National Black Ribbon Day

Winnipeg – On August 23, 2010, Canadians marked Black Ribbon Day - a national day of remembrance for the victims of Central and Eastern European Communism and Nazism. Black Ribbon Day was declared a national day of commemoration by Canada’s Parliament last fall. This annual day of remembrance marks the anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes.

For the first official Canadian memorial day - Black Ribbon Day - community churches in cities across Canada opened their doors in the evening for people to commemorate the victims of Europe’s totalitarian regimes. Coinciding with the Church memorials was a full day conference co-sponsored by the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre, the Central and Eastern European Council and the Black Ribbon Day Foundation. The conference attracted leading historians and political scientists to discuss the theme, “History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe”.