No need for controversy, says community leader (08/08/99)

No need for controversy, says community leader

TORONTO - Speaking on behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a national, volunteer-based group committed to articulating and promoting the fair treatment of Canadian Ukrainians in the media, public life and education, John B. Gregorovich commented on news reports that suggest there is a controversy between Jewish Canadian organizations, the Ukrainian Canadian community and other ethnocultural groups over proposals for the development of a federally funded museum in Ottawa that would deal with mass murder during World War II.

Mr. Gregorovich, who is chairman of the UCCLA, said, "There is absolutely no opposition on the part of the Ukrainian Canadian community, or any other group that I am aware of, to the development of a federally funded museum in our nation's capital that would focus on crimes against humanity and war crimes in the 20th century, and perhaps even before that."

He added: "We have always made it clear, in public, that we support proposals for the establishment of a Canadian genocide museum that would be inclusive, treating not only such horrific events as ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, but the man-made Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine, the Armenian massacres, the war crimes perpetrated by the Axis powers throughout Europe, Africa and Asia during the second world war, and the many other episodes of genocide, mass murder and crimes against humanity that have befouled humanity in this century.

"Of course, we would insist upon the inclusion of exhibits that deal with the tragedy that befell Jews and non-Jews in Europe under the Nazi occupation, since that is undeniably one of the great horrors that must be remembered."

Furthermore, Mr. Gregorovich said the UCCLA calls upon "those who are attempting to sow dissension between Jewish Canadians and others to stop doing so, for we have never, and would never, support any project that excluded a treatment of the Shoah from this kind of museum."

The UCCLA leader made his comments on August 1.

| Home Page |