In the legislature today I rose to deliver a statement in advance of Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day this Saturday. This will be the first time following the passage of my private members’ bill, that this day will be officially recognized in British Columbia.

Below I reproduce the video and text of my statement

Video of Statement

Text of Statement

A. Weaver: This coming Saturday is Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (“Holodomor”) Memorial Day. It’s been a pleasure working with members on both sides of the aisle over the last month to formally recognize this important day in British Columbia.

As members know, Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (“Holodomor”) Memorial Day is particularly important and relevant to my family. My grandfather and his family were survivors of the Holodomor. He and his wife, together with my mother and her siblings, made their way to Canada after the Second World War. Their stories have stayed with me.

During the Holodomor in 1932 to ’33, between three and four million people starved to death due to Stalin’s forced collectivization. Indeed, what unfolded there was horrific. Peasants were forbidden to leave collective farms, and the Ukrainian borders were closed, closely patrolled, to prevent the starving from reaching for bread and searching there in neighbouring Russia.

The Holodomor was a political policy that destroyed the peasants of Ukraine as a social strata and crushed their opposition to the Soviet regime. It’s been recognized by the Ukraine and 15 other countries as a genocide of the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government.

Canada is home to the world’s third-largest Ukrainian population, with an estimated 1.36 million Ukrainian Canadians living across this country, many which have made this province their own home and have contributed to it in all their walks of life. This Saturday, we honour the survivors of Holodomor and their descendants. We reflect upon this horrific atrocity. Holodomor let us also remember that we have a collective responsibility to challenge hatred and intolerance and to protect the vulnerable wherever they are in our society.