Ukrainians of Canada: unity and help

On the air of "Freedom" - volunteers Alla Katysh and Katerina Tereshchenko

The humanitarian corridor is not only legal, legal or military. A person needs to support psychological and medicinal care, warmth and word. There are not only disasters medicine, but also the language of disasters. Several million Ukrainians left their homes. The world community rose to protect the latest exiles. About this picture of the world created before our eyes, the podcast series "Humanitarian Corridor". By the width of this corridor, they will judge the morality and responsibility of our era. The presenters are Ivan Tolstoy and Igor Pomerantsev.

Ivan Tolstoy: Alla, how does the Ukrainian tragedy from Canada see?

Alla Katysh: how everywhere in the civilized world, people whose brains are not blurred by propaganda include a TV and see that people lived in a European country, took loans, bought apartments, children went to school, girls recorded on Instagram, put pictures, all mobile phones-civilization. And suddenly the barbarians came and began to kill, rob and rape.

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God forbid that in the next winter everyone is at home and warmed up at their hearth

And people in Canada look at this and open their wallets immediately because they do not understand how this can happen in the 21st century. We have the largest Ukrainian diaspora outside of Ukraine. Probably there is no one who would not know someone of Ukrainian origin. Everyone has friends, colleagues, acquaintances of Ukrainian origin. Plus Canada is a very civilized country, for various reasons, one of which is called Merit Based Immigration, we have 25% of the country - emigrants, and they fell into the country because they are such good, correct, competent, and not because they, for example, won this on the lottery. Maybe I am not objective to my country, I really love Canada, but I think that we have a good general level of development and understanding of reality at the level.

The process of obtaining refugees is very long

Igor Pomerantsev: I heard that Canada does not recognize Ukrainian emigrants refugees. Is it so? And if so, why?

Alla Katysh: This is not entirely true. We formally have a refugee status. It was necessary to do it faster so that people got the opportunity to work, get help. And the process of obtaining refugees is very long. And in order to go through all this, they must sit for some time, sometimes it takes six to nine months until they receive refugee status, and then they can work. It’s just that this bureaucracy was reduced, Ukrainians come and receive a visa by which they receive lifting money, work permission. And yes, officially this is not a refugee status, but this is not related to help that it turns out, they are simply not called refugees.

Ivan Tolstoy: What category of people from Ukraine gets to Canada? For some reason, Poland is chosen alone, others in Italy, someone is in a hurry to England, but there are those who go to Canada. What is it connected with?

Alla Katysh: I think this is due to personal capabilities. When people flee the country, they are in the first place where they were accepted, and remain. If you want to live in another country and you have friends, relatives, people who can help you, some means, even a ticket to Toronto is an expensive pleasure. Therefore, only those who have opportunities come here, there are acquaintances or relatives who can help. There were many people at the very beginning, who were already in Europe, who had already tried to get here before the war, they had a process launched. So they came here in the forefront. Real refugees came here later, and only those who had such opportunities.

Igor Pomerantsev: Does the Ukrainian community of Canada lobbying the interests of Ukrainian refugees?

Alla Katysh: Yes, of course, but it seems to me that we especially do not need to lobby, because the support is very large. We do not have, as in the USA, a group of people who would be beneficial to interfere with Ukrainian refugees or support Putin. There are separate interspersed, but for the most part we have no such organized group, so everyone is absolutely sincerely trying to help.

At the intersection in Toronto.

Yes, there are some kind of bureaucratic obstacles, people in order to get documents should have made prints, scans, all this took a wild amount of time. Those who were waiting for relatives here said: my mother, dad, grandmother sits for three months in Romania, still have not received documents. But this is because those people who made these prints were simply not enough to cope with such a stream. But in order for someone to try to prevent this, this was not.

Ivan Tolstoy: Alla, and there are some friction, misunderstanding, misunderstanding between Russian emigrants in Canada and Ukrainian?

All cockroaches crawled back for skirting boards

Alla Katysh: This is not an easy story. I think it's less now. I am generally from Moscow, I even have relatives who lived in Ukraine, everyone left and now there is no one left there. But I have supported Ukraine since 2014. At that moment, the Russian -speaking population looked at what was happening. Now everything is clear and obvious to everyone, and even those who support Russia, they try not to express their opinion aloud, it, let's say, is unpopular. In 2014, all sorts of rallies were also organized here. There were rallies for Ukraine, and there were rallies for Russia. Now there is nothing like that, everything is clear and obvious to everyone, all the cockroaches crawled back behind the skirting boards.

Igor Pomerantsev: Alla, Canadian Ukrainians are represented in parliament, in the government, in city municipalities?

Alla Katysh: Yes, of course, in large numbers. We have the largest diaspora Ukrainian outside the Ukrainian itself, the Ukrainians generally rebuilt half the manitoba. Here it is not even necessary to lobby. Maybe you need to lobby for any specific measures, something very definite, but people support Ukraine, you can’t even imagine how. When it all started, we collected money - both Hindus and the Chinese, people simply grabbed the hand and asked where to give the money.

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Ivan Tolstoy: That is, the problem, the tragedy, and the need of Ukraine does not need to explain anything in the press and the Canadian television?

