This enactment designates the month of September as “Ukrainian Heritage Month”.

Preamble

Whereas the first official Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, Vasyl Eleniak and Ivan Pylypiw, arrived on September 7, 1891, and Ukrainian immigrants began arriving in Canada in larger numbers in the years that followed;

Whereas today Canada is home to more than 1.‍3 million Ukrainian Canadians;

Whereas Canada was the first Western nation to recognize Ukraine’s independence in 1991;

Whereas Canada has recognized that the Holodomor was a genocide perpetrated by the Soviet regime of Joseph Stalin, causing the death of millions of Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933, with the intent to destroy the Ukrainian people’s aspirations for a free and independent Ukraine;

Whereas Canada opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and continues to support Ukraine in its fight for its sovereignty and territorial integrity;

Whereas Ukrainian Canadians have left and continue to leave a historic mark on Canada, with contributions that span communities across the country and are reflected in Canada’s economic, political, social and cultural life;

And whereas Parliament wishes to recognize the inspirational role that Ukrainian Canadians have played and continue to play in communities across the country and to educate Canadians about that role by celebrating it;

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