Holodomor   Exclusion   Shocks Community

By John Pidkowich

In September 2008, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is offering a full-year Grade 11 History, College/University Preparation Course entitled Genocide: Historical and Contemporary Implications for all schools in the Board. Ontario’s Ministry of Education has approved the Board’s proposal for this new, locally developed course for high school students in consideration of the new Ontario Curriculum and courses listed in the Board’s Canadian and World Studies policy as well as options in the Interdisciplinary Studies policy.

The course investigates examples of genocide in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, featuring the Jewish Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan Genocides. Interested students have the option to explore other genocides as independent study units. Students will study what constitutes a genocide and be challenged to draw appropriate connections between the history of genocide and Canadian history and between the lives of the people they are investigating and their own lives.

The Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine 1932-33 or Holodomor was not considered by Board committee as a genocide to be taught through the regular curriculum and the Ukrainian Canadian community in Toronto was not contacted. The communities above were contacted for resources and the course’s extensive bibliography reflects a limited prejudicial position on the Holodomor, biased towards selected entries.

The Holodomor or murder by starvation of about 10 million people was a deliberate, artificial famine created by unrealistic grain quotas, directed by Stalin against Ukrainian farmers and others who resisted, in his quest for Collectivisation in Moscow’s first Five Year Plan. The Kremlin sold grain surpluses on the open world market and foreign aid to Ukraine was declined.

The TDSB wants to show it is inclusive and sensitive to all Canadians with respect to their specific needs in TDSB Schools. With over 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian heritage, approximately 100,000 live in the Toronto Area. As many students of Ukrainian descent and new Canadians from Ukraine attend TDSB Schools, it is difficult to comprehend how the Board does not consider teaching the Holodomor Famine Genocide, orchestrated against the Ukrainian people. It is difficult to comprehend how the Board arrived at their decision to offer all students a course on genocide and not teach about the Holodomor. At issue is not so much about not teaching Ukrainian students about the tragedy of their own people, the Holodomor, but really, one of not teaching about one of the greatest human tragedies of the Twentieth Century, the first time mass murder and genocide were combined, the result of which was a genocide on such a large scale rarely found anywhere in world history and certainly, second to none, the largest of its kind in Europe.

Parents of children attending TDSB schools and other individual Canadians of Ukrainian origin living in the Toronto Area show concern for our children and the Ukrainian Canadian community.  Key member organizations of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto Branch had been faxing School Board Trustees and Officials until a January 31 deadline, expressing their concerns about the Holodomor Great Famine Genocide being omitted from a proposed new course on genocides to be offered and taught in publicly funded Toronto schools.

A founding member of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, The Ukrainian National Federation of Canada as well as the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada and their respective Toronto Branches are leading members of the Ukrainian Canadian community. They have completed and submitted “Requests for Reconsideration of a Learning Resource/Curriculum” to the Toronto District School Board with respect to teaching about genocides in the schools and the significance of the Holodomor.