Bezan Condemns Liberal Party Statement on Soviet “Victory Day in Ukraine”

Ottawa, ON – James Bezan, Member of Parliament for Selkirk-Interlake condemned the Liberal Party for issuing a statement celebrating the Soviet “Victory Day in Ukraine,” a holiday created under the reign of Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev.

On May 7th, 2013, Liberal Member of Parliament and Critic for Multiculturalism, Jim Karygiannis, released a statement on behalf of the Liberal Party celebrating “Victory Day in Ukraine.” This Soviet-era holiday celebrates the return of the Soviet Union to Ukraine on May 8th at the end of the Second World War. The Soviet occupation of Ukraine lasted until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“The ruthless Soviet occupation of Ukraine is nothing to celebrate,” said MP Bezan. “The Liberal Party is either extremely ignorant, or tremendously insensitive, to be celebrating the anniversary of mass arrests, executions, and famines at the hands of occupying Soviet forces in Ukraine.”

The end of the Second World War marked the beginning of the drop of the Iron Curtain over Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union began its brutal oppression. For many nations such as Ukraine, the terror of the Nazis was simply replaced by the brutality of the KGB.

“I demand MP Karygiannis and the Liberal Party offer Canada’s Ukrainian community a sincere apology,” said MP Bezan. “The return of the Soviet Union to Ukraine is a day to be mourned, not praised. The pain and suffering experienced for decades in Ukraine and Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union was one of the biggest travesties of the 20th Century.”