#ukrainian immigration to canada

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"The SDPC [Social Democractic Party of Canada] at the Lakehead appears not to have been content merely to contest elections. In 1912, having recently formed a union, the mostly immigrant workers of the Canadian Northern Coal and Ore Dock Company went on strike for better wages, hours, and working conditions. Bloodshed resulted when company officials, using local police and the militia, tried to suppress the striking coal handlers. The chief of police, two constables, and two Italian strikers were wounded. Fearing a general strike, the CNR quickly acquiesced to the demands of the coal handlers.

There was much in this incident that recalled earlier labour strife at the Lakehead. A new element, however, was the growing influence of radical socialists, who were thought to have sway over the coal handlers and to have been instrumental in their inclusion in the trade union movement. Prominent among the activists were “members of the Social Democratic Party of Canada,” including the party’s organizers for Port Arthur and Fort William, the Cobalt miners’ union leader James P. McGuire and the Reverend William Madison Hicks, as well as Herbert Barker, a volunteer organizer for the AFL. In April 1912, the three men led a number of English-speaking socialists in Fort William in establishing Ontario Local 51 of the SDPC. Initial members also included W.J. Carter; an architect named Richard Lockhead; Sid Wilson, a member of the British-based Amalgamated Carpenters; and Fred Moore, owner of the printing press that printed Urry’s The Wage Earner. Significantly, most of the members appear to have been Finnish or Ukrainian. Before the strike, members of the Fort William SDPC had spoken at meetings of the coal handlers and, in the case of Hicks, played an active role by leading a parade of workers in confronting Port Arthur mayor S.W. Ray on his way to read the Riot Act to the strikers. The meeting between the two men and the violence that ensued were coincidental, according to Morrison, as

the Social Democratic party posed no real or imagined menace to the citizens of Port Arthur … what alarmed the English-speaking community was the newly won influence of the socialists with the immigrant workers.

Supporters of the ILP [Independent Labour Party] of New Ontario such as Urry found themselves “at odds with radical socialism” as

not only had the socialists played a prominent part in the strike, though not the riot, but they were also attempting to organize Thunder Bay’s entire waterfront.

...

Calls for Hicks’s arrest began to appear in newspapers in both cities and the surrounding countryside. On 1 August 1912, officials arrested him for his role in a “tumultuous assembly … likely to promote a breach of the public peace.” Shortly after Hicks’s arrest and conviction (although he received a suspended sentence), SDPC organizers began an active campaign to take control, or at the very least undermine, the ILP-led Trades and Labour Councils. Following the strike, they sought to stage a general strike on the waterfront and, ideally, spread it throughout both Port Arthur and Fort William. As Jean Morrison writes, however, this was “a move disparaged by the British labour men for its disregard of the law which required negotiations and conciliation preceding strikes by transportation workers.” The attempt failed and widened the rift formed during the municipal, provincial, and federal elections of 1908 and 1911 and the labour unrest earlier in 1912.

...

The SDPC was also not left untouched. In preparation for the 1913 Fort William civic election, Urry and Hicks jointly developed in opposition to the SDPC a manifesto describing the class struggle in general and the issues facing the region’s workers in particular .... On the recommendation of the Elk Lake, Porcupine, and Cobalt locals that Hicks be expelled, the matter was referred to the Fort William membership. Despite facing the possibility that its charter would be revoked, Local 51 refused to expel Hicks and launched a vigorous defence on his behalf. The convincing agitator had a coterie of true believers, who “defended him to the last ditch refusing to believe that Hicks would do anything wrong.” He also had his critics, evidently including the 400-strong Fort William branch, which, it appears, sided with the Dominion Executive and expelled Hicks.

...

With Hicks departed one highly personalized version of a response to the ambiguous legacy of Lakehead socialism. Both the ILP and the SDPC grew rapidly during 1913. The labour councils in the twin cities began to discuss unity, in the form of construction of a joint Central Labour Temple. The Finnish branch of the SDPC in Port Arthur also called out for working-class and socialist unity. Moreover, as a more tangible indication of potential unification of the socialist and labour movements, SDPC organizer Herbert Barker was elected president of the Port Arthur Trades and Labour Council in April 1913. As so often proved to be the case, however, such incipient unity was challenged by the region’s sheer class volatility. The strike by street railway workers in May 1913 was a volcanic moment. As David Bercuson writes:

The walk-out provided a focal point for much of the hatred and bitterness that had developed between labour and its enemies in the twin cities for several years.

