There is no greater time for action than NOW
Today, with Ukraine facing abandonment from the United States, with trade agreements and military training programs being blocked by federal Conservatives in Canada, there is no greater time for action than NOW.
With all due respect to the many Ukrainian Canadians with Ukrainian flags on their cars, sunflower wreaths on their doors, and tryzub t-shirts, I beg you to PLEASE DO THE POLITICALLY MEANINGFUL STUFF! Please, please, please demand support for Ukraine! Don’t allow its abandonment!
The existence of the Ukrainian sovereign national state is at stake. Our actions should reflect this dire reality. All of our efforts should be about preventing this devastating outcome, and defending Ukraine as the homeland of and for Ukrainians. The time to act is NOW.
Many people, for whatever reason, decided that Ukraine defended its right to exist in 2022. They act like the war was won as a result. But it was not. Russia continues to dominate in military capability. Russia has mobilized the Axis of Terror to outmatch western support to Ukraine.
And now, Ukraine is facing great abandonment from its partners in its greatest time of need. With support reduced and/or halted, Ukraine WILL lose. We are on a precipice.
The flags, the shirts, and every other symbol you display are meaningful symbolically. But Ukraine needs a great deal more than symbols. And while supporting refugees, and raising money to help with military and humanitarian aid in UA, are critically important, we MUST do more.
Our diaspora should be rallying together to do more than remembering the Holodomor genocide – we should be putting collective political pressure on ALL national political parties to drive policies which will help STOP THE CURRENT, ONGOING GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE TODAY.
Festivals with Ukrainian dancers, with attendees wearing beautiful embroidered shirts is NOT going to persuade our government or the Conservative official opposition to DO what is needed to help save Ukraine.
The dominant theme and flavour of every_single_Ukrainan event in Canada should be about what to do to save Ukraine from Russia. To save Ukraine as a sovereign nation. To keep Ukraine alive.
T-shirts are easy. Letters to politicians and rallies are harder. Do the harder things.
We owe it to our ancestors who had to flee or were driven out of their homes by force. We owe it our children. We owe it to Ukrainians who want to go home today. We owe it to Ukrainians the world over who want to live in peaceful Ukraine.
We owe it to Ukraine.