Little is known about the new Hungarian Ambassador to Ottawa; she keeps her cards close to her chest. To be honest, I was surprised to learn that she got the job, a fairly important diplomatic assignment. I have a feeling that she was also surprised. Ambassador Vass-Salazar is in her late 40s, married, has two girls and had numerous diplomatic […]
Forty-three year old Ferenc Kumin, currently Consul General in New York, will become Hungary’s new ambassador in Ottawa. The Index news site reported on this, based on both government and opposition sources. We also learned that Hungary’s former spy chief, István Pásztor, will replace Mr. Kumin in New York, as the new Consul General. Mr. Pásztor, until recently, headed the […]
We’re told by confidential sources, that ever since Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, chalked up his third electoral victory in a row, on April 8, his Ambassador to Canada, Bálint Ódor, spends most of his nights tossing and turning in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The question that keeps Mr. Ódor awake is this: how is it possible, that […]
The State Secretariat for National Policy of the Prime Minister’s Office has produced a break-down of unprecedented government subsidies provided to Hungarian Canadians between 2014 and 2017, following a query sent to State Secretary Árpád Potápi from our Hungarian-language publication, the Kanadai Magyar Hírlap. On October 20th, we had specifically asked the State Secretary what measures it had in place […]
Statistics Canada released numbers pertaining to ethnicity and immigration from the 2016 census this week, including revealing data on the number of Canadians who listed Hungarian as their sole ethno-cultural background, or one of several. There is one number, which can be misleading and is often used to justify the Hungarian government’s significant public spending in Hungarian-Canadian communities. This includes […]
Hungarian Ambassador Bálint Ódor published a piece entitled “A Hungarian Tribute to Canada” in a publication called National Newswatch. In this piece, Ambassador Ódor writes: “Canada is a nation that understood the message of 1956 clearly, and also extended helping hands to a large number of Hungarians who were forced to flee their homeland…By its rare display of heroism and […]
The Hungarian National Trading House, affiliated with Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has been amassing significant financial losses and is mired in corruption allegations, yet it is now expanding to Canada. The MNKH Hungarian National Trading House Cls. published public procurement and bidding documentation online for parties interested in the “creation, operation and management of a Trading House […]
Hungary’s government, criticized internationally for trampling on the civil liberties of its citizens and for attacking artists and civic groups that dare to criticize it is staging its largest and most expensive public relations campaign in Canada since the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries in the sixties. The million dollar PR extravaganza kicked off at the end […]
Leaders of the European Union have been scratching their heads for years about Hungarian strongman, Viktor Orbán’s civil rights abuses, and anti-liberal conduct. This past week, and on the eve of the Hungarian government’s biggest PR show in Montreal, EU leaders, along with some members of the Montreal Hungarian community, are tearing their hair out. Many are wondering, why the […]
The Orbán government has teamed up with the Ville de Montréal and Air Canada to organize quite an extravagant week of Hungarian cultural programs in Montreal, with the aim of presenting Budapest — and by extension Hungary — as a hipster, avant-garde, inclusive and welcoming place of free-flowing and uniquely rich cultural expression. Anyone who has visited Budapest recently will […]
