Tears in the Garden: Alberta Ukrainians During the Second World War
Peter Melnycky
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
Ukrainskyi halos reacted critically to the results of the vote. An editorial entitled "Shame and Sorrow" chastised Ukrainians for voting contrary to the advice of their leadership and foresaw potentially catastrophic consequences for the community.23 Edmonton's Ukrainski visti rejected any collective responsibility for the Vegreville vote, blaming instead "disloyal" Ukrainian communists for the results.24 Conversely, the Communist Ukrainske zhyttia [Ukrainian Life] attributed the results to the influence of Ukrainian National Federation "fascists" under the direction of MP Anthony Hlynka.25 What emerged from this debate in the community was an overall position that the plebiscite was not in fact a vote on patriotism, but rather a vote of confidence or lack thereof in the Liberal government. It was felt that Ukrainian enlistment figures spoke louder than the plebiscite results, and that Ukrainians, out of the 1,500,000 Canadians who had voted No, should not become scapegoats for exercising their franchise as their consciences dictated.26
The Vegreville Observer interpreted the plebiscite as a vote for or against Hitler, as well as a test of loyalty to Canada for Ukrainians and other non- "Anglo-Saxons", and condemned the results in Vegreville as a disgrace and an indication of a Hitlerian fifth column in Alberta. Historian Howard Palmer points out, however, that outside of such inappropriate outbursts in the heat of the moment, there was no "concerted public attack on Ukrainians", and the absence of "sustained commentary" was attributable to the Ukrainian community's clear commitment to the war effort in spite of the plebiscite results. Their sizable numbers within the Canadian military argued that “any charges of disloyalty to Canada could easily be dismissed”.27
The Ukrainian Canadian Committee [UCC] protested attempts to ignore the community's record of service on the home front and in the armed forces, and to ascribe disloyalty to Ukrainian-Canadians based on the results of a free and open plebiscite: “Imputing Nazi sympathies to them is an injustice and an insult. It has caused a great deal of resentment and is not conducive to national unity which is paramount at this critical time of war”.28 Albertans participated in the first Congress of Ukrainians in Canada, held in Winnipeg during June 1943, which called not only for a redress of the discrimination suffered by the community in the past, but for a new social contract in which the nation-building of Ukrainians would finally be recognized. UCC president Rev. W. Kushnier expressed the community's frustration that even in the nation's time of emergency, when Ukrainians were offering the lives of their sons "and the sacrifice of what little wealth" they possessed, they were still not spared from attacks against their patriotism.29
Congress participants reiterated that the sacrifices of their sons and daughters in the war effort were to be the final word on the loyalties and rights of Ukrainians in Canada. Congress records note that hundreds of Ukrainians were part of the First Canadian Division. An estimated 11.4 % of Ukrainians in Canada were in uniform, a figure above the national average, and many had already made the supreme sacrifice at Hong Kong and Dieppe. Several hundred commissioned officers among the Ukrainian-Canadians in all branches of the military included Squadron Leaders and a Lieutenant Colonel.30
There were complaints at the commencement of the war that Ukrainians had difficulty gaining admittance into the RCAF, especially as aircrew, and that they faced discrimination and impediments to promotion within the officer corps.31 The dislocation and alienation experienced by farm boys from fairly homogeneous settlement blocks, suddenly thrown into the regimented atmosphere of training camps, was exacerbated by incidents of prejudice. One veteran recalls such an incident:
[In Winnipeg} I was looking for a friend and mistakenly I walked into another barracks, and a guy asked my name and I said, "Pawliuk". And he said, "Oh, a bohunk". That's what he said, right off the bat. And I said, well, what could I say? I was just one among the whole barracks full of them. But I recall little things like that very clearly, because it did hurt me. I felt, gee, I am as much Canadian as anybody else. I spoke no other kind of language except English, I did all the things that everybody else did, and why should I be called something different?32
