Ivan Pylypow, one of Canada’s first Ukrainian settlers.
Albertans’ support for Ukraine in its deadly war against Russian expansionism took a poignant turn Saturday, when communities across Canada lit candles at 4 p.m. local time to mark Holodomor Memorial Day.
Two MLAs rose in the legislature recently to underline the importance of the day, which marks the horror Ukrainians suffered at the hands of the Soviet regime under Stalin. In 1932-’33 untold millions died through what most historians consider a campaign of food confiscation and mass starvation designed to erase Ukraine’s spirit and identity.
Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk of the UCP represents the constituency with Alberta’s largest Ukrainian population, Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville. She told the legislature: “In an effort to crush Ukrainian identity and push rapid industrialization, Joseph Stalin carried out a campaign of deliberate mass starvation. Borders were sealed, food was confiscated, and millions of people living in Europe’s breadbasket were left to starve.”
As a descendant of Ivan Pylypow, one of Canada’s first Ukrainian settlers, Armstrong-Homeniuk is connected personally to Holodomor. It’s also tied to her role in the assembly as parliamentary secretary for settlement services and Ukrainian evacuees.
Armstrong-Homeniuk said she feels “a deep responsibility to keep the memory of this tragedy alive and to ensure future generations understand its lessons.”
From the other side of the assembly, the NDP’s Janet Eremenko called Holodomor “starvation as a weapon, as a tool of repression and of control.”
The NDP member representing Calgary-Currie said Holodomor “led to indescribable suffering. . .and was facilitated alongside a campaign to quash Ukrainian political and intellectual leaders — teachers, writers and artists — who were seen as a threat to an expansionist agenda.”
In 2008 the government of Canada passed the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day Act. On the fourth Saturday of every November, Canadians are called to remember the victims of the Holodomor and “promote the fundamental freedoms of a democratic society,” said Eremenko.
“Ukraine is defending those freedoms now in 2025,” she said.
Campaigns that impede access to food and aid or deny people the ability to produce their own constitute “a tactic of war and oppression” still used around the world.
“We should never see it as anything else,” Eremenko said to the second of two standing ovations across both sides of the legislature.
The actual death toll during Holodomor is not known, although some estimates put it as high as 7 million or even more. For over 50 years the Soviet Union repressed information about Holodomor.
Under Putin, Russia has gone back to the Soviet-era practice of denying and distorting the historical record. The country’s president refuses to classify Holodomor as a genocide and refuses to honour Ukraine’s internationally approved borders.
Putin is currently waging a war against neighbouring Ukraine to claim territory that he says belongs to Russia. The international community, however, for the most part condemns his actions as an illegal invasion.
Some estimates of the killed or wounded on both sides have surpassed one million since the current war began in February 2022. As well, officials have verified that more than 14,300 Ukrainian civilians have died in the war, although the actual death toll is believed to be much higher.
