DAY WILL MARK UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE

Archie McLean and Trish Audette, The Edmonton Journal

Oct.29, 2008

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.

Premier Ed Stelmach's voice cracked as he spoke in both English and Ukrainian about the genocide.

"I do this with a great range of personal emotion," he said. "It goes from immense satisfaction that we are able to officially recognize this tragic event in law, to profound sorrow and sadness about the horrific circumstances that makes a bill like this necessary.

"The man-made famine that was forced on the Ukrainian people by the former Soviet regime led to the annihilation of millions of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children," he said.

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.

"My grandfather and grandmother were amongst those early pioneers who came to Alberta in the late 1890s," Stelmach said. "Marie and I still maintain the original farm that they settled on, till the same soil that they did and…” The premier took a long pause before continuing, "And we also give thanks for the abundant crops that soil yielded."

Stelmach's grandparents were among 12 families who came to Alberta -- settling in the province's north -- from the village of Zavyche 110 years ago.

The entire house rose and thumped their desks as he finished his speech and motioned to survivors sitting in the public gallery. The leaders of both opposition parties, Kevin Taft and Brian Mason, also spoke of the genocide's tragedy.

"Today was a very historic day for our community. It was a very emotional afternoon," said Daria Luciw, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress-Alberta Provincial Council.

While there were tears among the MLAs -- some of whom could trace their own family histories to the genocide -- there were tears, too, among the 120 Ukrainians who watched the bill be discussed in the legislature.

"For many, this is so recent that all this information is being made public," Luciw said.

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."

Alberta is the third province in Canada to pass such legislation.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gene Zwozdesky, also of Ukrainian descent, also showed emotion as he introduced the bill. Like Stelmach, the minister's first language is Ukrainian.

Zwozdesky admitted the bill has nothing to do with his ministry -- "It's not in my portfolio," he said, choking a little on the words. "But it's in my heart."