Students of Den’s Summer School of Journalism met Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine Roman Waschuk a few days after the FTA between the two countries had been signed during the visit of the new Canadian prime minister to Kyiv. So, of course, the students were primarily interested in the importance of this agreement and the prospects it offered for the development of economic relations between Canada and Ukraine. Speaking perfect Ukrainian, the ambassador also shared the secret of his country achieving equal relations with its US neighbor, which is the greatest power in the world, and told his interlocutors how bilingualism was regulated in Canada.
“THIS AGREEMENT IS MORE ADVANTAGEOUS FOR UKRAINE THAN ITS AGREEMENT WITH THE EU”
Olena KURENKOVA, applicant, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv: “The Ukraine-Canada FTA was recently signed in Kyiv, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised that it would bring about a new surge in the development of our economy. How do you assess this document?”
Roman WASCHUK: “This document will allow us to use fully the available potential of this economic relationship. In my opinion, some experts drew attention to the rather modest trade flows involved, but they overlooked this agreement aiming to significantly increase them. For example, concerning the processing of agricultural products, Ukrainian exports to Canada have a great potential, and this agreement is more advantageous for Ukraine than the Association Agreement with the EU, except for a few industries which we are keeping relatively closed to everyone, namely: chicken, milk, and egg industries. All the rest will have tariffs cut to zero as soon as the agreement comes into force, and without any quotas. So, there is a comparative advantage and a lot of opportunities here to be exploited by Ukrainian producers of vegetable oils, canned food and other foodstuffs. And we have already started working with representatives of major Canadian supermarket companies to tell them about Ukrainian manufacturers who they can let into their networks.
“In addition, we have launched a Canadian-Ukrainian project aiming to support trade and investments, which is worth 13 million Canadian dollars over five years. The purpose of this project is, firstly, to build up analytical capabilities at the Ministry of Economy and other government bodies, so that they are able to determine breakthrough opportunities for Ukrainian exports in the North American and other markets. And secondly, we aim to support Ukraine’s attempts to attract investors, particularly Canadian ones in this case. Also, we provide support to Ukrainian small and medium enterprises, enabling them to present their products at the Canadian market, and support Ukraine in the development of documentation that would help it convince potential investors based on accurate information about opportunities which are opening here.”
“THREE CONTRACTS THIS YEAR HAVE MARKED A VERY GOOD START”
Vita SHNAIDER, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy: “What do you say about comments of an analyst who participated in the preparation of the agreement and said that it was to Ukraine’s disadvantage?”
R.W.: “On the contrary, Ukraine gets a seven-year-long transitional period for many tariffs, while there is nothing like that for Canada. We have to repeal them immediately on the ratification, the agreement’s entry into force. If someone is a Ukrainian producer of, say, chicken meat, they probably may have some reservations, because our approach to this industry is the same for the US, EU and other countries with which we signed FTAs. We do not ascribe to any mercantilist approach, which would see Ukraine increasing exports as something detrimental for us. Also, we want to facilitate joint projects targeting third markets. If you followed the news from Farnborough, you know that the Antonov concern signed an agreement there with two Canadian companies, including Esterline CMC of Montreal, who are manufacturers of avionics. Thus, the new control system for An-124 Ruslan and the family including An-148, An-158, and An-178 planes will be equipped with Canadian avionics, and they will be used in third markets. Together with Saudi Arabia, they are working on An-132, featuring Canadian engines and Ukrainian fuselage. Evidently, this is exactly an example of high-tech partnership, in which each country finds its own advantages, while funding can be obtained from world markets. I believe this to be an encouraging development: two companies and three contracts this year have marked a very good start.”
“UKRAINIANS ARE STILL IMPORTANT IN THE CANADIAN MOSAIC”
Khrystyna SOLTYS, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv: “Canada is officially bilingual, except for Quebec. How do you regulate the language policy in general?”
