The Ukrainian Canadians
Of all the Ukrainian communities in the West, the Ukrainian Canadians are in the most advantageous position. Numbering about 750,000 (of whom 530,000 have parents who are both Ukrainians), they are close to their compatriots in the United States in terms of numbers.
But their profile and influence in their country are much greater. Because the population of Canada is only one-tenth that of the United States, the Ukrainian Canadians are, in effect, a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Ukrainians in the United States hold the twenty-first position in terms of ethnic group size, but in Canada they rank fifth, constituting 3% of the total population. As the people that settled much of the Canadian prairies, they lay claim to pioneer status. Some Ukrainians even argue that they are one of the “founding nations” of the country. Because they settled in solid blocs, the early immigrants to Canada have withstood assimilation much better than their counterparts in the United States. This homogeneity is reflected in the relatively large number of Ukrainians of the third, fourth, and even fifth generation that still speak the language of their forefathers and participate in Ukrainian community affairs.Yet foreboding developments also confront Ukrainian Canadians: modernization is threatening their sense of community. The global trend toward urbanization is breaking up the rural bloc settlements in the prairies, the bastions of Ukrainian life in Canada. In 1931 over 80% of Ukrainian Canadians lived in a rural setting; today over 75% are city dwellers. Edmonton, Winnipeg, and especially Toronto, where many DPS settled, are now the centers of Ukrainian life in Canada. Although each of these cities has a large and active community of about 70,000–80,000 Ukrainians and part-Ukrainians, urban life in Canada is clearly not conducive to the retention of Ukrainian ethnic identity.
A variety of statistics bear out this assertion. In 1921, over 90% of Ukrainian Canadians declared that their mother tongue was Ukrainian; in 1971, only 49% did so, and the percentage has been dropping rapidly since then. In 1931, over 80% intermarried within their own group; today, less than 50% do so. Even the churches face an uncertain future. In 1931 the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox denominations encompassed 82% of Ukrainians; today, the figure is only 52%.But if Ukrainian Canadians have problems similar to those of their compatriots south of the border, they are better equipped to deal with them. In general, they are more effectively organized than the latter. For example, Ukrainian Canadians have managed to preserve a single, generally recognized umbrella organization – the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC). Moreover, Toronto is the base of the WCFU (World Congress of Free Ukrainians). Many of the organizations that the DPS established in the United States can also be found in Canada. And the ties between them are close. However, in the United States many of the “old-immigrant” organizations – except for the churches and the fraternal associations – have faded, whereas in Canada a considerable number continue to exist. As well, Canada has a strong network of Ukrainian professional and business clubs, which have been able to attract a young, upwardly mobile, professional membership. Especially popular with the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the early immigrants are the numerous dance ensembles. In western Canada alone, there are over 150 such groups with about 10,000 members. But the organizational strength of the Ukrainians in Canada should not be exaggerated. Only an estimated 10–15% belong to the community organizations. In order to attract new members, some groups are deemphasizing political and nationalist features and concentrating on cultural and social activities.
Unlike their compatriots in the United States, Ukrainian Canadians have developed a cultural tradition of their own.
Writers such as Iliia Kiriak have skillfully depicted, in both Ukrainian and English, the experiences of the pioneer generation. The nationally famous painter William Kurelek frequently utilized Ukrainian motifs. The architect Radoslav Zhuk has intertwined traditional and modern elements in the architecture of Ukrainian churches. On the debit side, however, Ukrainians in Canada, particularly those in the west, tend to be more provincial and strictly folklore-oriented in their approach to Ukrainian culture than those in the United States. This may be a result, in part, of the fact that a smaller portion of the Ukrainian intelligentsia that emigrated came to Canada than to the United States.Like the Ukrainian Americans, the Ukrainian Canadians also have a network of Saturday schools and ridni shkoly, which are geared primarily toward the children of DPS. However, it is also possible to study Ukrainian as a subject in public schools in Canada and about 10,000 pupils do so. Recently, bilingual Ukrainian-English schooling was introduced in the prairie provinces. Another contrast lies in the sources of support for Ukrainian studies on the university level. Unlike the privately funded Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, its counterpart in Canada, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (established in 1976 and initially headed by Manoly Lupul), is supported by the government of the province of Alberta. Ukrainian studies at universities in Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and elsewhere are also publicly funded to a large extent.
A striking feature of the Ukrainian-Canadian community is the relatively large number of its members that have gained political office on various levels. Ukrainians have been mayors of such large cities as Edmonton and Winnipeg. Close to a 100 Ukrainian Canadians have been elected to provincial legislatures, primarily in the prairie provinces. About thirty have been members of the federal parliament. There have been five Ukrainian senators and dozens of federal and provincial cabinet ministers.
Although far from being a major political force in Canada, the Ukrainian Canadians wield more political influence than any other Ukrainian community in the West.During the Second World War, about 35,000–40,000 Ukrainians, roughly 15% of their total number, volunteered for the Canadian armed forces. Ukrainian Canadians still point with pride to this high percentage. But after the war, Ukrainian Canadians again turned on each other. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the struggle between the pro-Communists and nationalists flared up anew. Benefiting from their association with the victorious Soviets, the Ukrainian pro-Communists were in a strong position. Membership in the Ukrainian Labor Temple Association was at an all-time high of 13,000 in 1946. It was, therefore, with some confidence that they tried to block the immigration of nationalistic and anti-Soviet Ukrainian DPS to Canada. These efforts failed, however, and other setbacks followed. As the Cold War and postwar prosperity set in, communism lost its appeal. Many of the genuine Ukrainian patriots among the pro-Communists became disillusioned by Russification in Ukraine and by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Gradually, the more dynamic, articulate DPS became the dominant force in the Ukrainian-Canadian community. Today a handful of aging Ukrainian pro-Communists, who are heavily involved in commercial transactions with the USSR, is all that is left of their once-powerful movement.
Another major concern of the Ukrainian-Canadian community was multiculturalism, an issue that emerged in the 1960s. Influenced by the new militancy of the French in Quebec, ethnic groups that belonged to the so-called third element, that is, the non-English and non-French segments of Canadian society, confronted the government with their cultural demands. Ukrainians were in the forefront of those who successfully pressured the government to formulate a policy of multiculturalism and, in 1987, to enshrine multicultur-alism in the constitution.
Highlights in the activity of the Ukrainian-Canadian community during the 1970s and 1980s have been the growth of Ukrainian studies at the university level and the publication of the English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine, a major project of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies which is based on Volodymyr Kubijovyc’s original ten-volume work in Ukrainian. Support for Soviet Ukrainian dissidents led to the release and arrival in Canada in 1987 of Danylo Shumuk and Iosyp Terelia. In the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932–33, Ukrainian Canadians produced a widely acclaimed documentary film about the famine. As in the United States, in the mid 1980s the war crimes issue aroused passions and raised tensions between Ukrainians and Jews.