Bill C-459 (Historical)

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day Act

An Act to establish a Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day and to recognize the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as an act of genocide

This bill is from the 39th Parliament, 1st session, which ended in October 2007.

Sponsor

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of June 13, 2007
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill.

This enactment designates the fourth Saturday in November in each and every year as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day”.

Similar bills

C-459 (39th Parliament, 2nd session) Law Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day Act

C-450 (39th Parliament, 1st session) Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Remembrance Day Act

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-459s:

C-459 (2019) An Act to amend the Interest Act (prepayment charge)

C-459 (2012) Air Passengers' Bill of Rights

C-459 (2010) An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (goods and services tax on school authorities)

C-459 (2009) An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act (goods and services tax on school authorities)

C-459 (2005) An Act to amend the Canada Health Act (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day ActRoutine Proceedings

June 13th, 2007 / 3:10 p.m.

Conservative

James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake, MB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-459, An Act to establish a Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day and to recognize the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as an act of genocide.

Mr. Speaker, this year Ukrainian Canadians mark the 75th anniversary of one of the most heinous crimes in modern history, the state sponsored famine of 1932-33 perpetrated by the Soviet regime of Stalin against the Ukrainian people.

Called Holodomor, which in Ukrainian means murder by hunger, millions of Ukrainians were stripped of their produce in a forced farm collectivization campaign that killed close to 10 million Ukrainians and was devised to destroy aspirations for a free and independent Ukraine.

For decades, the truth about this horrific crime was suppressed by Soviet authorities. The omission of this forced famine and genocide from our history books is very troubling to me, which is why today, as a Ukrainian Canadian myself, I am introducing an act to establish Ukrainian Genocide and Famine Memorial Day.

This bill would not only designate the fourth Saturday of November as a memorial day for the Ukrainian famine, but it also acknowledges the famine as an act of genocide.

I would like to thank the continued efforts of the Ukrainian Canadian community that has worked tirelessly to bring public awareness to the Ukrainian famine and genocide.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)