Ukrainians in Canada

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC) is officially on the road, spreading awareness about the man-made Famine of 1932-33 in which millions of Ukrainians were starved to death. The HMC visited six Ontario high schools and three Ukrainian Saturday schools in March and April, reaching more than 650 students with up to four lessons per day being given in the HMC. Mark Melnyk, the Department Head of History for the York Region District School Board, called it “one of the coolest, most immersive learning experiences we have been fortunate to share with our students,” adding that “its use of state-of-the-art technology is captivating for a generation of students that are often hard to impress.”...

"I sometimes don't sleep at night thinking about injustice," Canadian education curriculum reformer and author Valentina Kuryliw explains. "I'm the kind of person who's not afraid to speak out. In the Canadian setting, I deal with controversial topics and I don't shy away from them. Every time a new curriculum comes out, the new textbooks are written-and the textbooks don't include information about the Holodomor unless it's also included in the educational curriculum. So I made a point that I wasn't going to buy their books unless it was...

The Ukrainian Canadian community is celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Ukrainian immigration to Canada. There are over 1.3 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, and for 125 years Ukrainians have been contributing to the essential fabric of Canadian life and culture. In 1891 the first Ukrainians came to Canada seeking a better life for their families. Through five large waves of immigration, Ukrainians have settled in Canada - a land of refuge and freedom. The Ukrainian story in Canada is a testament to the opportunities and possibilities that our great country represents. Ukrainians have remembered their traditions, language and culture while giving back to the land where they have made their homes. They have been instrumental in the building of a diverse...

At a Queen’s Park ceremony commemorating the victims of the genocidal famine known as the Holodomor, Ontario Minister of Education Liz Sandals and MPP Yvan Baker participated in the ribbon cutting of the Holodomor Mobile Classroom. The 40-foot RV is the centerpiece of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour. The Holodomor Mobile Classroom will tour the province and the country teaching about the manmade famine of 1932-1933 that starved to death millions of Ukrainians...

The Holodomor National Awareness Tour is a project to raise awareness of the Holodomor, the genocidal famine carried out in 1932-33 by the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. The centerpiece is the Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC), a 40-foot RV customized to educate and engage students and the public about the Holodomor. In this state-of-the-art learning space, visitors will...

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada held a solemn commemoration to mark the 82nd anniversary the 1932-33 Holodomor in Ukraine on Parliament Hill. The Holodomor, which means death by starvation, refers to the 1932-33 Famine-Genocide, where millions of Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death by the Communist regime of Joseph Stalin in an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian nation. For more than half a century the truth about this genocide was concealed, in the hope that its memory would be extinguished forever. Rising in the...

In response to the outbreak of the First World War, Canada implemented The War Measures Act on 22 August 1914, which led to Canada’s first national internment operations – the needless, forced internment of 8,579 Eastern Europeans, branded as “enemy aliens”, in 24 internment camps located across Canada from 1914 to 1920. These prisoners, part of Canada’s first national internment operations, came to the Dominion as peaceful immigrants desirous of becoming law-abiding Canadian citizens. Deprived of their freedom, and disenfranchised, many internees lost their personal wealth and were forced to do heavy labour on federal government projects. The first...

In May 2008 the Canadian Parliament unanimously passed the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Holodomor Memorial Day Act recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide perpetrated against the Ukrainian people by the Communist regime under Stalin. To show their appreciation, on June 15 the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW), Homin Ukrainy/Ukrainian Echo newspaper, and Ucrainica Research Institute organized a special reception on Parliament Hill for all Members of Parliament and the Ukrainian Canadian community in Ottawa...

On March 22 members of the Ukrainian Canadian community in Toronto gathered to hear first-hand accounts from volunteers who have spent much of the past year on the front lines of the war in Ukraine. The event - entitled Na Linii Vohniu (On the Line of Fire) - featured Serhii Kuzan, a Maidan activist and the head of a leading all-Ukrainian volunteer group Vilni Liudy (Free People), and Nazar Volynets, also a Maidan activist and commander of a platoon in the Aidar volunteer battalion. Kuzan has been working closely with the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) and League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW) over the past year to ensure that money...

Mr. Speaker, in November I was in Ukraine with constituents from Etobicoke Centre where we met soldiers who were wounded during the Russian backed invasion of Ukraine. These fathers, brothers and sons all said that they were fighting for freedom and democracy – values that Canadians hold dear. I am proud of what our Premier has done to support the Ukrainian people: she called on our federal government to impose sanctions, called for international observers and provided humanitarian aid. Today, Ukraine is at war and the situation is dire. Russian-backed forces have occupied part of Eastern Ukraine and continue to advance. The soldiers I met are fighting against state-of-the-art equipment with outdated weapons, some from World War II...