Hamilton and Niagara Ukrainians rallying and fearing for the safety of their families
Russia invading Ukraine, says one local parish priest, is like 'David and Goliath'
Tyler Banham couldn't help but recognize his privilege when he finished spending time playing and laughing with his two-year-old daughter Thursday morning before heading out in a snowstorm to go to the gym.
After seeing a photograph of a father in Ukraine crying and sending his young children off to safety, Banham had tears in his eyes.
"Here I'm worried about driving in the snow to the gym and this poor dad, about my age, is crying as he holds his daughter and they have to say goodbye," Banham said, who is of Ukrainian heritage.
"I live for my five and two-year-old and my wife. I just couldn't imagine that."
As the crisis in Ukraine unfolds, Ukrainian community members in Hamilton and Niagara are rallying, fundraising and spreading the word here in any way they can.
St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Hamilton is working with other local Ukrainian churches to organize support for refugees and offer prayers, said parish priest Rev. Wasyl (William) Makarenko.
"I have discussed with some other priests in the area," Makarenko said. "We are getting ready to see what kind of assistance we can provide once the refugee flow starts to get critical."
He said parishes in the Hamilton area have done this in the past following Ukraine's declaration of Independence in 1991.
"We didn't think we'd be doing this now, so our infrastructure still has to be refurbished to receive these refugees – if and when they're coming," Makarenko said.
"I hope that Canada is prepared to accept the people coming out of Ukraine like they have accepted people from other conflict zones."
The head of the UN refugee agency is warning of "devastating consequences" of Russia's military action in Ukraine, and calling on neighbouring countries to keep their borders open for people fleeing the fighting, the CBC reported on Thursday.
"Canada has deep ties with Ukraine. Canada was the first western country to recognize Ukraine's independence on Dec. 2, 1991, and there are over 1.35 million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage," Fred Eisenberger, mayor of Hamilton, said in a statement Thursday.
"As such, the City of Hamilton is raising the flag of Ukraine at city hall in solidarity with the Ukrainian people abroad and the more than 27,000 Ukrainian-Canadians who call Hamilton home."
Banham, former Liberal party president for Ontario from 2012 to 2019, said he hopes to see action to support the Ukrainian people.
Though he was born and raised in Hamilton, Banham said he is "so proud" of his Ukrainian heritage. He took to Twitter to show his support on Wednesday night.
Banham wells up when he thinks of people facing this "horrific" adversity in Ukraine.
"They're surrounded right now by 200,000 troops, there's missiles flying over their heads and now I see today that they're blocking people trying to get out of Kyiv," Banham said.
"People are trying to flee for safety and they can't get out of there."
Banham has worked with Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau. He was in the Chrétien office during 9/11.
Now, "politics are way darker now than they ever were then," he said.
Seeing the trauma in real time
"It's shocking what you're seeing and observing in real time, and it's traumatic."
Makarenko said he and his wife have a hard time watching what's happening in a country so important to their heritage.
His father's family is from the Kharkiv area in eastern Ukraine and his mother's family is from Kyiv, in central Ukraine. Both areas have been targeted by the Russian invasion.
"My wife has been crying for two days, and she was born in Belgium in 1950 from parents that emigrated out of Ukraine," Makarenko said.
"It's hard for us really because Ukrainians, we are a very tight knit community here in Canada."
'Like David and Goliath'
It's hard for Ukrainians in Hamilton to watch what's happening in their home countries, Makarenko said.
The current battle is "not level," he said. "It's like David and Goliath fighting."
Makarenko said he hopes Canada will open its borders to Ukrainian refugees. "People have to have hope, where they can go to find peace."
Implementing the infrastructure for support and humanitarian aid, he said, is also imperative.
"The thing that bothers us, is that Ukraine is fighting by herself. She's by herself," Makarenko said.
"There's nobody on the ground with her. That's the part that hurts."
Rally happening in Niagara on Saturday
As for Niagara, "a lot of (Ukrainian people) are in dire straits right now," Irene Newton, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) Niagara branch said.
"After speaking to family (in Ukraine) this morning, I was told that even in the west of Ukraine, stores are empty, banks are closed, schools are closed," she said.
The UCC Niagara branch is asking people to donate to the Canada Ukraine Foundation, which is organizing humanitarian aid.
"The best we can do is to send supplies," she said. "Medical supplies, food, clothing … whatever they need for their humanitarian needs."
Newton said she's keeping in touch with family via phone and email. She's offered to take in younger relatives if they can make it to Canada.
'They're afraid'
In Ukraine, "I have a cousin who is 95, but I also have great nieces and nephews that are 12, 10, eight-years-old," she said. "They're afraid."
The UCC Niagara branch plans a rally in St. Catharines on Saturday in support of Ukraine. It will start at Saints Cyril and Methodist Ukrainian church at 1:30 p.m. and proceed down Facer Street to Saint George's Orthodox Church.
"I want the community to be aware of what's happening," Newton said. "I want people who were involved under the Second World War, and those things that happened with Hitler and Stalin, to know that it could happen again with Putin."
"What's to stop him from continuing to the Baltics and trying to get them back? Continuing to Poland and saying they pose a threat? Or Romania or any other country for that matter," she said.
"You don't know (with Putin), what's going to happen. The man, to me, is not thinking straight. He's lost it."