Former Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga will receive an honorary doctorate during commencement ceremonies June 18 at York University in Toronto, the school has announced. She is one of 10 persons receiving honorary degrees during a week of convocation ceremonies at the school.

Vīķe-Freiberga was elected president of Latvia in 1999 and re-elected in 2003.

Born in Latvia, she moved to Canada at the age of 16 and attended University of Toronto and McGill University. She taught psychology at the Université de Montréal until 1998.

Vīķe-Freiberga will receive her honorary degree during a Faculty of Health convocation scheduled at 4:30 p.m. June 18 at York’s Keele Campus.

A total of 48 polling stations in 39 countries will be open Aug. 2 so Latvian citizens abroad may vote in a referendum that could lead to a popular recall of the parliament, the Central Election Commission accounced June 13 in Rīga.

The polling stations are all in Latvian embassies or consulates, commission spokesperson Kristīne Bērziņa said in a press release. Citizens may also apply for mail ballots at 13 of those polling stations. The deadline for vote-by-mail applications is July 11.

Hundreds of polling places also will be open in Latvia.

The referendum will ask whether the Latvian constitution should be amended to allow citizens to initiate dismissal of the Saeima. Currently only the president may do so.

The location of polling stations abroad was recommended by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On election day, polling stations will be open abroad from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time in:

• Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia.
• Vienna, Austria.
• Baku, Azerbaidjan.
• Minsk and Vitebsk in Belarus.
• Brussels, Belgium.
• São Paulo, Brazil.
• Ottawa and Toronto in Canada.
• Beijing, China.
• Prague, Czech Republic.
• Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Cairo, Egypt.
• Tallinn, Estonia.
• Helsinki, Finland.
• Paris, France.
• Tbilisi, Georgia.
• Berlin and Bonn in Germany.
• Athens, Greece.
• Budapest, Hungary.
• Dublin, Ireland.
• Tel Aviv, Israel.
• Rome, Italy.
• Tokyo, Japan.
• Astana, Kazakhstan.
• Vilnius, Lithuania.
• The Hague, Netherlands.
• Oslo, Norway.
• Warsaw, Poland.
• Lisbon, Portugal.
• Kaliningrad, Pskov, Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia.
• Ljubljana, Slovenia.
• Madrid, Spain.
• Stockholm, Sweden.
• Geneva, Switzerland.
• Ankara, Turkey.
• Kiev, Ukraine.
• London, United Kingdom.
• New York and Washington, D.C., in the United States.
• Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
• Caracas, Venezuela.

Requests for mail ballots may be made to the Latvian embassies in Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Minsk, Oslo, Ottawa, Stockholm or Washington, D.C., as well as to the honorary consulates in Adelaide, Sydney and São Paulo. The application letter and the applicant’s Latvian passport must be presented in person or mailed to the embassy or consulate.

Further information on the referendum and the election process is available from the Central Election Commission’s Web site, www.cvk.lv.

A dozen Latvian organizations in Ireland—including two hockey clubs and a young mothers’ group—have complained in an open letter about a recent statement by Finance Minister Atis Slakteris that Latvian immigrants in Ireland owe taxes to Latvia.

The letter, posted June 12 on the Internet portal Baltic-Ireland and on the Web site of the Latvian Society in Ireland, questions a statement by Slakteris that Latvian workers in Ireland owe Latvia the difference between the income tax rate in Ireland, 20 percent, and the rate in Latvia, 25 percent.

Oskars Kastēns, the special assignments minister for social integration affairs, earlier this year had questioned whether it was necessary to ask emigrants to Ireland to pay the difference. In a response reported on the Delfi portal, Slakteris said tax rules should apply equally to all residents registered in Latvia, no matter if they lived in Latvia or not.

The Latvians in Ireland argue that they are not residents of Latvia, because they spend more than 183 days of the year outside of their homeland. They also point to a 1997 convention between Ireland and Latvia that states income is to be taxed in just one of the countries.

“To whom, for what and how much do we owe, Mr. Slakteris?” the letter asks. “On what legal documents are your statements based?”

A study last year by SEB Unibanka reported that Latvians in Ireland return about EUR 300 million in income annually to Latvia.

Organizations signing the open letter include Baltic-Ireland, the Latvian Society in Ireland, the Latvian Association for Latvians in Ireland, the Latvian Children’s Activity Center, the Latvian Hawks hockey club, the Drogheda Icebreaks hockey club, the Women’s Club of Cork, the Youth Association of Cork, the Young Mothers Club of Ireland, the children’s art school BabyArt of Cork, the Limerick Latvian Society and the Latvian Catholic Support Group of Ireland.