BLACK RIBBON DAY 2016, AUGUST 27, 2016, TORONTO CITY HALL ROTUNDA


Toronto - Black Ribbon Day 2016 will be commemorated at Toronto’s City Hall Rotunda on August 27th at 11am.

The event will also launch a major exhibit featuring information panels of Nazi and communist occupations and crimes in Europe, developed and created by the EU mandated Platform on European Conscience and Memory, as well as an educational curriculum reader.

PEMC Chairman, and former Swedish MP and VP of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Göran Lindblad, and PEMC director Neela Winkelmann will be attending and speaking at the event.

Black Ribbon Day was formally adopted as A Canadian Day of National Remembrance for the Victims of Nazi and Communist Totalitarianism in Europe after a resolution introduced by Bob Rae was adopted unanimously by Canada’s Parliament in 2009.

The annual event recalls the signing of the 1939 friendship treaty between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, which is widely recognized as facilitating and triggering the Nazi and Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, triggering the start of the Second World War.

[i]“It’s important for all Canadians to recognize the terror and suffering inflicted upon millions of Europeans during the last century under Nazi, Soviet and Communist regimes,”[i] said organizer and President of the Estonian Central Council in Canada, Marcus Kolga. [i]“Its historical importance has grown as the Putin regime aggressively ramps up its efforts to whitewash this sinister history and specter of radical right wing xenophobia continues to rise on the European continent.”[i]

Black Ribbon Day was organized in the 1980’s by members of the Central and Eastern European communities in Canada to protest the ongoing Communist occupation of Central and Eastern European states. The movement spread to the United States, Europe and other countries around the world.

[i]“Black Ribbon Day was established 30 years ago,”[i] explained Black Ribbon Day co-founder, Markus Hess. [i]“The signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop friendship pact, between Hitler and Stalin unleashed terror across Europe and Black Ribbon Day ensures that we never forget that fact.”[i]

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[i]For more information about Black Ribbon Day Toronto please contact Marcus Kolga atmarcuskolga@gmail.com

For more information about Black Ribbon Day in other Canadian cities please contact Markus Hess atmjhess2003@yahoo.ca[i]

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