By Zenon Zawada

Whether consciously or not, the Diaspora leadership in North America has begun to embrace the same Marxist ideals of the Bolsheviks that persecuted our parents and grandparents, and murdered their relatives.

Here’s a letter to the editor that I submitted to Roma Hadzewycz, chief editor of The Ukrainian Weekly, that she declined to print. I distributed it on July 1, Canada Day.

Dear Mr. Grod,

I was shocked to read your column in the June 21 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, “Canadian Values are Ukrainian Values.” You claim that the shared values of Ukrainians and Canadians are healthcare, education and a better life for children and grandchildren.

Is that it? Our shared values all boil down to social welfare?

I’m not a Canadian, but I know enough Canadians to know that free health care and accessible education are not the key values that made their country great and they are not what make conservative Canadians proud today.

The values that made Canada great were in fact its work ethic, self-sacrifice, commitment to the traditional family, suspicion of government and an aversion to dependence, as the economist Brian Lee Crowley aptly illustrated in his book, “Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canadian Values.”

These are the shared values of Ukrainians and Canadians. Crowley neglects to mention another shared value, which is the shared faith of many Canadians and Ukrainians in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

As Crowley also illustrated, these values were undermined during the 1960s in favor of state subsidies and benefits, creating a welfare state that has eroded the nation’s work ethic, the spirit of self-reliance and the traditional family.

It’s apparent to conservatives that the downside of universal medicine is its long wait periods and reduced quality. The downside of accessible higher education is that it loses its value. With so many being issued, a bachelor’s degree just isn’t what it used to mean 30 years ago.

It looks like Mr. Grod has been caught up in the rising tide of socialism and its government hand-outs and freebies, and losing sight of the values of our ancestors that brought Canada its peace and prosperity that it enjoys today. Either that, or the UCC needs some better writers.

Zenon Zawada
U.S. citizen
Resident of Ukraine

I am working on an article detailing how the Diaspora leadership in North America has begun to embrace the same Marxist ideals of the Bolsheviks that persecuted our parents and grandparents, and murdered their relatives.
Please send along any examples you’ve seen.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, for example, continues to embrace multiculturalism and diversity (reflecting the Marxist ideal of cultural relativism) at a time when the mass immigration of Muslims to the West threatens to gradually replace liberal democracy with sharia law (not in Canada yet, but certainly in some Western European countries). This is not the multiculturalism of Paul Yuzyk’s generation.

Meanwhile, the LGBT lobby (also being embraced by certain Diaspora leaders) has succeeded in dismantling the Christian family as the model and foundation for Western society. This is also part of the multiculturalism and diversity being embraced by the UCC, and which was implemented by the Bolsheviks when taking power.