Holodomor Memorial Statue

Yes, thank you

Okay.

Hi, folks. We're going to get underway here. The motion will be introduced by Councillor Zhou, who has relinquished the chair for me for this item. Councillor Zhou, please go right ahead. Oh, sorry. Let me put you on the queue here. And... I've got your mic on. Perfect.

Here you go.

Thanks very much, Councillor. And just I should have asked to make sure that nobody has a conflict of interest to declare on this item. Seeing none, and it's not common practice that the chair seconds a motion, but I did check. It does happen in some circumstances, and so I would be in my honour to second this motion with Councillor Zhou. And I also, just before we... I just wanted to acknowledge, and I believe he'll be speaking, that we have the ambassador of Ukraine who's come into Vancouver to speak to this item, and we're very pleased to have him. Ambassador Plotniak, very pleased to have you here. And we'll have to go to our speakers list. So we'll just make sure. Of course, you are the first speaker, so welcome, and you can come to the podium here. Thanks.

Dear Mr. Vice-Chair, distinguished members of the City Council, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. I stand before you in support of establishing the Holodomor Memorial in Vancouver, a memorial that would honour the memory of millions of innocent lives lost to starvation under the totalitarian Soviet regime. The Holodomor was a man-made famine, the result of deliberate policies designed to break the will of the Ukrainian people and to silence their aspirations. Hunger was used as a tool of repression. Access to food was restricted by policy, enforced by law, and backed by violence. Even the smallest acts of survival, such as picking a few stalks of grain from a field, was punishable. This was a profound tragedy that left a lasting imprint on Ukraine's national identity. For decades, this crime was denied, first by the Soviet Union, later by Russia, suppressed and erased from public consciousness. Families carried this memory privately, often in silence. It is only through the work of historians, survivors, and the communities, including the Ukrainian-Canadian community, that the truth has been restored and recognized as an act of genocide. Allow me also to express my sincere appreciation to the province of British Columbia for its historical decision in 2019 to recognize the Holodomor and to establish a Provincial Day of Remembrance. This was an important and principled step, and today's discussion is a natural continuation of that commitment. Remembrance matters. Canada has shown leadership in recognizing the Holodomor as genocide in 2008. Vancouver, a city that values diversity and human dignity, now has the opportunity to join many Canadian cities that have created places of public remembrance for the victims of Holodomor. But it's not about history. Today, Ukraine is once again facing a brutal war of aggression. Once again, we see attempts to destroy Ukrainian identity, to manipulate history, and to deny a nation the right to exist.

A memorial such as Bitter Memories of Childhood would remind us that unpunished evil returns and that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations. It would serve as a place of learning for young people and future generations about the danger of totalitarianism and the consequences of indifference. Importantly, it would also send a message. of solidarity to the Ukrainian community in Canada and around the world, to Ukrainians in Ukraine who are fighting every day and night for their survival, and to Vancouver's sister city of Odessa, which continues to endure the horrors of Russian aggression. Memorials do not change the past, but they shape the present, and more importantly, the future. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to Councillor Lenny Joe for bringing forward this important motion, to the Holodomor Committee, to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Vancouver branch for this initiative, as well as donating the bronze statue created by Petro Drozdowski. I respectfully ask you to support the establishment of the Holodomor Memorial, Peter's Memories of Childhood in the City of Vancouver. Thank you so much for standing with Ukraine, and thank you a lot for your attention. Thank you very much, Ambassador. So our next speaker is Marianne Plipchuk.

Welcome. My name is Marianne Plipchuk, and I represent the Ukrainian Studies Foundation of British Columbia. I support the report... that's recommended. Dear Honourable Council Members, I would like you to think of the photo that you saw before of the little emaciated girl. That girl was my mother 93 years ago and millions of other children like her throughout Ukraine in 1932-33. Both my father and my mother were survivors of the genocide targeting Ukrainians orchestrated by Stalin and Soviet Russia. My mother's two sisters, her father, and my brother's twin baby brothers all perished in the Holodomor. I am speaking today as the daughter of the survivors because they are no longer here to speak of it themselves. My parents came to Canada as displaced persons after being prisoners of war in enslaved labor in Nazi Germany during World War II. For most of their lives, they never talked about the horrific pre-war experience in Soviet Ukraine. Our family adopted and embraced a Canadian way of life. And in the freedom provided by Canada, we cherished our Ukrainian heritage that Stalin had tried to erase. Only after the fail of Soviet Union did my mother, now free from fear, begin sharing her Holodomor experiences. I hold here in my hand my mother's memoir of the Holodomor.

