Canadian Friends of Ukraine is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1989 to strengthen ties between Canada and Ukraine and promote democracy and reform in Ukraine.

In addition to its humanitarian and educational activities, this organization has taken the lead in fostering inter-parliamentary and inter-governmental relations between Canada and Ukraine.

Canadian Friends of Ukraine have:

• established the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Resource Centre at the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in Kyiv. The state-of-the-art facility houses a collection of 5,000 publications and CD-ROMs, encompassing Canadian federal and provincial statutes, government publications, reference materials, and other sources. The Centre provides services for Ukraine’s parliamentary standing committees, deputies, and their staff. The Centre plays a vital role in democratizing the process by which legislation is developed in Ukraine, utilizing Canada as a model

• funded an annual Teachers’ Awards Program in support of Ukrainian-language education aimed at recognizing the meritorious work of educators from rural and small urban centres in eastern and southern Ukraine. The program is carried out in six regions of Ukraine— the provinces of Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk as well as Crimea

• shipped over a quarter-million books and periodicals to Ukraine as part of the establishment of a network of Canada-Ukraine Library Centres housing Canadian collections located in Ukraine’s leading state library institutions in 14 major cities across Ukraine 

• organized the International Statesmen Dinner at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto focusing on democracy-building and institutional transparency and  initiated the Profile in Courage Dinner in defense of freedom of expression. These events attract a host of Canadian and international dignitaries, as well as diplomats and human rights advocates

• hosted public forums, parliamentary roundtables, and information exchanges between Ukraine’s leading political figures and their Canadian counterparts. These activities have provided a forum for discussing important issues such as the implications of WTO membership, NATO expansion, European integration, electoral reform, censorship, corruption, election monitoring, and other relevant issues. Many distinguished Canadians have participated in these activities, including the Hon. Peter MacKay, Senator Raynell Andreychuk, Senator Art Eggleton, the Hon. Bill Graham, Ambassadors from Canada and Ukraine, journalists such as Peter Mansbridge, Eric Margolis, Knowlton Nash, Tom Clark, Adrienne Clarkson, Christina Pochmursky, and many others

• fostered Canada-Ukraine cooperation, having hosted the visits of Ukraine’s leading political figures and organized inter-governmental meetings with their Canadian counterparts. The dignitaries that the CFU have hosted in Canada have included: Ukraine’s First President Leonid Kravchuk, Yevhen Marchuk (former Prime Minister), the Hon. Yulia Tymoshenko (current Prime Minister), Borys Tarasyuk (former Minister of Foreign Affairs), the Speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament Oleksandr Moroz, Levko Lukianenko (Ukraine’s first Ambassador to Canada), to name just a few

• produced a one-of-a-kind documentary film entitled Ukraine on the Eve of the 2004 Presidential Election, featuring historic one-on-one interviews with Ukraine’s leading presidential candidates (Viktor Yushchenko, Viktor Yanukovych, Oleksandr Moroz) and the then Canadian Ambassador, Andrew Robinson. Footage from this film was utilized by Canadian and foreign news services during the international media’s coverage of the Orange Revolution

• conducted a series of pre-election media projects to monitor the way in which Ukraine’s leading newspapers and television channels covered the 2004 presidential election and 2006 parliamentary elections. The reports were utilized by the OSCE, Canadian Embassy, European Parliament and other institutions

• published an Election Platforms Analysis, detailing, comparing and contrasting the proposed policies and political platforms of Ukraine’s leading political contenders and their parties on the eve of the September 2007 Parliamentary Election in Ukraine

• undertaken a series of public education and government lobbying activities to raise international awareness of the Holodomor— Stalin’s pre-meditated genocide perpetrated against the Ukrainian people. CFU continues to work with Canadian parliamentarians, government officials, foreign embassies, human rights experts, and other NGO’s to ensure that Canada and the international community be made aware of the 1930’s Soviet-era Terror-Famine Genocide of the Ukrainian nation. In addition, the CFU will sponsor genocide-survivor interviews conducted by students in Ukraine, and will fund international conferences, exhibits, innovative educational curricula, and research publications to be utilized in Canada and Ukraine.