Minister of Transport Hon. Martin Kupka, Members of the Czech Republic – Canada Friendship Group in the Czech Parliament Hon. Lucie Potůčková (chair), Hon. Pavla Pivoňka Vaňková (vice chair) and Ondřej Lochman, Minister of the Canadian government with Czech ancestry Hon. Karina Gould, Honorable Members of the Canadian House of Commons and Senate, families of Tomáš Baťa, Karel Velan and other distinguished Czech-Canadians from across Canada, Ambassadors of member states and candidate countries of the EU, and NATO member states, Czech music stars, the world-famous opera singer Adam Plachetka, rock legend Petr Janda, rock star on the European sky Marta Jandová, ambassador of swing Jan Smigmator, best Czech jazz pianist Emil Viklický, guitarist Ondřej Pátek and excellent Czech-Canadian saxophonist Petr Cancura as well as Grammy Award-winning Rock Legend Jim Peterik from Chicago, representatives of Colt Canada, GZ Media, Czechvar and other key actors in Czech-Canadian economic cooperation, a trade mission of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, representatives of key partner institutions in Canada, and many other distinguished guests.

On the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, extraordinary guests gathered in Ottawa for a gala evening. We were very pleased to be able to welcome the best of Czech-Canadian relations to the Canadian capital and hope to have given an impetus to their further development. The introductory short historical film recalled Czech-Canadian history for more than a hundred years in a European context. The most prominent Czech-Canadian individuals and families were honoured for supporting the good name of our country in Canada. Standing ovations followed the star multi-genre concert in honor of the Czech-Canadian Jiří Traxler. The concert was also a launch of the Traxler 110 vinyl album and Czech & Canada publication. A strong attention was paid to the highest priority of the Czech EU Presidency as we expressed our support of our Ukrainian friends in the fight against the brutal Russian invasion.

Hon. Martin Kupka, Minister of Transport, addressed the guests on behalf of the Czech Republic. Hon. Karina Gould, Minister of Family, Children and Social Development delivered an address on behalf of Canada. She spoke in detail about her Czech roots, including the beer tradition of the town of Žatec, where her great-grandparents had a textile shop, as well as about plum dumplings as her favorite dessert. The opening toast for the dinner was given by the Chairs of the Friendship Groups of our countries in the national parliaments, MPs Hon. Lucie Potůčková and Hon. John Brassard. It was a great honor to have with us also other members of the Canada-Czech Republic Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Canadian Parliament - Chair of the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee of the Senate Hon. Peter Boehm, Hon. Valerie Bradford, Hon. Julie Dzerowitz, Member of Parliament with Slovak roots Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Hon. James Bezan, Hon. Terry Dowdall, Hon. Damien Kurek, Hon. Martin Shields, and Hon. Len Webber. We were also honoured by the presence of Hon. Rene Villemure. The Czech Republic - Canada Friendship Group in the Czech Parliament was represented also by Hon. Pavla Pivoňka Vaňková, Vice Chair of the group and Hon. Ondřej Lochman. This was the historically first meeting the friendship groups of our countries.

During the Traxler 110 Live Special our music stars performed not only Jiří Traxler's songs, but also their traditional repertoire. There were also duets by Petr Janda and Marta Jandová, and Adam Plachetka and Jan Smigmator. Czech-American Grammy Award-winning international rock legend Jim Peterik could not be in Ottawa due to health reasons. One of Traxler's most famous songs, Měsíc to zavinil, was still performed by him at the gala. The song was performer for the first time ever with English lyrics as Let's Blame It on the Moon by him from big screens, along with his most famous hit Eye of the Tiger.

The concert launched the Traxler 110 vinyl album and the Czechs & Canada publication set. This project created by Ambassador Bořek Lizec pays tribute to Czech Canada and commemorates the 110th anniversary of the birth of the Czech-Canadian Jiří Traxler, a co-founder of the Czech swing era. Music stars across genres participated in the project. In addition to the artists who performed at the gala, Ondřej Havelka and his Melody Makers, Jan Vančura and Plavci, Sestry Havelkovy, The Swings and Rozálie Havelková also contributed with recordings. I wrote the Czechs & Canada publication to be part of the set. More than 200 historical and contemporary photographs illustrate the often forgotten famous stories of Czech compatriot communities and our most prominent Czech-Canadian personalities for more than a hundred years. The record and publication set will not be for sale. It is an official gift of the Czech EU Presidency in Canada. However, anyone can listen to the 11 songs of the album and read the Czech-Canadian stories via the website www.Traxler110.cz . A video recording of the best of the gala program will also be available on this website.

