University students call for lecturer’s ouster

EDMONTON— Ukrainian Canadian students across Canada are demanding that the University of Alberta fire a lecturer who called the Holodomor genocide a “myth.”

Holodomor — Ukrainian for “death by hunger” — was a yearlong, famine-genocide in Soviet Ukraine in 1932. It is estimated that between three million and 12 million Ukrainians lost their lives. Apart from Canada, the genocide is recognized by several countries and international bodies, including the General Assemly of the United Nations and the European Parliament.

On Nov. 19, Dougal MacDonald, an assistant lecturer at the University of Alberta made a detailed post on his private Facebook page denying the existence of Holodomor, calling it a “myth” and “phony,” as reported first by the Gateway.

In a statement to Star Edmonton, MacDonald called it a freedom-of-speech issue and said his post is his contribution to the debate and that making it is his right.

On Monday, the post was sent to the Ukrainian Canadian Student Union, a national body that represents all Ukrainian-Canadian student clubs across Canada.

On Tuesday, they wrote to the university’s president, calling for the immediate termination of MacDonald’s employment. “The Ukrainian Canadian Students’ Union calls upon the University of Alberta to immediately terminate and censure assistant lecturer Dougal MacDonald for anti-Ukrainian hate speech, Holodomor denial, as well as libel and defamation of a community and a former Chancellor,” the letter reads.

The University of Alberta did not respond to Star Edmonton’s request for comment but posted on Twitter that it had received “expressions of concerns” regarding the Facebook post.

In Saturday Insight: Rhea Clyman was one of the first North Americans to report on the Holodomor.