NEWS RELEASE
UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY OF BARRIE
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The Ukrainian Community of Barrie will be hosting an event Monday, Nov. 28 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Barrie City Hall to commemorate Holodomor Memorial Day.
All area residents are invited to attend and to stand together with Ukrainians as we mark this solemn anniversary.
Holodomor Memorial Day is commemorated each year worldwide. It is a day of remembrance when we remember the millions of Ukrainians, many of whom were children, who were starved to death in 1932 and 1933 by Stalin’s Soviet regime. Through acts of Parliament, the Government of Canada recognizes the Holodomor as an act of genocide. Together with the descendants of survivors living in Canada, let us remember the victims of the Holodomor.
This year there is extra significance because currently Russia is again engaged in a genocide against the Ukrainian people through its brutal attacks on civilians and the numerous war crimes that they are committing as well as the weaponization of food for the global community.
The event will run for approximately one-and-a-half hours at the flagpoles area and Rotunda of Barrie City Hall. Activities will include the lowering of the Ukrainian flag to half-mast, a prayer led by a representative from the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Catholic Church, an opportunity for those present to share their stories as to how the manmade famine impacted their family and/or friends, some songs and some remarks from guest speakers including Barrie’s mayor, Alex Nuttall.
Facts about the Holodomor
- Stalin issued a series of policies targeting the population of Ukraine, which led to genocide by starvation in Ukraine.
- The Holodomor occurred in a time of peace, not as a result of war or natural disaster.
- Food was used as a weapon.
- Wheat and other grains were confiscated from farmers by the Communist government. Some of it was sold for export to fund Stalin’s Five-Year Plan.
- One-third of all villages in Ukraine were blacklisted, blockaded and the people were left to starve to death.
- Millions of innocent people died.
- 28,000 people died per day at the height of the Holodomor in June of 1933.
- 31 per cent of those who died were children under the age of 10.
- Additionally, the cultural, religious and political leadership of Ukraine was largely destroyed during the 1930s.
- The Holodomor was denied, covered up and ignored by the world for over five decades.
- The Government of Canada officially recognized the Holodomor as genocide in May 2008.
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