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By Susanne Urbina
April 1st is known for many as April Fool’s Day but in Canada, it’s also the day that marks Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and Prevention Month when we reflect upon the victims of genocide, honor survivors and give thought to how to prevent brutal acts from occurring in the future.
“Genocide is defined in international law as certain prohibited acts or omissions committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected group of people” (Lafontaine, 2021).
The House of Commons unanimously passed a motion in 2015, declaring the month of April as the time to commemorate the genocides that Canada recognizes (Ukrainian Canadian Congress, 2020) with lives lost: The Holocaust with up to 17 million people exterminated; the Ukrainian Holodomor with an estimated 7.5 million death count; the death of up to 1 million Tutsis Rwandans; the 1915 Armenian Genocide with up to 1.5 million killed (Jones, 2019); the approximate 100,000 killed in The Bosnian Genocide (Montreal Holocaust Museum, n.d.) and the ongoing atrocities of the Yezidi people of Syria and Iraq where more than 3,000 were unlawfully killed (Amnesty International, 2024).
We are witnessing more hate in our world today. Racism and discrimination can ultimately lead to loss of life when violence erupts, and it starts with targeting and dehumanizing groups of people (Government of Canada, 2022). We can look back on our own history to see the genocide against our Indigenous Peoples. This colonial genocide is slow-moving as it has evolved over decades and continues still today with the search for unmarked graves at former residential schools as well as, the search for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The disproportionate rates of poverty, unemployment, lack of housing, incarceration and addiction continue to plague our Indigenous population (Barker, 2025).
While genocide falls under mass atrocities which are large-scale, systematic violent acts against civilian populations, it is not considered mass killing which is more often driven by revenge, mental illness or ideology. It is consistent with crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing, which all have the same common denominator-hate (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.).
Not all injustices equate to loss of life, but there have been many tragic events where many have suffered throughout history in Canada because of racism. In addition to Indigenous injustice, discrimination was the root for the enslavement of Africans until 1833, for the anti-Asian sentiment from the 1850s to the 1950s, for segregated schools in Nova Scotia and Ontario into the early mid-20th century, and for the anti-Semitism in Montreal in 1914. Post wars, we saw internment camps and hostile sentiments toward Japanese Canadians, Slavic immigrants deemed as revolutionaries, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other organizations opposing immigrants and Catholics (Palmer, Driedger, 2011).
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination just passed, and you may not have given much thought to hate and its root causes but as we approach April 1st, don’t be the fool who doesn’t recognize that we must do our part to ensure that such unfathomable acts never happen again. We must protect human rights and the dignity of Canadians and people worldwide.
References
Lafontaine, F. (2021, June 11). How Canada committed genocide against Indigenous Peoples, explained by the lawyer central to the determination. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-canada-committed-genocide-against-indigenous-peoples-explained-by-the-lawyer-central-to-the-determination-162582
Ukrainian Canadian Congress. (2020). Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and Prevention Month: Amid growing instances of online hate, organizations call on the Government of Canada to take action. https://www.ucc.ca/2020/04/14/april-is-genocide-remembrance-condemnation-prevention-month/
Jones, J. (2019, April 21). 10 Largest Genocides in the World. https://largest.org/culture/genocides/
Montreal Holocaust Museum. (n.d.). The Bosnian Genocide. https://museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/the-bosnian-genocide/
Amnesty International. (2024, July 31) Syria: Yezidi survivors of Islamic State atrocities abandoned to indefinite detention in north-ease Syria. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/syria-yezidi-survivors-of-islamic-state-atrocities-abandoned-to-indefinite-detention-in-north-east-syria/
Canadian Heritage. (2022, April 1). Statement by Minister Hussen on Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and Prevention Month. Government of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2022/03/statement-by-minister-hussen-on-genocide-remembrance-condemnation-and-prevention-month.html
Barker, R. (2025, February 14). What was the native genocide in Canada? NCESC.COM https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-faq/what-was-the-native-genocide-in-canada/
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). Definitions: Types of Mass Atrocities https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/definitions
Palmer, H., Driedger, L. (2011, February 10). Prejudice and Discrimination in Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prejudice-and-discrimination