Rioting and violence were sparked by the CPR’s attempts to use strikebreakers. When strikers overturned a streetcar operated by strikebreakers, police arrested one of the participants and, when a crowd tried to get him out of jail, fired into the crowd, killing a bystander. Local newspapers tried to pin the violence on the socialists, who were allegedly responsible for agitating the crowd. The railway workers belonged to the Trades and Labour Councils in both cities and, in a show of solidarity, both councils called for a general sympathy strike. These calls went unheeded and most workers returned to work after four days of protest. In response, Urry, James Booker, McGuire, Bryan, and many members of the SDPC met at the Finnish Labour Temple. They criticized the local trades and labour councils “for not being radical enough to resist the ruling of an unscrupulous upper class.” They hoped the councils would become “more radical.” Not surprisingly, the obviously inflamed right-wing media in the twin cities characterized the meeting as one of “sedition, anarchy, socialism, violence and most everything else calculated to worry orderly society and responsible government.” It was not a critique of the Lakehead workers reserved for the mainstream press. Mayor John Oliver of Port Arthur summed up the situation well when he argued that the continued unrest in Port Arthur and Fort William was not wholly due to working conditions. Making specific mention of the strikes of 1909, 1912, and 1913, he suggested that the unrest had been the result of socialist agitators. Oliver wrote:

There is hardly a night in the week that inflammatory speeches have not been made by several agitators … something will have to be done to either remove them or check their actions.

Interestingly, Frederick Urry and J.P. McGuire were specifically named for their alleged advocacy of a general strike. McGuire was further singled out for his reputed suggestion that it would be an easy thing to cut telephone, telegraph, and electric lines."

- Michel S. Beaulieu, Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism, and Politics, 1900-35. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011. p. 37-38, 40-42

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

As a descendant of that pre-1939 Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, raised by generations of union members and leftists of different stripes, it’s disheartening how predominant the post-45 far right nationalist influence is - especially intellectually and historically, in shaping public discourse on the Holdomor and Ukrainian collaboration with Nazism. Of course, the Canadian state and companies like INCO were very happy to bring over Ukrainian Nazis collaborators to break the left-wing Ukrainian organizations, only some of which were pro-Soviet or Communism. Ukrainian immigrants, including some of my ancestors, organized co-ops, credit unions, health insurance, and unions - my great-grandfather was beaten by special constables during a strike in the 1920s in Northwestern Ontario.

in general the ukrainian diaspora in canada has been heavily influenced by 1) the fact that almost all of them came from areas not controlled by the russian empire and until 1939, the soviet union 2) the tens of thousands of nazi war criminals that came over after 1945, who had an outsize voice in ukrainian-canadian institutions. the latter process was not smooth, due to conflicts with the pre-1945 ukrainian-candians, to say nothing of ukrainians in ukraine who by and large rejected their views, but it looks like they're winning out

[immaculatasknight]

What's wrong with this country?

[religioused]

For the recent immigrant to Canada who is not feeling welcome.

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

Sask. Polytech in Regina provides free dental care for Ukrainian immigrants

Descrease article font size Increase article font size New Ukrainian immigrants were offered free dental care and wellness strategies at the Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus in Regina on Saturday with the help of over 160 students and volunteers. Each year, the campus chooses a different group of people in need for its health and wellness day. The day included presentations by nursing students…

[indelen]

Something about watching Fox News have a tarot reading as it's being annotated by experts on this matter on Tumblr really brings the insanity of the current political situation into sharp focus

[soon-palestine]

To Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen,

Ahmed,

Our Dear Cousin

We cheered for you when you passed your bar exam. We cheered for you at your beautiful wedding. We cheered for you when you had your first child, your beloved son. We cheered for you when you were elected as a Member of Parliament, and finally a Minister. We were so excited to see you represent Canada on a global stage. The New York Times wrote a historic piece on you titled "In Canada, an Immigration Minister Who Himself is a Refugee" - we could not have been more proud. When you shared your experience with systemic racism but highlighted how Canadian generosity changed your outlook on life through your TEDx talk we were delighted to see you share a piece of yourself with the world. We shared your work all over our social medias, we proudly announced your accolades, we celebrated you with full belief that you would be the change maker Canadians needed and deserved. Sadly, our hopes have been met with a different reality. Once, we were blinded by our admiration of watching you turn nothing into something, but today we are seeing a sobering truth.

Since you have been appointed as a Minister, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been killed around the world with impunity. Now, we don't fault you for those crimes, but your consistent silence has been deafening. Although your role is to represent the interests of all Canadians while remaining secular, you have proudly shared that your faith and identity has undoubtedly played a part in bringing you to where you are today. With this in mind, we see clearly that you have failed in your role as Minister of International Development. You stood firmly beside Ukrainian people and supported their refugees when they were resisting an oppressive force, but when it comes to Palestine and it's people today, your recent statement lacked the condemnation and passionate stance we have seen you are capable of taking. Your statement minimized the plight and struggle of your Palestinian brothers and sisters, lacked depth and clarity, and did not name today's current situation in the most accurate terms an actively occurring genocide. Although we will never minimize the pain of any civilian or refugee, we are compelled to clearly state the stark difference between your statements for Ukraine and Palestine. With Ukraine you said "Canada stands united with Ukraine and all those around the world, fighting for democracy, human rights, and justice" but when it comes to the struggle of Palestinian people, you fell flat.

