OTTAWA— Deputy Liberal Leader Ralph Goodale made the following statement today to commemorate National Holodomor Awareness Week:
“The word ‘Holodomor’ is haunting – it literally means ‘murder by starvation.’ It evokes the strongest of emotions among Ukrainian Canadians, and rightly so, as they recall painful memories of the state-imposed genocide that snuffed out millions of lives in 1932-33.
We honour the innocent lives so tragically taken and we pay solemn tribute to those who miraculously survived.
By the systematic confiscation of all foodstuffs, Stalin’s Soviet Union quite literally and deliberately starved millions to death in Ukraine. Others faced firing squads or were persecuted through mass arrests and deportation. It was a horrific chapter in world history.
This week is a time of remembrance, grief and great sadness, but it is also a time to praise the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainian people, and to reaffirm our common commitment to the protection of human rights both inside and beyond our borders.
On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada and our Parliamentary Caucus, I encourage all Canadians to honour our fellow citizens of Ukrainian heritage by learning more about the Holodomor and by sharing the resolve that such brutality must never be allowed to happen again.”