Alla Katysh: Of course, because people watch this news, their hair stands on end on their heads. You see, this is in a European country ... Any normal, sane person who is not devoid of a sense of empathy cannot look at this indifferently. Of course, everyone is trying to help with all their might.

Igor Pomerantsev: Alla, usually national communities or diasporas, settled in a particular country, are conservative, their goal is to preserve, and not to develop traditions. New arrived Ukrainians affect the old -timers?

I do not think that having arrived after such shocks, they will rush to change our system

Alla Katysh: I don't think. I think that it will take some time while they are so pushing into our lives and begin to understand our local reality in order to change and influence something. I think that they now have the main task-to adapt, find a job, find some social support. I do not think that, having arrived after such shocks, they will rush to change our system. They need to fit into it first before trying to influence someone and change something.

Ivan Tolstoy: Our next conversation is with a volunteer and English teacher Katerina Tereshchenko.

Katerina, how many years do you live in Canada?

Katerina Tereshchenko: obscured number of years, since 1997.

Ivan Tolstoy: The Ukrainian problem, looking from Canada, remains the same? Is this a plateau or is it ascent and descent? How did this change over the years?

Katerina Tereshchenko: The main problems that I saw and see how the problems began in 2014, since then the dynamics of these problems has been going upward and will not stop in any way. And in Canada, when I just arrived here, they treated us with warily. We began to come after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were called the fourth wave. So, the third wave was not very related to the fourth. Today, both the third wave and the fourth wave, that is, we help the fifth wave, which actively comes here in connection with the war.

Igor Pomerantsev: Since 2014, you are a member of the Ukrainian community. Why Ukrainian? You are from Odessa. Why not Russian?

I didn't want to speak Ukrainian when I lived in Odessa

Katerina Tereshchenko: My dad, director of the Power Film Studio, the absolute Ukrainian, whose career was closed due to the fact that he was a Ukrainian director. Despite the fact that he came to Odessa to shoot Ukrainian cinema. And, in principle, he became a documentary working in Russian. When I brought him here, to Toronto, he, not knowing the English language, instantly gained a lot of friends among the Ukrainian community and began to go into the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. This is such a large organization, their location near our house. He created here the youth theater for Ukrainian teenagers and young people, somehow very quickly got used to it. I, in turn, did not want to speak Ukrainian when I lived in Odessa. But when he found so many wonderful people in Canada, I thought: well, how unscrupulous I am, I have to learn the Ukrainian language.

Then my son was born, dad was actively engaged in him, and we sent him to the Ukrainian kindergarten. This also led to my Ukrainization. And when these events began, I involuntarily became such a small bridge between the Ukrainian and Russian -speaking communities. We had very large rallies on which I performed several times and spoke two languages, in Russian and in Ukrainian. Then it seemed to us that unity and joint opposition of the evil that began.

Ivan Tolstoy: Who is going to Canada from Ukraine now, who reaches the Canadian coast? Because most of it settles in Europe, Canada is far and expensive. And who are these people, how would you describe them?

Katerina Tereshchenko

Katerina Tereshchenko: Basically, these are people who have a good professional background. On the other hand, these are mainly people who have relatives or acquaintances in Canada. It is incredibly expensive to live here. The rent is such that people who come here create communal apartments, from which we once fled from the Soviet Union. And here such small communal apartments of three rooms are spontaneously created, a mother and a child live in each room if they have no relatives.

Igor Pomerantsev: What does it mean to be a Ukrainian in Canada?

Katerina Tereshchenko: The fact is that Canada is a country of emigrants, and I, as a teacher from the Canadian government, and we all try so that you are not such a distinction that you are a Chinese, you are a Vietnamese or a Ukrainian. We try to make all people live together. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian community is perhaps one of the strongest communities of those in Canada. This is understandable historically, a lot of Ukrainians came almost 200 years ago.

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We have common events that the whole city knows about. For example, every September we have a large Ukrainian festival, which representatives of all nationalities converge. My friends, acquaintances, my students who belong to other national communities, they were so respected, with such support, they did not happen to me before, but now I realized that it was great, that I belong to this community and somehow I could help people.

What connects Ukrainians, what makes them united?

Ivan Tolstoy: Katerina, wanted to clarify with you. Ukrainians are one, this follows from what you say. The Russian unity has nowhere: neither in emigration or in Russia itself, this is also well -known, but what, interestingly, connects the Ukrainians, which makes them united, what do you think?

Katerina Tereshchenko: Culture and subconscious longing for the freedom that we have lost, and a subconscious understanding that this freedom can be gained only in unity.

Igor Pomerantsev: Katerina, you are a volunteer. And what is your volunteer work?

Katerina Tereshchenko: I organized people who began to contact members of the parliament. And, as a member of the Ukrainian Congress of Canada UCC, we wrote collective letters, and they helped to reconsider the attitude towards Ukrainians coming here, they gave medicine.

And the main question that is important in any emigration is the language. If a person does not know the language, it is very difficult for him to adapt and find a job. And I, as an English teacher, realized that while our government would give money to organize free courses for Ukrainians, will give them the opportunity to engage in our long-long or free language courses, I have to do something. And from April to August or July, I taught online to everyone who wanted to register, made a full course for learning English. At the same time, I was engaged in those who were just about to come here.

