We join together here today, to commemorate the victims of a heinous act against humanity.
Those crimes that were committed long ago, in a dark time that we hoped would remain behind us for all of eternity are being reenacted today in Ukraine. On this night, 82 years ago, tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, including children & the elderly were rounded up – mostly in the dead of night – to be forcibly deported to distant slave labour camps inside of Russia.
Their only crime was to be Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. For the Soviet Russian colonizers, indigenous cultural identities and languages were barriers to complete Russian domination. So they set about removing those barriers. Tearing families apart. And stamping the sovereignty of these nations.
We must not forget, that the Soviet Russians had an ally who enabled these crimes. In 1939, the Soviets signed a friendship treaty with Nazi Germany. Together, they coordinated the start of World War Two – and the eradication of millions of people in Central and Eastern Europe.
Today, Putin’s Russia is emulating the mass crimes of Stalin’s Russia in Ukraine. Our collective nightmare about history repeating, has become a reality. Civilians – thousands of Ukrainian children, have been forcibly deported to remote regions of Russia. Torn from their families. Brainwashed by the regime with anti-Ukrainian propaganda. A crime that is nothing short of genocide.
Our communities have experienced these horrific crimes. The trauma is etched into our DNA. Our hearts break for those Ukrainian children and we weep for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. To those who seek to deny our collective history, our experiences and the mass crimes being committed against Ukraine – we say shame on you. The whitewashing and denial of Russia’s crimes has no place in Canada.
We will not back down. We will not relent. We will continue to commemorate the victims of these heinous Russian crimes and we will stand for our collective freedom and sovereignty.
Long live our free nations and may God help the defenders of Ukraine and the victims of Russian crimes. Please join me to light a candle in remembrance.
