On Tuesday May 17, I spoke in the Manitoba Legislature on Bill 223, Ukrainian Heritage Month Act, at third reading. My comments are below:
Bill 223 Ukrainian Heritage Month Act
Hon. Jon Gerrard (River Heights): Madam Speaker, Manitoba Liberals, we support this bill, and we look forward to September being a time to recognize, to celebrate and to honour Ukraine and the contribution of people who have come from Ukraine.
And
there are many–I think about 180,000 in Manitoba. And people from Ukraine are
living and working all over Manitoba; they are living and working in all
variety of occupations, public and private. They are making an incredible contribution
to our province. Ukraine is a part of who we are in Manitoba, and we
want to celebrate that and recognize it.
At the
same time, we want to recognize the difficulties that Ukraine has been
through–the incredible struggles at the time of the Holodomor, the incredible
struggles that are happening right now with the war between Ukraine and Russia.
It is a tumultuous time at the moment. We are doing everything that we can as
individuals, as a Province, as a country, to support Ukraine and Ukrainian
people.
We look
forward to receiving many Ukrainians shortly coming, and we welcome them as new
refugees and hope they will decide to stay in Manitoba. But we–it hurts,
because we don't want to be, you know, taking people who would make a contribution
in Ukraine. We want to make sure that the fundamental continuance of Ukraine
as a country is there, and we are supporting that all the way.
Comments
Post a Comment