LETTERS TO THE EDITOR COLUMN
The Toronto Sun
June 27, 2008 Friday
Canada
HOLODOMOR WILL BE STUDIED
Peter Worthington’s "Study of genocide must include Holodomor"
(June 24) contained erroneous information. As a Toronto District
School Board trustee who is intensely interested in the issue of
the genocide curriculum, I can emphatically state the Holodomor of
1932-1933 is included in the curriculum of the course. It is important
to note that one of the specific course expectations states: "students
will analyze how extreme natural or political circumstances (famine,
epidemics, war, and dictatorships) can lead to massive displacements
and instability." This is integral to the main rationale for teaching
this course: Global citizenship and responsibility.
There are several units within the course that deal with the Holodomor
specifically, including the unit on war crimes tribunals that
examines the omission of Stalin’s responsibility for the Ukrainian
Famine. Required reading for the course, Genocide by Jane Springer,
includes the Ukrainian Famine. Significant historical events such as
the Holodomor are not being dismissed at the TDSB. On the contrary,
historical study in this course will go beyond the three core topic
areas to include a number of other well known examples (such as Darfur)
in order to broaden the students’ understanding of the scope of this
topic. The Ukrainian community has expressed concern that the Holodomor
was not chosen to be one of the three main examples of genocide studied
in depth. There were three genocides chosen — Armenian, Holocaust and
Rwanda to be studied more intensely for specific reasons. The course
was never intended to rate the importance of certain genocides. Board
staff have done an exemplary job of bringing to our students this
important course — the first, to my knowledge, in Canada.