I had students who were in Romania, in Poland, they were waiting for permission to enter Canada. Then, when they arrived here, they were already engaged from here. In addition, it is a collection of things, money, medical, dressing materials for sending to Ukraine. This is all weekly work, which not only me, but almost everyone in the Ukrainian community is engaged in. This is the constant blood supply to Ukraine and help those people who came here.

It is necessary to help ours at the front, because their legs are freezing

I am just one of the people who helped with the collection of things for those who arrived organized a network of free stores called parachute. It is necessary not only to collect things, they need to be sorted, stacked, to make sure that the people who come and receive these things were pleasant so that they did not consider themselves poor, some kind of destitute. Kitchen utensils, furniture.

I would like to say about the blood -target, so to speak. Those people who came here continue to help those who remained in Ukraine. And this winter, very cold in winter, a wave of the fact that we needed to help ours at the front, because their legs are freezing, suddenly went. I quit the cry to buy such heating pads, chemical tablets, which are inserted into the socks and warm the legs for 5-8 hours. I collected a lot of boxes with these heating pads, other people, too, and our postal service Ukrainian "bridge" transported several tons of these tablets with one aircraft.

And I had a ridiculous story, because when I found out that such things were needed in Ukraine, I rushed to our CostCo semi -appert store, where, probably, due to the fact that everyone began to dispel these legs, they made a discount. I bought the last 19 boxes at a discount, and then they disappeared. And after that, my students, not only Ukrainian, began to say: but we also want to buy, but we don’t know where. I offered to raise money and every day went to work in different stores and begun to be sold to me these pieces with discounts to buy more. My whole living room was laid down by these boxes with heating pads. Then we sent them to Ukraine and after another week or two later we began to appear on social networks of thanksgiving photos from ours at the front.

Ivan Tolstoy: And Big Canada, how much does she understand the tragedy of Ukraine - local residents, indigenous Canadians, government, administration?

Himatic heaters for the legs that are transferred to Ukraine

Katerina Tereshchenko: They understand, they help a lot, they ask each time: how are yours? How is it? How can we help? Many people simply in the neighborhood posted for the first time those people who came from Ukraine. The government helps a lot too.

If you are interested in my personal experience with the government, then my relative with a child came to me, and she could not get documents. It lasted only three weeks, but I was all on the nerves, it seemed to me that I had to get documents right now. And to me on another issue a member of the Parliament of Canada called, which oversees the theaters of national communities, and I am a participant in one of the theaters, by the way, is Russian -speaking. I say that I can’t answer these questions now, because I am very nervous about the Ukrainian situation, and she said so ardently: "I will help everything I can." I say: "Help me, please, at least find out what is with the documents of my relative." It would seem that some Katya there, she has a relative, and here is a member of the Canada Parliament. She herself sat on the phone, phoned the embassies, in Romania they were waiting then, and my relative arrived quickly enough. And hotly, delightedly called me and said: "Here, I helped! If you still need help to other people, I now know how to do it."

Igor Pomerantsev: Katerina, in Canada, are there any philanthropists-millionaires of Ukrainian origin?

Katerina Tereshchenko: There are sufficiently wealthy people who transfer very big money to Ukraine and arrange events in order to raise money to help Ukraine, both civilian and military, and for the purchase of transport, drones and uniforms. These are measures that have more wealthy people, because a ticket can cost $ 500.

Thank you very much and more get!

Igor Pomerantsev: Do you find a common language, figuratively speaking, with grandchildren or great -grandchildren of the first Ukrainian emigrants?

Katerina Tereshchenko: Yes, I find it. My eldest son, when we just arrived in Canada, went to the Ukrainian school. They are not Ukrainian, these are Canadian schools with a regular Canadian program, but every day there is Ukrainian. And, as we said, "our people" study there. My son went there, we came to the first parent meeting, which was led by the director of the Pan lived. And Pan lived was very surprised that my husband turned to him in Russian, and my husband did not know how to speak Ukrainian then. He said honestly that he does not understand Russian. Что нам казалось тогда достаточно странно, ведь по-русски должны понимать все. А он объяснил: "Я родился здесь, я внук тех людей, которые приехали сюда давным-давно, я никогда не говорил по-русски, я могу говорить по-украински, я могу говорить по-английски, но по-русски не понимаю".

После такого полусмешного разговора мы с ним подружились, и я не ощущала, что он какой-то особенный. В Канаде же каждый – эмигрант. Бабушки, дедушки приехали сюда. Люди, которые возглавляют Украинский канадский конгресс, – это тоже рожденные здесь украинцы, для которых первый язык английский, но они свято держат свою культуру украинскую, будучи детьми или внуками тех, кто приехал сюда когда-то. И я с ними тоже дружу.

Игорь Померанцев: Катерина, большое спасибо и побольше грелок!

Катерина Терещенко: Дай бог, чтобы они им уже не нужны были! Дай бог, чтобы следующую зиму они были дома и грелись у своих очагов.

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