“These historic hearings on the human rights situation in Ukraine continue the work which the Standing Committee has begun in October 2011, and continued in March concurrent with the Ukraine at the Crossroads Conference, in Ottawa, in March this year and come at a pivotal time in Ukraine’s democratic development,” stated Taras Zalusky, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. “The ability of the committee to travel to Ukraine will afford them an opportunity to gain a firsthand look at the situation regarding human rights, politically motivated selective justice, and the rule of law on the ground in Ukraine.  This will be very valuable information for the committee when it writes its report on recommended future actions by the government of Canada vis a vis Ukraine.”

The Parliamentary committee’s delegation is composed of the following members:

* The Hon. Ralph Goodale, M.P. (Wascana)

* Alexandrine Latendresse, MP (Louis St. Laurent)

The committee members are being accompanied by a delegation from the Ukrainian Canadian community composed of Taras Zalusky, Executive Director, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Bohdan Onyschuk, Chairman, Canada Ukraine Foundation, and Borys Potapenko, Executive Director, League of Ukrainian Canadians.

“The work of the standing committee will be critical in assessing the situation in Ukraine.  It is important that the committee is travelling to Kharkiv (in Eastern Ukraine) and L’viv (in Western Ukraine) to complement their work in Kyiv,” stated Bohdan Onyschuk, Chairman of the Canada Ukraine Foundation. “The committee’s findings will be a critical input to the government of Canada in determining next steps in its ongoing relations with Ukraine, including the importance of a large election observer mission to this fall’s election to the Verkhovna Rada.”

 The committee will hold several sessions of hearings on issues such as selective prosecutions; the economy and business climate in Ukraine; the situation with civil society and human rights groups; political developments  in Ukraine; preparations for the elections to the Verkhovna Raoda; and regional economic development.  In addition, the Committee will meet with the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine; and representatives of the Prosecutor General’s office, Ministry of Justice, Central Electoral Commission and the Human Right Ombudsperson of the Verkhovna Rada as well as human rights and civil society groups.

“For the Parliament of Canada to have found the situation in Ukraine so compelling as to include a fact finding trip to Ukraine in conjunction with the historic hearings by the Foreign Affairs Committee on March 5 and 7, 2012, speaks to the commitment of Canada to helping the Ukrainian people to progress on the path of democratic transformations of their country.  It is important for governments to witness the democratic backsliding firsthand,” stated Borys Potapenko, Executive Director of the League of Ukrainian Canadians.

The hearings begin this morning with a session on selective justice that includes Evgenia Tymoshenko, daughter of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko; Iryna Lutsenko wife of former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and their respective legal teams, to be followed by a session with representatives of the Prosecutor General’s office; the human rights ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada; the State Penetentiary Service of Ukraine and Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.

Today’s hearings are open to the public and will be held at Kyiv’s Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Please see attached schedule for details on all meetings open to the public.

For more information please contact:

Taras Zalusky UCC Executive Director Mobile phone in Ukraine: +380 97 087 1549 or +380 67

Milton GO Train service continues to be very popular with the communities it serves, and this enhancement is the latest step in a series of improvements GO has launched in the past several years to meet growing demand.  In 2008, GO phased in longer Milton lines trains with 12 cars rather than the previous 10, adding 20% more seats to each trip.  In 2009, GO added an additional morning and afternoon trip, moving from six to seven return trips per weekday.

WINDSOR, Ontario—Last month, Bob Dechert, a senior aide to Canada’s foreign minister, was dispatched to Detroit with an important diplomatic mission: To stop a highly annoying noise.

The so-called Windsor hum, described as a low-frequency rumbling sound, has rattled windows and knocked objects off shelves in this border community just across the Detroit River from the Motor City. Locals have said it sounds like a large diesel truck idling, a loud boom box or the bass vocals of Barry White.

Windsor residents have blamed the hum for causing illness, whipping dogs into frenzies, keeping cats housebound and sending goldfish to the surface in backyard ponds. Many have resorted to switching on their furnace fan all season to drown out the noise.

Even weirder, Americans can’t seem to hear it. Canadians find that suspicious—especially since their research suggests the hum is coming from the Yankees’ side—and accuse U.S. officials of staying silent over the noise.