Our hearts were broken at your lackluster words when referring to a historically oppressed people. Sadly, we have realized that you won't live up to our expectations and your own promises to be a change- maker and leader. Where is your condemnation of the Israeli occupying forces murdering thousands of children? Where is your condemnation of the genocidal language and unfounded aggression of Benjamin Netanyahu?

As a refugee, how can you ignore the ethnic cleansing Palestinians have suffered for over 75 years? Why have you let your position of power stop you from using clear language to stand with the oppressed people caged in a concentration camp being carpet bombed daily? Children the same age as our own are being blown to shreds or left as traumatized and injured orphans, does your blood not move?

The world is changed through the words of brave people who stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. Decades of unprincipled statements that shy away from addressing the root cause of Gaza and Palestine from politicians like you is the reason why this genocide has continued, claiming the lives and livelihoods of well over 1 million people.

Page two. We write to you this open letter today as your family to simply say -wake up! Open your art and recognize this horrific illegal occupation for what it is, A GENOCIDE. Do not let personal gain, a reputation, and a seat at a colonial nation's table make you complicit to this inhumanity. Announcing Canada's aid commitments without addressing the root cause of this genocide does nothing to recognize the dignity and humanity of Palestinian people. It is a slap in the face to see you announcing humanitarian aid to Palestine when you haven't taken a clear stance against the use of our taxpayer dollars funding weaponry being used to kill innocent Palestinians. We don't need band aid solutions, we need this genocide to be recognized. We need you to speak to the liberation of the indigenous people of Palestine. Your party leader has failed Canada in many ways, the average Canadian's quality of life has tanked according to our shrinking GDP.

There is no re-election in sight for the Liberal party. Is this how you want your legacy to end? With a stain of genocide complicity? You won't have the golden opportunity of standing on the right side of history if you choose not to make yourself clear. We are devastated that today we as a family can no longer cheer for you, you no longer have our respect or admiration. For the sake of saving your legacy and preserving the principles we expect all of our family members to uphold, we ask you to please wake up, take a clear stance, and step down as a Minister to side with the oppressed! You are a humanitarian lawyer, fight for the oppressed! Leave your mark politically to restore our faith on who we know you to be, and hoped you to be. One day your children will see your work as a Minister and they will question you, how will you explain your complacency with a population of indigenous people being massacred?

We leave you with one final note, when we all depart this world we will take nothing with us. Rich or poor, educated or not, we will all be wrapped in a white cloth and placed in the dirt left to answer for all of our worldly actions. So we ask you: Do you fear your maker that you are returning to? We pray and hope you will come to your senses before it's too late. Your role in this government no longer serves you in this life or the next.

#FreePalestine

#EndTheOccupation

#CeasefireNow

[chaithetics]

Free Things you can do from home to support Palestine!!! 🖤🤍❤️💚

Hey Tumblr besties! Here's a few ways to help Palestine that you can do from home and don't cost any money! It's pretty much just emails! Hopefully you have local organisations that have resources can help with this that are more specifically tailored to your government. But if you need help drafting emails, finding resources or want someone to proofread them before you send them, I'm more than happy to do that! Please do reach out, take a read and share as well please! Your voice matters and this is an important way to help, your emails can be as short or as long as you like! Much love 🖤🤍❤️💚

Palestinian Visas

- While many Palestinians are stuck in Israeli occupation and terrorism, there are some who have been able to evacuate but are further stuck in limbo or are not able to evacuate due to visa statuses and immigration policy of foreign governments.

- For example, In late December 2023, Minister Marc Miller, Canada's Immigration Minister announced a special category of visas for Palestinians in Palestine who are related to Palestinian-Canadians. Not a single visa has been granted and all applications are still in the early stages. Many Palestinian-Canadians have spoken about this, contacted the Minister and PM Trudeau and nothing. Minister Erica Stanford, the Minister for Immigration in Aotearoa New Zealand has not granted Palestinian visas and not made a special visa category despite releasing a press release in 2022 when she was in the opposition, criticising the Labour government for not doing enough for Ukrainians and not having created a special visa category within 14 days. She is not replying to correspondence on this.

What you can do-Email your head of Government (Prime Minister, President etc.) Governments across the world are structured differently but if you have a Minister of/for Immigration contact them, your local MPs/Congress members, senators etc., those with Immigration portfolios and interests.

Include these requests in your email:

To create a special humanitarian Visa category for Palestinians to apply for that is accessible.

To prioritise these visas, and expedite these visas with urgency.

To expedite any backlogged Palestinian visas urgently.

Sanctions against Israel

- Email your head of Government (President, Prime Minister etc.), your Minister of Foreign Affairs, local representatives and urge them to place sanctions against Israel.

This includes

Ending diplomatic ties, closing down Israeli embassies for example.

Export restrictions, ending military aid etc. Australia is providing materials to Israel that are used in making f35s for example.

Calling for a Permanent Ceasefire

- It is important that we continue to urge our Governments into advocating for and calling for a permanent ceasefire and recognise the state of Palestine.

- Email your Head of Government, your Ministers and representatives with foreign affairs portfolios and your local representatives to

Call and continue to advocate for a permanent ceasefire and recognition of Palestine as it's own state.

[aristotels]

croatian political opinions are so funny to me, there is no bipolar nation like this one. you can literally pick a man from the street and he will hold all these opinions simultaneously as true: fuck putin and russia, but also the usa is the worst nation on the earth and should be destroyed, and also its actually good that putin is standing up to them because someone should. usa should get out of middle east but also its good to have a world policeman but also who the hell are they to think they should be a world policeman, why do they think the world is their playground. west is so developed and we should all emigrate there because we can get jobs as plumbers but imigrants shouldnt come here because theyre taking jobs. at the same time west is terrible, but we should be a western country. things were better in yugoslavia but also it was a criminal state and we should kill all communists, but also the government should pay for everything and its ridiculous that it wont. socialism is a travesty but we should all get jobs in the govt offices and we should have more of those jobs, and there is so much bureaucracy but he hired a cousin in the city administration. capitalism is even worse than socialism though and it has ruined our lives, but the solution to it isnt socialism, but we should have a socialist state just not call it that way. in yugoslavia you couldnt vote for a new president but we should end all the elections because they waste money and nobody ever does anything, why are we paying for them. eu is terrible but also we are better than serbs because we are in the eu but also why is eu opressing us and why are we a part of it and why dont we get out, also if you want money you should apply for eu funds. we should all be paid in euros but it shouldnt be a national currency. he loves milanović and votes for hdz at the same time and hates the hdz prime minister because he is a dictator and should be removed, but also he will vote for hdz on the next elections because he wants a job in the city administration. he thinks that this is a third world country but if someone else says that, its not. immigrants should get out, except for his buddy who immigrated into croatia because he is an exception and is a cool guy so thats different. doctors shouldnt get bigger salaries but they should also stop being traitors and emigrating, but half of his family has emigrated to ireland. also ukrainian immigrants should get out of the country, however half of his family left for canada during 90es. we should bring back the mandatory military service, he avoided it because he had anemia. the prices here are too high to survive but we should increase them when tourist season comes and why are people complaining about the restaurant prices, if they cant afford them they shouldnt eat there, also he hasnt been to a restaurant in 10 years. look how developed slovenia is, theyre doing it right, but also we hate them, why do they think theyre better than us.

insane nation

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Canadian Parliament gave a standing ovation on Friday to a 98-year-old immigrant from Ukraine who fought in a Third Reich military formation accused of war crimes.

The elderly veteran, Yaroslav Hunka was honored during a session in which President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine addressed the lawmakers to thank them for their support since Russia invaded his country, saying Canada has always been on “the bright side of history.” The  Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota — who had compared Zelenskyy to Winston Churchill — recognized a “veteran from the Second World War who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians and continues to support the troops today even at his age of 98.”

The assembly then rose to applaud a man in a khaki uniform standing on the balcony, who saluted, according to this screenshot from Canadian television. [...]

The AP caption described Hunka as having “fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.” The First Ukrainian Division is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party; the unit was also called SS Galichina. [...]

Continue Reading.

Note from the poster @el-shab-hussein: What's truly insane to me is that Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian Jew himself, and his great-grandfather and several of his grandfather's brothers were killed during the Holocaust. I'm just really truly shocked.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[archivist-crow]

The Chilliwack Poltergeist - Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada - 1951

An outbreak of poltergeist phenomena that occurred in the 1950s in Chilliwack, British Columbia, probably due to the human agency of a teenaged girl. The girl's aunt believed that racial prejudices were the cause. The residents of Chilliwack called whatever was causing the disturbances "The Thing."

Anna Duryba

Anna Duryba was a Ukrainian immigrant who moved to Chilliwack from Saskatchewan in 1933. She worked as a domestic, saving her money until she could buy a 10-acre chicken ranch a mile out of town. She lived there in a four-room cottage. In October 1951, her 14-year-old niece, Kathleen, came to live with her. Several months later, poltergeist disturbances began. Objects flew about and damaged windows, and loud, violent hammering sounded throughout the cottage, as though someone were using a jackhammer. The noises seemed to emanate from the northeast corner of the house. No damage was ever visible, despite the terrible pounding sound.

Anna thought a local trickster was the cause, but soon felt that someone was deliberately trying to drive her off her property: Durybas brother, Alex, who lived nearby, believed that someone local who did not like Ukrainians was trying to force his sister out. On at least one occasion, a sheriff's deputy was called to investigate.

The deputy, A. J. Edwards, agreed with Alex, whereupon Alex armed himself with a shotgun and stationed himself at his sister's cottage. When the disturbances commenced, Alex fired off shots and shouted threats. Neighbors armed with shotguns stood watch as well.

The disturbances not only continued, but got worse. The hammering and banging occurred up to 30 times a night, even when the house was floodlit and under observance by neighbors, and also during the day. The noise raced about the cottage. Anna would run outside and try to catch the perpetrator, always to no avail.

