OTTAWA – The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) stated on November 28 that it fully supports Bill C-306, “An act to establish a Crimean Tatar Deportation (‘Sürgünlik’) Memorial Day and to recognize the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 as an act of genocide.”
Bill C-306 was introduced in the House of Commons by Kerry Diotte (MP for Edmonton Griesbach in Alberta) on September 28.
The entire Crimean Tatar People, the indigenous people of Crimea, were exiled to the Soviet east in 1944 by the totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were forcibly and violently deported – almost half lost their lives during the first year of exile – for no crime other than their language, culture and traditions.
The vast majority returned home from exile in the early 1990s, thanks largely to the welcoming policy of the government of independent Ukraine. It is for this reason that the Crimean Tatars and their political and civic institutions are fiercely loyal to Ukraine and today live in fear or have been again exiled under illegal Russian rule, the UCC noted in its press release.
In November 2015, Ukraine’s Parliament recognized this crime as an act of genocide against the Crimean Tatar People and established May 18 as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People.
Bill C-306 honors the memory of the hundreds of thousands of victims of the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatar People, and underlines Canada’s enduring commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“Today, the indigenous Crimean Tatars, together with the Ukrainian people and other ethnic and religious minorities living in Crimea, face severe repression by their Russian occupiers,” stated UCC National President Paul Grod. “It is vital for all members of Canada’s Parliament to support this important legislation and to ensure that Canada continues to take concrete actions to oppose Russia’s illegal occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.”
The UCC urged community members to contact their local members of Parliament and express support for Bill C-306.