DARIA ANTONINA KIPERCHUK

Adjust Text Size: A+ A-

DARIA ANTONINA KIPERCHUK April 21, 1948 - March 8, 2006 The elegant, beautiful, actress, comedian, model, researcher, radio producer, executive producer, activist, feminist, mother of three, wife, lover, adventurer and book club animator has left us and we are devastated. Cancer took everything from her but her courage and her sense of humour. Daria was born in Lachine, QC, the oldest of seven children, to Helen and Nazareth Kiperchuk. She graduated from Sir George Williams University and went to work in broadcasting in Montreal, at CJAD, then CFCF, and then CBC. In 1976, she moved with her husband, Michael Scott, to Winnipeg where she established herself as a radio producer and executive producer of CBC Public Affairs Radio, and was involved in the planning of the development of the Mid-Canada network for the CBC. Her first son Kyle, was born in 1981 and Michaelin and Blair followed in 1983. In 1985, the family moved to Toronto where she became involved with the Women's Legal Education Action Fund, (LEAF) and began to voice her concern about ensuring the protection of women's rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For the next fifteen years, her association with LEAF became a major passion in her life. In 1989, the family moved back to Winnipeg, where after a brief stint with the CBC, she decided to devote herself to her children, books and her many friends that she acquired over the years. Organizing the LEAF Person's Day Breakfast, held on International Women's Day, March 8 of every year, occupied a great deal of her energy and time. But it was an activity that she absolutely loved, bringing her into contact with many dedicated people. Always an outgoing and energetic person, her wisdom, charity and grace were constantly appreciated by all who came in contact with her. As she grew older, she dreamed of moving to an island paradise on the west coast of British Columbia with her husband, where she could become a good Ukrainian baba. In spite of battling pancreatic cancer in 2005, she began to fulfill that dream, when she moved her retired husband to Piers Island, near Sidney, BC. As she put it, retirement is a guy thing and she had a great many plans for this new phase in her life. But unfortunately the cancer struck her down and her last months on Piers were supported by the caring efforts of the people of the island and by her family, her friends, her siblings and her sisters and brothers-in-law. Her family would like to thank the Winnipeg and BC Cancer Care units, and the staff of the Saanich Peninsula Hospital Palliative Care Unit. Seeing as though flowers could never be delivered to Piers, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society (www.cancer.ca) or LEAF (www.leaf.ca), in Daria's name would be appreciated. A celebration of her life will be held on Piers Island the weekend of March 18 and one will be held in Winnipeg in the spring, TBA. Her exuberance and love of life will be sorely missed by all. Her own good Ukrainian baba used to say when you're gone, you're just a dead chicken. Some chicken!

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Mar 10, 2006