This story is featured in Episode 46 INVISIBLE EXHIBITION (NIEWIDZIALNA WYSTAWA) A few years ago, when caring for my elderly mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, I participated in an amazing workshop organized by the Alzheimer’s Society where all of us – caregivers, were given a chance to feel like our loved ones who we cared for. We were almost literally put in their shoes. It was an unforgettable experience. Maybe this is why when I was in Warsaw two years ago and saw a place called the “Invisible Exhibition” in Aleje Jerozolimskie Street, I didn’t think twice and went through…
Author: Malgorzata P. Bonikowska
This story is featured in Episode 45 Peter Jassem is a renowned Toronto-based architect, born in Poland. After coming to Canada, he got interested in geneaology and became involved in the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada. This is how he discovered that his father was Jewish. This discovery changed his life. For over a decade Peter Jassem has been the chair of the Toronto chapter of the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada, a dynamic organization educating the public on the Polish-Jewish relations – their past and present. He is also the director of the Canadian Committee for Support of POLIN…
Featured in Episode 43. When I was in Poland in 2015 as a member of the official delegation accompanying the then Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, I met and interviewed the then Canada’s ambassador to Poland Alexandra Bugailiskis. 2017 is a special year for Canada which this year celebrates its 150th birthday. A series of conferences and negotiations led to creation of the Dominion of Canada by establishing on July 1, 1867 the Confederation – the union of the British North American colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada. Canada 150, as this anniversary is…
This story is featured in our Episode 42. Richard Washington is British. He is the Director of Communications and Recruitment at the College of Europe’s Warsaw campus in Natolin. Despite less than 7 years in Poland, he speaks excellent Polish and this is what we talk about on POLcast. Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands to a British father and a mother from the Caribbean island of Curacao, he holds a Master of Arts in Modern History from the University of Oxford (1995). After a career as a theatre actor (he graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts…
This is our special episode, made entirely in Poland (except one segment recorded in Vienna). Both Tomek and I happened to be in Poland and our separate visits had a few-day overlap. One of the segments was recorded in Vienna, where I travelled to receive a prestigious award – The Golden Owl, often called the Polish Oscars. Mine was in the category of Media, which did include our POLcast as well. Award gala: While in Vienna, the day before the Golden Owl award gala, all the recipients were invited to a beautiful concert by Camerata Polonia, a Polish chamber…
This story is featured in our Episode 40 While I was interviewing Ela and Piotr about their Red Couch Tour project in the Polish Consulate in Toronto, it turned out that there was a meeting going on in another room. Consul General Grzegorz Morawski had very special guests – minister of communities responsible for housing of Guyana, the hon. Valerie Adams-Patterson with her official delegation, who came to get their Polish visas on the way to Poland. The delegation from Guyana was accompanied by Tom Krupa, a Polish Canadian and his business partner Esmond Gamo Klass, a Canadian of Guyanese…
This story is featured in our Episode 40 They radiate energy and enthusiasm – two friends who created a unique idea which they conceived of three years ago and which has found so much support and interest in Canada that it became a reality. There are three of them – two Polish Canadians Ela Kinowska and Peter Sobierajski and the red couch with the Canada 150 logo on it. The three will travel across our vast country which this year celebrates its 150th birthday. Those who are invited to sit on it, share their stories which reflect the incredible mosaic…
Dorota Wiland Dorota Wiland is an animal psychologist and animal rights activists, based in Poland. She is the founder and president of IUS ANIMALIA Animal Protection Foundation, coordinating a number of recent animal protection and nature preservation campaigns, also involved in animal-related legislative processes in Poland as a consultant to the Parliamentary Group of Animals’ Friends. Her professional specialization are pathological behaviours in animals, including captive wild animals in ZOOs and circuses, resulting from poor living conditions. In her private life she is a loving foster-mum of four dogs and a horse, all of them once victims of human cruelty…
This story was featured in: Episode 24 Some stories are unknown to the world although they are as tragic and important as others that the world is familiar with. Most people know about the beginning of WWII – the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland on September 1, 1939. Very few, however, know that Poland was also attacked by the Soviet Union from the east, just 17 days later. The Soviets took over half of Poland, the lands in the east, called Kresy, arrested and then secretly murdered 22,000 of Polish officers and Polish intellectuals in what is called the…
This story was featured in: Episode 23 EDDIE ZAWADZKI (1959-2016) Canadian writer, journalist, broadcaster, sports commentator, author, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 57. His two most recent books are about Poles and their accomplishments in the New World: Death of sportscaster ‘King of Fight’ Eddie Zawadzki by Judi McLeod Remembering boxing promoter Ed Zawadzki by Steve Buffery Eddie’s blog The story of Eddi and Muhammad Ali A Tribute to Eddie IN POLISH: Pożegnanie na zawsze z Eddie’em Zawadzkim Pomóżmy Eddie’emu Zawadzkiemu ••• In the POLcast Tribute we used parts of an interview with Eddie conducted…