Statement on Holodomor by MP Jim Karygiannis

Ottawa, November 18, 2011 – It is with a deep sense of reverence that I commemorate, with members of the Canadian Ukrainian community, the 78th Anniversary of Holodomor.

During National Holodomor Awareness Week, we pause to remember the atrocity perpetrated by the Communist regime of Joseph Stalin – the ‘killing by hunger’ of millions of Ukrainians.

Stalin implemented policies which imposed exorbitant grain quotas; confiscated privately owned lands and forced Ukrainian farmers to work on collective farms… Secret Police and Red Army units were sent to villages to remove not only grain quotas, but also all food found in individual homes… People trying to get food were killed, while those attempting to flee to the cities or from Ukraine were imprisoned.

From 1932 to 1933, almost three million tons of grain were exported from Ukraine by Soviet authorities and dumped on world markets. In Ukraine, known as the “Breadbasket of Europe”, one quarter of the population, between seven and ten million men, women and children starved to death.

In May 2008, the Parliament of Canada voted [unanimously] to recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide.

On this solemn occasion, we pay homage to the victims and express solidarity with the survivors and their descendants.

The Hon. Jim Karygiannis is MP for Scarborough-Agincourt

and Liberal Critic for Multiculturalism