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Ukrainian Professional and Business Banquet
February 17, 2001

Good evening. I am pleased to be asked to introduce Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, our keynote speaker for this evening. When one introduces a speaker, there are two things one can address: First, and obviously, a concise biography is in order. Second, it is useful to explore the connections between the speaker and the introducer. Since we have never met, that question poses an interesting opportunity.

First the bio: Dr. Luciuk is a son of Ukrainian displaced persons and a professor of political geography at the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario. He was also born in Kingston. His Ph.D. is in geography, and he has worked in the Departments of Geography at both Queens and Toronto. He has published on Ukrainians in Canada, and on the internment of Ukrainian Canadians in World War I. He is actively involved with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association. His latest book, just published is titled Searching for Place.

So why did Evan Uzvyshyn invite me to introduce Dr. Luciuk. One might simply think that Evan has a short memory span; he was talking to me a couple days ago, so when he was looking for someone to introduce Dr. Luciuk, he simply thought back two days, and said "Let Denis do it." I also told him that I had read Luciuk's book, so that was probably enough to tilt the balance!

On the other hand, there is a popular theory going around known as "Six degrees of separation". It says that if you dig deep enough, everything is connected. More specifically, you can establish a link between any two people by going back six steps.

Actually, I need only to back to last Christmas. We were at my mothers, and one of my mother's best friends who was over for Christmas dinner was Dr. Leonora Havirko. Indeed I remember receiving a copy of this book "Searching for Place" for Christmas; we were flipping through the book and Dr. Havirko jumped up in surprise and delight when she saw the full page photo of her late husband, and we realized that he figured prominently in the book. His name: Anthony Yaremovich.

I have another family connection. The three Hlynka brothers, my father and two uncles all converged on Ottawa, independently, in the late thirties. It was the third brother Anthony who had first moved to Vegreville, joined the Social Credit party, was elected to the House of Commons in 1940 and then moved to Ottawa. Anthony Hlynka is also one of the players in Luciuk's narrative because Anthony Hlynka was the only Ukrainian Canadian in parliament from 1940-45, and made some 92 speeaches durinjg his nine year tenure, many dealing with the plight of Ukrainians in the European camps. Indeed, Historian Orest Sybtelney called him "the guardian angel of the third wave". In 1945, Hlynka was joined in Ottawa byt Fredereck Zaplitny, representing Daupin for the CCF party.

Let me give you one quote from my uncle's speeches in the House of Commons. This comes from February 2, 1942.

I believe I have sufficiently pointed out that the stability of Europe and of the world can be achieved only on the basis of universal justice. The European madhouse will remain a madhouse until Europe is reconstructed with freedom written into every word of its constitution. When that is done, we may expect a lasting peace."

So I am delighted to be able to introduce Dr. Luciuk and to commend him for opening up a nearly forgotten area of our history, a field ripe for continued scholarship.

Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies
Room 203, 29 Dysart Road
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg MB
R3T 2N2
Canada

Phone: (204) 474-8906
Fax: (204) 474-7624
Email: cucs@cc.umanitoba.ca
Website: umanitoba.ca/centres/ukrainian_canadian