Ontario to mandate lessons on Holodomor Ukrainian famine in Grade 10 history classes
Grade 10 students in Ontario will get mandatory education on the Holodomor famine in Ukraine as part of their Canadian history course beginning in fall 2025.
At a news conference Tuesday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the expansion of the class will help kids understand the impact of the Holodomor on the Ukrainian community in Canada and learn from that part of history to "never be bystanders in the face of evil.
"This famine against the Ukrainian people was an act of genocide and it is our duty as Canadians to ensure we remember it," Lecce said.
"I am determined to strengthen education on our shared values, including by mandating learning about the horrors of state-sponsored persecution of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in Grade 10 Canadian History."
The curriculum addition will take effect in September 2025 and the government says it will outline how the Holodomor "was a result of totalitarian policies of the communist Soviet Union leading to a man-made famine in Ukraine that killed millions of Ukrainians between 1932 to 1933."
In 2008, the Canadian government recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Ontario is also giving $400,000 to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to support a Holodomor national awareness tour and a recreational vehicle that is outfitted with interactive, hands-on lessons about the Holodomor.
