Genocide memorial in Ottawa gains support (03/28/99)

Genocide memorial in Ottawa gains support

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - The effort to establish in Canada's capital an inclusive museum commemorating the victims of genocide is gathering momentum.

Sarkis Assadourian, a member of Parliament (MP) from Brampton, Ontario, introduced Bill C-479 on February 15, which mandated "the establishment of an exhibit in the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) that recognizes the crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated during the 20th century."

The private members' bill has since received the support of over 100 MPs (at least 10 from each of the five recognized parties) in the House of Commons, Canada's federal legislature, and will now pass to the Private Business Subcommittee of the Standing Committee of Procedure and House Affairs, which will consider whether it will be submitted for a vote.

A private members' bill requires unanimous consent in the House to be passed into law.

Daniel Kennedy, the legislative assistant at Mr. Assadourian's Ottawa office, confirmed that a decision on whether the bill is votable is expected in about eight weeks, but he cautioned against relying on strict timelines.

Mr. Kennedy said the Liberal MP is very grateful for the support expressed by Ukrainian Canadians across the country, and has also been in contact with representatives of the Cambodian and Chinese communities.

Ukrainian community support

In an interview on March 23, Adrian Boyko, vice-president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and chair of its Government Relations Committee, told The Weekly the UCC considers Mr. Assadourian's bill "uniquely Canadian in its inclusiveness."

"This proposed legislation builds upon the fact that we are a multicultural country, that we show our inclusiveness in all that we do," Mr. Boyko said

The UCC official added that this approach would "prevent the pitting of groups against one another, the very thing that produces the attitudes and environment that make genocide possible."

Mr. Boyko stressed that such an institution is necessary because "children need to be educated about this side of human nature, this side of history, so that it cannot happen again."

The UCC government relations chair pointed out that there is no such general-focus institution anywhere in the world, adding, "as it was in proposing the establishment of United Nations peacekeeping forces, Canada can once again be a leader in human rights and human endeavor by supporting such a museum."

In February the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association had issued a statement in support of Mr. Assadourian's bill. "We urge MPs in every political party represented in the House of Commons to endorse Mr. Assadourian's initiative and to work with the many Canadian ethnocultural communities who are in favor of a Genocide Museum in our nation's capital," it read.

Background of effort

The CMC, where the exhibit proposed by the legislation would be located, is a multi-facility institution overseen by the Heritage Ministry. In 1997 the War Museum, one of the CMC's facilities, held hearings to address concerns that a proposed gallery devoted to the Nazi Holocaust was not sufficiently inclusive.

In mid-1998 a decision was made to focus on the creation of a traveling exhibit on the Holocaust.

Since then, various local branches of the UCC (particularly Ottawa, Toronto and Sudbury), the UCCLA (in Vancouver, Calgary, Kingston and Toronto) and a Working Group chaired by Montreal-based historian Prof. Roman Serbyn have championed the idea of including testimonies about the sufferings of various groups at the hands of the murderous Nazi machine, as well as broadening the scope of institutional commemorations of victims of genocide, such as the victims of the 1932-1933 Soviet-engineered famine in Ukraine.

Since the summer of 1998, UCC Ottawa Branch President Oksana Bashuk Hepburn has been particularly active in lobbying museum officials, as well as local MPs and officials at the Heritage Ministry.

Four reasons for a museum

Prof. Serbyn, a member of the department of history at the Université du Québec à Montréal, has issued a pamphlet on the issue of an inclusive museum in question-and-answer format.

One question asks: "Why must the Canadian public be educated about the various genocides?" The answer: "If genocide is an aberration in history, it has proven to be of a recurring type. It is important that we realize this and study the various forms this tragedy has assumed in the past, in order to prevent repetition in the future."

"A museum dedicated to any one genocide would be sufficient to show the horrors of mass extermination," it is affirmed in the pamphlet, "but such a museum could not reveal the variety of means used by ruthless regimes to execute their crimes. In order to understand how starvation was used in some African genocides, no other previous genocide is as instructive as the Holodomor (Ukraine famine of 1932-1933."

Prof. Serbyn's pamphlet sets out four main reasons for a Canadian museum dedicated to genocide:

"1) to commemorate all the victims of all genocides in a proper and dignified manner;

"2) to sensitize the Canadian public to the atrocities of genocide and provide an effective tool for the education of future generations, in the spirit of tolerance and respect for human life, so as to ensure that similar horrors are never repeated;

"3) to express empathy for the various ethnocultural communities who have found haven on Canadian shores, but whose relatives, at other times and in other lands, had been victims of these most atrocious crimes;

"4) to provide an original and uniquely Canadian way of expressing our concern for issues of general human interest and importance."

On December 21, 1998, the UCC had sent a letter to Heritage Minister Sheila Copps endorsing the idea of a Genocide Museum. Signed by UCC President Eugene Czolij, it is currently being reworked as an official position paper to be adopted at a board of directors meeting in June.

The letter reads: "The UCC believes that a museum dedicated to the victims of all genocides would be a noble and dignified way for Canada to demonstrate to Canadian citizens and to the international community its readiness to condemn genocides."

The purpose of such an institution, according to the UCC letter, would be to "sensitize future generations by disseminating valuable information about such tremendous human tragedies to ensure that similar horrors are never repeated."

The letter refers to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives resolutions adopted in October 1998 on the 65th anniversary of the famine, and the City of Montreal's fall 1998 erection of a monument dedicated to all the victims of genocides in the 20th century.

CMC in "holding pattern"

Stephen Inglis, director general of the CMC's Collection and Research Branch, told The Weekly on March 23 that plans for the traveling exhibit on the Holocaust, which were to be finalized this month, are "in a holding pattern, affected somewhat by discussions at the political level."

Mr. Inglis said the introduction of Bill C-479 was part of "a general feeling that any national presentation should be inclusive and should reflect the experience of many groups in Canada."

The CMC official added that "the government is sensitive to those concerns, and discussions on the issue are quite active."

Mr. Inglis said the CMC "will be doing something, it's just a question of when it would proceed." He added that if an exhibit were permanent, "this immediately involves questions of a site and a building. Our idea was that if a traveling exhibit were prepared, it would serve as an impetus for a core collection of material."

The CMC official said that if original plans were followed, the traveling exhibit would have been ready for 2001-2002.

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