Even more maddening, "The Thing" seemed to react to people. Once when the hammering began, Anna ran to a window and yelled, "Go ahead, do it again, you silly fool." The hammering moved to beneath the window. No one was outside. When Alex challenged "The Thing," it answered by shaking the cottage and windows.

Locals offered explanations. Maybe the noises were being caused by exceptionally dry ground beneath the cottage. Another explanation proposed was that an electrical problem of some sort was to blame.

Anna refused to leave. But niece Kathleen, whose health was poor and who suffered from "nerves," was showing strain. The Reverend W. T. Clarke recognized that Kathleen might be the focal point and persuaded Anna to send her away to Vancouver for a while. During the 10 days the girl was gone, the poltergeist disturbances stopped. They resumed upon her return.

Others wanted to investigate the link between the girl and the phenomena, but Anna and Alex refused to cooperate—or even to deal with anyone on the matter anymore. Their explanation was that everything was mysteriously caused by racial prejudice.

One person who was able to witness the disturbances before the Durybas ceased communicating was psychical researcher R. S. Lambert. He wrote that he heard the sounds on four occasions: rapid, violent rapping on the outer wall near a window, between 8 P.M. and midnight. The noises sounded like a pneumatic hammer and lasted for one to two minutes at a time. Anna and Kathleen were present on three of those occasions; Kathleen was asleep in her bedroom on the fourth. However, Lambert agreed with the Durybas that a hostile person was trying to drive Anna and Kathleen out.

Abridged text from The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Third Edition by Rosemary Ellen Guiley (Checkmark Books - 2007)

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"The activities of A.T. Hill during these years provide an example of how many socialists at the Lakehead reacted to the changing circumstances in Canada. Like many, Hill had re-evaluated his ideological position following the end of the Winnipeg General Strike and during the tumultuous years when the One Big Union (OBU) and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) had fought for hegemony in the region. By early 1920, he no longer believed that either the syndicalism offered by the IWW or the variation espoused by the OBU would result in the social change he desired. Travelling to Superior, Wisconsin, where he had worked in the past as a harvester and lumber worker, he enrolled in the American Finnish Socialist Federation’s school. There he and fellow future prominent Finnish Canadian Communists fell under the influence of Emeli Parras, editor of Työmies and secretary of a local unit of the American Communist Party. Parras’s courses spurred Hill to join William Z. Foster and Charles Ruthenberg’s United Communist Party. Shortly after, he became one of its many members who flooded the Canadian borderlands speaking to workers about Leninism and the Communist movement. At first, Communist efforts focused on former IWW strongholds and those towns and regions where growing dissatisfaction with the OBU was greatest. Hill began agitating in Fort Frances, Ontario. Gradually, building on his earlier reputation as an organizer throughout the Lakehead area, he became a leading radical throughout the region. Often pitting himself against William Arnberg, a former organizer for the OBU and now a Wobbly agitator, he argued that the Soviet state, as constructed by Lenin and the Bolsheviks, was a necessary precondition for the transformation of capitalism into socialism. Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDPC) activists such as Richard Loughead (also referred to as Lockhead), William Checkley, and Harry Bryan followed Hill in seeing the Communist Party as a way to preserve and develop the radicalism they had developed before 1918.

...

The Worker's Party of Canada [the first name of the Communist Party of Canada] consisted of groups of five to ten members, which, on reaching ten, formed a branch. Two or more branches formed a local that belonged to a subdistrict within a larger geographically designated district. Theoretically, each group possessed an elected “Organizer,” and these in turn formed the “Branch Executive Committee.” This committee elected a “Branch Organizer,” who in turn led the formation of a “Local Executive Committee.” The committee’s representative, a “Local Organizer,” joined with others to form a Sub-District Committee that, along with any “Language Section District Committees,” acted on the District Committee that sent a representative to the Central Executive Committee of the party.

Unfortunately, this structure rarely worked as planned. The highly centralized structure envisaged by Communists came up against the deeply rooted realities of ethnic and regional politics. Adequate organizers were often difficult to find and the more successful ones tended to be moved to those regions deemed most important. Factionalism also emerged almost immediately. Rooted in the differences that had existed among the organizations before the founding convention, it would form a consistent thread through the 1920s and early 1930s, often manifesting itself in the ethnic differences that existed within the new party.

...

The CPC leadership focused on consolidating its position within the Canadian left and establishing party unity. This was no small task, considering the disparate elements brought together under its umbrella. By 1922, most of the Socialist Party of Canada’s membership had joined the new Workers’ Party of Canada. Disillusioned members of the OBU, the SDPC, and the IWW joined from all parts of the country. Very early on, the various ethnically based language organizations that had once been associated with the SDPC and the OBU became the backbone of the WPC. Owing to their strength, language sections with a certain level of autonomy were established to stave off the divisions that had plagued the SPC and the OBU in earlier times. One of the earliest language sections to be formed, and the one with the greatest influence at the Lakehead, was Finnish.

Hill’s election to the nine-person provisional executive in December assured both the legal and illegal parties of affiliation with the FOC. He figured prominently in the formation of the first Finnish Socialist Section of the WPC, was integral to the Finnish Organization of Canada’s [FOC] decision to affiliate directly with the WPC in 1922, and assisted in its reorganization on a club basis. In the months following the formation of the WPC, Hill and other well-known socialists, such as Alf Hautamäki, began making periodic trips to Northwestern Ontario, extolling the virtues of the Comintern and scouting locations for potential branches.

Hautamäki is an intriguing character who, in many respects, is symptomatic of the Finnish socialist experience. Nothing is known of his life before he appeared in Ontario lumber camps in the early 1920s as an organizer for the fledgling Lumber Workers Industrial Union of the One Big Union. Like many Finns, he appears to have migrated from Finland in search of work, but with a strong belief in socialism, particularly the version emanating from revolutionary Russia. Following the OBU split in 1920 and the formation of the CPC in 1921, Hautamäki joined as an organizer. He quickly rose to prominence as a leading member of the FOC and editor of the Toronto-based Finnish Communist newspaper Metsätyöläinen (the Lumber Worker). He became head of the CPC’s powerful lumber workers’ union, and the leading Communist figure at the Lakehead. Within the twin cities and in the surrounding countryside, he was just as well known for his worker-poetry and plays that focused on topics such as lumber camp life, love, strikes, and alcoholism. His plays were frequently performed in Finnish halls from Sudbury to the Manitoba border. Hautamäki’s story ended just as mysteriously as it began. He disappeared from the record in the mid-1930s, like so many migrant Finnish workers during the period. In keeping with his personality, the meetings that Hautamäki organized with Finnish socialists at the Lakehead in the early 1920s were open and frank. They included members from the Finnish Support Circle of the OBU, with which many of the Communists had joint memberships. In February 1921, through a morphing of the Finnish Support Circle and the Finnish Association, a branch of the FOC was formally re-established and immediately affiliated with the WPC. Although the FOC would join “in its entirety as the Workers’ Party Finnish Section in February 1922,” many Finns preferred in 1921 to affiliate only with the Trade Union Educational League, a “non-partisan trade union auxiliary, interested only in the ‘renovation’ of a declining trade union movement.” The Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple Association (ULFTA) also eventually affiliated with the WPC, and constituted the second largest ethnic section, after the Finns. Formed in late 1917 by Matthew Popovich and other Ukrainian socialists as the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, by 1919 the Winnipeg-based organization had established a number of branches in Northern Ontario and western Canada. Its strength remained, however, in the Rocky Mountain mining region and in the cities of Winnipeg and Edmonton. The spread of the ULFTA had been hampered during the final years of the First World War when the Canadian government declared it an “illegal Bolshevik Organization.” When it re-emerged in the early 1920s, it did so slowly and cautiously, often choosing to infiltrate existing organizations. Such was the case at the Lakehead. During the late 1910s and early 1920s, Ukrainian socialists chose to work through the Winnipeg-based Workers’ Benevolent Association (WBA). Just months after the establishment of the WBA in Winnipeg, a branch appeared in West Fort William. A second branch followed in April 1923 and a third, in Port Arthur, by April 1926. As indicated by Popovich’s role as its president, a connection between the WBA and the ULFTA existed from the start. Not surprisingly, shortly after the ULFTA’s affiliation with the WPC, the WPC used the WBA as a beachhead within the Ukrainian community. Ukrainians associated with the ULFTA at the Lakehead would reflect the national composition of the CPC and form the second-largest regional group, after the Finns."

- Michel S. Beaulieu, Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism, and Politics, 1900-35. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011. p. 92-96.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[CBC is State Funded Media]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the decision to invite an elderly Ukrainian Second World War veteran who fought for Nazi Germany an "egregious error" that "deeply embarrassed Parliament and Canada." On Wednesday, he offered what he called "unreserved apologies" on Canada's behalf for the hurt it caused. Many experts say they're skeptical about the prospect of Canada's political leaders and institutions learning something from the now-infamous episode that capped President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's trip to Canada. Many historians will tell you that what we've witnessed over the last several days is history coming back to bite Canada — specifically over its refusal down the decades to acknowledge or own up to the decisions that allowed Yaroslav Hunka, who served with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician), to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s.[...]

There was a reckoning of sorts in Canada during the 1980s. A public inquiry, headed by Justice Jules Deschênes, attempted to determine if Nazi war criminals and sympathizers ended up making this country their home and, if so, how many there were. The Galician division featured prominently in that investigation. Jewish groups, notably the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center, gave the inquiry a list of 217 former members of the unit who apparently had immigrated to Canada. (The Deschênes commission concluded that 86 per cent of those named never landed in Canada and "no prima facie case has been established against" the 16 under suspicion.)[...]

