In Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, the first memorial in Atlantic Canada to the victims of the 1932–1933 Holodomor was unveiled. The monument, entitled ‘The Bitter Memory of Childhood’, honours the millions of Ukrainians who perished as a result of the genocide organised by the Soviet regime. Andriy Plakhotnyuk, Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada, announced the unveiling.
The commemorative ceremony was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy, provincial and Charlottetown municipal authorities, and the Ukrainian community.
In his speech, Andrii Plakhotniuk, Ukraine’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Canada, emphasised the importance of preserving the memory of the Holodomor and of the international community’s solidarity with Ukrainians:
‘The Holodomor was intended to silence the Ukrainians. Today, in the very heart of Charlottetown, their memory has been given a permanent place — thousands of kilometres from Ukraine, but amongst people who refuse to forget’.
The initiative was implemented thanks to collaborative efforts of the Ukrainian community, specifically the Prince Edward Island branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, together with local authorities, charitable organisations, patrons, and volunteers.
It is worth recalling that the sculpture ‘The Bitter Memory of Childhood’ (conceived by the Ukrainian artist Petro Drozdovsky) forms part of the Holodomor Museum’s memorial complex and is one of the most recognisable symbols of the tragedy of the Ukrainian genocide. Replicas of the sculpture have been erected in several cities across Canada, namely Toronto, Winnipeg and Regina, as well as in Skopje (North Macedonia).
Photo from Andrii Plakhotniuk’s Facebook page.
