Civically Speaking Podcast with Host, Lenore Swystun and Co-Host, Christina Cherneskey

Civically Speaking - One Year Later: Russia's Invasion of Ukraine. The geopolitical implications. A discussion with Dr. Bohdan Kordan.

Lenore Swystun, Host, Civically Speaking on Saskatoon's Community Radio Station, CFCR.ca 90.5 FM Season 7 Episode 24

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Dear Listeners,

Thanks for tuning into Civically Speaking. Christina Cherneskey and I are honoured to have back Dr. Bohdan Kordan, a political scientist, Professor Emeritus, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan. We appreciate his wisdom so much and are delighted to share his perspectives with you. Dr. Kordan's areas of specialty include:  Nationalism; Conflict; State Minority Relations; Canadian Foreign Policy; and, Historical Cartography of Eastern Europe. Dr. Kordan is the author of several publications including these most recent ones: 

  • Canada and the Ukrainian Crisis (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2020) [co-author M. Dowie]
  • "Internment in Canada during the Great War: Rights, Responsibilities and Diplomacy" in Internment during the First World War: A Mass Global Phenomenon (Routledge, 2019). [Stefan Manz, et. al., eds]
  • Strategic Friends: Canada-Ukraine Relations from Independence to the Euromaidan (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018)

In this episode, we delve into several geo-political considerations marking the one-year anniversary of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine (February 24, 2022).  We discuss the current and future state of liberal democracies around the world; the notion of the nation-state and the global positioning of key nation-states; the changing world order, the role of the European Council; NATO; the 5 Eyes; positioning of China and India; role of Oligarchs, and much more. 

We do a little bonus segment that reaches beyond the 1-hour point. Please tune in and share with others. Big thank you to Dr. Kordan for coming on the show.  

Civically Speaking,
Lenore and Christina

FYI Ruslan Kurt / Doors: Through the Horror of War
https://umcnational.ca/recipes/ruslan-kurt-doors-through-the-horror-of-war/?portfolioCats=73
On view March 9 to April 29, 2023 

Ruslan Kurt is a Ukrainian artist based in Toronto. His installation Doors: Through the Horror of War has eight actual doors – some damaged and burned – from in and around Ukraine since the war began.  

“On February 24, 2022, the war knocked on the door of every Ukrainian,” Kurt explains. His installation tells the stories of millions of Ukrainians who were forced to cross the doors of their homes to escape the war and terror brought by Russian soldiers. 

Many of them died without being able to get out.  

The doors come from Ukrainian homes, theatres, hospitals, kindergartens, and other everyday buildings. 

They speak to the transience of life and how, in war, everything we count on can change in a single heartbeat.  

Doors has been touring to cities across Canada for since October 2022. The doors for the exhibition were brought to Canada from Ukraine by the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival. 

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