Borys Wrzesnewskyj

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.^{[citation needed]}
• Bill C-383, "An Act respecting education benefits for spouses and children of certain deceased federal enforcement officers", 12 May 2009.^{[citation needed]}
• 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).^[2]
• Bill C-450, "An Act respecting a national day of remembrance of the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide".^{[citation needed]}
• 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.^{[citation needed]}

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."^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[3]

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).^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[4] 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."^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5] 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.^[6] As the result of media perceptions about his comments, he resigned his post as foreign affairs critic.^[7] He would later be critic for Crown Corporations for most of 2007.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[8]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[9]

Again in December 2010, Wrzesnewskyj and Mustafa Jemilev (Dzhemilev) spoke out about the potential for ethnic conflict in Crimea between Russians, Tartars, and Ukrainians.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[16]

On May 18, Justice Thomas Lederer agreed with Wrzesnewskyj, declaring the election results null and void, and ordered a by-election in Etobicoke Centre.^[17] 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.^[18]

Ted Opitz appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and declined step down for a by-election. Opitz continued to vote in the House of Commons. Wrzesnewskyj stated Opitz should sit out votes in the House of Commons: "It undermines ... our confidence in the democratic system that we have if we don't know who the actual member of Parliament is."^[19] Elections Canada sought introduce evidence in the Supreme Court case that its further research on the 79 voters in issue had determined that 44 of them were in fact citizens and qualified electors. Their position was supported by the Conservatives.^[18]

On 10 July 2012 the Supreme Court of Canada interrupted its summer break to hear appeals from Ted Opitz and to decide whether a by-election is required. "The Supreme Court will likely make its decision quickly since by law, it has to expedite the case. If the court rules this summer, there could be a by-election in Etobicoke Centre early in the new year, or sooner."^[20]

On Thursday October 25, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in a split decision in favour of Opitz, allowing him to remain as MP for Etobicoke Center and once and for all putting an end to Wrzesnewskyj's dispute.^[21][22]

While the Conservatives paid Opitz's legal bills, the Liberal Party of Canada do the same for Wrzesnewskyj. who spent over $300,000 of his own money on the case.^[20][23][18]

Potential Liberal leadership campaign in 2013

After the Liberal Party suffered their worst defeat in history under Michael Ignatieff in the May 2, 2011 federal election, and the previous defeat of Stéphane Dion in 2008, party loyalists have objected to Liberal Party decision makers who reflexively promote and support high-profile or star leadership candidates. Supporters have quietly urged Wrzesnewskyj to run for the 2013 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election.^{[citation needed]}