site.btaBTA to Spread Information about Bulgarian Community in Ottawa

The Bulgarian community in Ottawa will provide news for BTA’s BG World service to be freely used by all media, said Stela Kostova, President of the National Capital Region Bulgarian Community Association and the Ottawa Region Bulgarian Foundation, following the representatives of the Bulgarian communities in Toronto and Montreal. Kostova conferred with BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and the Bulgarian Ambassador to Canada Plamen Georgiev at the Bulgarian Embassy in Ottawa.

Georgiev said that Bulgarians in the Canadian capital region number some 2,000 people, but due to the lack of statistics it is difficult to determine their exact number and it is likely to be twice as many. According to BTA estimates, in 2023, nearly 100,000 Bulgarians live in Canada.

Kostova said that 13 Bulgarian dance groups from different Canadian cities - Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Kitchener, among others, will perform a concert on October 14. The event will take place within the Days of Bulgarian Culture forum that started on October 1 in the Canadian capital.

Valchev emphasized that BTA will publish news about the performances, as well as information about other Bulgarian events in Ottawa. He presented honorary medals commemorating BTA’s 125th anniversary to Georgiev and Kostova.

On Friday, Valchev and Bulgarian Consul General to Toronto Velislava Panova visited the two Bulgarian schools in the Toronto area, as well as three of the four Bulgarian Orthodox churches in the city region. On Monday, Valchev visited the Bulgarian Church of St. Ivan Rilski in Montreal, where he met with Vladimir Vassilev - chairperson of the church board, Georgi Lazarov - conductor of the church choir, and Galya Tsvetkova - director of the St. Ivan Rilski school.

Valchev is meeting with Bulgarian organizations in Canada during a visit whose main highlight is the 35th Conference of MINDS International, an association of 25 leading news agencies worldwide. BTA joined MINDS in April 2022. During the conference, BTA signed cooperation agreements with the national news agencies of India, Latvia and the Netherlands and discussed partnership with the Canadian Press.

BTA's BG World service provides universal free access to the national news agency's content since a legislative amendment in 2021.