Holodomor was a genocide wreaked upon the Ukrainian population of the former Soviet Union in the 30's in numbers equivalent to the entire population of Western Canada. A commemorative bus is touring throughout the country to make people aware of the horror. Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa MP Robert Sopuck shares the need for such awareness.

Robert Sopuck"I think it's extremely important. Our government passed legislation recognizing Holodomor as a genocide. And as you know, the Ukrainian population in Canada's 1.3 million, and many of whom are still alive and had relatives killed by Stalin in the Holodomor."

He explains the tour bus is helping people learn more about the issue.

"It's part of the ongoing awareness. Ten years ago people really didn't know what the Holodomor really was. They certainly do now. Also, things like the commemorative bus that's travailing around the country -- the mobile classroom -- it further reinforces what happened. The courage and bravery of the Ukrainian people, in both in terms of the settlement in our region of Manitoba and the constant commemoration of Ukrainian history, is to be commended. In fact, there's a Holodomor monument at the Canadian Ukrainian National Festival grounds in Dauphin. Ukrainian people young and old should never forget what happened. The tour was in Ottawa last week."

Sopuck adds, "The former Soviet Union should never ever get away with what they did. And the world has to be told over and over again as to how horrific a crime was committed against the Ukrainian people in the 1930's. I'm in parliament right now and we're debating the fate of the Yazidis in the Middle East, and the horrific genocide. This is an ongoing issue in the world. We thought after the cold war was over these things were behind us, and they're not. James Bezan puts it just right. Just imagine if every person in Western Canada was killed. That's the scope of the genocide that was committed against Ukrainian people by Stalin. And quite honestly, for no good reason. There's never a good reason. It's more like a fit of pique. It wasn't anything about conquest. And the USSR wasn't even at war at the time. Stalin simply hated the Ukrainian people and wanted to see them exterminated."

See the official tour website by clinking here: www.holodomortour.ca