, the highest level his firm has seen since it started polling Albertans on the topic in 2011. 'My assumption is the reason you're seeing the numbers edging up is because (separation) is now in the spotlight,' said Arnold. He said that the UCP will likely get spooked if the separatist vote breaks the double-digits. '10 per cent can grow over time to 20 per cent and then you're getting into vote split territory,' said Arnold. Arnold noted that Smith has dialled up the rhetoric against Ottawa's equalization program in recent days, likely in an effort to shore up soft separatists in the province. 'In our past polling, we've generally found that nobody really knows what equalization is but, at least in Alberta and Saskatchewan, they think it's unfair to their province.' Smith said on Monday that Quebec, the program's biggest recipient, should develop a resource 'royalty framework to wean them off the equalization that comes from western Canada.' Arnold said that 35 per cent of UCP voters see Smith as a separatist. Ironically, this could be a problem for her with polls showing that over half of UCP voters would vote 'yes' in a referendum on independence. Sawyer says she's not a separatist and believes in a strong Alberta within a united Canada. She told National Post that she's not playing the over/under game. Instead, she's focused on earning the trust of voters and winning the seat. 'We are working hard and earning every vote,' said Sawyer. Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills is one of three byelections scheduled for Monday, with the NDP tipped to win two Edmonton-area races. National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .

National Post

an hour ago

National Post

In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday

The U.S. is cutting billions from science. Canadian researchers say it's time to step up

CBC

an hour ago

The U.S. is cutting billions from science. Canadian researchers say it's time to step up

