Borys Wrzesnewskyj ( ; born November 10, 1960) is a Canadian politician who represented the riding of Etobicoke Centre in the House of Commons of Canada. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, he was first elected in the 2004 federal election, and was reelected in 2006 and 2008, before being defeated in 2011. Wrzesnewskyj unsuccessfully challenged the results of his 2011 in a Supreme Court of Canada case. He was returned to parliament in the 2015 federal election and declined to run in the 2019 election.
Early life and career Wrzesnewskyj was born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada (now a part of Toronto). He is a third-generation Ukrainian Canadian, of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and partly Polish from paternal family. He attended Humber Valley Village Public School and Upper Canada College. He received a Bachelor of Commerce from Trinity College, University of Toronto and has been a member of Plast. He speaks English, Ukrainian, Polish, French, and Spanish. He is the owner of Future Bakery, founded by his grandparents, and M-C Dairy.
Member of Parliament (2004–2011) Wrzesnewskyj was involved in the Canadian delegation to the contested Ukrainian election of 2004, Orange Revolution, and has often spoken to Canadian media on its behalf. Then, Canadian prime minister, Paul Martin said that he was personally briefed by him to publicly warn Russian president Vladimir Putin "hands off the Ukrainian election" in the House of Commons of Canada which fundamentally shifted Canada's position (Wrzesnewskyj telephoned Martin from Kyiv during the Orange Revolution). Originally, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa took a "hands off" approach to the contested Ukrainian election. Martin says that he, and the Government of Canada would not have stood up for democracy in Ukraine "if it hadn't been for Borys". Subsequently, he helped secure the Government of Canada's commitment to sending five hundred Canadian election observers to the December 2004 Presidential elections in Ukraine.
Legislative work
His House of Commons legislative work saw the introduction of several private member's bills and motions including:
Bill C-180, "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (hate propaganda)", 6 May 2009; Bill C-181, "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking and transplanting human organs and other body parts)", 7 May 2009. Bill C-383, "An Act respecting education benefits for spouses and children of certain deceased federal enforcement officers", 12 May 2009. Bill C-394 "An Act to acknowledge that persons of Croatian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and to provide for recognition of this event", 26 May 2009. This began as his Private Members' Bill C-374, which the Winnipeg Sun placed this item in its top ten list of bills (9 November 2006). Bill C-450, "An Act respecting a national day of remembrance of the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide". Bill C-537, "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (judicial interim release for offenses involving firearms)" to toughen up bail conditions for perpetrators of crimes involving guns, June 2010.
Regarding Bill C-181, Wrzesnewskyj gave a press conference in Ottawa together with David Matas and David Kilgour, authors of "Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China". While saying that "consumers benefit from trade with China", and that "Canada would like to do more trade with China", he asserted "it does not exonerate us for addressing the issue of Organ transplantation in China" and questioned "trusting a country that would engage in this sort of horrific crime against its own people."
Wrzesnewskyj helped pass MP James Bezan's Bill C-459, An Act to establish a Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day and to recognize the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as an act of genocide, at all stages through the House of Commons and Senate.
He also worked with MP Bob Rae to introduce and help pass unanimously through the House of Commons the Black Ribbon Day motion establishing an annual Canadian Day of Remembrance for the victims of Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes on August 23, called "Black Ribbon Day", to coincide with the anniversary of the signing of the infamous pact between the Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes.
Committees - House of Commons
In 2010, Wrzesnewskyj served as vice-chair on two committees: (1) Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, (2) Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure on the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Between 2004 and 2010, he served as member on eleven committees, including Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Standing Committee on Public Accounts, and Standing Committee on Transport among others.PARLINFO - Parliamentarian File - Federal Experience - WRZESNEWSKYJ, Borys, B.Comm
Wrzesnewskyj discussed the importance of Ukraine's accession to NATO at meetings of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe parliamentary assembly meetings and official meetings of NATO member states. He was later selected as an official member of the delegation of the Speaker of the House of Commons to Ukraine (a trip geared toward developing relations between Canada and Ukraine).
He helped the previous Canadian government to negotiate and sign the historic agreement for $12.5 million with the Ukrainian Canadian community for the acknowledgement, commemoration and, education of Canadians of the dark episode of internment operations against Ukrainian Canadians.
International self-financed fact-finding missions From 7–14 August 2009, Wrzesnewskyj took part in a self-financed fact-finding mission to Jordan, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem along with fellow parliamentarians from the New Democratic Party and Bloc Québécois. The mission's goals were to gain firsthand knowledge and understanding and assess the opportunities to build towards a peaceful and just solution between Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. He subsequently co-authored a report which offered several key recommendations to the Government of Canada. He also self-financed a fact-finding mission to Darfur, Sudan, regarding the Darfur Conflict, and another to Somalia.
