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EESTI ELU reedel, 15. novembril 2019 — Friday, November 15, 2019
Register to vote in the upcoming Estonian Central Council in Canada elections today! October 30, 2019 TORONTO – The Estonian Central Council in Canada will be holding an election this coming December for its National Assembly and is calling on all Canadians of Estonian heritage to regis ter to vote and to consider running as a candidate. The Estonian Central Council is among the oldest Estonian representative groups of the diaspora. It was established in 1954 and represents the interests of an estimated 40,000 Canadians of Estonian heri tage. The National Assembly meets twice yearly and is run by the National Executive which meets every month in Toronto and online and includes representation from across Canada. The council is a member of the Baltic Federation of Canada and currently heads the Central and Eastern European Council in Canada, which represents the interests of over 4 million Canadians of CEE heritage. Over the past four years, The Estonian Central Council has successfully led and joined initiatives to: • Adopt Magnitsky legislation to place visa bans and asset freezes on Russian and other global corrupt human rights violators; • Advocate and secure tax free status and a reduced tax rate for the Jõekääru Children’s Camp; • Lead our global Estonian communities to advocate for an Estonian government initiative to create an Estonian government Global Estonian cooperation committee; • Advocate for the Canadian government to lead and deploy troops in Latvia as part of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence; • Successfully advocated the Canadian Government and Minister of Foreign Affairs – starting in 2015 – to deploy a fully accredited Canadian diplomat to Tallinn; • Build strong bilateral relations and cooperation with the USA, Swedish, British, Australian, Latvian and other global Estonian communities; • Successfully advocated for the removal of goods that glorify the hammer and sickle and other Soviet symbols from major online retailers; • Built, maintained and de veloped strong relationships with the Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Czech, Slovak, Albanian, Belarusian, Hungarian, and Macedonian communities in Canada. Elections will be held online using a secure voting system. For those who are unable to vote online, voting booths will be set up in major Estonian centers in Canada, including the Ehatare Seniors Home, Estonian House and various c hurches and community centers across Canada. Voters can register online here: www.estoniancouncil.ca
Results of Juubelisadu Parking Survey At the recent Juubelisadu held at the Eesti Maja Suur Saal on Nov 2, the Toronto Eesti Selts distributed a ques tionnaire to all the attendees. The questionnaire had one question: “If a future event, similar to this event, were organized by TES to be held at the new proposed Madison Ave location of the International Estonian Centre instead of the Estonian House:” The respondents were give the following three options: 1. I would drive to the Madison Ave. center. 2. I would take public transit to the Madison Ave. center. 3. I would not attend. The following instructions and rationale for the survey were given: “Please tick of only ONE choice and deposit this survey in the survey box at the back of the room. Answers to this survey are sincerely appreciated by the Toronto Eesti Selts Board of
A Baltic-style… (Continued from page 10)
Finally, on the closing evening of EstDocs, we were transported into a musical dream with “Moorland Elegies” by director Marinne Kõrver about the life and music of composer Tõnu Kõrvits. This film won first place at EstDocs and featured the nine-part choir cycle set to the words of Emily Bronte, and translated by Estonian poet Doris Kareva. Moorland Elegies happens to be one of the most popular classi
Directors as information from this survey will help the Toronto Eesti Selts plan its future activi ties.” The results are in and they are as follows: Drive: 24 Public Transit: 51 Not Attend: 69 Drive or take Public Transport: 3 Spoiled Ballot: 3 Total Ballots Received: 150 A couple of general explana tory remarks are needed. First, the category ‘spoiled ballots’ includes only those ballots whose intention I could not un ambiguously decipher. Second, even though the instructions were clearly to make one choice, I decided to make a separate category for those who selected ‘drive’ and ‘public transit’ as it was clear that their intention was that travel to the Madison Ave Centre would be unproblematic for them. Several conclusions can be drawn from this data. First, as 210 adult tickets was sold, the response rate for the survey was a high 71%. In other words, an overwhelming majority of the
attendees of the Juubelisadu participated in the survey. Se cond, not counting the spoiled ballots, 47% indicated that they would not attend a similar event if it were held at the Madison Ave Centre. While 53% indicated that they would attend such an event if it were held at that location, it is extremely disturb ing to TES that we would lose nearly half of our attendees. Because of this finding, the board of TES will have to re view its long-term event plan ning strategy. Third, of those respondents who indicated that they would attend a similar event if it were held at Madison Ave, 31% would be driving there. This means that the park ing situation around Madison Ave remains an important con cern for the project. These re sults clearly warrant further study as well as serious deli beration.
