Estonian journalists Lydia Krabi and Hannes Oja were given life membership by the Canadia Ethnic Journalist and Writers Club ( CEJWC ) at their meeting on September 2nd. Both are Charter Members, which means they joined the " Club " at the very beginning 26 years ago when it was started by Mr. Sergei Marian Ziniak. Mr. Ziniak broke loose from the existing journalists' organization because that group allowed only print reporting and electronic media was becoming fast a strong item on the ethnic media scene. The CEJWC is now chaired by the founder’s daughter Madeline Ziniak and the honours to the Estonians were proferred by President Mr. Ben Viccari.
Hannes Oja has been a journalist almost sixty years starting as a reporter and finishing as an editor, well not really finishing, he's not finished writing yet - he'll never be finished. Oja started as a reporter with small papers in Estonia and then went on to write for the soldier's paper of the Estonian troops in Finland. He later wrote for Estonian papers in Sweden and then Canada until he became the Editor-in-Chief of the Free Estonian (“Vaba Eestlane”) in the 70's which he continued until the late 80's. He then took his first retirement, returned, and became the Cultural Editor. He is still a frequent contributor to the cultural pages at Eesti Elu.
Lydia Krabi wrote for both Our Life (“Meie Elu”) and Free Estonian ( mostly, and most recently ) for about 35 years until 4 years ago, stopping only because of severe illness. Krabi wrote on most subjects: reviewing plays, Estonian Days, cultural events and anything that came along. She also wrote under different pseudonyms, the most famous being Riin Riivanool. A book of Rivanool’s selected writings has been published.