The Ukrainian Canadian community today expressed its thanks to the Government of Canada for recognizing officially that the 1932-1933 famine in Soviet Ukraine was genocidal. Bill C-459 established a Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day in Canada, marked annually on the 4th Saturday of every November, recalling the many millions of Ukrainians who perished during a famine orchestrated by the Stalinist regime of the USSR. 

Commenting, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, chairman of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said: ” It is now widely understood that many millions of Ukrainians perished during the genocidal Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine, a crime against humanity arguably without parallel in 20th century Europe. We are grateful to the Government of Canada for showing solidarity with Ukraine by sending the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, to Kyiv, where he will take part in an international memorial service tomorrow marking the 75th anniversary of this catastrophe. Tomorrow, here in Canada, we will join them in recalling the many millions of victims of Communism in Ukraine.”