Jars Balan, Coordinator of the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Program at CIUS, had a rare opportunity to witness first-hand the making of Canadian, Ukrainian, and Ukrainian Canadian history. He was one of twelve representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian community chosen to be part of Canada's official delegation accompanying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his first visit to Ukraine, from 10-12 July 2016. Delegation members included Paul Grod, UCC National President, and a cross-section of activists in the Ukrainian Canadian hromada: Zenon Potoczny, Markian Shwec, Renata Roman, Lesia Chyczij, Gerald Luciuk, Orest Gawdyda, Lenna Koszarny, Oksana Bondarchuk, and Cassian Soltykevych - the last being the president of the Ukrainian Students Union of Canada (SUSK). Borys Wrzesnewskyj, member of parliament for Etobicoke Centre and chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group, was also part of the delegation, while logistics in Ukraine were coordinated by Canadian embassy staff headed by Ambassador Roman Waschuk, a native of Toronto. The main purpose of the visit was for the two countries to formally sign a free-trade agreement, which was done on Canada's behalf by Alberta native, Chrystia Freeland, Minister of International Trade, and on Ukraine's behalf by First Deputy Minister Stepan Kubiv, who also serves as the Minister of Economic Development and Trade.
In Kyiv, the Prime Minister laid wreaths or placed flowers at Babyn Yar, the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, the Holodomor Memorial and the Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred. He also headed a round table with Leaders of Change in Ukraine, in which the following participated: Khatia Dekonidze, the Chief of Ukraine's National Police, and her assistant, Natalia Shuster of the Montreal Police Service, the daughter of post-Second World War immigrants to Canada; members of the Verkhovna Rada and former journalists, Mustafa Nayem and Svitlana Zalishchuk; Dr. Oleksandr Linchevskyi, a surgeon involved in treating soldiers wounded in Anti-Terrorist Operations in the Donbas region; Katya Gorchinskaya, CEO of Hromadske TV; and three NGO leaders, Natalia Karbowska, of the Ukrainian Women's Fund, Zoryan Kis, an LGBT activist with Freedom House, and Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Ukraine.
As part of the program, a reception was held at Mystetskyi Arsenal on the first evening, attended by many prominent figures well-known to the Ukrainian Canadian community, including current and former Ukrainian ambassadors to Canada, Andriy Shevchenko, Vadym Prystaiko (now deputy foreign affairs minister) and Ihor Ostash. The following night, an even larger gathering took place on the grounds of St. Sophia Cathedral, hosted by the Government of Ukraine and the Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce to promote trade and investment opportunities in both countries.
On Tuesday 10 July the entire delegation flew to Lviv, where they were taken by motorcade to the military base at Yavoriv to hear the Prime Minister address the famed Van Doos Infantry Regiment from Quebec which is assisting in the training of Ukrainian soldiers, and to observe an exercise with live ammunition. After returning briefly to Lviv, the Canadian Ukrainian delegation, along with the Prime Minister, his staff, his RCMP bodyguard, and a contingent of Canadian journalists, returned to Ottawa on the government jet. En route, Mr. Trudeau spent time chatting with the Ukrainian Canadian representatives, who presented him with several keepsakes from the visit.