Mr. Speaker, under the leadership of this Prime Minister, a Conservative private member's bill to redress the internment of Canadian Ukrainians during World War II was put into action, and the Prime Minister championed my bill to recognize the Holodomor, the forced Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, as genocide.
The Prime Minister's official trip to Ukraine last month further demonstrates the close relationship that we enjoy between our two countries.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the millions of Ukrainians who died during the Holodomor by placing a symbolic jar of grain on behalf of all Canadians at a monument by the National Holodomor Memorial Museum in Kyiv.
He acknowledged the enormity of the event and the millions who perished under Stalin's Soviet regime and demonstrated our hope that such an atrocity never occur again.
I was proud to witness our Prime Minister standing in solidarity with Ukrainians in Lviv and declaring Holodomor an act of genocide.
This week marks National Holodomor Awareness Week. I ask everyone to learn more about Holodomor so that atrocities such as this never occur again. I encourage all members to join in honouring the survivors and remembering the victims of this genocide.
Vichnaya Pam'yat.