Kat picked up her favourite egg. It was the one, that for her, embodied life and hope. It was the first one she had made during her grandfather's hearing: the one with forty triangles. Legend had it that far away, a monster was chained to a cliff. Once a year, the monster's servants would travel the world and count how many new pysanky had been made. Each year that there were fewer than the year before, the chains were loosened, and there was more evil let loose in the world. Making pysanky was Kat's pleasant chore to keep evil at bay.
But after reading those newspaper accounts of her grandfather, all Kat could think of was that evil had been let loose. She reached into her shoe box of dyes and implements, and pulled out the huge chemo syringe that reminded her of Baba, but in an ugly, deathly way. She took a deep breath and plunged it into the fortieth triangle at the bottom of the egg. With cold precision, Kat drew out the yolk and the white of her favourite egg. By doing so, she killed it, but she also saved it from bursting from rot in years to come.
When she was finished, she held up the empty shell about 6 inches from her face. It was beautiful, but empty: no longer a symbol of hope and love. Just an empty shell. With anger born of despair, she took that beautiful egg and smashed it on the TV tray. And then she walked back upstairs.
She stood in the living room and stared out the window, watching the sun slowly rise. One sob escaped her throat, then another, and another.
From behind the closed door of his bedroom, Danylo could hear his zolota zhabka weeping. It broke his heart to hear it. What did she think of him now that the judge had ruled against him, he wondered. Did she still love him? And did she understand the truth? He could only hope.
He took his terry cloth robe down from the hook on the back of the door and put it on over his pyjamas. He opened the door and looked out. There she was, his golden frog, his zolota zhabka, with a broken heart. It was his fault. Perhaps he should have packed his bags and left when the deportation order had first come. Perhaps then, she would have been saved this sorrow?
He stepped out of the bedroom and approached Kat. She looked up and quickly wiped her tears. When he sat down beside her, she showed him the ugly words from the newspapers. Tears began to form in his eyes too. It was bad enough that they were stripping his citizenship, but to call him a Nazi — that was too much. Perhaps he should leave this country. He had obviously overestimated the Canadian sense of justice.
The two sat together on the sofa without exchanging words. Moments and minutes and hours passed. The sun rose.
Genya came down the stairs and walked into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What's the matter?" she asked, glancing from her sister to her grandfather.
Kat looked up. "Read this," she said, gathering up the papers at her feet and handing them to her sister. She watched Genya's expression change from bored sleepiness, to incomprehension, to anger.
"This is crap," said Genya. Danylo looked up and met his older granddaughter's eyes. He felt a glimmer of gratitude. Of all people, he felt that Genya would be the first to abandon him. "You are innocent, Dido," she said vehemently. "We've got to fight this."
Kat looked up at her sister with hope.
Genya wasn't alone in her fighting spirit. A group of concerned citizens called a meeting at the church hall that very evening, and Kat was thrilled when hundreds of supporters gathered. In addition to people from the congregation, there were a number of students from St. Paul's and from Cawthra. There was a large contingent from the Vietnamese community, and even a number of complete strangers. Kat spied Ian's shaved and stitched head at the back of the hall, and so she darted down the aisle before the meeting started to greet her friend. He was not alone. Both Lisa and Michael were with him.
"Michael called me this morning when he read the newspapers," explained Ian. "We knew we had to do something."
"You guys called this meeting?" asked Kat in surprise, regarding her three true friends.
Lisa hooked her arm through Ian's and Michael clasped Kat's hand in his own. "We wouldn't exactly let you down," said Michael. "Whatever it takes, we're in this together."
That evening, after everyone else had gone to sleep, Kat went back downstairs to her beloved shattered pysanka.It was too late to put it back together, but perhaps it wasn't too late to make something out of the ruins. Slowly and painstakingly, she began to take the broken shards, one by one and glue them onto a canvas in an intricate mosaic.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
As of April 12, 2001, there are three Canadians set to be deported and to be stripped of their citizenship. In each of these cases, accusations of Nazi war crimes were made, but no evidence was brought forth. There is no appeal. These cases are:
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Odynsky, 2001 FCT 138,
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Katriuk, Docket: T-2409-96
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and Oberlander, Docket: T-866-95
In another case, accusations were made and testimony was brought forth, but once the trial was over and the Canadian was stripped of his citizenship, the people who testified against him admitted that they had lied under oath. Their testimony had been taken under the threat of torture by the former KGB. This case is:
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration v. Kisluk, Docket: T-300-97
Mr. Kisluk died on May 21, 2001. To his dying breath, he maintained his innocence. His last testament can be read at: http://infoukes.com/uccla/issues/warcrimes/i_wrcrms_069. html
The notarized, witnessed confessions of those who bore false witness against him can also be read at the above link.
War criminals must be brought to justice, but our federal government's current approach is not working. If a person is accused of a horrible crime, justice demands that they be presumed innocent until proven guilty. That guilt can only be proven in a criminal court. Once a person is convicted of war crimes, then the government can punish accordingly.
Before beginning these proceedings, the government stated, "The key criterion in all these proceedings is the existence of some evidence of individual criminality. If that cannot be proven, no proceedings will be considered."
Unfortunately, the government is not following their own guidelines
RESOURCE LIST
Web resources
Teachers' resources can be found at the author's web site:
http://www.calla.com
The infoukes.com web site is the most comprehensive and reliable Internet resource for all things Ukrainian. The main page can be found at:
http://infoukes.com
World War II history can be found at:
http://infoukes.com/history/
The issue of alleged war crimes can be found at:
http://infoukes.com/uccla/issues/warcrimes/index-nuccla.html
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) has published 32 volumes of chronicles in the Ukrainian language. There are English summaries of all volumes posted on the Internet at:
http://infoukes.com/upa/
The government of Canada's report on the Deschenes Commission and war criminals can be found at: