Canada’s Response to the Holodomor

During the Holodomor of 1932–33, Canada did not initially respond in a coordinated or meaningful way. While the federal government remained largely silent, considerable information about the famine circulated within Canada. Individuals and groups issued repeated appeals to aid the starving population in Soviet Ukraine, but no unified national effort emerged. There were, however, notable exceptions:

• Rhea Clyman, a courageous Canadian journalist and Moscow-based correspondent for the Toronto Evening Telegram, provided rare and critical eyewitness reports from the USSR in 1932, until she was ejected from the country.
• Ukrainian Canadians and Mennonites in Canada played a key role in raising awareness and lobbying community leaders.
• Canadian agricultural scientists, analysts, technicians and engineers witnessed what was happening and warned about the inevitable result.
• Over 80 public protests took place across Canada from 1933-34; the Canadian and Ukrainian press covered them widely.
• Provincial legislators in Saskatchewan and Manitoba addressed the famine in their assemblies, reflecting the concern of their Ukrainian and Mennonite constituents, including drawing up a resolution in Dauphin, MB (October 1933).

Although more than 80 protest actions were organized during 1933–34—mostly, but not exclusively, by the Ukrainian community—these important expressions of concern led to little official government action. They did prompt Prime Minister R.B. Bennett’s representative to raise the famine during the League of Nations debate on the Soviet Union’s admission—Canada being the only country to do so. Still, the overall response was fragmented: it amounted to a patchwork of individual bravery, community activism, and provincial concern—efforts overshadowed by the Bennett government’s geopolitical caution and the domestic hardships of the Great Depression.

It was only decades later—through sustained historical research and tireless advocacy by the Ukrainian diaspora—that Canada began to formally recognize and commemorate the Holodomor as genocide.

Since then, Canada’s response has focused on recognition, remembrance, and education:

• In 2008, Canada became one of the first Western nations to officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide, passing Bill C-459. All ten provinces and many municipalities have since followed suit.
• Schools across Canada observe Holodomor Memorial Day in Schools annually on the fourth Friday of November, and Holodomor Memorial Day is observed globally on the fourth Saturday–ensuring this tragedy is remembered nationwide.
• Numerous Holodomor memorial monuments, government-supported awareness campaigns, and an exhibit in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights contribute to public education on the famine.

With one of the world’s largest Ukrainian diaspora communities, advocacy by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has significantly shaped Canada’s response on the Holodomor.

Through formal recognition, annual commemoration, and public education, Canada has taken a leadership role in ensuring the Holodomor is neither forgotten nor denied.