CONSERVATIVES CUT REDRESS FUNDING - NEWS

CONSERVATIVES CUT REDRESS FUNDING
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Published Monday, May 12 2008

For Immediate Release
May 9th, 2008

CONSERVATIVES CUT REDRESS FUNDING

OTTAWA -Today's Conservative announcement of Ukrainian redress funding
actually represents a $2.5-million cut to funding allocated by the
previous Liberal government and will now be split up between fourteen
ethno-cultural communities, Liberal Member of Parliament Borys
Wrzesnewskyj said today.

"The previous Liberal government set aside $12.5 million in 2005 for the
Ukrainian-Canadian community for a historical recognition program to
commemorate discriminatory wartime measures inflicted on Canadians of
Ukrainian descent and educate all Canadians about this historical
injustice, but the Conservatives have cancelled that commitment
allocating $10 million to be shared among 14 communities," said Mr.
Wrzesnewskyj. "While the Conservatives claim to be reaching out to the
Ukrainian-Canadian community, the cancellation of the ACE program along
with these funding cuts shows the Conservatives' failure to understand
the impact of these historical injustices on the Ukrainian-Canadian
community."

The Conservative government confirmed today the cancellation of the
$55-million Acknowledgment, Commemoration and Education Program (ACE)
and its replacement with a more general $24-million community historical
recognition program and a $10-million national historical recognition
program.

In Budget 2005, the previous Liberal government committed $25 million
over three years for acknowledgment, commemorative, and educational
initiatives to highlight the contributions of ethno-cultural groups that
were impacted by historic discriminatory wartime measures and
immigration restrictions.

Between August and November of 2005, agreements in principle were signed
with the Chinese, Italian and Ukrainian communities allocating an
initial $2.5 million to each community for commemorative projects and
subsequent verbal negotiations confirmed an allocation of $12.5 million
to each of these communities, with the balance of the ACE fund to be
used for other groups who suffered similar injustices.

A further $30-million allocation was then made to the ACE Program in the
November 2005 Economic Update, bringing the total funding for the
program to $55 million.

"Now, to cover up this funding cut Secretary of State for
Multiculturalism Jason Kenney is claiming that the additional
$10-million allocation to the Ukrainian-Canadian community never
existed," said Mr. Wrzesnewskyj. "This is not only false, but is
insulting to the groups that have come forward, some in writing, to
confirm that this agreement had been reached."

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj went on to criticize the Conservative government's
handling of this file.

"It is sad that the Conservative government is perpetrating a campaign
of misinformation about, and playing political games with, a program
designed to recognize historical injustices suffered by the
Ukrainian-Canadian community. The first waves of Ukrainian immigrants
transformed the barren bush of Canada's West into the golden wheat
fields of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Notwithstanding the fact
that they should be considered one of Canada's founding peoples, during
World War I they became victims of xenophobia and racist government
policy. Today's announcement, although disappointing in a number of
ways, can be viewed by our community as a first step on the path of
righting this historical wrong," he said.