Ukrainian Canadian

There are two secrets the upcoming Canadian Museum for Human Rights doesn’t want you to know: First, it’s not Canadian – that is, it’s not a federal institution but rather owned by the Asper family (who runs CanWest Global – Global TV, the right-wing NationalPost, Astral Media, etc.) and wants operating funding from the government too! Second, it’s not even a museum – it will not contain any artifacts or other objects of importance but rather only two permanent exhibitions which has upset the Ukrainian community and others in the Winnipeg area:

The committee calls for only two permanent galleries in the museum: one for the Holocaust and the other for Canada’s indigenous people.

The (Ukrainian Canadian) Congress wrote to several Cabinet ministers to complain that the genocide-famine in Soviet Ukraine and the national internment of Canadians during the First and Second World wars aren’t getting permanent exhibits.

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The Congress is urging people to write to their MPs and federal Heritage Minister James Moore and demand a change in the makeup of the museum’s governance and advisory committees.

"We’ll only get one chance to make sure it’s done right," said Mr. Zalusky.

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The national umbrella group that represents 1.2-million Ukrainian-Canadians said it supported the new museum politically and its members have donated to it. But when the final content advisory committee report was made public this fall, members of the congress were disappointed.

"It makes only one minor, passing reference to Canada’s first national internment operations,” the Congress report said. The Congress also says there is only one reference to the Holodomor.

Survivors of the Holodomor shared some horrific recollections of the genocide with the museum committee as it elicited input across Canada, said Mr. Zalusky.

"There were some absolutely stomach-churning issues and events that took place," said Mr. Zalusky. None of the witnesses’ information and input was included in the content advisory committee report, though, he said.

"We don’t believe their report is balanced," said Mr. Zalusky. "Nor does it reflect a Canadian approach to human rights issues," he said.

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the Ukrainian Canadian Congress says the museum’s board and committees are "dominated by friends and supporters of the Asper Foundation" and lack objectivity.

You can read the UCC’s full report on this issue

Most of Ukrainian-related Wikileaks news you read about is Libyan leader Gaddafi’s ‘voluptuous’ nurse Galyna Kolotnytska. But among the many cables released this week it revealed Russia using political pressure to force countries into denying the Holodomor as Ukrainian genocide:

It says that Aliyev (President of Azerbaijan) had received a document from President Medvedev indicating that in case Azerbaijan recognizes Ukrainian famine as “genocide” in the UN, he can forget about Nagorno-Karabakh. Prince Andrew confirmed that other presidents had also received such instructions from Moscow

Nagorno-Karabakh is an unrecognized state vying for independence between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

It was also seen in the cables Russia’s talks with Israel on Ukrainian statehood and the Holodomor:

Lavrov (Russian Finance Minister) raised Russian concern with "historical revisionism" regarding the Soviet Era and Second World War, which, he said, was particularly acute in Eastern Europe but was also present in Israel. He cited Israel’s official recognition of the Holodomor, the 1930s famine that occurred in Ukraine. Lieberman explained that by recognizing this tragedy, Israel had not said Russia was guilty of causing it, nor that it was an act of genocide.

The ‘historical revisionism’ that deviates of course from the official Soviet view, ignoring atrocities and the fact it was a Nazi ally that started WWII. The cables from French diplomats reveal more of Russia’s true directives towards Ukraine:

while noting that it may take a generation before the Russian public will be able to accept their loss of influence, from Poland and the Baltics to Ukraine and Georgia. Unfortunately, the Russian tendency is
to view "good neighbors" as totally submissive subordinates.

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French President Sarkozy was "convinced" that Ukraine would one day be a member of NATO, but that there was no point in rushing the process and antagonizing Russia, particularly if the Ukrainian public was largely against membership.

And some interesting cables from German diplomats too:

Taking a hard line against EU membership not only for Turkey but also for Ukraine. The CSU could lump Turkey and  Ukraine together so neither country could feel singled out  for bad treatment.

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The winter gas crisis made Germans rethink Russia, reliability as a supplier, but the lack of alternatives and the desirability of gas as a clean energy source have left the government resigned to dependency on Russia in the near-to-medium term.

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We expect Germany to be less forgiving of Russian bullying of its eastern European neighbors through cut-offs of natural gas supplies, especially given the departure of former Foreign Minister Steinmeier — known for his relatively pro-Russian views.

Some US-related cables paints US-Ukraine relations in a more positive light:

Vershbow (US Assistant Secretary of Defense) criticized as “counter-productive” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s vitriolic open letter of August 2009, which attacked then-Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko’s “anti-Russian” policies.

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“Vershbow emphasized that Russia’s efforts to assert a regional sphere of influence posed a threat to the reset in bilateral relations, and reiterated the U.S. commitment to the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Georgia, Ukraine and other partners in the region.” He added that the U.S. didn’t see Russian-Ukrainian relations as a “zero-sum game.”

All Ukraine related cables are availalble from Pravda. What else will come out from these cables? Meanwhile ex-Canadian aides are calling for the Wikileaks’ founders assassination! And Stepan Bandera provides some great insight on these new Wikileaks developments

One of my favourite YouTube videographers was kind enough to film a service last night dedicated to the Holodomor by both Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic bishops from St. Volodymyr in Toronto:

Today Canada officially recognizes the Holodomor as genocide. Tonight a moment of silence from 19:32-19:33 for the 7-10 million who have perished:

This week, Ukrainians worldwide have been commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-33, known as the Holodomor (Death by Hunger)

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In the period 2005-2009, when Viktor Yushchenko was president of Ukraine, several archival collections on the Famine-Holodomor of 1932-33 made available to researchers supplemented earlier information gathered mainly from eyewitness reports. Perhaps the most important of these were reports from the Soviet secret police files (then called the OGPU, from 1934, it was known as the NKVD).