RCMP pension scandal In April 2007, Wrzesnewskyj called for a full judicial inquiry into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) pension fund scandal and spoke to the media on the matter. He was instrumental in bringing forward to the Public Accounts Committee, and pursuing, an investigation into the misuse of the RCMP pension and insurance funds involving the upper echelons of Canada's national police force which pressured the government into establishing the Task Force on Governance and Cultural Change in the RCMP.Accessed 2 April 2022, https://web.archive.org/web/20070401151008/http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/03/28/rcmp-allegations.html Here again, Canadian prime minister Paul Martin emphatically stated that "nothing would not have been done (with the RCMP pension scandal) if it hadn't been for Borys."
Hezbollah comments In August 2006, Wrzesnewskyj said that the Canadian government should engage in talks with militant organizations, including Hezbollah, for the purpose of ending the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.Andrew Mills, "MPs tour Lebanon areas," Toronto Star, 21 August 2006, A01. There were some media reports in this period that Wrzesnewskyj called for Hezbollah to be taken off Canada's list of terrorist organizations. He responded that this was a misrepresentation of his position, saying, "on the contrary, Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and I stated that it must remain on Canada's list because it has committed war crimes by sending rockets into civilian areas." He added that Canadian law should be amended to permit political and diplomatic contact for the purposes of ending the conflict.Jeff Sallot, "Hezbollah to stay on banned list," Globe and Mail, 22 August 2006, A7. As the result of media perceptions about his comments, he resigned his post as foreign affairs critic.Campbell Clark. Divisions on Mideast alarming Liberals. Globe and Mail. August 23, 2006. pg. A4. He would later be critic for Crown Corporations for most of 2007.
Special Advisor to the Liberal Leader on Emerging Democracies From 2009-11, Wrzesnewskyj held the position of Special Advisor to the Liberal Leader on Emerging Democracies.Borys Wrzesnewskyj appointed Special Advisor to the Liberal Leader on Emerging Democracies . Liberal Party of Canada news release. October 8, 2009.
As a Canadian parliamentarian of partial Polish heritage, Wrzesnewskyj is the founder of the Canada-Poland Parliamentary Friendship Group. He has persistently criticized Canadian Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney for reducing immigration quotas from Poland, and Ukraine to Canada. He has also spoken to Canadian media on the Katyn Massacre and 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash that saw the deaths of Poland's senior government, diplomatic and military leaders, including President Lech Kaczynski.
In April 2010, with the president of the Canadian Jewish Congress Mark Freiman, Wrzesnewskyj organized a symposium featuring Meylakh Sheykhet, director of the Union of Councils for Jews of the former Soviet Union in Ukraine, on the importance of Ukrainian-Jewish relations in a historical and current geopolitical context.Ukraine’s Vanquished Jews: Daunting struggle to preserve Jewish heritage. Kyiv Post, July 14, 2011.
Again in December 2010, Wrzesnewskyj and Mustafa Jemilev (Dzhemilev) spoke out about the potential for ethnic conflict in Crimea between Russians, Tartars, and Ukrainians.
Defeat in 2011 and legal challenge In the 2011 election, Wrzesnewskyj was defeated by Conservative candidate Ted Opitz by a margin of just 26 votes."Recount confirms Tory win in Etobicoke Centre". Toronto Star, May 23, 2011. A judicial recount subsequently confirmed Opitz's victory.
Nearly a year after the election, allegations of an election dirty tricks campaign linked to the Conservative Harper government persists.Opposition parties slam election dirty tricks. The Record, February 23, 2012.NDP question 2011 election results amidst robocall investigation. Global News, February 23, 2012. At a news conference on 25 February 2012, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said that Wrzesnewskyj will be going to court on 2 May 2012 to call for a by-election. Wrzesnewskyj will be alleging that there were irregularities at ten polls in the riding of Etobicoke Centre.Defeated Liberal takes rare court action to contest election results. Global News, February 28, 2012.
Supreme Court of Canada case In early 2012, Wrzesnewskyj challenged the 2011 election results in the Ontario Court of Justice, arguing voting irregularities, including ballots cast by people who did not live in the riding, the possibility that at least some people voted multiple times, and mistakes made in the conduct of the election by Elections Canada.
On May 18, Justice Thomas Lederer agreed with Wrzesnewskyj, declaring the election results null and void, and ordered a by-election in Etobicoke Centre. Lederer found that 79 voters, more than three times the 26-vote margin, had voted improperly. The ruling was the sixth instance since 1949 that a riding's federal electoral results were set aside by a judge.