The first refugees arrive from Ukraine thanks to a series of events involving two former politicians, a Polish race-car driver and a donated airplane. Now, a mother and son in Alberta look ahead to an uncertain future
Tymofii Sviderskyi didn’t understand why he had to leave his home and country, didn’t know why he had to say goodbye to his father and the rest of their family and friends and go somewhere far away, to a place he’d never been. Tymofii was only 11, and to him war meant people fighting. But as he and his mother left their home in the Sokal area of Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine in early March, it was peaceful. There were no bombs, no tanks. There was no war there.
He called up his friend, Ed Stelmach, one of the most well-known figures in Alberta’s Ukrainian community.The two men had been high-ranking politicians in the province – Mr. Stelmach, a former Progressive Conservative premier and the first Alberta premier of Ukrainian heritage; Mr. Lukaszuk, a former PC MLA and deputy premier – and while their efforts were not political, their experience in government meant they had connections and a platform, and understood how to make things happen.
The government of Canada was planning for an influx of people fleeing Ukraine, but the LOT charter plane would be the first large group to arrive, and there were a number of logistics to be worked out. Dealing with the offices of the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Canada, officials in Poland, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Mr. Lukaszuk knew there was a strong will to make things work. But getting people on the plane was still a challenge. Even in wartime, there are rules.
Ms. Sviderska already had her visa to come to Canada when they learned about the flight, but Tymofii’s paperwork took longer. Everything came through just hours before the deadline. In a situation where so much was beyond their control, Ms. Bennett thought it felt like Canada. About 1.4 million Canadians consider themselves to be Ukrainian or of Ukrainian descent, the largest population outside Ukraine and Russia. The diaspora is particularly concentrated on the Prairies; Ukrainian Canadians make up about 15 per cent of the population of Manitoba, and 10 per cent of the population of Alberta. The highway to Mundare from Edmonton goes past the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, a museum dedicated to Ukrainian settlement in the province.
The threat had moved nearer her family’s home in Ukraine. Rockets were coming in from Belarus, one landing just 30 kilometres from her house, not far from where her mother lives. Her sister, in Rivne, had seen the rockets flying. Every morning Ms. Sviderska checked her phone as soon as she woke up, anxious to see what had happened overnight.
Mr. Lukaszuk and Mr. Stelmach were already planning the next round of fundraising, but this time they would be looking for donations of money so the supplies could be purchased in Ukraine and Poland, supporting the economies there and eliminating the considerable work required in sorting and packing donations, along with the high cost of shipping goods overseas.
Ms. Bennett and her parents moved to Canada in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union. Her father had been sending donations to military hospitals in Ukraine since 2014, and had gone three times to the front line. Now they were sending whatever they could to help their relatives. For them, too, it felt like repayment. To be helped, and then to one day be able to help.
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