My mom described how the Russians and their proxies came and took all the grain, but they did not stop there. They took other food, belongings, livestock. They prevented people from foraging or going elsewhere to obtain food. 28,000 people a day died over a seven-month period in 1933. For the rest of my mother's life, the words of her baby sister, Mama, Amu, Mama, pleading for food, never left her heart. My mother wrote, Christmas had not yet come, but already we were afraid to go outside, even in the daytime, let alone at night. The village appeared deserted as though burnt out. People were dying in the streets. Whoever collapsed alive soon froze to death. The corpses were picked up in wagons and all thrown into one hole. On more than one occasion, those who were digging the trenches and the holes were themselves left in the hole. Russia continuously refuses to acknowledge that Stalin had created a genocidal famine. Anyone in Soviet Ukraine who dared to discuss...

Sorry.

Just to remind you that you are over time right now, but if you would like to close... So anyone who dared to discuss that their family had starved or that they could not mark the mass grave were quickly taken away to the far reaches of Russia. The statue, Bitter Memories of Childhood, is a reminder not just of the horrible past, but that in our present day world, food should never be used as a weapon. Today, in keeping with the values of Canada, where we celebrate democracy, truth, human rights, and our multicultural heritage, we ask that Vancouver honor the memory of the millions who perished in the Holodomor by providing a home for our bronze little girl. Thank you very much. Okay. Our next speaker is Alexander Portnick. And on the phone. So we'll go on to the next speaker. Mir Hucalak.

Hello, sir. Yes, Mr. Deputy Mayor. It's Mir Hucalak. And I was the Honorary Consul of Ukraine for 19 years. Just recently retired from that position. I've lived in Vancouver for over 78 years. And I think most of the counselors are not even that old.

Anyways, I saw the floods of Fraser River in 1948. I saw Vancouver when it was still a growing city. We had the Woodward's department store. We had the streetcars here. Wonderful city. I'm pleased to be living here. The Ukrainian population, according to the latest statistics, are over 60,000 people of Ukrainian descent in Vancouver. But now I believe it's over 80 or even 100,000 people because of the influx of the Ukrainians that came from after the war. My father took his family from Ukraine when the Russian Red Army was... advancing and as because he was a professor he knew he'd be in trouble so we came to Vancouver because my aunt was here my grandfather and grandmother both the grandfather died in Siberia I didn't even know him and my grandmother came back for one year and died shortly thereafter so you can see the horrors of what's happening in the world especially in that part of the world I of course support the motion because I am the chair of the Hall of the Memorial Committee and I want to say that the statue should be displayed in a prominent place where there's lots of foot traffic so people of all nationalities could see what was happening. not just Ukrainians. So I would urge you to find us a nice place for this statue. And Consular Zhu and I, we did a tour of this downtown area and we found a beautiful place at the foot of Hornby Street at Hastings Street. And that is a thoroughfare to go to the Canada Place. So that's my number one area that I'd like the statue to be erected. All we need is 10 feet by 10 feet. We don't need much space. So thank you very much. I still have half a minute, but I'm not going to take up your time. I'm sure you're all tired. Thank you very much, Mayor. Ken Charco.

Thank you. I have a cold, so if I start coughing, I'll... I have to leave. I apologize for that. But I, of course, did not want to meet this. First off, I'm not going to talk much about the statue because there's... Learned individuals here that know more than me. But I do want to talk about the process. First off, I want to thank the ambassador for coming here. And I want to let you know that his coming here was directly related to this being put forward. So his timing and everything like that. Since he's been here, we've had multiple meetings with hundreds of people. Always this on the topic.