Just as the response of Alberta's Ukrainians to the 1942 plebiscite lacked unanimity, the response to military service also showed a spectrum of reactions. In addition to the thousands of men and women who enlisted to serve their country, there were those who did not serve until called and still others who refused to serve at all in a war in which they did not believe.33 Canada's Ukrainian-language press preferred to give prominence to those who served. However, it expressed bitter irony when a countryman from Edmonton, Peter Joseph Olienik, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross but had his name transformed into a more acceptable "Irish" derivative [O'Lienik] by some members of the Canadian press.34 Home front contributions to the war effort also were publicized. Alberta's Ukrainians contributed generously to the various Victory Loan Bond, War Savings Certificate, and War Service Fund drives in fifteen districts, in which they made up at least 50 per cent of the population. The Fourth Victory Loan Campaign raised $923,000 in these districts, with Radway exceeding its quota by 198.6 %, Smoky Lake reaching 136.8 % and Vegreville 121.3 %. Ukrainians also participated in the varied forms of Red Cross and Service Club work through projects such as sewing, knitting, packing overseas parcels, tag days, teas, and exhibitions.35
Although the estimated number of Ukrainian-Canadian men and women serving in the forces numbers between 30,000 and 50,000, there are in fact no precise data on either the overall figures or the number of recruits from Alberta. In 1946, a commemorative almanac honouring Ukrainian-Canadians in the military listed 252 Ukrainian Albertans wounded in action, 168 killed in action, 68 missing in action and 16 prisoners of war.36 One of the few verifiable figures on enlistment indicates that of 55 I ,273 enlistees completing occupational history forms, 12,389 listed Ukrainian as a spoken language. Of 43,580 Alberta enlistees, the largest language group registered, other than English, was Ukrainian with 2265 respondents. Of 730,000 personnel of the Canadian Army [Active] from 1939 to 1945, 75,887 [10.80 %] knew English and another language other than French.37
For the thousands of Alberta's Ukrainians from all walks of life who enlisted in the forces, the RCAF was an especially popular branch of service, due to the presence of British Commonwealth Air Training Plan facilities in Alberta. Women performed many important functions, ranging from nursing sisters, filing clerks, aircraft repair personnel, band leaders and truck drivers, to aircraft recognition instructors. Perhaps one of the most interesting careers was that of Nadia Svarich of Vegreville, who headed up the Canadian Women's Army Corp's 38-piece military band, the only such brass band in the British Empire.38
Notes
23. Ukrainskyi holos, 6 May 1942, “Sprava zalezhyt teper vid uriadu”.
24. Ukrainiski visti, 12 May 1942; “Komunisty vidvichalni za vyslid pliebistsytu”.
25. Ukrainske zhyttia, 7 may 1942, “Sprava zalezhyt teper vid uriadu”.
26. Ukrainiski visti, 12 May 1942; Kanadyiskyi farmer, 6 May 1942, “Pliebistsyt I Ukraintsi”; 13 May 1942, “Dalshi zavvahy pro resultat plebistsytu”; Ukrainskyi holos, 13 May 1942, “Ispyt Dozrilosty”.
27. Howard Palmer, op. cit., pp. 17-19.
28. Ukrainskyi holos, 6 May 1942.
29. First All-Canadian Congress of Ukrainians in Canada, [Winnipeg: Ukrainian Canadian Committee, 1943], p. 26.
30. Ibid., pp. 40-51.
31. Ibid., p. 50; Thomas Prymak, op. cit, pp. 1333-135.
32. Cited in Kostash, op. cit., p. 351; see also p. 294.
33. Ibid., pp. 48, 51, 294-295, 308-309.
34. Ukrainskyi holos, 18 March 1942, “Vidznachennia dlia ukrainskoho irlandtsia” [ Award for a Ukrainian Irishman]. See also 16 December 1942, and Edmonton Journal, 14 March 1942; Ukrainski visti, 8 December 1942; Ukrainski visti, 8 December 1942.
35. First All-Canadian Congress., pp. 43-44, 46-47, 51.
36. Rev. Ihor Shpytowski [ed.], Almanakh kanadiiskykh ukrainskykh voiakiv, [Winnipeg: “Buduchnist natsiia”, 1946].
37. Thomas Prymak, op. cit., pp. 131-32.
38. William Kostash “For King and Country”, in Anton Chomlak et al., Ukrainians in Alberta, [Edmonton: Ukrainian Pioneers' Association of Alberta, 1975], pp. 215, 219-20.