Mr. Chair, just for the record, I am not a Ukrainian Canadian. I was born and raised in Poland, but I do have many Ukrainian Canadians in my constituency. I have a beautiful Ukrainian Catholic church in my constituency and many businesses.

I wanted to take part in this debate because I can truly relate to the struggles of the people in Ukraine and what has been going on in Ukraine over these past few months.

I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Edmonton East.

I agree with the member for Toronto Centre that to fully understand what was going on and to really help Ukraine, we have to understand the historical aspect of the Ukrainians' struggle for independence. I am not talking about the past 24 years, since 1991. It started a long time before that.

I would like to quote two lines from the poem Testament, or Zapovit, written by a Ukrainian icon, Taras Shevchenko:

[Member spoke in Ukrainian and provided the following translation:]

Bury me, then rise up and break your heavy chains.

[English]

This was written over 150 years ago. Ukraine had to wait 130 years after Shevchenko's death to break those chains.

More recently, 10 years ago, during the Orange Revolution, people stood up because after the rigged election they did not accept the results. People did not accept the fact that one of the presidential candidates was being poisoned by secret agents. In 2004 and 2005, after the Orange Revolution, everybody was so hopeful that everything in Ukraine would go smoothly and toward democracy. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

What has happened in the past few months is truly tragic, not only because people died. It is tragic when people die, but it is also tragic that the government used force against people. It was not only the police and the riot police. The government ordered snipers to go on the roof and shoot people randomly. That is something that should not be happening in our times. That is why we should be concerned about what is going to happen next.

Today, we have good news. The new government of national unity was formed. The young journalist, the lady who was beaten up and left to die, is part of that group. A gentleman, whose name I think is Mr. Bulatov, who was also beaten up and had to be brought to a hospital in Lithuania, is also part of that group.

Ukraine will need a lot of help and guidance. There is truly hard work in front of all Ukrainians.

I would also like to quote the next lines from the national anthem:

[Member spoke in Ukrainian and provided the following translation:]

Our enemies will vanish like dew in the sun, and we should rule, brothers, in a free land of our own.

[English]

That is the important part: “our own”. The Ukrainian people do not want to be ruled by anybody anymore.

Ukraine has a big neighbour, but unfortunately, Russia is not democratic, which is the main problem. It is very hard to be hopeful when one's neighbour is trying to go back to Soviet times.

Wladyslaw Lizon

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