A few things in the SRE are on there, but that's been on the topic. I also want to let you know that dealing with the staff here has been great. Trevor was good. Andrew was good. And Connor was also really good. This is a new thing, so it was really good. So I want to let you know that you're well serviced for that. For those people that haven't been outside, and also for those that are not here in person, like Pete Fry, I think Ken Sim is there, is that they are, I want to let them know that outside There has been hundreds and hundreds of people in support of the statue outside. And there hasn't been a single person not in support of that. And those hundreds and hundreds of people have been circulating all day. Because what we did is we didn't know when to have, when it was going to happen. So we just said, just come during the day when you can. So people took off their lunch hours. We had hundreds and hundreds of people that came there. So I want to let you know that I've talked to almost everyone in here. And I hope that you would consider voting for this because this is important to a community that feels under attack. They're under attack not only physically as it relates to the war, but they're under attack because people aren't remembering what's happening. So we need a place for the community to go there. So thank you so much. And I do have one thing because I know I do have two minutes left. Is someone on the speaker's list? This is a question for the chair, I think. Someone on the speaker's list that can't attend has left a note with someone else here. Are they able to read that as an addition to their time? Everyone has a three-minute. Okay, that's fine. I said I would ask that. I'm good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thanks very much, Ken. Okay. Thanks for coming in. Our next speaker is Olga Zuridina.

Dear members of the City Council, my name is Olga Zarudina. I'm the president of Ukrainian Canadian Congress Vancouver branch. First of all, thank you for the opportunity to speak here today, and thank you for bringing the motion forward. If you had a chance to look outside today, you would have seen a big crowd of Ukrainians coming out in support of the motion, which testifies to the importance of this whole thing that we're all doing today to our big Ukrainian community in Vancouver. And it is even more notable because it is being done in the middle of the week and in the middle of the workday. As some other speakers before me have mentioned the statistics of the genocide, the atrocities of the Holodomor are simply beyond human. And our task today is to ensure that this never happens anywhere in the world ever again. Passing the motion, of course, will not change the past, but it will become part of the prevention force by, A, acknowledging the tragedy, B, recognizing the educational weight of it, and three, demonstrating that we're all on the right side of history.

Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you for coming in. Okay, our next speaker is Roman Sawici. Sawici? You're going to have to say it, sir. Sawiki. Sawici?

That's close enough, Mayor. Thanks very much. I'll go right ahead. Honourable Mayor Kim Sims, Honourable Councils, you've heard more of the history of the Holodomor from my predecessors speaking before me here. And all I wanted to do is certainly indicate that, one, this statue has been in Vancouver for quite a while. It needs a home badly. It needs to be recognized. I brought this statue to Vancouver eight years ago, and we're looking for a proper home. It depicts an era in the world that we should learn from the history. We should learn and not have it repeat again. I was thinking when I brought the statue is that it has to be in a prominent place, somewhere where people can see it and learn about it. And it's history, and it's something we should learn from. And I basically got that impression when I was traveling in Boston, and I saw the statue and the memorial that they had for the Irish potato famine. And it was very interesting, and I learned a lot from it. And I would like to think that a lot of people will learn a lot about Ukraine and what Ukraine has gone through and is going through now. And we need a prominent place for it. So I hopefully feel that, you know, it will serve as a place of remembrance for one and an education for other people. So I encourage and I... Trust that the council and the mayor will agree and give us our location and find a home for our little girl. Thank you. Thank you for coming in today. Our next speaker is Ola Proden.

My name is Olga Prodan. I'm vice president of Ukrainian Canadian UCC Vancouver branch and also a president of Ukrainian Canadian Advocacy Group. It is a great honor to stand here today on behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian community in Vancouver. We are here for more than a monument. We are here for memory, for truth, for the right to be seen, to be heard, and to have our history recognized in this city.

For decades, over 200,000 Ukrainian Canadians in British Columbia have contributed to building this province. Yet our story has too often remained unseen. Today we ask for a rightful place in Vancouver's public memory. Many in our community are descendants of survivors of the Holodomor, a man-made famine that took the lives of millions of Ukrainians. This was not just a tragedy. It was a deliberate attempt to erase a nation. Those who survived carried that memory across oceans. They came to Canada and helped build this land, working the soil, growing wheat, feeding communities, and contributing to the prosperity we share today. To stand here now is to carry their voices. It is to honor those who could not speak, and it is to ensure that their truth is not forgotten. Memory is not political. Memory is human. And without it, there is no justice and no future built on truth. This monument is not only about the past. It is about who we are today and what we choose to remember as a city. So today, I ask all of you to stand with us. Stand for memory. Stand for truth. Stand for the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians in British Columbia, whose history is a part of Vancouver's story. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Troy Abramathias.

