Holodomor Memorial Day

NP - On April 17, 2008, Ontario MPP for Brant, Dave Levac, introduced his Private Member’s Bill, the Holodomor Memorial Day Act, for First Reading in the Ontario Legislature. The legislative process requires two further readings and debate before voting into law and would enact the following: The fourth Saturday in November in each year is proclaimed Holodomor Memorial Day to commemorate the genocide by famine that occurred in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933.

On April 18 in the Toronto City Hall Rotunda, at the Holodomor: Genocide by Famine exhibit opening, Mr. Levac addressed the need to recognise the famine genocide. He stated “by introducing the Holodomor Memorial Day Act … Let us never forget the Holodomor … Today, as we come together in peace, let us commemorate each year on a day of peace”. The exhibit runs until April 26, organized by the League of Ukrainian Canadians and women’s organization. Its opening also featured the launch of a 14-city Canadian tour for the International Remembrance Flame, organized by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, and will visit 33 countries to raise Holodomor awareness.

Over 40 jurisdictions around the world have officially condemned or recognized the Holodomor as genocide. With over one third of a million Ontarians with Ukrainian heritage, now is the time for Ontario to officially recognize and commemorate the Holodomor , and annually remember its victims. A memorial day provides the opportunity to reflect on and educate the public about the lessons of the Holodomor along with other crimes against humanity and their contemporary significance.

Ontarians should write their MPP, Premier Dalton McGuinty and Provincial Parliament Speaker Steven Peters by letter or by email in support of MPP Dave Levac’s Private Member’s Bill, the Holodomor Memorial Day Act.

Holodomor:  Ukrainian Famine Genocide 1932-33

In the early 1930s, in the very heart of Europe - in a region considered Europe’s breadbasket - Stalin’s Communist regime committed a horrendous act of genocide against up to 10 million Ukrainians.  An ancient nation of agriculturists was subjected to starvation, one of the most ruthless forms of torture and death.  The government imposed exorbitant grain quotas, in some cases confiscating supplies down to the last seed.  Soviet Ukraine and the predominantly Ukrainian-populated Kuban region of the Northern Caucasus (Soviet Russia) were isolated by armed units, so that people could not cross the Russian border in search of food.  The result was the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-33, known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor, or extermination by famine.

Facts about the Holodomor

• The Soviet regime dumped 1.7 million tons of grain on the Western markets at the height of the Holodomor.
• Ukrainian villagers were dying at a peak rate of 25,000 per day or 1,000 per hour or 17 per minute.
•  One-third of Holodomor victims were children and large numbers of surviving children were orphaned and became homeless.
• The Ukrainian population was reduced by as much as 25 percent.
• The Soviet Government refused to acknowledge to the international community the starvation in Ukraine and turned down the assistance offered by various countries and international relief organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• Foreign correspondent reporters were barred from visiting Ukraine except for the likes of Walter Duranty of The New York Times who set the tone for most Western press coverage with authoritative denials of starvation.  He conceded off the record that “as many as 10 million may have perished.”

The Holodomor was genocide: it conforms to the definition of the crime according to the UN Convention on Genocide.  The Communist regime targeted the Ukrainians, in the sense of a civic nation, in Soviet Ukraine, and as an ethnic group in Soviet Russia, especially in the predominantly Ukrainian Kuban region of Northern Caucasus.

In Ukraine

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, called for international recognition of the Holodomor as genocide in three resolutions adopted during 2002-2003.  On November 28, 2006, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine passed a resolution declaring the Holodomor as genocide.

In Canada

The Senate of Canada adopted unanimously on June 19, 2003, a resolution calling upon the Government of Canada:

• to recognize the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-33 and to condemn any attempt to deny or distort this historical truth as being anything less than genocide;
• to designate the fourth Saturday in November of every year throughout Canada as a day of remembrance of the more than seven million Ukrainians who fell victim to the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-33; and
• to call upon all Canadians, particularly historians, educators and parliamentarians, to include the true facts about the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-33 in the records of Canada and in future educational material.

For information visit faminegenocide.com  infoukes.com/history/famine or shevchenko.org/famine

Prepared by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Holodomor Committee