Entries Tagged 'canada' ↓

I spent my Remembrance Day checking out the Holodomor Exhibit at the North York Civic Centre.  Here are some photos:

I made an impromptu visit to the Yarmarok (Ukrainian Bazaar) at St. Mary’s Dormition of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Mississauga, Ontario today.  The place was packed and everyone was enjoying themselves with great entertainment, food and culture on hand.  I only had my camera phone to take pictures and while the basement lighting didn’t help, but here’s what I snapped:

As a consolation, here are also pictures from last year’s event.

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

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.

From the Leduc Representative:

On Oct. 30, I was pleased to be in the Legislature for the introduction, debate and passage of Bill 37, the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day Act. This bill recognizes millions of Ukrainian men, women, and children who perished in the Ukrainian famine and genocide, known as Holodomor, of 1932-33. It will also establish and proclaim the fourth Saturday in November each year as the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day in Alberta. This occasion marked only the third time in the more than 100-year history of the Alberta Legislature that a bill was moved through all three stages in one day.

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.

…

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.

…

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.”

From the Ottawa Sun:

Traditional Ukrainian Dinner: With Ukrainian cuisine and music, 5-7 p.m. dinner, show at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday) at Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral Auditorium, 1000 Byron Ave. Tickets $17, $15 students/seniors, $7 under 12, under six free. 613-722-1372.

The results are in!

• Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Liberal) held onto Etobicioke-Centre increasing in popularity
• Gerrard Kennedy (Liberal) unseated Peggy Nash to claim Parkdale-High Park.
• Patrick Boyer was unsuccessful in dethroning Michael Ignatieff.

Over 10 million eligible voters did not vote, the lowest turn-out in Canadian history.

From the Toronto Star:

OTTAWA – A Toronto Liberal incumbent has won a court injunction ordering his Conservative rival to yank a defamatory campaign flyer that alleges he has a poor attendance record.

Ontario Superior Court Justice George Strathy has ruled that Tory hopeful Axel Kuhn and his staff must stop publishing and distributing a brochure that makes false claims about Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

The pamphlet claims Wrzesnewskyj skipped dozens of parliamentary committee meetings, but the Liberal says he’s only a full-time member of one of the six committees listed in the brochure.

In his Sunday ruling, the judge wrote that the words in Kuhn’s flyer are “clearly defamatory.”

From the Toronto Star:

Some Tory campaign workers say privately that Etobicoke-Lakeshore is one of the party’s best chances at making inroads into the 416 area. In the 2006 federal election Ignatieff defeated his Tory rival by fewer than 5,000 votes.

Boyer, who represented the riding for two terms during the Mulroney years, likes to emphasize his local roots, pointing out that he lives on the lakeshore and runs a publishing house nearby.

Ignatieff, Liberal deputy leader, likes to emphasize that he is often seen on television holding the Tories to account in the House of Commons, but it’s constituency work that he finds rewarding, such as helping a voter with an immigration problem.

Also running are Liam McHugh-Russell for the NDP, Dave Corail for the Green party and Janice Murray for the Marxist-Leninist Party.

While Etobicoke-Lakeshore is a Liberal stronghold, Ignatieff was parachuted in to replace a popular Jean Augustine amidst controversy when others trying to apply for the seat were locked out.  Augustine defended the action, from the same article:

She told The Hill Times that the takeover was orchestrated by “a group of individuals who are from the Ukrainian community” who wanted to ensure that the next MP was Ukrainian. Etobicoke-Lakeshore has one of the largest Ukrainian-Canadian populations in Canada.

Ignatieff has gained heat in his own riding, for starters living in Boston most of his life and currently not even residing in the riding he is to represent.  Also some choice words from his book Blood and Belonging:

My difficulty in taking Ukraine seriously goes deeper than just my cosmopolitan suspicion of nationalists everywhere. Somewhere inside I’m also what Ukrainians would call a great Russian and there is just a trace of old Russian disdain for these little Russians.

The Liberals are losing their hold on this riding, and I’m glad to see this group is also losing voters.