People in N.W.T. with ties to Ukraine watch with fear and sadness

'I can say that this is the worst day in my life so far,' says Fort Simpson man who grew up in Ukraine

Image | Andrew Panshyn

Caption: "My dad, he is in Kyiv and my wife's parents are also in Kyiv. All my friends are in Kyiv ... it's very devastating," said Andrew Panshyn, who lives in Fort Simpson, N.W.T. (Submitted by Andrew Panshyn)

Andrew Panshyn was hoping to close up shop early on Thursday afternoon so he could go home and get some rest.
The Fort Simpson, N.W.T., pharmacist was up most of the night before, talking to family and friends in Kyiv and trying to follow the news as Russia invaded Ukraine.
"I can say that this is the worst day in my life so far," he told CBC on Thursday.
"My dad, he is in Kyiv and my wife's parents are also in Kyiv. All my friends are in Kyiv ... it's very devastating."
Panshyn himself was born and raised in the Ukraine capital and moved to Canada in 2011. He moved with his wife and mother to Fort Simpson five years ago.
Right now, he's most worried about his elderly father. Panshyn says he's tried to bring him to Canada in the past but wasn't able to meet the requirements for sponsorship.
Now, he's been keeping in touch with his father online.
"He is not [in] very good health, I would say," Panshyn said. "And so, yeah, we tried to console him and tried to find the solution to what to do next."
He's hopeful that it may soon be possible to help his dad move to Canada. On Thursday, Canada's minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship said Ottawa was expediting immigration applications from Ukrainians attempting to escape the conflict in their country.
"I don't know how it works. I'm trying to find out, like, to get more information right now."

'Profound sadness'

Raymond Pidzamecky is also watching closely what's happening in Ukraine. His father was born in Ukraine and his mother was a first-generation Canadian, also of Ukrainian descent.
"I feel profound sadness. I don't know how to describe it any other way," Pidzamecky said on Thursday afternoon.
"I just feel this enormous sadness for what's happening to our people, and especially the children, the ones who can't defend themselves, who don't understand."

Image | Raymond Pidzamecky caring circle

Caption: 'We're just waiting, waiting for more things to unfold, which I'm sure you can imagine is very hard on us,' said Raymond Pidzamecky, whose father grew up in Ukraine and whose mother was a first-generation Ukrainian-Canadian. (Facebook)

Pidzamecky moved to the North about 17 years ago and works as a therapist. A lot of his work has been with residential school survivors.
He sees parallels between Canada's colonial history and Russia's aggression toward Ukraine. He remembers once asking his father — who fled Ukraine just before the Second World War — whether he ever wanted to go back to visit his childhood home. His father never did, and that puzzled Pidzamecky.
"And then my mother, before she passed, explained to me — why would your father want to go back to his village to see the land the communists confiscated?" Pidzamecky recalled.
"And it was in that moment I really understood the concept of colonization, the way the Russians have colonized us and the way we as non-Indigenous had colonized Indigenous peoples."
He's afraid to think of what comes next in Ukraine. He fears that Russia will dismantle it as a sovereign nation.
"Right now we're just waiting, waiting for more things to unfold, which I'm sure you can imagine is very hard on us," he said.
He refers to "repetition of trauma" among Ukrainians.
"Our country is so familiar with violence and occupation that we never really resolve those feelings. The incidence of PTSD and trauma is huge for our people," he said.
"All we can do is wait. And it's the waiting that's the most difficult — but not just the waiting. It's the feeling of helplessness."
Corrections:
  • An earlier version of this story said Andrew Panshyn lives in Hay River, N.W.T. In fact, he lives in Fort Simpson. February 25, 2022 7:07 AM