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[English]
Mr. Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, on August 24, 2005, the Liberal government signed an historic agreement for $12.5 million with the Ukrainian Canadian community for the acknowledgement, commemoration and education of Canadians of the dark episode of internment operations against Ukrainian Canadians. The program was to be administered by the Shevchenko Foundation.
The Conservative government outrageously cancelled the agreement and ripped it away from the Shevchenko Foundation. Will the government re-announce this Liberal initiative in its budget before Mary Haskett, the sole survivor of internment, dies?
Hon. Jason Kenney (Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), CPC): Mr. Speaker, this government did no such thing. This government will acknowledge and has acknowledged the injustice of first world war wartime internment measures.
That member should apologize to the community. He and I attended a Ukrainian event last week in Toronto where he stood up and said that the Liberals had “budgeted” $12.5 million for the Ukrainian internment. That was a complete, blatant, and I believe deliberate falsehood.