[PHOTO] Belarusian Greek Orthodox Church of St Ephrasinia of Polatsk

Belarusian Greek Orthodox Church of St Ephrasinia of Polatsk
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Located on 1008 Dovercourt Road, the Belarusian Greek Orthodox Church Of St Ephrasinia of Polatsk is one of the nuclei of Toronto's Belarusian-Canadian minority. Perhaps ironically, the Belarusian-Canadian community's membership is vague, owing to the complexities of nationhood in Belarus and assimilation to larger and better-established Slavic populations in Canada.

Belarus was not listed as a source country in Canadian immigration statistics and many Belarusans were identified as Polish, Russian, or Lithuanian; available data suggest that some 12,000 to 15,000 arrived immediately after World War II. Some sources suggest that as many as 100,000 emigrated from Poland, with one-third settling in Canada. The term “White Russian,” sometimes used to refer to Belarusans, in practice became a synonym for Russians, especially those opposed to the “Red” (Bolshevik) Russians. Fear of being repatriated under the terms agreed to at Yalta also made many Belarusans reluctant to claim their country of origin, particularly among the peasant class.

The 1991 census indicates 1,015 Belarusans by single response in Canada and 1,815 by multiple response; Soviet sources estimate as many as 100,000. The actual number is probably 50,000 to 70,000, with half residing in Ontario and a majority of those living in Toronto. Large numbers are found in Hamilton, London, Oshawa, St Catharines, Sudbury, and Thunder Bay. Others live in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Montreal, Rouyn, and Winnipeg. Smaller numbers are found in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.

[. . .]

In Canada, the Belarusan Orthodox were organized under two jurisdictions. The Belarusan Canadian Alliance initiated in 1954 the establishment of its St Cyril of Turov parish in Toronto as part of the Belarusan Autocephalic Orthodox church. The year before, and also in Toronto, the Belarusan National Association established the church of St Euphrosinia of Polatsk under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The parish complex, housed in a new building after 1957, included the church as well as the headquarters of the Belarusan Canadian Alliance, its Social Assistance branch, and Saturday Belarusan-language classes.

Michael's Bloor-Lansdowne blog writes about the St. Cyril of Turau parish further to the west.

[BRIEF NOTE] Tamil-Canadians and the Tigers

Some Tamil Canadians in Toronto have chosen a hunger strike in response to the ongoing war in Sri Lanka.

Members of Toronto's 200,000-strong Tamil community are holding a week-long fast to draw attention to the suffering of relatives caught in Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war, as the army intensifies efforts to eliminate the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Recent government advances in the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people since 1983, have displaced tens of thousands of Tamils. Greater Toronto's Tamil community, the largest in the world outside Asia, wants Canada to press Sri Lanka to bring about a ceasefire and urge the two sides toward peace.

"Most of these Tamil Canadians still have relatives in these areas and they're being affected" by having to flee their homes or risk aerial bombardment, David Poopalapillai, a spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said yesterday. On Monday, Logan Kanapathi, a Tamil-Canadian city councillor from Markham, attended the kickoff of a seven-day, rotating fast at the Metropolitan Centre on Finch Avenue East in Toronto. Similar events are going on at Hindu temples and other locations.

Neethan Shan, a York Region school board trustee of Tamil background, said about 150 people at a time will fast for 24-hour stints through Sunday at the Metropolitan Centre event, with hundreds more taking part for shorter periods.

The Tamil-Canadian community is largely of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, founded by the 1983 anti-Tamil pogroms in Sri Lanka made thousands of people refugees. The Sri Lankan consul general in Toronto, however, is unmoved.

Bandula Jayasekera, Sri Lanka's Consul General in Toronto, said the LTTE's military losses are having the effect that "more and more Tamils know it was a pipe dream" to finance the insurgency. He said those participating in this week's fasts are "trying to keep the so-called cause alive" and suggested that concerned Tamils should send food to their relatives rather than money to the Tigers.