… the new president Viktor Yanukovych has denied that the Famine was an act of genocide. On the contrary, Yanukovych appears to adhere to the Russian perspective that famines were a general phenomenon across the Soviet grain growing regions in 1932, including the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, and even Belarus.

It is true that famine was widespread in the spring and summer of 1932, but many events that took place later in the year, and in the brutal year of 1933, were unique to Ukraine and the North Caucasus, particularly the Kuban region, which was composed of about 60 per cent Ukrainians. And this is evident from the OGPU documents released over the past two decades.

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The late James E. Mace called Ukraine a "post-genocidal society." This is a pertinent epithet for "Eastern Ukraine," or Soviet Ukraine as it existed in 1932-33, which never fully recovered. Present-day residents still have problems coming to terms with the crimes committed in 1932-33, because essentially this heartland of Ukraine was systematically "denationalized" and eradicated by the Soviet regime.

It has been a long and tireless journey to have this injustice recognized:

The Soviet regime’s implementation of the Holodomor as an action specifically against the Ukrainian people clearly fits this description and therefore should be easily regarded as an act of genocide. Unfortunately this is not yet a globally accepted view.

In 2006, the Ukrainian government under President Viktor Yushchenko took a monumental step by officially recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide. Many other nations followed suit, including Canada in 2008. However, one important country that refuses to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide is the Soviet Union’s successor, Russia, which on the contrary, has been very adamant in its denial of this categorization.

It has been going on almost as long as there’s been Ukrainians in Canada:

Winnipeg, home to a large community of Ukrainian immigrants, became a battleground between the people who were desperately trying to let the world know what Stalin was doing to their old country and the local communists who dismissed the reports of forced starvation as propaganda.

That battle was waged in public meetings and church halls and did not go unnoticed by this newspaper, which in 1933 carried at least four reports on what has come to be known as the 1932-33 Holodomor genocide.

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Covering both sides of the story, the Winnipeg Free Press reported local communists as saying: "Only the idle and rich are starving in Russia" and those claiming there is "starvation in the Ukraine" are "lying."

In subsequent reports the Free Press did not quote the communists. Articles headlined Grim conditions in Ukraine are cause of worry (Sept. 27, 1933) and Soviet Methods are denounced by Ukraine Speaker: Prof. V. P. Timoshenko says peasants endure enslavement worse than in czarist rule (Dec. 25, 1933) continued to inform readers.

And the newspaper that helped deny the Holodomor to the world at time saw fitting to write about today, devoted an entire paragraph – in a book review.

Here are some events going on today:

Hamilton

Oshawa

Rochdale

Toronto

Winnipeg

Here are a few news clips from highlighting Holodomor Awareness Week that ends tomorrow with the Holodomor memorial day:

Documenting a tragedy

The late James E. Mace called Ukraine a “post-genocidal society.” This is a pertinent epithet for “Eastern Ukraine,” or Soviet Ukraine as it existed in 1932-33, which never fully recovered and where present-day residents still have problems coming to terms with the crimes committed in 1932-33 because essentially this heartland of Ukraine was systematically “denationalized” and eradicated by the Soviet regime.

How to honor victims of Holodomor

But was it genocide? Given the blockade of Soviet Ukraine’s borders to prevent aid coming in, or anyone leaving, the significant grain exports that continued despite official knowledge of catastrophic famine conditions, the wholesale confiscation of all foodstuffs from Ukrainian lands, and how the Soviets and their shills orchestrated a campaign of Holodomor-denial for decades, the answer is certainly yes.

Edmontonians commemorate Ukrainian genocide – Holodomor ceremony honours victims of Stalin’s holocaust

“ten years it took me,” referring to the amount of time he spent researching, composing and then advocating to see Bill 37 passed, which proclaims every fourth Saturday in November “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day.”

Revoke writer’s undeserved Pulitzer

A  number of western journalists reported from Ukraine, the most prominent of whom was Walter Duranty, of The New York Times. He was awarded a Pulitzer prize for his reporting as a foreign correspondent in Moscow. Unfortunately, his reports were full of deception. Duranty denied the famine and praised the Stalinist regime, during one of the most appalling genocides in history.

Candle lit commemorating Holodomor genocide that killed millions

The historical setting of the Holodomor was the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union. Functionaries of the victorious Bolshevik side flexed their political muscles by wiping out independent farmers and nationalists …  The region was sealed off by army units, which allowed nobody to flee. Asked in an interview if there still are deniers of the Holodomor, Lysyk said, "Absolutely!". He listed politicians in modern Russia who interpret criticism of the old Soviet Union as criticism of Russia, plus some in Ukraine who want good relations with their powerful neighbour. "This is one of the reasons we, in the diaspora, need to build international pressure so they know they have to do what’s right — they have to follow their hearts and not try to curry favour with another country by altering their history."

M.P. Borys Wrzesnewskyj – Nov 22, 2010

M.P. James Bezan

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