“The government of Canada takes this issue seriously,” Mr. Dechert said after his recent fact-finding trip, which included a visit to a heavily industrialized area on the American side of the river that some Canadian scientists believe is to blame for the hum.

Unexplained noises have tormented city dwellers for centuries. Residents west of Green Bay, Wis., have been trying to identify an occasional loud boom that they say sounds like a cannon blast—geologists have said earthquakes made the noise. Locals in upstate New York and other places have described similar episodes.

But few such cases have become international diplomatic incidents.

After three months of seismic studies conducted by Canada’s natural resources department, scientists said the noise was likely coming from Zug Island, a nearly 600-acre man-made island on the Michigan side of the Detroit River. The coal-blackened industrial zone is dominated by steel mills, including facilities operated by U.S. Steel Corp. and others whose blast furnaces belch out steam and flames.

The area is off-limits to the general public and surrounded by wire fences, with the only access via a guarded gate. A spokeswoman for U.S. Steel didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The sound has been plaguing Windsor residents on and off for two years. Last May, a particularly loud eruption shook Windsor resident David Robins as he watched the National Basketball Association playoffs. The room began to vibrate with a loud throbbing noise.

Mr. Robins hit mute, fearing he had gone overboard on volume. But the noise persisted. Stepping outside, Mr. Robins said he found the “entire neighborhood pulsating.”

“To be honest, I was scared,” he said.

Hundreds of other sleep-deprived locals have demanded action from politicians in Windsor and Ottawa.

Locals blamed earthquakes, local salt mines, an underground river and wind turbines in the past. But Canada’s seismic study last summer narrowed the likely source down to approximately 250 acres in the vicinity of Zug Island.

American officials say they aren’t so sure.

“It may not be actually emanating from Michigan,” said Hansen Clarke, the U.S. Representative for the East Detroit congressional district that includes Zug.

Michael D. Bowdler, the mayor of River Rouge, Michigan, the municipality with authority over Zug, said his cash-strapped government doesn’t have funds to investigate further. Mr. Bowdler suggests the city of Windsor pay for a survey that could isolate the noise to its exact location.

American officials contend there haven’t been complaints on the U.S. side of the border. Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality looked last year at whether the companies at Zug started up any new machinery in the past two years that might be causing the noise and found nothing.

“The only place I am hearing noise from is Canada—from politicians complaining,” Mr. Bowdler said.

Mr. Dechert, Canada’s parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, concedes the source may not be Zug Island, given there are a “number of operations” in the vicinity that could be responsible. But he wants his U.S. counterparts to investigate further to help quiet down the border ruckus.

“There is definitely something going on that’s affecting people on the Canadian side of the river,” he said.

Canadian diplomats formally raised the issue with the U.S. Department of State last September. They took up the cause again at a meeting on Thursday. A State Department spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.

“We do sympathize with the plight of those affected but, unfortunately, the federal government doesn’t have regulatory authority over noise pollution,” the spokesman said.

Canadian authorities have also hoped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would investigate. But a spokesman for the EPA said it doesn’t have the authority to assist.

If U.S. officials don’t help find a solution, “there will be a lot of upset people,” said Brian Masse, a Canadian New Democratic Party member of parliament, whose Windsor constituency sits across the river from Zug Island.

Studying the hum, much less its origin, is challenging. It is difficult to capture the mainly nocturnal sound on tape, since it doesn’t hum all the time.

During a recent visit to Windsor by a Wall Street Journal reporter, Windsor resident Gary Grosse played several recordings he said came from the noise, which modulated from metallic grating to a pulsing beat.

On a visit to the area around Zug Island, a fainter version of similar sounds was audible. But Americans nearby said they still can’t hear it.

Fishing under the shadow of some of the large mounds of coal that fringe Zug Island, Samson Jenkins says that in 20 trips here he has never heard a noise like that described in Windsor.

“And they say they can hear it all the way in Canada?” said the 45-year-old maintenance worker. “No way.”

Nearby, an industrial chimney belched out a twist of sulfurous-smelling smoke. Mr. Jenkins joked the only noise pollution he has heard of late is Canadian singer Celine Dion.

In Windsor, nobody’s laughing.

