Paul M. Grod
UCC National President
Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed 200 students at UCU with words of inspiration that the future of Ukraine is in their hands and that Canada will always be there to provide the necessary support.
The visit to UCU was for Harper and his delegation the first stop in Lviv and was a gesture of solidarity with Fr. Borys Gudziak, faculty and students of the university who earlier in the year faced intimidation by Ukraine’s security service for demonstrations in opposition to the Yanukovych government’s actions.
In his plea for democracy in Ukraine the PM commented about states that do not respect their own people cannot respect the rights of their neighbours.
Harper emphasized the genocidal nature of the Holodomor and commented that more people were killed during that horror than were alive in Canada at that time.
The Prime Minister then proceeded to the National Museum “Tiurma na Lonskoho” which was the prison were tens of thousands of Ukrainians, Poles and Jews were slaughtered by both the Soviets and Nazis. The Director of the Museum Ruslan Zabily who was recently detained, had documents confiscated and is currently undergoing criminal investigation in relation to the disclosure of archival materials, guided the tour.
