NP-UN Western Bureau.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Edmonton Branch expressed dismay at the University of Alberta’s unilateral decision to close the Yaroslav Hunka Endowment without any consultation.
“This decision failed to live up to the motto of the University of Alberta to find ‘whatsoever things are true’”, said UCC Edmonton President Yarko Broda in a letter sent U of A President and Vice-Chancellor William Flanagan.
“The role of an academic institution is to foster informed discourse on this and many other difficult topics. In making this uninformed and rushed decision in response to a superficial media frenzy, the University utterly failed in its duty to its students, faculty, and the community to facilitate education and dialogue on the complex history of WWII. It has also done a great disservice to the millions of innocents who perished in the bloodlands of Eastern Europe, including victims of the Holocaust.
“There are difficult and painful pages in the shared history of the peoples who made their home in Ukraine. The UCC acknowledges that recent events that brought these pages to the forefront have caused pain and anguish. However, we strongly urge you and the administration to swiftly engage in consultation with all donors and communities to avoid further reputational damage to the University of Alberta. We respectfully ask that you promote teaching, learning, and research into this difficult period by hosting a symposium on the history of WWII led by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. CIUS is ideally positioned to examine the historical memory and complex relationships between the peoples caught in the war between Hitler and Stalin.
“Today, Russia wages a brutal war of conquest against Ukraine, seeking to subjugate Ukraine to Moscow’s tyranny. All the peoples of Ukraine who live in a pluralist, democratic state fight together to defend their freedom against the specter of Russian genocide.
Our community is grateful to Canada and all Canadians for their unwavering support of Ukraine, and regrets that this controversy has deflected attention away from the great threat posed to democracies around the world by unchecked Russian aggression,” he added.
The U of A on September 28 announced it is closing the fund because Hunka was a member of the Galician Division.
The Hunka family gave $30,000 to the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the school in 2019 for the Yaroslav and Margaret Hunka Ukrainian Research Endowment Fund.
“Following the introduction of Yaroslav Hunka on September 22 in the Canadian House of Commons, the university began a review of a $30,000 endowment fund that existed in Mr. Hunka’s name,” wrote Dr. Verna Yiu, the U of A’s provost and vice-president (academic).
“After careful consideration of the complexities, experiences, and circumstances of those impacted by the situation, we have made the decision to close the endowment and return the funds to the donor. The university recognizes and regrets the unintended harm caused.”
In 2019 the U of A refused to censure and fire a lecturer who denied the Holodomor ex despite protests from the Ukrainian community. In a Facebook post Assistant Lecturer Dougal MacDonald called the Holodomor a “myth” created by “Hitlerite Nazis”, part of an “even larger myth that millions died in the Soviet Union”, adding that “in Canada, former Nazi collaborators and their spawn have long led the phony Holodomor campaign”.
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