Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 87th anniversary of the famine-genocide in Ukraine known as the Holodomor, when Joseph Stalin closed Ukraine's borders and confiscated all food to destroy a Ukrainian population opposed to his rule. Nineteen people per minute, 1,200 per hour and 28,000 per day were dying of famine at the height of the Holodomor. The world was silent and millions died as a result.
My grandmother, Olena, was a survivor of the Holodomor and she often told me that she hoped the victims of the Holodomor would not only be remembered, but they would be honoured. Honouring them, she said, meant not just remembering them or commemorating them, but taking the steps to ensure that a crime like this would never happen again.
This week I hope all of us remember and commemorate the victims, but I also hope we recommit ourselves to ensuring that crimes like this, even today, stop and never happen again. Let us do as my grandmother would have asked if she were here today. Let us remember the victims. Let us commemorate the victims. Let us honour them.