Social Sharing Scientists in Canada are scrambling. Over the past few months, the U.S. government has cut billions of dollars in funding from scientific research as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures. "It's really shocking. It's really like this big cloud over science," Kate Moran, CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, told Quirks & Quarks. Ocean Networks Canada participates in a project called the Argo system, an international program that collects information from on and under the ocean using a fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents. But that program, which is led by researchers in the U.S., could be at risk. Many Canadian research groups rely heavily on U.S. partners for support and data. But since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, that support has taken a massive hit. The New York Times reported in March that the administration plans to reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) workforce by up to 20 per cent, which Moran says could have a direct impact on their work. Some of those staffing cuts at the NOAA have already happened. "Because the U.S. is such a big player, I'm not sure we could step up and be like the U.S.," said Moran. And cuts are happening across the board. The administration terminated $1 billion US in cuts to the National Institutes of Health, a move ruled "void and illegal" and blocked by a district judge earlier this month. The government has also been in a battle with Harvard University, putting billions of dollars of potential funding in jeopardy. Layoffs across a number of government agencies have been put on hold by a federal judge in California. In an executive order issued by the White House in May, Trump said that "over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly." "My Administration is committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available." Environment and Climate Change Canada told CBC in a statement it "has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on operational and research activities related to weather, climate, satellites, and water monitoring," and that the "department has not been formally informed of any changes to its collaboration with NOAA." The trickle-down effect of cuts has left Canadian researchers trying to figure out how to adapt to these uncertain times, while others say it's now Canada's responsibility to step up. Targeting climate science Environmental science and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts seem to be a direct target of the Trump administration's cuts. More than 1,000 scientists and other employees are set to be laid-off from the Environmental Protection Agency's research office. The effects have been felt in Canada. Researchers here filling out forms for U.S. government grants have had to answer questions such as "Can you confirm this is not a climate or 'environmental justice' project or include such elements?" and "Can you confirm that this is no DEI project or DEI elements of the project?" The political climate has Deborah Wench on edge. She relies heavily on information from long-term monitoring projects to fuel her research into the carbon cycle. Wench studies how carbon flows between different climates. To do that, she needs long-term data sets collected from satellites. Wench says the U.S. operates a lot of the satellites used in her research. "I'm not really sure how to express this. It's mostly, for me, a sense of impending doom," said Wench, an associate professor at the University of Toronto. "It's taken decades and the careers of thousands of people to build up these measurement records, and it looks like it will take months to destroy them." Though she didn't want to specify which specific instruments she uses, she says she's concerned it's on the chopping block in the U.S., which would mean a loss of long-term monitoring. Then there's HAWC, a project that will use three Canadian-built instruments to measure the amount of aerosols, water vapour and thin ice clouds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The information could be used to improve future climate projects, assuming it continues to receive NASA support. Trump's 2026 budget, released in May, proposed a $6 billion US funding cut to the space agency, amounting to 24 per cent of NASA's current budget. WATCH | Canadian scientists trying to keep world's ocean sensors afloat: Canadian scientists trying to keep world's ocean sensors afloat 12 minutes ago Duration 1:32 These robot scientists dive deep into the ocean to measure the vital signs of planet Earth. But proposed funding cuts in the U.S. could mean critical climate data is on the chopping block. "Much of it is just so speculative, right?" said Chris Fletcher, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo. "We're still kind of on the descent.... So it's unclear yet exactly how all of this will shake out, and it's quite unsettling." One of the HAWC instruments was supposed to be attached to a NASA satellite. But Fletcher says that's now in question. "I'm confident from the Canadian side that because of this tremendous investment that Canada has made, that our instruments will fly. The question is about which components of the proposed NASA mission will fly," said Fletcher. CBC reached out to the Canadian Space Agency, but did not recieve a comment before publication. What happens next Canada's Department of Innovation, Science and Industry did not provide an interview or comment to CBC about how Canada plans to respond to funding cuts in the U.S. Frédéric Bouchard says the turmoil in the U.S. means a greater responsibility for Canada to assert its scientific sovereignty. He was part of the federally funded Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System, which, in 2023, took a deep dive into how Canada could better support scientific research. "It's our own responsibility to make sure that we have a strong and generous science capacity so we have access to the experts we need, when we need them," said Bouchard, a philosopher of science and dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at the Université de Montréal. "We shouldn't wait for other countries to do all the hard work and hope that we can benefit from it." He says that as American scientists leave the United States, Canada could welcome some of those researchers. He also said it will be important to invest in the future, including support for graduate students both in Canada and abroad in the United States, to make sure they're able to continue work in their field. Even so, Bouchard says, what's happening in the U.S. is going to have an impact — there's no stopping that. "What's happening is destabilizing science across the world," said Bouchard. "We need to make sure we play a larger role and that we build our own muscle mass, if you will, to be able to withstand more of the disruption." Moran says Ocean Networks Canada, and other organizations like it, are ready to do so. She says they are prepared to do simple things, such as download data to protect the long-term data sets. And if there are more cuts in the U.S., she says she's prepared to make the case to the Canadian government and request more funding. "We're talking about what we could do to fill those gaps," said Moran. "Canada has all the skills and knowledge and scientists." Politically-driven chaos is disrupting U.S. scientific institutions and creating challenges for science in Canada. Science is a global endeavour and collaborations with the U.S. are routine. In this special episode of Quirks & Quarks, we explore what Canadian scientists are doing to preserve their work to assert scientific sovereignty in the face of this unprecedented destabilization. Canadian climate scientists brace for cuts to climate science infrastructure and data U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on climate science are putting our Earth observing systems, in the oceans and in orbit, at risk. Canadian scientists who rely on U.S. led climate data infrastructure worry about losing long-term data that would affect our ability to understand our changing climate. With: Kate Moran, the president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada and Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Victoria Debra Wunch, Physicist at the University of TorontoChris Fletcher, Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo U.S. cuts to Great Lakes science and monitoring threaten our shared freshwater resourceU.S. budget and staffing cuts are jeopardizing the long-standing collaboration with our southern neighbour to maintain the health of the Great Lakes, our shared resource and the largest freshwater system in the world. With: Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and part-time professor at the University of OttawaGreg McClinchey, policy and legislative director with the Great Lakes Fishery CommissionMichael Wilkie, Biologist at Wilfred Laurier UniversityBrittney Borowiec, research associate in the Wilkie Lab at Wilfred Laurier UniversityAaron Fisk, Ecologist and Canada Research Chair at the University of Windsor Unexpected ways U.S. culture war policies are affecting Canadian scientists One of the first things President Trump did after taking office was to sign an executive order eliminating all DEI policies in the federal government. This is having far-reaching consequences for Canadian scientists as they navigate the new reality of our frequent research partner's hostility against so-called 'woke science.'With:Dr. Sofia Ahmed, Clinician scientist, and academic lead for the Women and Children's Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta Angela Kaida, professor of health sciences and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in VancouverDawn Bowdish, professor of immunology, the executive director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and Canada Research Chair at McMaster UniversityKevin Zhao, MD/PhD student in immunology in the Bowdish Lab at McMaster UniversityJérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research Canada has a 'responsibility' to step up and assert scientific sovereigntyA 2023 report on how to strengthen our federal research support system could be our roadmap to more robust scientific sovereignty. The Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System made recommendations to the federal government for how we could reform our funding landscape. The intent was to allow us to quickly respond to national research priorities and to make Canada a more enticing research partner in world science. With: Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of philosophy of science at the Université de Montreal. Chair of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System.

‘We're here for him': Ukrainian Canadian Congress meets with President Zelenskyy

Hashtags

Try Our AI Features

Comments

Related Articles

In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday

In Alberta, separatism is on the ballot in a rural byelection on Monday

The U.S. is cutting billions from science. Canadian researchers say it's time to step up

Get Started Now: Download the App