Category Archives: event

canada, event

Holodomor Exhibit at North York Civic Centre starting tomorrow

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From the League of Ukrainian Canadians:

Media Advisory: Holodomor Exhibit at the North York Civic Centre

The exhibit, which is sponsored by the League of Ukrainian Canadians and League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, will be on display at the North York Civic Centre from 7:30am on Nov 10 to 3:00pm on Nov 23, 2008.

This year, Ukrainians worldwide are commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, in which as many as 10 million Ukrainians, almost half of them children, perished through forced starvation.

In Canada, the Ukrainian Canadian community began to mark the 75th anniversary by displaying the exhibit Holodomor: Genocide by Famine at Toronto City Hall in April of this year, and by sponsoring the journey throughout Canada of the International Remembrance Flame.

The exhibit Holodomor: Genocide by Famine was produced by the League of Ukrainian Canadians in cooperation with the Kyiv Memorial Society in Ukraine.

The exhibit includes 101 panels ranging from opposition to collectivization; to why the genocide was organized; to how the genocide was organized, including the blacklisting of villages, ban on travel, and export abroad; to why the Holodomor was indeed a genocide. On behalf of the League of Ukrainian Canadians and our partner the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, we invite you to view our most revealing exhibit on the Holodomor.

For further information regarding the exhibit, please contact us at 416-516-8223 or luc@lucorg.com. Please visit our website www.lucorg.com for information on Holodomor recognition in Ontario, as well as for our teacher package on the Holodomor.

In addition, please visit the website www.holodomoreducation.org for information on the distribution of our exhibit worldwide.

North York Civic Centre
5100 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M2N 5V7

On the west side of Yonge Street, five blocks north of Sheppard Avenue
Public Transit: subway to North York Centre Station

canada, event, holodomor

Congratulations Alberta! Holodomor Day Bill passed!

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First it was Manitoba, then Saskatchewan and then the whole country, but now Alberta has followed suit and approved Bill 37 last Tuesday to proclaim the 4th Saturday in November to be ‘Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day’ in the province.  Only twice in Alberta’s history has a bill moved through all three stages in a single day!  The bill then finally reached Royal Assent to officially become law, active immediately.  You can download the bill here (PDF).  This couldn’t have been done without the bill’s sponsor, Conservative and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gene Zwozdesky, as well as Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach.

event, ukraine

90th Anniversary of the West Ukrainian People’s Republic

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On October 18, 1918 Ukrainian nationalism came in its own right declaring an independent West Ukrainian People’s Republic from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  The area consisted of Galicia, Transcarpathia and Bukovina which many of the Ukrainian diaspora emigrated from.  The Republic had a population of over 5 million people, and its government had 1/3 of its seats reserved for ethnic minorities (Poles, Jews, etc).  The official state language was Ukrainian, but the minorities reserved the right to communicate with their government in their mother tongue.  The state also confiscated vast estates from private landlords and distributed the land to landless peasants.  On January 22 1919 the state united with the Ukrainian People’s Republic.

Viktor Yushchenko recently took part in the celebration:

According to the Ukrainian president, the formation of the movement gave a push towards the national unity required for the formation of the Ukrainian state in 1919. It required, according to him, progressive democratic and Europe-oriented ideals which should dominate foreign policy today.
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“If we stand united, if we do not step on politically secular paths, we will be able to achieve those values, which are the essence of our national ideal, the values of the Ukrainian spirit. The values of European civilisation, of fair and confident living. The values, which were proclaimed in Lviv 90 years ago – independence, statehood,
community and spirituality,” Yushchenko said.

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Day will mark Ukrainian genocide (in Alberta)

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From the Edmonton Journal:

EDMONTON – MLAs spoke eloquently, passionately and at times tearfully Thursday of the horror of genocide and the strength of the Ukrainian people as they passed a bill proclaiming a memorial day for the Ukrainian famine, or Holodomor.

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In a speech heavily peppered with Ukrainian phrases and words, Stelmach described how millions were starved to death by Soviet policies that saw crops stripped from Europe’s traditional bread basket through the early 1930s.

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The genocide, in 1932 and 1933, was Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s attempt to subdue the Ukrainian people by systematically starving them and restricting travel beyond their villages. The exact number of victims remains unclear.

Bill 37 was introduced and passed unanimously in just over an hour Thursday afternoon, and proclaims every fourth Saturday in November “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day.”