Ottawa, November 29, 2019
It is with regret that we bear witness to the continued activities of Holodomor deniers in Canadian society, individuals who insist that genocides like the Holodomor or the Holocaust are nothing but hoaxes, fabricated by one or another group for political purposes.
Despite all the eyewitness testimony, contemporary news articles, international commission reports, and ample documentary evidence culled from the archives of Great Britain, The Vatican, Germany, Romania, Poland and post-Soviet Ukraine, confirming not only that the Holodomor happened but was, in the opinion of Dr Raphael Lemkin, “the father of the UN Genocide Convention”, a “classic example of a Soviet genocide against Ukraine,” there exist “useful idiots” who pretend otherwise and indulge in defamatory, provocative, unfounded and illiberal speech, then hide behind their right to free speech.
We remain committed to protecting the right to free speech in Canada. That said we call upon those who donate to The University of Alberta to reconsider whether they wish to support an institution that provides employment for an individual who has indulged not only in the defamation of a former Chancellor of that institution, and other graduates, but has, with his words, mocked the memory of the millions of victims of a Stalinist genocide and their descendants.