Grade 10 students in Ontario will soon learn about the Holodomor famine and its impact on the Ukrainian community in Canada.

The Ontario government is introducing new mandatory learning in September 2025 in the Grade 10 Canadian History course, to ensure, the province says, all students learn about ‘’the adverse consequences of extreme political ideologies like those from Stalin’s totalitarian communist regime, designed to ensure students learn from history.’’

The province says the new learning will outline how the Holodomor, also known as the Great Ukrainian Famine, was a result of totalitarian policies of the Communist Soviet Union leading to a man-made famine in Ukraine that killed millions of Ukrainians between 1932 to 1933.

Students will also learn about how extreme ideologies enabled mass-scale political repressions through widespread intimidation, arrests and imprisonment, along with the impact of this genocide on the Ukrainian community in Canada.

“The rise of extremism, including Communism and Marxism, are direct threats to our democracy, social cohesion and values as Canadians,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “I am determined to strengthen education on our shared values, including by mandating learning about the horrors of state-sponsored persecution of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in Grade 10 Canadian History. This learning will help ensure students are never bystanders in the face of such horrors, understand the danger of totalitarianism and help safeguard fundamental Canadian values of freedom and democracy over communist extremism.”

The province is also investing $400,000 in the Canada-Ukraine Foundation to support the Holodomor National Awareness Tour and the Holodomor Mobile Classroom, which will be used to teach students in Grades 6 to 12 through experiential learning linked to the Ontario curriculum.