In January 2011, Sonya Skillings’s nocturnal baby-feeding sessions were disturbed by what she said sounded like an underground subway beneath the house. Over a year on, it has become so loud sometimes she worries the windows will blow out.

“I just want to be in my rocking chair with my baby asleep on top of me,” she said. But “all I can hear is ‘vrump, vrump, vrump.’ ”

Write to Alistair MacDonald at alistair.macdonald@wsj.com and Paul Vieira at Paul.Vieira@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared May 1, 2012, on page A1 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Canadians Make a Racket Over Mysterious ‘Windsor Hum’.

“Today, I had a chance to meet with Windsor mayor Eddie Francis and representatives of the Great Lakes Commission, the Council of Great Lakes Industries, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the Regional Office of the International Joint Commission,” said Parliamentary Secretary Dechert.

“The Government of Canada takes this issue seriously. I look forward to working with my colleagues, including MPs Jeff Watson (Essex), Brian Masse (Windsor West) and Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh), as well as the Province of Ontario, the City of Windsor, the U.S. federal government, the State of Michigan, the City of River Rouge and others on this important file.”

“It is important that we find a solution that works for the people of Windsor. Our government is prepared to collaborate with stakeholders and other governments to isolate the source of the Windsor Hum so that a solution can be implemented in due course.”

Since March 2011, many complaints have been received from Canadians disturbed by rumblings in the Windsor area, the so-called Windsor Hum. A federal study suggests that the Hum may originate from the U.S. side of the Detroit River, in the general area of Zug Island.

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For further information, media representatives may contact:

Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada 613-995-1874 Follow us on Twitter: @DFAIT_MAECI

“The Windsor Hum is having a negative effect on the day-to-day lives of Windsor residents,” said Baird. “We are prepared to collaborate with stakeholders and other levels of government to identify the source of the problem so that potential mitigation measures can be designed and implemented.”

Since March 2011, hundreds of complaints have been received from Canadians disturbed by rumblings in the Windsor area, the so-called Windsor Hum. A federal study suggests that the Hum may originate from the U.S. side of the Detroit River in the general area of Zug Island.

While in the Windsor/Detroit area, Parliamentary Secretary Dechert will hold meetings with Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis and with Great Lakes stakeholders including representatives of the Great Lakes Commission, the Council of Great Lakes Industries, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the Regional Office of the International Joint Commission. Mr. Dechert will also meet with U.S. and Michigan political officials. The objective of the meetings is to seek advice and recommendations on possible approaches for a solution. Mr. Dechert will also tour Zug Island.

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For further information, media representatives may contact:

Foreign Affairs Media Relations Office Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada 613-995-1874 Follow us on Twitter: @DFAIT_MAECI

“In Economic Action Plan 2012, our Conservative government is squarely focused on what matters to Canadians – jobs and economic growth,” said Mississauga’s Conservative MPs (From Left: MP Brad Butt, MP Stella Ambler, MP Bob Dechert, MP Wladyslaw Lizon).

“While Canada has created over 610,000 net new jobs since July 2009, the global economy remains fragile and too many Canadians are still looking for work.  That’s why we’re moving forward with a positive plan to bolster the long-term economic growth of Ontario and all of Canada.”

The Budget document tabled in the House of Commons showed the 2011-12 deficit to be $8.5 billion lower than the 2010-11 deficit, and the 2012-13 deficit to be reduced by another $3.8 billion.  The Budget includes projected government savings of $5.2 billion dollars in spending requirements over the next three years.

Dechert said, “Every Canadian family, individual and small business owner knows that they must pragmatically and realistically plan for the future financial security of their families, themselves and their business.

Through Budget 2012, Prime Minister Harper, Finance Minister Flaherty and our Government have prudently set out a pragmatic long term plan which I believe will ensure the long term health, prosperity and retirement security of all Canadians.

I am especially pleased to see that our Government has continued to keep taxes low on Families, workers and employers and enhanced incentives to foster scientific research and innovation to provide good quality jobs.  Budget 2012 also fine tunes our immigration system to direct skilled workers to available jobs,  includes new services to assist foreign trained professionals to become qualified in Canada and takes necessary steps to ensure the long term  security of Canadians’ retirement benefits.” 