The fact that the album is released in the form of a vinyl record is no accident. The largest producer of vinyl records in the world is the Czech company GZ Media, which has one of its production plants abroad in Canada. So the vinyl record itself is a Czech-Canadian story. Without the generous support of GZ Media, the release of album and publication set would not have been possible.

“Czech Canadians contributed to the creation of Czechoslovakia during World War II and to saving it during World War II. They stood by us even during the Cold War. Unfortunately, we lost touch with historical communities for many decades. I had the unique opportunity to visit many of them, often after almost detective work. With this project, I would like to tell them once again that we have not forgotten the help of their ancestors and that we also value the friendship of the current generation,” say Ambassador Bořek Lizec. “It was an extraordinary experience for me to watch again and again how proud they remain of their Czech origin. Portraits of President Masaryk hang in their homes, they sing Czech songs, whether they understand Czech or not, they bake kolaches, cook dumplings and even grow their own poppy seeds, which must be ground, as they say, really, really finely. Many compatriots came from Volhynia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The ancestors of the compatriots from the town of Minitonas in the Manitoba prairies left our homeland around 1720. Their leader Jerry Vítězslav Marek speaks Czech as if he was born in the Czech Republic. Like many other compatriots, he went to Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution with his wife to help our country back to prosperity by teaching English.”

The guests of honor at the gala were expatriate personalities who received Czech EU Presidency Medals for their support of our country and for their contribution to the strengthening of Czech-Canadian relations. The commemorative medals were awarded to Thomas A. Bata, great-grandson of the founder of the global shoe empire Tomáš Baťa; Michelle Cipera, granddaughter of prominent Czech politician and businessman Dominik Čipera; Joseph Gashnitz, grandson of the supporter of the restoration of Czechoslovakia during World War II and the greatest Czech farmer of the time in Canada, Josef Gaschnitz; Minister Karina Gould, alpine skier Jan Hudec represented by his mother and coach Vladislava Hudec; Ray Novak, former Chief of Staff of Canadian Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper; Professor Tomáš Pavlásek, son of the 1st Czechoslovak Ambassador to Canada František Pavlásek with major merits for the defense of our statehood during the Second World War; Robert Tmej, representative of Masaryktown Masaryktown Toronto and Sokol Kanada; Professor Petr Vaníček with international merits for the development of geodesy; businessman and philanthopist Tom Velan, son of inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Karel Velan; sculptor Lea Vivot; and filmmaker, writer and artist Ludmila Zeman represented by her daughter and long-term colleague Linda Zeman Spálený.

The introductory short film also included stories of many other distinguished Czech-Canadians who unfortunately could not attend the gala evening, among them politician, diplomat and world champion in figure skating Otto Jelinek, world champion in figure skating Maria Jelinek, prominent author and advisor to Bill Gates for strategic decisions Professor Václav Smil, businessman George Heller, writer and publisher Zdena Škvorecká Salivarová, actor and medical doctor Vladimír Pucholt as well as Alex Baumann, nicknamed the greatest swimmer in Canadian history. Mr. Baumann participated in the gala evening via a video greeting from Australia. Among the most important Czech Canadians who are no longer with us belong the publisher from the time of the settlement of Western Canada and an important supporter of the creation of Czechoslovakia during World War I and its restoration after World War II František Dojáček, conductor Karel Ančerl, entrepreneurs and philanthropists Leon and Walter Koerner, and the most performed Canadian composer of modern classical music Oskar Morawetz. For this occasion, the Czech Mint  donated a special edition of silver medals - one with the motif of the Czech lion, symbol of our statehood, and the other dedicated to the Czech tolar, which as an important European currency created in Bohemia more than 500 years ago spread to North America and gave rise to the name of the currencies in Canada and the US dollar.

