Former Canadian Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn Dead at Age
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ïêàëíéë êéÑàÇëü! CHRIST IS BORN! Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXX HE No.KRAINIAN 52 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2002 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine Verkhovna Rada caucuses negotiate FormerT CanadianU Governor General W Ramon Hnatyshyn dead at age 68 compromise and adopt 2003 budget by Christopher Guly Canadian Congress. by Yarema A. Bachynsky Nine pro-presidential caucuses. That day Mr. Hnatyshyn, whose parents were Special to The Ukrainian Weekly saw the paper-thin majority of roughly OTTAWA – In death as in his life, of Ukrainian descent, made Ukrainian- 236 deputies oust now former Governor Ramon John Hnatyshyn gave Canada’s Canadian history on December 14, 1989, KYIV – Capping two weeks of sharp of the National Bank of Ukraine Ukrainian community a national profile when he was named Canada’s 24th gov- and at times violent confrontation in the Volodymyr Stelmakh; replace him with with a distinctly personal touch. ernor general, which made him Queen halls of Parliament, the Opposition Four now former MP and Labor Ukraine Party At his family’s request, the December Elizabeth II’s representative in Canada (Our Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, leader Serhii Tyhypko; re-allocate all 15 23 funeral service for the country’s for- and the country’s de facto head of state. Socialists and Communists) caucuses on committee chair assignments held by the mer governor general, held at Ottawa’s He was sworn into office on January 29, December 24 agreed to cease blocking Opposition Four to members of the Nine; Anglican cathedral, followed the rites of 1990. plenary sessions. and “revoke” Parliament’s prior the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the Three decades earlier, his late father, Two hundred forty-six deputies voted approval, in second reading, of the 2003 first time such a ceremony has been held John – who had left Ukraine for Canada to partially revoke the results of voting budget. for a state funeral in Canada. as an infant in 1907 with his parents – the previous week that had left the The paper ballots were cast under The service, which lasted nearly two made history himself when the former Opposition Four bereft of the ability to mysterious circumstances in a variety of hours and was carried live on national Conservative prime minister, the late regulate parliamentary proceedings. This television, also featured participants of deputies’ offices and, as Our Ukraine MP John Diefenbaker, appointed him to the opened the door to the adoption by and Reforms and Order party leader various faith groups, including Ottawa’s Senate, making Sen. Hnatyshyn the first Parliament of several crucial changes to Roman Catholic archbishop and Viktor Pynzenyk alleged, lavatory-like and so far only Ukrainian-born member anti-money laundering legislation facilities. By some accounts, the vote Anglican bishop, as well as a rabbi and of Canada’s Upper Chamber. demanded of Ukraine by the Financial an imam. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien tallies were more fiction than fact. Fittingly, the Senate Chamber, in Action Task Force, which had recently Following the voting, the Opposition and two former prime ministers were which Mr. Hnatyshyn would have deliv- sanctioned Kyiv for adopting what it among the nearly 600 people in atten- Four filed a lawsuit alleging constitution- ered the throne speech opening a session called lax laws in this area. al and other violations. However, this suit dance at the cathedral. of Parliament during his term as gover- Also, 336 of 450 deputies in the A member of the Ukrainian Orthodox was thrown out by the Pechersky District nor general, was chosen as the site Verkhovna Rada voted to adopt the state Court of Kyiv on the grounds that voting Church of Canada, Mr. Hnatyshyn died where his Canadian flag-draped casket budget for 2003 on December 26, ending in Ottawa on December 18 of complica- procedures were an intra-parliamentary would lie for two days prior to the funer- speculation that the country would enter issue not subject to litigation in courts of tions from pancreatitis, according to an al. the new year without a financial action announcement released by the Ottawa general jurisdiction. Born in Saskatoon on March 16, plan. The compromise reached on law firm where he worked as a senior 1934, Mr. Hnatyshyn, like his father, The Opposition Four had effectively partner. He was 68. December 24 provided that the opposi- obtained a law degree from the shut down the legislature in protest of tion would retain all previously held Mr. Hnatyshyn described himself as University of Saskatchewan in what it called illegitimate balloting con- an “average Canadian” and was widely Saskatoon. ducted on December 17 by the Majority (Continued on page 15) known