Thank you Quebec!

Although the head of the Ukrainian state declared, at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, that it would be unjust to consider the Holodomor of 1932-33 as the genocide of the Ukrainian people, and a representative of the ruling coalition even suggested amending Ukrainian legislation, the number of nations ready to speak the truth has not shrunk for that.

One of them is Canada, which has always supported our state in what concerns denouncing the crimes of Stalinism. Canada is still keeping to the principle of solidarity with the Ukrainian nation (the people, not the regime), and has not forgotten the horrible tragedy which befell Ukraine in the early 1930s.

The Canadians’ logic is easy to see: no matter what the current leadership might declare, facts remain facts. The situation when 25,000 people starved to death every day, deprived of whatever food they had, cannot be qualified in any other way than genocide. This genocide has maimed the Ukrainian nation. It has left deep social and psychological scars on the Ukrainian soul. The Quebec National Assembly (Quebec being Canada’s second largest province in terms of population) unanimously passed a draft law on acknowledging the Holodomor of 1932-33 an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people, and established Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day. According to the National Assembly’s official web site, the “bill 390,” as the law was named, defines the Holodomor as an act of genocide on the Ukrainian nation in Ukraine in 1932-33, when “millions of Ukrainians perished as victims of a famine deliberately induced by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin to quash the aspirations of the Ukrainian people for a free and independent Ukraine.”

The draft bill was presented to the National Assembly by Louise Beaudoin, member for Rosemont. According to the new law, the fourth Saturday in November each year is proclaimed Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day. As the members of the Quebec Assembly mentioned at the session, this bill is the continuation of the previous legislation on the Holodomor: the decree passed by the president of Ukraine in 1998, approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2006; the bill on the Holodomor which was unanimously passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2008; as well as the relevant acts passed by the legislatures of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-33 an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation. The draft itself had a long way to go before being enacted. It was first presented in November, 2009. Ihor Yukhnovsky, director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, said: “I perceive this as a most noble and decent step, as such a stand taken by the Quebec legislature reflects the true situation which really took place.”

Our readers will remember that the very historical fact of the Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine has been officially recognized by more than 70 countries of the world. The Holodomor was qualified as an act of genocide by presidents, heads of governments and parliaments of 26 countries. On the political plane, an important step was made when the 58th session of the UN General Assembly passed a Joint statement on occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor, the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine, which was circulated as an official document. The statement, virtually a declaration, was co-authored by 36 UN member states. This was when the events of 1932-33 were recognized as a national tragedy. They later became known internationally as the Holodomor.