Eugene Czolij (born 1959 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is the President of the Ukrainian World Congress. The Ukrainian World Congress is the international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian World Congress has a network of member organizations and ties with Ukrainians in 53 countries. Founded in 1967, the Ukrainian World Congress was recognized in 2003 by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a non-governmental organization with special consultative status.
Eugene Czolij is also Ukrainian-Canadian lawyer. He was called to the Quebec Bar in 1982 and is a senior partner at Lavery, de Billy, one of the largest law firms in Quebec, with more than 200 lawyers.
Since 2006, he has been the President of the Caisse populaire Desjardins Ukrainienne de Montréal (a Ukrainian credit union), as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Council of Ukrainian Credit Unions of Canada. Since 2009, he has been a member of the Council of Representatives, East of Montreal, of the Fédération des caisses Desjardins du Québec, the largest cooperative financial group in Canada. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress since 1994.
He has received several awards, including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, the Order of Merit of Ukraine III Degree, the Commemorative Medal of the President of Ukraine – “25 years of the Independence of Ukraine”, the Medal of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and the Shevchenko Medal of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine for his contribution to promoting Ukraine’s interests and its Euro-integration.
Dr Sara Pienaar is a former director of SAIIA.
Entrance for non-members is R50 or R20 on presentation of a current student identity card.
Related material
- Report-back by SAIIA research associate Sara Pienaar
- Report-back by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Kim Schumann