as “Ray” even when the honorif- He moved to Ottawa in 1958 to take a ic “Your Excellency” was attached to job as executive assistant to the govern- his name during his term as governor ment leader in the Senate, a position general. arranged for him by Mr. Diefenbaker. Antonov-140 crashes in Remembered as a man of great Two years later, Mr. Hnatyshyn warmth and humor, Mr. Hnatyshyn returned to Saskatoon to resume his law “exemplified the fact that by hard work, practice and marry Gerda Andreasen, a Iran killing all 48 aboard perseverance and dedication, every dietitian, with whom he would have two by Yarema Bachynsky in Iran, the plane was carrying a high- Canadian, regardless of ethnicity, could sons, John and Carl. reach the highest levels of civic and pro- Special to The Ukrainian Weekly level delegation of Ukrainian and In 1964, Mr. Hnatyshyn ran unsuc- Russian aircraft industry executives. fessional life,” said Eugene Czolij, pres- KYIV – All 48 persons aboard a cessfully for the Tories in the Among the dead were Boris Okulov, the ident of the Winnipeg-based Ukrainian Saskatchewan provincial election and Kharkiv-manufactured AN-140 plane general director of the St. Petersburg- spent the next decade teaching law at the perished when it went down near the based Rubin aviation enterprise; numer- University of Saskatoon until he won a Iranian city of Isfahan on December 23, ous department heads of the Kharkiv seat in the House of Commons as a Ukrainian and Iranian news agencies Aircraft Plant and the world-renowned Conservative representing a Saskatoon have reported. riding in the 1974 federal election – a A Ukrainian governmental commis- Antonov Design Bureau; as well as offi- victory he would later acknowledge sion has been formed and sent to Iran to cials of Aviakor, the Samara, Russia- served partly as a vindication of his investigate the tragedy with local offi- based aviation plant that provides 65 per- father’s three electoral defeats in the cials, including studying the craft’s black cent of all parts for the AN-140, which is 1930s. boxes, recovered by the Iranians. assembled in Kharkiv and Isfahan. First serving as an opposition member Preliminary reports immediately follow- The Antonov-140 is a medium-range of Parliament during the Liberal govern- ing the crash suggested that pilot error twin turbo-prop passenger and cargo ment under the late Pierre Trudeau, Mr. may have caused the high-tech plane to liner, planned as the replacement for a Hnatyshyn rose to the Cabinet within slam into a mountainside as it was com- range of older aircraft from Soviet times, five years when the Tories won a minor- ing in for a landing at Isfahan’s airport. including the workhorse AN-24 and AN- ity government and then-prime minister According to the news portal 26 turbo prop planes that are the main- Joe Clark assigned him to the energy Korrespondent.net, however, the pilot stay of Ukraine and Russia’s smaller portfolio where he embarked on a cam- and co-pilot had over 8,000 hours of domestic carriers, and the Yak-40, a paign to make Canada energy self-suffi- flight time between them, including hun- small jet. The passenger version of the cient by 1990. dreds of hours flying the AN-140 to and AN-140 seats 52 passengers. The aircraft In less than a year, however, Mr. from Isfahan, where the planes have been is certified by the Inter-State Aviation Clark’s government was defeated in an manufactured under license since 1999. Committee; the State Aviation election prompted by the Tories’ loss of a Administration of Ukraine; and is up to non-confidence motion in the Commons The terrain around this central Iranian over an energy tax, and Mr. Hnatyshyn, city is extremely rugged, according to Federal Aviation Administration (U.S.) Ukrainian news agencies. standards, according to manufacturer Ramon John Hnatyshyn (Continued on page 12) According to the Embassy of Ukraine information. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2002 No. 52 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Kuchma orchestrates oligarchic takeover Odesa journalists form new trade union Opposition proposes end to standoff by Taras Kuzio Medvedchuk was appointed head of the RFE/RL Newsline presidential administration. Mr. ODESA – Journalists from four newspa- KYIV – Our Ukraine leader Viktor Medvedchuk has orchestrated, on behalf pers in Ukraine’s Odesa Oblast – Yug, Yushchenko on December 19 proposed a At his ninth meeting with Russian of the executive, a drive against the Slovo, Morskie Viedomosti and Vikna – compromise to the pro-government majori- President Vladimir Putin, this time in opposition and a takeover of all key state established an independent trade union on ty in order to resolve the current stalemate Moscow on December 9, Ukrainian institutions by three main oligarchic December 21, the UNIAN news service in the Verkhovna Rada, UNIAN reported. President Leonid Kuchma lauded the fact clans (the SDPU-o [Kyiv], Labor reported.