On November 26, I attended a ceremony at the Holodomor Memorial at Exhibition Place in my riding of Spadina–Fort York. The Holodomor is a genocide committed against the Ukrainian people by the Soviet government that took place between 1932 and 1933. The Soviet government came into Ukraine, stole every bit of food—they searched houses and barns to find every bit of food—then they sealed the borders and let millions of people starve to death.

At the memorial, we heard from one of the survivors of this 1932-33 genocide: 95-year-old Mr. Latishko. He told us of the horrific crimes against humanity that had been committed against Ukraine.

When Ukraine was invaded by the Russian army on February 24 this year, the people of Ukraine have fought back with incredible courage and resilience because they recognize that this is another generation of a Russian government that has come in to complete the genocide that had begun 90 years ago.

But the attack on Ukraine is not just an attack on Ukraine. It’s an attack on democracies everywhere. Demo-cracies around the world are under threat, from both within and without. And the only way that we can guarantee freedom against oppression and against future genocides is to support the government of Ukraine until the democratic government of Ukraine has been restored to all of the borders of the Ukrainian country.