UCC National President Paul Grod issues statement to mark the 90th occasion of Remembrance Day

Today, as Canadians have done for the past 90 years, we pay tribute to the sacrifice made by generations of Canadian military personnel for the protection of our fundamental values and thank them for our freedom. As Ukrainian Canadians we also remember and pay tribute to the millions of men and women who perished fighting for the freedom of their Ukrainian homeland.

Times of war have been truly complex for Ukraine and Ukrainians. In Ukraine its people were often torn between competing forces. Some fought for the Red Army against the German invasion, some fought for the Germans to rid Ukraine of its Russian invaders, others fought for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in WWII and its predecessor the Ukrainian Galician Army in WWI against both the Russian and the German forces for a free and independent Ukraine. War time periods for Ukraine during both World Wars was extremely complex and tragic. Although their fight for independence was unsuccessful against overwhelming odds, it was not a wasted effort. This struggle was continued by their children and grandchildren and ultimately resulted in an independent Ukrainian state. Because of the sacrifices made by veterans of the Ukrainian Galician Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, we can today be proud to have a Ukrainian independent state. For that we all are grateful to our veterans.

In Canada, the wartime story for Ukrainians is similarly complex and tragic. I’d like to share with you two stories that illustrate the Ukrainian Canadian experience during WWI.

There were two brothers. The younger man was Stephen, aged 25. His older brother, Yuri, was 33. Until August 17, 1914 they lived near Edmonton. Within two weeks of the war being declared, they had volunteered to join the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force. Then they were sent east, to the Valcartier Militia Camp, just outside Quebec City. That’s where they completed their Attestation Papers, on September 4 and 19. Both swore they had been born in Russia, an allied power. They weren’t. It took just over 90 years for someone like Professor Lubomyr Luciuk to catch up with them.

Both fought valiantly for Canada during World War I. Stephen was wounded during the war, first by an exploding shell rendered him completely and permanently deaf in his left ear, partly so in the right. After returning to duty he was again hurt badly by gunshot wounds to the face and neck. His frontline military service continued until 8 October 1917 when he suffered contusions to hip, head and hand. Repatriated to England, he was eventually shipped home, arriving in Halifax aboard the Empress Britain, 21 January 1919. At 30, he was a disabled and unskilled labourer, with no home other than the YMCA’s Red Triangle Club in Toronto. He died there in 1934.

Stephen endured another loss. Yuri, his brother, was killed in action, 24 May 1915, during the Battle of Festubert. Of Yuri’s body no identifiable trace was ever found.

The interesting part of the story is that neither Yuri nor Stephen should have been anywhere near the Western Front. They were not born in Russia. They came from a western Ukrainian village, Beremiany. It still exists. And, on the date the Great War was declared, their hamlet was within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Technically, by Government of Canada’s definition, the brothers were both “enemy aliens.” If that had been discovered they would have been interned, along with thousands of their fellow Ukrainian Canadians in one of the 24 concentration camps set aside for that purpose. There they would have been forced to labour for the profit of their gaolers and subjected to other state-sanctioned indignities. The Dividenko brothers avoided all that by lying about who they were and where they had come from. The price they paid for lying you already know.

Yet Yuri was not entirely lost to history. His name, along with that of the 11,284 other Canadian soldiers who went “missing, presumed dead” in France, and whose bodies were never recovered, is inscribed on the Vimy Memorial’s ramparts. Where Yuri lies may forever be known only unto God but who he was – an “enemy alien” who died for Canada – is now known to all.

The other story is about Nick Chornomod. While some Ukrainian Canadians, like Corporal F. Konoval, would go on to win the Victoria Cross for his bravery during WWI, others who had enlisted but were then discovered to be “Austrian” were expelled from the army and interned. One such Ukrainian Canadian, Nick Chornomod, writing from a camp near Halifax to a Captain Adams of the 6th Military Division, recorded that not only had he joined a battalion being formed in Edmonton in August 1914, but that he had lived in Canada for seven years, married a Canadian-borne woman, became naturalized, and taken up a homestead in Alberta. Having so affirmed his loyalty, he added that he could not understand “on what charge I am being kept here” in a Canadian internment camp.

The internment operations are one of Canada’s greatest ironies where one group of Ukrainian Canadians were war heroes and the other group were jailed in internment camps all because of which side of the river they were born on. Let us not forget our history so we do not repeat the same mistakes.

November 11 is a time to mourn. It is also a time to celebrate the proud military traditions of both our great countries. Canada has always answered the call to stand up for freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law. Canada’s commitment to these values is being tested yet again in Afghanistan, and Canadians are rightly proud of the work our brave soldiers are doing to help those less fortunate than us. Their courage and devotion to duty inspires us all.

I know I speak for all Ukrainian Canadians in expressing unequivocal support and heartfelt gratitude to all our veterans, troops and their families.

Thank you and God Bless.

UCC Media Contact
Darla Penner
Tel. (204) 942-4627
dpenner@ucc.ca
www.ucc.ca