Home
> Holodomor2013
| Ukrainophobia
| Demjanjuk
| d&d
(Furman,
Odynsky,
Katriuk)
| Zuzak Letters |
Ukrainian Canadian Congress | 05Apr2013 | Paul Grod
http://www.ucc.ca/2013/04/06/ucc-concerned-over-content-of-canadian-museum-for-human-rights/
UCC CONCERNED OVER CONTENT OF
CANADIAN MUSEUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Calls upon Canadians to
Express Concerns
April 5, 2013 --Winnipeg,
Manitoba -- The Ukrainian Canadian Congress
(UCC) urges all Canadians to voice their concerns over the content and
layout proposed for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
(Museum).
"On a recent site tour of this taxpayer-funded museum, I was shocked to
discover how shamefully Ukrainian Canadian and Ukrainian themes are to
be presented in this national institution. We are deeply troubled that
neither Canada's first national internment operations nor the Holodomor
will have permanent and prominent exhibits and galleries in the
Museum," stated UCC National President Paul Grod. "It is outrageous
that in the province of Manitoba, which has the highest proportional
percentage of Ukrainians in Canada, the human rights stories that have
impacted our community have either been ignored or minimalized. We have
attempted to work in good faith with the Museum for the past 2 1/2
years, yet they remain wedded to the discredited Content Advisory
Committee Report, which makes no mention of the Holodomor or the crimes
of communism. Despite several meetings with senior management of the
Museum where these questions have been raised, they have been unable to
articulate how decisions are made on content and layout or who is
making them. This is unacceptable and we are calling upon all Canadians
to speak out on the issues of content, layout and transparency at the
Museum."
"It is appalling that the only reference to Canada's first national
internment operations is a nondescript picture, even though thousands
of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans were interned as "enemy
aliens" in 24 Canadian labour camps, tens of thousands more were
disenfranchised and Winnipeg was a "receiving station" for these "enemy
aliens" during the First World War period. Even more outrageous, the
subject of the Famine-Genocide of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine, the
Holodomor, is relegated to a minor panel in a small obscure gallery
near the museum's public toilets! This is offensive and intolerable."
The UCC released a video
of a presentation made by its president Paul
Grod outlining its concerns and sent a letter
of its concerns relating
to the content and layout to the Board of the Museum several weeks ago
and is still awaiting a response.
video UCC CMHR
Community Townhall
Meeting -- Winnipeg, MB -- February 10, 2013
Paul Grod, President of Ukrainian Canadian Congress; Taras Zalusky,
Executive Director
The Museum is proceeding to plan its galleries without a permanent and
prominent gallery dedicated to the Holodomor or a permanent exhibit to
the First World War Internment Operations. Furthermore, in galleries
such as Making a Difference, which is to tell the human rights stories
of immigrants to Canada, there is no intention to tell the story of
prejudice, discrimination and violence against Ukrainian and other
Eastern European immigrants in Canada where many were forced to change
their names and abandon their cultural, linguistic and religious
traditions.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress had supported the government-funded
Museum on the basis that it would:
•
be reflective of the broader Canadian
experience; and
• that the Holodomor and Canada's first
national internment operations would be given a permanent and prominent
place in the Museum.
As presented, the Museum is completing construction and current plans
do not distinctively and appropriately commemorate these two tragedies.
Call for Change!
UCC is calling for the following changes to the Museum:
1.
Establishment of a permanent and
prominent Holodomor
Gallery -- the Hope and Hardwork Gallery should be
repurposed to house a Holodomor Gallery and the Breaking the Silence
Gallery should be redesigned to provide prominence to the genocides
recognized by the Government of Canada that are not featured in other
places in the Museum. These two amalgamated and repurposed galleries
will have sufficient space to also house exhibits relating to the human
rights violations committed by the Soviet
regime.
2. Allocate a permanent exhibition space
for a WW1 Internment
Exhibit -- a separate exhibit section dedicated to
WW1 internment operations in the gallery titled "Canada's Human Rights
Journey".
3. Revise the Canadian Challenge gallery
-- to include a discussion on the War
Measures Act, legislation which
was used to remove the rights of tens of thousands of Canadians during
WWI and WWII.
4. Modify the Canadian Immigrant
Experience gallery -- to include the difficult experiences
of early
Ukrainian and other Eastern European immigrants to Canada.
5. Crimes
of Communism and Nazism -- a
comparative analysis of human rights abuses perpetrated under
Soviet-Communist and Nazis dictatorships.
Reference documents:
Call to Action!
UCC calls upon all Canadians to:
•
Write
and call your Members of
Parliament to voice your concerns. We encourage all Canadians
to meet with Members of Parliament and federal Cabinet Ministers to
address these serious concerns. You can find the contact information
for your Member of Parliament at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca
•
Write to
and/or call the Minister of
Canadian Heritage the Honourable James Moore at (819)-997-7788
Minister of Canadian Heritage
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
• Express your concerns to the
individuals, companies and governments that have donated or pledged to
provide funding to the Museum
http://www.friendsofcmhr.com
.
UCC Media Contact:
Darla Penner
Telephone: (204) 942-4627
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.ucc.ca
Дарла Пеннер
пресовий референт Конґресу Українців Канади
телефон: (204) 942-4627
мобілний: (204) 297-2322
електронна адреса: [email protected]
інтернет-сторінка: http://www.ucc.ca