This enactment designates the eighteenth day of May, in each and every year, as “Crimean Tatar Deportation (“Sürgünlik”) Memorial Day” in recognition of the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944.

Preamble

Whereas the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, also known as the “Sürgünlik”, was carried out by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin to banish the Crimean Tatars from their homeland as a means of collective punishment;

Whereas the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars led to thousands of deaths through starvation, disease, and abuses by the Soviet regime;

Whereas the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet regime robbed them of their freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of movement, as well as of their private property;

Whereas this act by the Soviet regime constitutes a genocide against the Crimean Tatars;

Whereas the mass deportations of other nationalities from their homes by the Soviet regime caused untold destruction and death to millions of people;

Whereas the Crimean Tatars were only permitted to return to Crimea in 1989, with no restitution made by the Soviet regime;

Whereas on March 18, 2014, the Russian Federation, acting in contravention of international laws and norms, annexed the Autonomous Republic of Crimea after staging a military invasion of Ukraine;

Whereas the Parliament of Canada categorically rejects this illegal act of annexation by the Russian Federation and recognizes the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of the sovereign territory of Ukraine;

Whereas the Crimean Tatars face renewed persecution, including the forced disappearances of activists, attacks on their freedom of religion, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and their dispossession of private property by the illegal occupying authorities of the Russian Federation;

Whereas the Russian Federation glorifies the Soviet regime, including the organizers of the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars, Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria;

Whereas on November 12, 2015, the Parliament of Ukraine recognized the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet regime in 1944 as a genocide and established May 18 as an official day of commemoration;

Whereas the Parliament of Ukraine encourages all states and international organizations to make such a recognition;

Whereas Canada, as a party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948, condemns all genocides;

And Whereas Canadians cherish democracy, defend human rights and value the diversity and multicultural nature of Canadian society;

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows: