Date: August 11, 1995
Author: Valentina Krčmar, Thornhill, Ontario
Addressed to: The Honourable André Ouellet, Minister of External Affairs, Ottawa, Ontario
View the Original Letter: krcmar book 2_Part152 181.pdf
About This Letter
In this powerful and indignant letter dated August 11, 1995, Valentina Krčmar addresses André Ouellet, Canada’s Minister of External Affairs, in response to his public remarks suggesting that the “warring factions” of the Yugoslav conflict should be “locked somewhere and forced to come out with a compromise.”
Krčmar’s reaction is immediate and impassioned. She rejects the false equivalence implied by Ouellet’s words — the idea that victims and aggressors share equal responsibility — and she condemns the statement as both ignorant and deeply insulting to those suffering and dying in Croatia and Bosnia.
“Honourable Minister, we are shocked. You, rather than taking a stand for the victims, something that Canada should have done a long time ago, you even insult the victims by comparing them to children.”
She counters his condescension with a reminder of her people’s long history and civilization, contrasting it sharply with the youth of Canada as a nation:
“Croats and Bosnians are old, proud people; our homelands have been here much longer than Canada; the towns where we came from have had universities over 900 years old; our schools and libraries had books when no one even dreamed of Canada.”
Krčmar’s letter moves from indignation to mourning, invoking the dead as witnesses to Canada’s moral failure:
“Your words did not insult only us living here in Canada, you also insulted those that died all over Croatia and Bosnia: those from Vukovar’s hospital, who were tortured and killed; you insulted people from Sarajevo, who have done their utmost to negotiate, but all their pleas fell on deaf ears; you also insulted those in Bihać who starved to death, hoping that negotiations would bring peace; or those from Srebrenica that were raped, tortured and are in the mass graves that seems to have been found just now.”
Her tone is one of righteous fury. She demands not only a personal apology from Ouellet but an official apology from Canada for the insensitivity and inaction that had marked its stance throughout the war.
“Honourable Minister, you owe us an apology, but more than anything you owe an apology to Croatia and Bosnia… Canada should apologize for such irresponsible, insensitive words at the time when we need all the support we can get.”
She closes with a statement that leaves no room for ambiguity:
“Today Canada should be ashamed of its Minister of External Affairs.”
Krčmar’s letter — copied to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, multiple newspapers, and several opposition leaders — captures the raw moral tension between diaspora outrage and governmental detachment. It is a moment when one citizen’s voice demanded that Canada confront the difference between neutrality and complicity.