There is something to Jayasekera's claims. Diasporas have played vital roles in support of movements of all kinds, and for years Tamil-Canadians have complained that they've been shaken down by fundraisers, told that if they didn't pay they'd be kept out of Tamil Tiger-controlled areas, or worse, reminded that they still had family members living in those zones. I myself remember how a joke made to a Tamil delivery person about his contributions to the Tigers terrified the man. The funnelling of funds to the Tamil Tigers led the Canadian government to ban the World Tamil Movement, a charitable organization, last summer as a Tiger front organization.

[LINK] Bush as seen from the future

"I Love Myself Today (Dance Remix) (Music Video) - Bif Naked" (Watch on YouTube)

Too funny.

[URBAN NOTE] This explains why the University leg of the subway was closed off this morning

"2 sought in Osgoode subway shooting," says the Toronto Star.

A search is under way for several suspects after a man was shot inside the Osgoode subway station this morning.

Police were called to the station, at University Ave. and Queen St. W., just before 11 a.m. for reports of gunshots.

They arrived to find a 19-year-old man on the central platform with gunshot wounds to his stomach.

The victim was taken to St. Michael’s Hospital. His condition was not immediately released.

Subway service between St. George and Union stations is shut down as police continue their investigation.

One person was taken into custody a short time later near the intersection of Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave., but police did not immediately say whether he was being treated as a suspect.

Members of the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force were called in to search the subway tunnel for more suspects.

“What appears to have happened is a group of young males got off the subway and appear to have gotten in an argument,” said Supt. Hugh Ferguson.

Carrie Wiebe had just made her way off the subway car when she heard three gunshots. “As soon as the doors opened we got off and then there were shots,” she said.

Wiebe, who was on her way to a concert at the Canadian Opera Company, said she first thought the sounds were because of construction. By the time she realized what had happened, several people were running out of the station and toward the southwest corner of University Ave.

Const. Wendy Drummond said police are reviewing TTC security cameras.

Subway service has been replaced with shuttle buses on the University line between St. George and Union stations, said TTC spokesperson Danny Nicholson.

Police are urging anyone who was on a subway train at the time of the shooting to call 52 Division at 416-808-5201.

When I lived at Queen and Dufferin for two and a half years, I regularly disembarked at Osgoode to transfer to the Queen Street West streetcar.

[MUSIC] Mylène Farmer, "C'est une belle journée"

I bought the single of Kate Bush's song "And So Is Love" when I was in Montréal for the first time in 1997, and I bought Mylène Farmer's single "C'est une belle journée" when I visted Montréal for the second time in 2003, en route to Kingston and Queen's University. That sense of liberation might explain why I think of "C'est une belle journée" as a happy song.

Allongé le corps est mort
Pour des milliers
C'est un homme qui dort...
A moitié pleine est l'amphore
C'est à moitié vide
Qu'on la voit sans effort
[. . .]
Oh philosophie
Dis-moi des élégies

Here's my rough, crude translation.

The dead man's body lies
but for thousands
it's a sleeping man
Half-full is the amphora
but it's half-empty
that's easy to see
[. . .]
Oh philosophy
tell me elegies

I'll grant you that the lyrics aren't very cheery. More, I'll agree with you that Wikipedia's article on the song, translated with reasonable awkwardness from the original French, and that the music video is nicely cheery.

"Ace of Base - The Sign (Official)" (Watch on YouTube)

Why is "C'est une belle journée" one of my favourite songs? Although I think that Farmer's breathy vocals over long-time collaborator Laurent Boutonnat's music is almost always nice, and that this particular song's bouncy--nay, joyful--tone is an accomplishment (if an incongruous one), much of my positive reaction to the song comes from its association with that second trip to Montréal in August of 2003. On that trip, I felt free for the first time since, well, my April 2003 trip to Toronto. (SARS was overrated.) The difference was that this time I knew I wouldn't be going back to Prince Edward Island. This single was on the wall in an Archambault, I picked it up, bought it, took it home and listened to it on the same portable CD player as in 1997, and found its optimism suited my mood: The glass might be half-empty, but it might well also be half-full, "Mordre l'éternité/A dents pleines" can be as much a gesture of defiance as surrender, and what's wrong with a well-composed elegy in any case?

Nothing's wrong with a good misreading. If anything, it can give a song added character. It can certainly guarantee it a placing on one's own personal soundtrack.