Dear city councillors, I'm just wondering if I will be able to read the letter on his behalf since Troy is just simply being late. It will be within the time limit. I think clerk will allow the statement to be read. Okay. Thank you. All right, thank you. So I do have the permission. Yeah, go right ahead. Thank you. Dear Mayor and Council, my name is Troy Macbeth Abramitis, ancestral name Lachman Drynock of the Lytton First Nation and a member of the Urban Indigenous Committee for the City of Vancouver. I write to you today in strong and heartfelt support of the proposed installation of the Holden War Memorial in the City of Vancouver. This is more than a request for a monument. It is a call to remember, to honor, and to stand in truth. The Holodomor represents one of the most devastating and deliberate human tragedies in modern history. Millions of Ukrainian people suffered and perished under the conditions that were not accidental, but imposed. The weight of that loss carries forward through generations, held in memory, in history, and in lived experience of families and communities today.

To acknowledge the Holodomor in a public and permanent way is to affirm that those lives mattered and their suffering is recognized and that their stories will not be erased by time. As an indigenous peoples, we understand this in a deeply personal and lived way. Our histories are also marked by loss of land, of language, family, and of life. We know that it means to carry intergenerational trauma, but we also know the strength that comes from the remembrance, from ceremony, and from creating spaces where truth can be held with dignity. Memory, when honored properly, becomes a pathway to healing. In that spirit, the installation of the Holdenmore Memorial in Vancouver represents something profoundly important. It is not only an act of recognition of the Ukrainian community. It is the gesture of solidarity across cultures and histories. It reflects a shared understanding that one community's truth is honored. We all move forward together. Vancouver is a city that continues to grow in its commitment to reconciliation, inclusion, and cultural respect. It is a city built on the tradition and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Selwyn nations. that's shaped by the contributions and histories of many peoples from around the world. Within this context, public memories carries great significance. They're not simply objects in space. They're living markers of who we are, what we value, and how we chose to remember. The Holdemore Memorial would stand as a place of reflection and education. It would invite people to pause, learn, and to connect with a history that must never be forgotten. It would create a space of dialogue for empathy and for deeper understanding among communities. And importantly, it would send a very clear message that Vancouver is a city that does not turn away from difficult truths, but instead chooses to face them with integrity and compassion. Supporting this memorial is also an act of leadership. It demonstrates that the city is willing to stand alongside communities who have carried the burden of historical injustice and to recognize their experiences in a meaningful and lasting way. It reinforces the principle that remembrance is not passive. It is active, intentional, and necessary. There is also something deeply human in this monument. When we acknowledge the suffering of others, when we create space to honor their history, we strengthen the fabric of our shared community. We build bridges rooted in respect. We affirm that no story is too distant and no loss is too small to be recognized. I respectfully encourage Mayor Kinsim and Council to support the installation of the Holdemore Memorial to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian community in this important act of remembrance. In doing so, you will not only honor the past, you will help shape a more understanding, compassionate, and united future for our city. With respect, Troy Macbeth Abramides. Thank you. Thanks very much. Thanks to all the speakers coming.

I'll just go back to speaker three.

Yes, Speaker 3 didn't phone in. Alexander Bortnick. And if they're not there, we're fine. Okay.

Okay. All right, so that concludes our speakers list. Speaker 10 is withdrawn.

Yeah. Okay. Council, is there a committee? Is there any discussion?

Going back to the main queue. Very good. Well, sorry. Just add yourselves again. Counselor Orr and Counselor. I didn't see the second name. Maloney. Okay. Counselor Orr. Counselor Orr. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for all the speakers that came out. Thanks for the motion. Just note that the staff feedback for this one says that the plan for this commemorative proposal being considered after the commemoration framework is decided on by council scheduled May 5th. The proposed framework outlines the process by which city receives reviews and approves commemoration proposals such as this. Subject to council decision, the framework will recommend prioritization of commemorations that are locally relevant, local to Canadian or BC history. As Holodomor is not a Canadian or local incident, the Ukrainian... Canadian Congress should be encouraged to either look at non-city land, such as the Ukrainian Cultural Center property for a memorial or refocus a memorial on the local events or history of the community. I just wanted to know why we don't wait until, to us through the chair to the mover of the motion, why we don't wait until that framework comes out.

