On April 20^th, the meeting of Kyiv Novomedia team was joined by Sergey and Natalia Velbovets, chief executives of Invictory Media Center. Sergey is also a Novomedia board member. Velbovets family currently lives in Canada, developing their ministry on the North American continent. That is why this meeting was a long-awaited reunion of friends.

“Ukrainian media rarely broadcast Canadian news, which creates an impression that Canadian reality is just like the one in the U.S. It was only after we moved to this country that we realized the opposite,” admitted Sergey. The society and the government here do everything they can to make foreigners like this country: free English course (one even gets paid $1,000 for taking it!), free health care, friendly attitude in the banks and public agencies.

Canada is a Christian state, predominantly Protestant. The Soviet term “sect” is totally foreign to this country. “Evangelic churches are just like the Orthodox ones for us. Events held by Protestant communities are covered by the media and – unlike in Ukraine – their coverage does not contain any mockery or sarcasm,” said Sergey.

However, Russians and Ukrainians who immigrated to the West managed to “move” their world there as well. Living in a Protestant country, they still consider the majority of religious communities to be “sects”. Although on the American continent offensive terms like this sound odd, the locals do not get a chance to hear them since Russians and Ukrainians live as a separate community. Due to its multicultural social structure highly valued by Canadians, the country is predominantly conservative. Moreover, the conservative party is now in power, which makes Canada significantly different from its Southern neighbors.

In the course of the meeting, Novomedia members have also discussed the common and the different in Ukrainian and Canadian media. After the closing remarks were made, many memorable pictures were taken.

Alena Mikhailenko