The original drawing for the gala evening was created by another prominent Czech-Canadian Ludmila Zeman, whose daughter was also presented on her behalf with highest award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gratias Agit for supporting the good name of our country abroad. Ludmila Zeman is the daughter of world-renowned Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman and has lived in Canada since the 1980s. She received the prestigious Canadian Governor General's Award for her book illustrations and an Oscar nomination for her first animated film made in Canada Lord of the Sky. The main motif of the drawing, which appeared on the invitations, programs as well as large-scale screens at the gala evening, is an airship. Through this drawing, the airship symbolically appeared over Ottawa at the time of the upcoming premiere of the restored film The Stolen Airship (October 4). This picture was the first film on which Ludmila Zeman collaborated with her father.

The gala evening of the Czech presidency of the Council of the EU naturally also had a strong European dimension. The Czech stories that we celebrated at the gala evening are, in many ways, also European stories. One of the largest Czech compatriot communities lives in Canada, and in this respect we are definitely not an exception among European nations. To highlight Czech roots of Canada, we created a gallery of the most distinguished Czech Canadians in history, and a similar European "Hall of Fame" of Canadians with origins in each of the EU member or candidate countries. By including the candidate countries, we wanted to show that the enlargement of the European Union is one of the top priorities of our EU Presidency. As part of the introductory short film, we presented Czech history in European and transatlantic contexts. As Czechs, we can be proud that our ancestors stood during both world wars together with Canadians alongside those who fought for the victory of democracy and humanism.

I am very pleased that we were able to welcome a number of Czech companies at the Gala, apart from our generous sponsors, members of the trade mission of the Czech Chamber of Commerce – Cendis, Principal Engineering, Petra Clinic, EGT Express, and SaZ, as well as companies Blažek, Tesla Batteries, and Cape Smokey development project in Nova Scotia.

THANK YOU FROM THE AMBASSADOR

The Czech EU Presidency Gala took place in the premises of the Fairmont Château Laurier hotel, where Canadian history was written. The black-tie event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors: Colt Canada – a member of Colt CZ Group, Czechvar, GZ Media and Czech Mint. The event was also financially supported by Susan and Bob Arthur, Tom and Dana Velan and George Heller as well as the CzechTourism agency. The official carrier of the celebration was LOT Polish Airlines.

I am deeply grateful to my friends – our music stars; Mr. Radek Háša, who helped me prepared the opening short film; Karel Scherzer, author of the graphic designs; and my colleagues - for their enormous support. My special thanks go to my wife Kateřina, without whom the gala evening would not have been possible.

Traxler 110 and Czechs & Canada website:

www.Traxler110.cz

For more information and photos, please visit www.facebook.com/BorekLizec

Czechs & Canada publication

https://traxler110.cz/czechs-canada/

Selected media reports:

Radio Prague International - Klára Stejskalová, Jan Kaliba: A celebration of Czech-Canadian friendship in Ottawa (article and audio in English)

https://english.radio.cz/a-celebration-czech-canadian-friendship-ottawa-8762813?fbclid=IwAR3HSBFS7ulH8s-fXloARavLCVJe6lkSXnpClLLzYolBLb7XdyOwXsuM5c8

Radio Prague International - Traxler 110 - New record pays tribute to one of Czechoslovakia’s interwar swing icons (article and audio in English)

https://english.radio.cz/traxler-110-new-record-pays-tribute-one-czechoslovakias-interwar-swing-icons-8762317

Radio Prague International - Klára Stejskalová, Jan Kaliba: A celebration of Czech-Canadian friendship in Ottawa (article and audio in English)

https://english.radio.cz/a-celebration-czech-canadian-friendship-ottawa-8762813?fbclid=IwAR3HSBFS7ulH8s-fXloARavLCVJe6lkSXnpClLLzYolBLb7XdyOwXsuM5c8 

Radio Prague International: Traxler 110 - New record pays tribute to one of Czechoslovakia’s interwar swing icons (article and audio in English)

https://english.radio.cz/traxler-110-new-record-pays-tribute-one-czechoslovakias-interwar-swing-icons-8762317 

Radio Prague International - Interview with Thomas McEnchroe: Czech ambassador to Canada on energy security and the country's Volhynian Czechs

Czech ambassador to Canada on energy security and the country's Volhynian Czechs | Radio Prague International