R.W.: “I should clarify immediately that all of Canada is bilingual, I mean at the federal level and for federal services. Quebec is officially monolingual at the provincial level, but it provides services in English when needed. New Brunswick is an officially bilingual province, Ontario has a very wide range of French-language services – for example, TV is also offered in French there; the territory of Nunavut is trilingual: English, French, and Inuktitut are all official there; and we have six official languages in the Northwest Territories. Thus, we have different ways of doing it in Canada. Our federal system allows people to adjust these language and cultural regimes to the needs of a particular region. When people ask me about it in Ukraine, I always say that you may not copy-paste experience of one country to the other. French is legally entrenched regarding its cultural and media infrastructure. Maybe eventually we will have to revise some of our approaches, given that in British Columbia, for instance, the number of people who speak Chinese or Punjabi is ten to twenty times greater than the number of those who speak French. But there is a very important factor here, which should be taken into account: after all, French and English are the languages of political cultures that have shaped the nation, the very fabric of our society. And so they have, despite the various waves of immigration, a unique value for our society. Multiculturalism is an important factor. Interestingly, the current Prime Minister Trudeau has continued his father’s policy, announced 45 years ago precisely at a congress of Ukrainian Canadians in Winnipeg. It was there that the policy of multiculturalism in Canada was first declared. Now we have far more ethnic groups that have joined the Canadian society and this policy, but the French and English cultures will remain the main carriers of identity. Similarly, long-standing immigrant groups, like Ukrainians, are still important in the Canadian mosaic.”
“ONE GETS THE SPACE FOR AUTONOMOUS ACTION BY BUILDING IT, NOT BEGGING FOR IT”
Kh.S.: “Like Ukraine, Canada has a very strong power for a neighbor, but we, unlike you, have not been able to establish equal relations. Share with us, please, how your country has done it.”
R.W.: “Firstly, neither party won outright in the war of 1812-15, which established the border between the US and the British North America, which was to become Canada. But over the last 50 years, after World War Two, it was important to build up our own structure and our own approaches to issues, and create space for autonomous action in the cultural and political fields. One gets the space for autonomous action by building it with one’s own ideas, resources, and citizens, not begging for it. This we did: the then Canadian foreign minister and later prime minister Lester Pearson was the first to launch the UN peacekeeping force and thus created a niche that had a huge impact on the formation and development of the Canadian Forces for four to five subsequent decades. We have moved away from this activity somewhat lately, but are going to make a comeback with UN peacekeepers soon. In this we have our own space, separate from the US. Meanwhile, we have a lot in common economically due to the NAFTA agreement. But we still keep our niches and also find roles to play abroad, in other continents, where we can be useful for our big neighbor. That is, I mean places where their direct presence can have suboptimal results, while a little less controversial intervention can solve some problems.”
“MOST OF THE MAJOR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS OF UKRAINIAN HISTORY WERE WRITTEN IN CANADA”
Dmytro BAIDA, National University of Ostroh Academy: “How do Canadians study the history of Ukraine? In particular, has its study changed following the events that took place over the past two years in Ukraine?”
R.W.: “I think that most of the major English-language textbooks of Ukrainian history were written in Canada. There were many translations, and they are also used here in Ukraine, as well as the works of Professor Paul Magocsi from the University of Toronto. Out of all Western countries, we have… I would not say ‘the most Ukrainian-centered situation,’ but still a situation where Ukrainians are seen as a natural phenomenon, a given, rather than some exotic or fleeting trend. It is part of the region which every person who studies history has to contend with. I do not see a major change occurring now, but that is because the Ukrainian history was already extensively and professionally represented in our universities.
“I would like to note another change that took place in your country, I mean the Ukrainian book market. Ukrainian book publishing has left the philological-historical-ethnographic ghetto and rushed into more commercially attractive and more practical fields. In my opinion, this is a very positive change which brings you closer to a paradigm which we have developed in Canada. You need to have cultural diversity, and to have different cultures mutually support each other.”
“I HAVE DEN’S FIRST ISSUE, DATED 1996, IN MY ARCHIVE”
Oksana KOVAL, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv: “This year, Den celebrates its 20th anniversary. What is your assessment of the position of the newspaper, including its impact on certain vectors of Ukraine’s development?”
R.W.: “I have Den’s first issue, dated 1996, somewhere in my archive, but I have apparently left it behind in Canada. In general, I am sorry that Den has had so little competition in Ukraine as a great platform not only for discussion of daily news, but also for debating trends of future development of Ukraine, and as a media outlet interested in what is happening outside the capital. These are two very important fields covered by this newspaper.
“But the fact that it has kept publishing under such difficult conditions is a heroic feat in itself, and it maintaining high intellectual level throughout this time is another one.”
It will be recalled that Den’s Summer School of Journalism is held this year with support of the NATO Information and Documentation Center.
