On April 5, Dialogues with Canadian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Roman Waschuk on «Ukraine is a Key European Partner for Canada» were organized and held by the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations at Lviv Polytechnic.
Since 1987 Roman Waschuk has held important positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, worked as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Since 1994 he has joined the diplomatic service in Ukraine. Mr. Waschuk family comes from Yavoriv district in Lviv region.
Roman Waschuk said that in Canada he attended Ukrainian nursery school, Sunday school and Ukrainian courses at university. Despite this, Mr. Ambassador suggested that perhaps Ukrainians do not fully understand themselves, so for foreign people it is harder to comprehend all the secrets of the Ukrainian soul.
Commenting on the words that many Ukrainians are worried whether the world laughs at them, Mr. Ambassador said: «It’s not worth worrying about, the world itself became so ridiculous that has no right to laugh at anyone». In the present world, everyone – citizens and diplomats – must have patience and self-control. Quoting Pavlo Tychyna he said «let’s do what we have to do».
Roman Waschuk said that on April 14 he visited the exhibition Impulse about Ivan Levynskyi in Lviv Polytechnic:
– When I was seeing this exhibition, I asked myself why we were never taught about him, why I was taught the history of endless losses and suffering of the Ukrainian people, and never about their success. The ability to see positive, to evaluate constructively – this is what Ukrainian outlook is lacking.
