John Zbitnew was his name and he was my first underground shift-boss in Canada, and the first Ukrainian I had ever met. John was one of those lucky breaks I got along life’s trail. He was the right man in the right place when I needed him.
I say I was lucky to have known John Zbitnew, because he was a kind and fair man in an industry noted for its tough, harsh and unforgiving regime. He was the oldest shift-boss working with INCO and I was his youngest crew member. Being very much a ‘green man’, struggling to make an impact, I needed time to adjust.
Very few bosses would give a new man that time, but John not only gave me time, but took me under his wing and we became the most unlikely of friends. He talked a bit about his life and I’m sorry now that I didn’t ask the questions you don’t when you’re twenty-two. He had come through the war, was a POW, and I’m almost sure he told me that his introduction to mining was as a result of forced labour back in Ukraine.
Three years later I had become a hardened hard-rock miner, when I went to work on development for contractor RF Fry, out at Soab Lake, Manitoba. Coincidently, I was partnered with another Ukrainian, by the name of Peter Petkevicius. A year my junior, he too carried the scars of war from his country, where his father was a casualty of WW2.
Pete and I hit it off from the word go, both as partners and friends. We drove ‘drill-drifts’ and made good bonus. He was the only miner I ever knew who didn’t rant and rave when things went wrong – and he only had one swear word! Pete and I remained friends until his death in 2016. On his online memorial tribute, his family included a photo of their daddy and me together in happier times.
When we worked together we would often go into Thompson or Wawboden for a few beers. It would be more than a few with me, and like most of my friends, Pete was concerned about my drinking. There were no other Irish miners with Fry at that time, and whenever I linked up with my Irish buddies in the beer parlour, I always introduced Pete as “the nearest thing to one of ourselves!”
In 1970, Pete married Eunice, the daughter of another Ukrainian shift-boss. I was best man at their wedding; a Ukrainian wedding of 300 guests. I remember every detail around that time because I had quit drinking only a few weeks beforehand and I wasn’t looking forward to my duties on the big day. The support I got from my friend on the day was tremendous – and I would say I got more attention from the groom than did his new bride!
After Pamela and I got married and set up home in Longwood, Pete and Eunice came to spend time with us. They also visited us in Spain, and we stayed with them in Canada.
I find myself thinking of John and Pete much of the time this week – as well as the many fine Ukrainian people I have met in Ireland and Spain over the past twenty years. Like most fair-minded people across the globe, I am sickened to the gut by the criminal invasion of a modern, free, Europeans country. None of us thought this could happen. The myth of modern civilisation is well and truly shattered forever.
All of us; individuals and government have this despairing feeling of impotency with regard to stopping this repeat of history by an ego-driven madman. My Uncle Paddy always said you can deal with anybody except a liar. This is a good time to be reminded that Putin’s big lie is no bigger than Trump’s and so we live in the most dangerous of times
In recent years we have become accustomed and maybe even anaesthetised to the horrors of famine, terror and genocide being brought into our living-rooms on the nine o’clock news: War being played out on our TV screens just like a Netflix movie.
A life snuffed out in Sudan or Syria should not be of any less value – and it isn’t: But somehow it is different when the unfortunates being slaughtered are “the nearest thing to one of ourselves” … in other words, people just like us, and tonight my heart aches for Ukraine.
In Ireland we have had our troubled past with England, but another thought struck me during the week. Thank God that the bigger country next to us is Britain. There are no nuclear warheads pointing at Dublin.
They would defend us if we are attacked. Britain has even pledged that the northern part of our country under its jurisdiction can be reunited with the republic as soon as a majority votes for it. Now, that is democracy at work and just think how Ukrainians would rejoice if their big neighbour was to become similarly minded?
Don’t Forget
In the war of right and wrong, we cannot afford to be neutral.
