Despite nearly 10 years of arguing the Holodomor should be featured
more prominently in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Ukrainian
Canadian Congress is still not happy.
UCC executive director Taras Zalusky said Monday his organization and
membership, which held a town-hall meeting on the issue Sunday, are
upset both the Holodomor -- which saw millions of people in Ukraine die
in a man-made famine -- and the forced internment of
Ukrainian-Canadians during the First World War are not receiving a
prominent and permanent exhibit and gallery in the museum.
"Our concerns are the same and they've been the same all along,"
Zalusky said. "We'll only have one chance to get this right. We want a
fair and balanced treatment on these tragedies.
"We came out on April 11, 2003, supporting the museum, but it's getting
harder and harder to support the museum."
UCC president Paul Grod said in a statement that after a tour of the
museum in February, he was also upset about part of the museum's layout.
"Even more outrageous, the subject of the famine-genocide of 1932-33 in
Soviet Ukraine, the Holodomor, is relegated to a minor panel in a small
obscure gallery near the museum's public toilets," Grod said.
"This is offensive and intolerable."
Zalusky and Grod said in a statement they are calling for the CMHR to
create a permanent and prominent Holodomor gallery as well as a
permanent exhibition space for a First World War internment exhibit.
As well, the UCC is calling for all Canadians to voice their concerns
to their federal MP, write to Heritage Minister James Moore and contact
the individuals and companies who donated money to the CMHR.
"We want to celebrate the opening rather than protest it," Zalusky said.
And, referring to the forced internment in Canada, Zalusky said, "It's
surprising they wouldn't choose to focus on a Canadian human rights
tragedy."
But CMHR officials said the Holodomor is featured in three exhibits and
is being incorporated into the institution's thematic approach in
galleries and exhibits.
Spokeswoman Angela Cassie said the museum has commissioned a film about
the Holodomor as the first one shown in its Breaking the Silence
gallery, where other genocides formally recognized by Canada will be
featured.
Cassie also said the Holodomor will be part of that gallery's
interactive study table, which will project images from a database and
study carrels, where people can listen to the stories of survivors.
"We have an opportunity as a museum to be a world leader in Holodomor
awareness," she said. "Our mission is so much more than its
physical-based exhibits... you could spend hours in the Breaking the
Silence gallery and at the carrels."
*** LL3 *** 09Apr2013 at 5:32 AM *** No community's suffering should be elevated above all others in a
taxpayer funded national museum and yet that is exactly what is
happening at the CMHR, despite the legitimate and publicly voiced
concerns of the public, a majority of whom reject any group getting
preferential treatment in the exhibit spaces. The Orwellian doublespeak
that characterizes the CMHR's pronouncements on this subject is
breath-taking, and unacceptable, no less offensive than the placement of
the Holodomor exhibit near the CMHR's toilets, a provocative gesture
that is in and of itself denigrating to the memory of the many millions
who died during the Holodomor and an insult to the Ukrainian Canadian
community.
*** LL3 *** 10Apr2013 at 5:24 AM *** Best to watch the Ukrainian Canadian Congress's president, Paul Grod, address this issue before one comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zuP57u9lB0
*** Donny Knudsen *** 09Apr2013 at 10:34 AM *** "Despite nearly 10 years of arguing the Holodomor should be featured more prominently"
Stop the intentional distortion. The Ukrainian community's position
has remained the same all along: make all the galleries THEMATIC,
COMPARATIVE, and INCLUSIVE. This means no special treatment for
anybody's pet issue, affording people the opportunity to juxtapose EVERY
instance associated with a particular theme. The WFP's blatant attempt
to propagandize, promoting hatred against the Ukrainian community so it
will stop complaining about the Holocaust's undeniably special position
is nauseatingly mendacious, not to mention obvious. A fine way to
promote a human rights museum.
*** JMT *** 10Apr2013 at 7:29 AM ***
Folks, let's just call the CMHR what it really is...... A Holocaust
museum with just enough extras or add-ons to qualify for 250M + in
taxpayer funding. Holocaust museum was the plan from Day 1.... let's
just (reluctantly) accept it and move on..... :(