D I P L O M AT I C A| QUESTIONS A SKED Alena Liavonchanka, chair of the Belarusian Canadian Alliance
'Lukashenko is one of the worst COVID [deniers] on the planet'
Diplomat magazine: Tell me first
about your organization.
Alena Liavonchanka: I’m the chair
of the Belarusian Canadian Alliance. It was formed in 1948 by post-war immigrants who escaped the Soviet Union because they were not wanted there. The main mission was to preserve the spirit of independent Belarus. They were hoping that one day Belarus would become independent and [worked hard on that]. They spoke to politicians and rallied and did the research and published widely on culture, language and political history. And their dream came true in 1991. Many of them actually saw the end of the Soviet Empire. They were pretty [elderly] people at that point, but they were able to go back and see the country and see their relatives, so that was really inspirational. Then a lot of new people came after President Alexander Lukashenko’s repressions started to happen in the 1990s. This was the second wave of immigration and a lot of these people have the same values. They are pro-democracy, they want a free Belarus, and they want to see Belarus as a national state. So basically, they picked up the mission and the mission continues to this day, unfortunately. 22
DM: Yes, I guess it would be nice not to
have that mission, wouldn’t it? AL: Yes, I would very much rather focus on arts and culture and language. This is where my heart is. And I still do a lot in this domain, but [lately] it [requires] a lot of political activism. DM: Indeed. So what kind of things does
your group do? AL: Politically, last year was quite heavy. We had to petition, we had to organize rallies, we spoke to many MPs. We sent letters to Mr. [Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau and [former foreign minister François-Philippe] Champagne. We’re working right now with Democratic leaders in Belarus. They’re all in exile, but we call them Belarusians. With the offices of [Opposition leader] Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, we try to do a lot of coordination between the leaders in Europe and Canadian members of Parliament, trying to organize meetings and deliver messages. Canada [gave] two large grants to support Belarus. And we’re hoping there will be more support and the support could be directed to people who are in need because now there are a lot of immigrants who are fleeing Belarus, and they’re settling in the Baltic states, in Ukraine and Poland. So [groups like ours] are working with MPs at the Canadian embassies in these countries, to see if they can offer direct support to journalists, IT professionals, women leaders who are settling there. They are also starting to organize charities to support people who were prosecuted and injured, and so on. That’s our mission right now. And, of course, we do lots of arts and cultural things. But unfortunately, recently, it’s been a little bit on the back burner. DM: How long have you been in Canada? AL: I came in 2008. And I came as a post-
doctoral scientist to the University of Toronto. And then two years later, I joined the Belarusian Canadian Alliance. And in 2017, I was elected chair. Staying in SPRING 2021 | APR-MAY-JUN
MAXIM ZINCHUK @NUMZ GRAPHICS
Alena Liavonchanka became the chairwoman of the Belarusian Canadian Alliance in Toronto in 2017. In that capacity, she works with fellow Belarusians in Canada and worldwide to promote its culture, language, arts and to raise awareness about the political situation in Belarus. She studied biochemistry in Belarus and came to Canada as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto in 2008. In her day job, she works as a deputy director at Sanofi Pasteur, a company that makes vaccines. She did this interview with Diplomat editor Jennifer Campbell by Zoom.