Trudeau, in his apology, said everyone in the House of Commons regretted "deeply having stood and clapped even though we did so unaware of the context." The old phrase "ignorance is no excuse under the law" might be modified in this instance to include the word "history." After almost eight decades, it would be easy to chalk this up to a history-challenged staffer working somewhere within the labyrinth of the House of Commons, or to failure on the part the now-former speaker Anthony Rota — someone simply ignorant of the complexities and grievances. That may well be part of the political calculation. With Rota gone and with the prime minister having apologized, the reflex may be to rebury the past and carry on to the next political crisis.

But one war crimes researcher and historian says the international stakes, given Russia's use of the event for propaganda, make a thorough investigation — and public airing — indispensable. "I think the Canadian government owes it to itself to determine how on earth this thing happened," said Efraim Zuroff, a director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office and a specialist in Nazi war crimes in Eastern Europe.

It's not just about how such an invitation was extended. It's also about the airbrushing of history — Rota's carefully worded tribute mentioned Hunka having fought against Russia, as though Moscow had been the enemy at the time. "People are so ignorant [of] that history, it's pathetic," said Zuroff. "People suffer from such ignorance when it comes to the Holocaust and other things as well ... And it's a complicated subject. It took place in many different countries and played out to a certain extent in different ways."

Aside from the list involving the Galicia division, Zuroff has personally submitted to the Canadian government another 252 names of other suspected Nazis — or Nazi collaborators — from Eastern European countries other than Ukraine who are believed to have come to Canada. Out of that entire list, only one individual was ever charged. Following the Deschênes commission's report, the Criminal Code of Canada was amended to make it easier to go after suspected Nazi war criminals. Much of that work came to a screeching halt with the failed prosecution of Imre Finta, a former Hungarian police commander who was accused of organizing the deportation of over 8,000 Jews to Nazi death camps. He was acquitted on the defence that he was following the orders of a superior. Zuroff said the Canadian courts that accepted that verdict are the only ones in the world that recognize that legal defence — and consequently, no one else has been prosecuted. Since that case was tried in 1990, Canada opted to go after war criminals through the immigration system.

Any meaningful reflection on the Hunka tribute must include an examination of how Canada has dealt with these cases, Zuroff added.

Beyond the legal context, a leading scholar at the University of Ottawa, history professor Jan Grabowski, said the country needs to acknowledge how people like Hunka — who fought with the Nazis for what he hoped would be Ukrainian independence — got into Canada in the first place. Britain and countries like Italy, where some members of the Galicia division ended up, were eager in the late 1940s to be rid of refugees and surrendered soldiers. Canada willingly accepted them and by 1950 had made a special accommodation for Ukrainians. According to the Deschênes report, the prevailing feeling in the government at the time was that these former soldiers "should be subject to special security screening, but should not be rejected on the grounds of their service in the German army."

The context of the time, said Grabokski, is crucial, because when the Cold War began, Canadians shifted to a totally different "frame of mind."

"Anti-communists were prized above everything else," he said. "So we need to understand that this was a totally different political situation and most of the time, the Canadian authorities knew that they were letting in people who were allies of Hitler. But it was not enough, let's say, to make them hesitate." The B'nai Brith demanded this week that Ottawa take this opportunity to finally open all Holocaust-related records to the public, including the second part of the Deschênes commission's report, which has been kept secret for almost 40 years. Instead of reflection, though, Canadians might be in line for more political theatre.

28 Sep 23

[burningchandelier]

My mom got a DNA test done and it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

Ukrainian Ashkenazi. The Wiseman Family.

We know where we come from.

We went as far North as we could when there was nowhere safe for us in Eastern Europe. We made a home for ourselves in Lerwick, Scotland. Scotland, the only country in Europe that has never expelled Jews, kept us safe for a while, but a poor family could only live at the end of the world in the Arctic Circle for so long. There were too many fishermen and not enough people to buy fish.

Between wars, we went South again, to Germany. We didn’t stay.

I am grateful every day that my great-great grandfather could see that there was trouble coming for his family. He sent his four children and wife to Canada and followed the next year. So many of us did not.

We found a place in Toronto where we watched what happened to our loved ones in Europe. We forgot Hebrew. It was easier that way.

My great-grandmother kept secrets:

Her first daughter, born out of wedlock, was raised by her parents as one of their own.

Her second daughter was told that her father was dead, rather than divorced away (it was a different time— divorce was shameful, death was inevitable).

Her job was mysterious. Officially, she worked for the state department as a pay roll clerk. I don’t know why any pay roll clerks would have traveled to Russia during the Cold War, but she did many times.

The secret she kept the longest was her heritage. As far as anyone knew, she was a severe Scottish immigrant and fiercely proud of it. Only my mother, her favorite, had suspicions.

When Granny Annie Wiseman died, she left everything to her favorite granddaughter. The money, the house, and everything inside it. Every memory of who we are.

Years later, my mother fell in love with a Jewish man. They raised me together. I had the privileges and the pains of knowing who I was. I carry our family burdens and I honor them.

Someday, I will name my daughter after the woman I never met who passed our heritage to me through the simple and brave act of survival. Her assimilation kept us alive. Her secrets got me here. She left the breadcrumbs that let us find our way home.