cal recordings purchased on Amazon. Marianne has crafted a deeply personal film that shows the humility, sensitivity and gentle insecurity of the composer. She interviewed “everyday” people for the film including a taxi driver and first responder/para medic who spoke about what Tõnu’s music means to them. This makes the music real and relevant, brings it down to earth. The film also contains gor geous Estonian winter scenery, shot with a drone camera, and I
find it has prepared me beauti fully for the next morning in Toronto, where we received over 10 cm of snow throughout the day – the season’s first snowfall. I find myself ignoring the traffic, harried news com mentary and eye-rolling by my neighbors as they brandished their snow shovels for the first time this year. I snap some photos of pale, snow-covered grasses and bushes with dark red, crinkled leaves, the voices of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber choir echoing in my KARIN IVAND subconscious.
In the meantime, the board of the Toronto Estonian Society would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in our survey. Your cooperation is in valuable for our future plan MARKUS ALLIKSAAR ning.
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IEC project team delivers news of positive progress The International Estonian Centre (IEC) project team provided an in-person briefing to both teachers and commu nity members Nov. 5 at the Estonian House café on the solid way in which the development is moving forward. Estonian House president Veiko Parming welcomed all who attended, and IEC project manager David Kalm and architect Alar Kongats outlined steady progress on all fronts. The team met first with Estonian School teachers to brief them on their specific needs and to answer questions. “The school will become the heart of the facility,” said Alar, noting that a large library, flexible classroom space, a dedicated storage area, and a music room will comprise the school’s layout. He said the design process is moving very well and showed a number of new renderings of the various features of the IEC. “The capital campaign is making excellent progress.” David said. “A total of $6.2 million has been pledged. We are incredibly grateful to the donors who have stepped forward.”
Baltimore congregation notice The next service for St Marks Estonian congregation will be November 17th starting at 2 PM with pastor Markus Vaga presiding. Enriching the ser vice musically, the BaltimoreWashington choir, under the direction of Tjorven Hairfield, will perform, with Renata O’Reilly at the organ. Follow ing the service there will be a social hour. There will be two Christmas Eve services on December 24th. The first at the Calvary Lutheran Church in Silver Spring starting 1:30 PM and the second at St. Marks Lutheran Church in Baltimore starting 4:30 PM. Calvary Lutheran Church is at 9545 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring MD 20910, 301589-4001. St Marks Lutheran Church is at 1900 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21218, 410752-5804. Additional informa tion is available from congrega tion Chairman Agu Ets at 301526-3327 or aguets23@gmail. com.
Updates regarding charitable status, and the ability to make donations prior to year end is pending very soon. The team continues to work with Revera, the retirement home company that has purchased the Estonian House property (re-zoning of the land parcel is ongoing). David noted Revera has assembled an excellent team of professionals to guide the planning and development of the project. Keep in touch and find out what’s happening! • Visit out our website www.estoniancentre.ca for the latest news and information: • Please sign up for our email newsletter on our website and get the latest news right to your inbox. • Follow us on Facebook: @EestiKeskus
Please join us for a celebration of life in loving memory of Irene Loosberg August 9, 1922 – September 19, 2019 Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church 25 Old York Mills Rd North York, Ontario Saturday, November 30th at 10am • Join us in commemoration • Light lunch to follow on site All who knew her and touched her life are welcome to join us. Our list of emails and contacts is limited. Please share this invitation with others you know would like to attend. In lieu of flowers, contribu tions may be made to Estonian Foundation of Canada in her name.
ESTONIAN LIFE
From the left: Elle Rosenberg, Markus Alliksaar, Anne-Mai Kaunismaa, Anne Orunuk, Epp Aruja, Chair of the Estonian Society of Toronto Anne Liis Keelman, Jaak Järve, Allan Meiusi – all contributed to a rousing celebration of the anniversaries of schools and Estonian sharpshooters’ club. Photo: Peeter Põldre