Okay, yeah, but there is another council meeting after the May the 5th. Well, I couldn't wait until the May the 22nd. Yeah, there will be other council meetings for this topic. Right, but we're getting it on May 5th. So I'm just saying, like, why are we making this decision before that commemorative framework is presented to council?

Okay. And then maybe this is for staff or maybe for the mover of the motion. How does this align with UNDRIP? I mean, I'm just thinking we're talking about genocide and absolutely valid comments from everyone. But, I mean, if we're using city land to commemorate a genocide, how do the First Nations feel about considering there's a genocide in Canada, an ongoing genocide in Canada to First Nations? And we're... memorializing this one before using city land to commemorate the Canadian genocide on our soil.

Okay.

For sure. Okay. Good to know. You did say that this is not a controversial motion, but I did Google the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, and there is a long list of controversies associated with this group. Could you speak to that at all? If you've looked it up, there's many incidences of controversy.

Okay.

Okay, I understand the reasoning. I think there's some members of the community who might not feel that way. I really want to support this. As somebody from Ireland whose family did suffer through the potato famine, I think it's important to recognize. I'll leave that there.

Thanks very much. Councillor Maloney.

Thanks, Councillor Kirby. Yeah, thank you. I will speak briefly because I don't think that I can... say anything more eloquent than a number of the speakers that are here. I just want to express my appreciation and gratitude for everybody speaking today. It's not easy to speak about such difficult circumstances and to speak from the heart. And I felt that deeply, and I'm just very appreciative of people generously sharing their real lived experience. And this is not an anonymous situation. This is something that has touched people personally, oftentimes their families or friends, people that you know. And I do think that I appreciate the review of different locations. I do think that recognizing the special relationship that Vancouver has with Odessa is one of our five and first sister cities. I think that citing City Hall. on city hall grounds is actually particularly appropriate because I think it really does speak to that sister relationship and solidarity that we have with Odessa. And we're really grateful for that. That is a longstanding relationship. And I think that when you have friends, you stand together with them and our friends are asking us to do that. I think that the world has stood with Ukraine, and I think this is an opportunity for Vancouver City Council to stand with you as well. And I am proud and humbled to be able to support this. Thank you. Thanks, Councillor. I'm going to see the Chair to Deputy Mayor Kirby Young, and I'll just be very, very, very brief. Thanks very much. All I want to say is I'd be very pleased to support this. And I think many of us have been following the plight of and also the strength and resilience of the Ukrainian people over the last several years. But this statue, I think, is an important symbol of the people. And I would be very pleased to see it prominently displayed somewhere in the city. in public um and uh it's not every day that we actually have an ambassador that uh comes visit us here so uh uh ambassador uh so pleased to uh meet you uh today and uh i'll uh again be proud to support this uh so with that i will uh take the chair back and advance mayor sim

I'm muting him. Okay. Sorry, you think after all these years, we'd be able to figure that one out. I just want to thank Councillor Zhou for bringing forward this motion.

And I do want to thank the members of the Ukrainian Canadian community who've spoken to council today, as well as those who've come to City Hall to make their voices heard. Vancouver stood and will always stand with our current Ukrainian community. We're really proud to raise the Ukrainian flag just outside of these chambers. When you come to the chambers, you'll notice that it's prominently displayed. And Vancouver's oldest sister city relationship is with Odessa, and we've been international partners since 1944. Only a decade earlier, Ukraine had to face one of its darkest chapters. The Holodomor was a horrific atrocity, which still has impacts to this day. And there are still those who hold this memory fresh in the stories that their family and friends have passed down through generations. And this presents an opportunity for the City of Vancouver to follow the federal and provincial governments informally recognizing this genocide. By accepting this gift at City Hall, Vancouver can continue to stand in solidarity with Ukrainian Canadians in our city, share their stories, and educate our wider community while providing a place of solemn contemplation for those who wish to remember and reflect. Slava Ukraina.

Thank you, Mayor. Okay. So with that, seeing no other speakers on the queue, we now call the vote. Can I please get a bold assist in favor? Absolutely.

Okay. So that motion passes with councillors Frey and Meisner absent and councillor Orr abstaining. Thanks very much. And we'll move on to the next item.

Do I have quorum?