Economic Action Plan 2012 also demonstrates the Conservative government’s strong support for Ontario through record federal transfer support for hospitals, schools, and other critical services.  Totaling $19.2 billion in 2012-13, the transfer support represents an increase of nearly $8.4 billion (or 77%) from the former Liberal government.

Some other Budget highlights include:

• Encourage entrepreneurship, innovation, and world-class research with over $1.1 billion in significant investments for research and development, $500 million for venture capital, support for increased public and private research collaboration, and much more.
•  Improve conditions for business investments with responsible resource development streamlined for ‘one project, one review’; expanding trade to open new markets; keeping taxes low, and more.
•  Invest in training, infrastructure and opportunity for Canadians by extending the Hiring Credit for Small Business; investing in programs to help youth, Canadians with disabilities, aboriginals, and workers over 50 get into the workforce; reforming the EI system to better promote job creation and remove disincentives to work; investing millions in renewing local community infrastructure; and more.
•  Help families and communities by increasing food safety monitoring; better protecting species at risk; assisting victims of crime; helping Canadians with disabilities save for their future, and more.
•  Ensure vital social programs and services will be there for Canadians over the next generation.

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The Honourable Denis Lebel, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities stated, “Today I am announcing that I have asked the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities to hear Air Canada, Aveos, the union, experts and other interested parties concerning the cessation of Aveos Performance, and report back to me.”

“We believe that this official forum will allow all players to share their views on the issue.”

“We continue to study the advice that we are receiving on this complex issue.”

“Again, I would like to say that my thoughts are with the workers and families affected by this sad story.”

Dechert said, “I am pleased to see that the Minister has ordered an investigation into the Aveos matter by the Parliamentary Transport Committee. I hope that Aveos will be able to continue operations at its Mississauga facilities pursuant to the provisions of the Air Canada Public Participation Act.”

Judge Dhaliwal has more than 25 years of experience as a small business owner in the optical field, as well as experience in the commercial real estate and investment sectors. He is active in his community, having served in various capacities with the Erin Mills Lions Club, including as president of the club, and for three years on the board of the United Way of Peel Region.

Judge Dhaliwal has also served as chair of the Wishmaker Parade for Peel Region, and was a founding member of the International Punjabi Chamber of Commerce.

Dechert said, “I was delighted to learn of the appointment of Harjit Dhaliwal to the Citizenship Court. I believe Judge Dhaliwal to be an excellent example of the qualities of Canadian citizenship through his history of community service and integrity. As such, he is well qualified to instill in others, the value and true meaning of being a Canadian Citizen. I wish him every success in the discharge of his important new duties.”

Citizenship judges are responsible for making decisions with regard to citizenship applications, presiding over citizenship ceremonies and administering the oath of citizenship to new citizens.

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Mr. Bob Dechert (Mississauga—Erindale, CPC): “I rise today to commemorate the life Pope Shendouda III, Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church.”

“Pope Shenouda was a true leader, whose spiritual guidance was a source of great strength for Coptic Christians in Egypt around the world for over forty years.”

“Yesterday, hundreds of Coptic Christians gathered at the Canadian Coptic Centre in Mississauga to give their respects to their spiritual leader.”

“Mr Speaker, Pope Shenouda shared our Government’s vision of freedom of expression for minority communities and was a strong ally and a powerful voice for religious freedom and human dignity.  He fostered a global Coptic spiritual community that thrives today, including in Canada, where he personally named the first-ever Bishops to preside over more than 20 parishes throughout our country.”

“His steady leadership was especially meaningful in recent years, which have been very challenging for the Coptic community.”

“I join with all Canadians in expressing our sincere condolences to the Coptic community in Canada and around the world on the loss of their beloved spiritual leader.”

Mississauga, Ontario – Bob Dechert, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament for Mississauga-Erindale issued the following statement on the death of Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria:

“This is very sad news.”

“I wish to extend my sympathies and condolences to His Holiness, Pope Shenouda’s family and all followers and members of the Coptic Church in Canada, Egypt and around the world.”

“God Bless You.”

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For further information contact:

Office of Bob Dechert, MP

Office:(905) 897-1952