By Alex Chumak, Former Toronto School Trustee

What does one have to do to persuade the Toronto District School Board to include the Holodomor/Genocide as part of its curriculum? At the present time, the Toronto Board will be teaching the following genocides -the Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan – in its Genocide Program. These were the recommendations of a Review Committee that ostensibly researched many genocides and concluded to teach only these three.

To its credit, the Toronto Board has established an appeal process where the wider community could express its views on the genocide program and request that, in this case, the Ukrainian genocide should be included in the curriculum. Presumably, the information provided at the appeal would be evaluated on its merit, considered carefully and, based on the information given, would render a decision that is both fair and educationally sound. Not so with the Toronto Board’s Program and School Services Committee which was hearing the appeal.

On June 2, 2008 , under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee – Toronto Branch, the Holodomor committee presented educational reasons why the Holodomor should be included in the Board’s curriculum. The deputants argued passionately, with adequate documentation and sound educational arguments, that the Holodomor should be included in the curriculum. But this did not happen.

Continue reading TDSB turns a blind eye to the Holodomor →

This Thursday the Toronto District School Board will vote on the recommendations made last week notably to exclude the Ukrainian Holodomor famine genocide from its curriculum. Please show your support by sparing only an hour of your time:

Thursday June 12th, 2008 @ 6pm
Toronto District School Board
5050 Yonge St, North York (Google map)

By car: Just north of the 401 on Yonge & North York Blvd., by Mel Lastman Square & Toronto Centre for the Arts
By subway: A quick walk from the TTC North York Centre station, one stop north of Sheppard

Has no one given them a copy of one our country’s newest laws? Saskatchewan has also recognized the genocide with Manitoba and Ontario on it’s way. They already include the Holodomor in its curriculum in Illinois, Minnesota, California and of course Alberta.

Let the members of the board know what you think! E-mail Trustees Chris Bolton, Cathy Dandy, John Hastings, Maria Rodrigues and Chris Tonks.

Thanks to the League of Ukrainian Canadians for keeping us informed!

UPDATE: What can you do to help? e-Poshta‘s latest newsletter has a great write up on how to show your support, download it here!

Last week the Globe and Mail after briefly covering Canada’s recognization of the Holodomor as Genocide, decided to re-hash an old op-ed from a Russian newspaper written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn of the Gulag Archipelago fame. Solzhenitsyn made the world aware of the brutality of the Gulag and the Soviet labour camp system, and was jailed and even exiled for his writings and his family property turned into a collective farm. In 1994 he was allowed to return to Russia, and his anti-communism views dissolved into rampant Russian nationalism.

While some newspapers printed his writings at the time the lower house of Russian Parliament vehemently denied the genocide, the Globe and Mail decided to also publish it – two months later.

An outcry poured out from the Ukrainian community, and the Globe and Mail almost a week later printed miniscule rebuttals while better ones from much more credible people existed elsewhere.

Tonight, the Toronto District School Board had approved the recommendation to exclude the newly federally recognized Ukrainian genocide famine known as the Holodomor from their new Gr. 11 class on Genocide.

From the Memorandum:

Recommendation 3: It is recommended that students be taught the importance of establishing intent when characterizing a crime against humanity as a genocide.

Students will be expected to study other examples of genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights abuses in the 20th and 21st centuries based on their personal interests and appropriate academic resources. These examples might include Cambodia, Aboriginal Peoples in Canada, the Ukrainian Famine, East Timor, Bosnia, Darfur, the former Yugoslavia and others. While it is noted that more people died in the Ukrainian Famine than in all of the genocides that are included in the course, the Review Committee did not recommend altering the course at this time but this should be considered when the course is reviewed.

Recommendation 4: It is recommended that the number of actual case studies not be expanded at this time.

Recommendation 5: It is recommended that a teacher course review committee be set up in the third year with a view to re-examining the curriculum content and the course description.

Despite the efforts by presenters Andrew Melnyk, Valetnina Kuryliw, Luba Tarapacky, Alex Chumak and Chrystyna Bidiak the Holodomor was chosen not to be added to the curriculum. While members of the board assured the genocide would still be mentioned, it would not be a main point of focus like the Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan Genocides.  The board has decided not to renew interest in updating the curiculum for another three years.