We know where we come from.

[unhonestlymirror]

Technically speaking the modern state of Israel practices settler colonialism insofar as it follows a policy of ethnonationalist/religious favoritism of one group - Israeli Jews mostly descended from post-1945 immigrants from Europe and many nations throughout the Middle East - over another, the Palestinians, the people indigenous to the land Israel now inhabits, who have lived on that land for centuries prior to the mass immigration of Jewish settlers outside of Palestine. Taking land from an indigenous population forcibly to give to another is the definition of occupation; as a Ukrainian, you should be more familiar with that than most. From an anthropological POV Israel is as much of an occupier state as the US, Canada, or Australia, and any credible historian, anthropologist, and political scientist would confirm as much. Citing one (1) Israeli historian is a weak argument; visiting Egypt five times/Jordan once/"speaking with Egyptians about Palestine" or whatever even more so. I personally like your blog and I appreciate your insight into the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine, and I believe Hamas is as harmful to the people of Palestine as any other terrorist organization and do not support them, but your recent posts come off as terribly arrogant and performatively pseudointellectual, especially your conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, which is a red herring logical fallacy. People are angry with Israel not because they love Hamas, but because Israel is murdering thousands of innocent civilians in cold blood and in disproportionate measure to the original attacks. People are not endorsing Hamas, they are pointing out that occupied and aggrieved people will inevitably fight back against their occupiers, absolutely have the right to do so, and unfortunately may turn to drastic measures to do so. I suggest with all due respect that you do more research on why exactly Palestine has grievances with Israel and perhaps show more empathy and grace to the people of Gaza than you have thus far, because all you've done so far is cry "anti-Semitism!" and argue that Palestine actually does deserve all of this death and terror "because Hamas", and it's getting tiring. After all, anyone could argue that Ukraine deserved all the shit it's gone through in the past decade, because you've consistently chosen corrupt and greedy politicians in democratic elections, and "most people in Ukraine speak Russian anyway, so maybe Russia does have the right to take Ukraine back, I mean historically Ukraine has always belonged to Moscow, and Ukraine doesn't have the right to fight back because it's not a legitimate state" ad nauseum. But nobody does that, because that's stupid. Yet you feel entitled to pass such judgment on Palestine because of Hamas and it shows your utter hypocrisy and lack of understanding on the matter in its entirety. Do better.

Wha-

This is an astonishing accusation.

First of all, yes, I highly recommend you to read

These

Three

Texts

I still highly recommend you to read Nadia Lipes, who is not just some historian but a world-famous Ukrainian-Jewish historian, a genealogist, who created a huge Jewish genealogy database, who helped a lot of people to find their relatives killed by nazis or communists or someone else.

I've already written multiple times why the russo-Ukrainian war and Israel-Palestinian war are not the same at all, although they are connected through russia, which finances both of them. As well as many other genocides, but it's not the point.

"The Palestinians, the people indigenous to the land Israel" - are you telling me that Jews are not indigenous of Judea, with Rachel's Tomb and stuff???

They bought the land back. They didn't take it by fire and sword. Palestinians were pretty okay with it until soviet union started financing hamas.

"Disproportionate measure" - oh come on. I've never heard about Israeli raping Muslim women. En masses. Burning them alive. Shooting children etc.

"Occupied and aggrieved people will inevitably fight back against their occupiers, absolutely have the right to do so, and unfortunately may turn to drastic measures to do so."

Is this what you call fighting back? Have you ever heard about Ukrainians doing to russians the same things Hamas and Palestinians did to those poor people on festival?

Charred remains and a CT scan of the remains show a parent and child who were bound together and burned alive on Oct. 7. Two spinal columns—one of an adult and one of a child—can be seen in the scan. The pair were likely embracing as they burned.

Could you please tell me when have I ever said that "Palestine actually does deserve all of this death and terror "because Hamas"? Could you please tell me when have I ever said this? What Palestine has to go through is horrible because they are literally LDNR of the Middle East.

"Anyone could argue that Ukraine deserved all the shit it's gone through in the past decade because you've consistently chosen corrupt and greedy politicians in democratic elections [...] But nobody does that because it's stupid." - Ahaha. Nobody does that, you say? Then whom do you quote? You clearly haven't talked with people enough. Also, lmao, bringing the corruption topic? When Hungary, Slovakia, Netherlands, Poland, Germany, UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS exist?

The only person who is showing utter hypocrisy and lack of understanding right now is you, dear anon.

You may not trust me, but you should trust Nadia Lipes and Rami Aman.

[siena-sevenwits]

I would like a folk song please!

You get "Verkhovyna," which is an extremely fun early 20th century Ukrainian folk tune. It starts slow and then picks up spirit. It's close to my heart because when I worked at a living history museum, there was a little informal choir among the costumed staff, and this was one of the songs we sometimes performed to showcase the popular music that immigrants brought to Canada. This version is performed by the Orpheus Vocal Group.