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  • Politics of genocide threaten museum

    The Toronto Sun, Canada
    April 28, 2011 Thursday
    FINAL EDITION


    Politics of genocide threaten museum

    by PETER WORTHINGTON

    Winnipeg's $310 million Canadian Museum of Human Rights (CMHR) is once
    again in the centre of a controversy over whose human rights should
    get the most attention.

    A full page in the National Post in the form of a letter signed by 105
    prominent Canadians, urges two Ukrainian organizations "to stay out of
    the debate about the Canadian Museum of Human Rights" (CMHR).

    The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) and
    Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), representing some 1.2 million
    Canadians of Ukrainian origin, are miffed that the CMHR plans to have
    a Holocaust gallery, while lumping the Ukrainian Holodomor in another
    gallery with other historical genocides.

    The Holodomor (death by starvation) imposed by Stalin in 1932-33 to
    bring Ukraine to heel, resulted in some 4 million deaths (some
    estimates are 7 million) that scar the psyche of all Ukrainians.

    The UCCLA and UCC feel all genocides should be confined to one portion
    of the museum, but if the Jewish Holocaust gets special treatment, so
    should the Holodomor.

    A Nanos Research poll indicates 60%of Canadians favour all genocides
    commemorated in one galley, with 25% favouring a Holocaust gallery,
    and other genocides grouped together. Some 15% of were unsure which
    they favoured.

    There's been considerable debate about the CMHR ever since it was
    proposed by the late Izzy Asper, founder of CanWest and the former
    owner of the National Post. Stephen Harper's government pledged $100
    million towards the museum; the province of Manitoba $40 million; the
    city of Winnipeg $20 million; private donations $125 million. That
    leaves about $25 million still to raise. Annual costs (paid by the
    feds) are estimated at $22 million.

    It's ironic that a human rights museum would cause such controversy.

    BITTER, NASTY LETTER

    The "letter" published in the Post is bitter and nasty towards
    Ukrainians. It says the UCC "has, at times, inflated the number of
    (famine) victims to seven or even 10 million; the implication is
    obvious: Seven or 10 million is more than six million; the Holodomor
    deserves more attention than the Holocaust."

    That is somewhat unfair, if not paranoid.

    The letter also recalls that the Organization of Ukrainian
    Nationalities (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (APA) cooperated with
    the Nazis, as well as opposing Soviet Communism, and indulged in mass
    murders of civilians. Not all Ukrainians, but some.

    Holocaust victims were largely innocent of everything except being
    Jewish, and the signatories of the letter and CMHR feel their fate
    stands as unique lesson to all. Victims of Stalin starving Ukraine
    into submission are no less innocent than Holocaust victims.

    Unless the issue of how to commemorate genocides can be resolved, it's
    hard to see the CMHR being anything but a divisive symbol of
    controversy.

    And not only the Holodomor. There is the Armenian genocide, the
    Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge, Rwanda and Darfur as genocidal
    victims. The Holocaust, which should be an example to all, is often
    ignored when other genocides occur.

    When passions are involved, compromise does not come easily.

    If it were up to me, I'd be inclined to commemorate all genocides in
    one gallery, with perhaps special attention to the Holocaust which was
    planned and perpetrated by evil people, and was not by impulse or hot
    blood. The same applies to the Holodomor-- which may have given Hitler
    the idea of a "final solution."

    But I'm neither Jewish nor Ukrainian, so the issue seems clearer.




    From: A. Papazian
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