Marco Levytsky, Editorial Writer.
On October 22 the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada (UNF) will be celebrating its 90th Anniversary in Edmonton – the city in which it was founded.
Over the last 90 years, UNF Canada has worked with our members to support Ukrainian culture and life in not only Canada, but throughout the globe. It currently consists of 12 branches in five provinces across Canada. As well it has three affiliate organizations – the Ukrainian War Veterans Association (UWVA), the Ukrainian Women’s Organization of Canada (UWO) and the Ukrainian National Youth Federation (UNYF). Our objectives are:
• To unite all Ukrainian Canadians, regardless of their political, religious or other beliefs.
• To promote good Canadian citizenship.
• To strengthen and expand the place of the Ukrainian community in Canadian society.
• To serve the Ukrainian Canadian community in Canada by representing its common interests, protecting its reputation; and to be the wellspring out of which the best of our rich cultural heritage will flow into Canada.
• To inform fellow Canadians about current news from Ukraine as well as promote accurate information about Ukraine by sharing our Ukrainian culture and history.
• To support constructively the independence of Ukraine.
The UNF and its Branches have supported Ukrainian culture and life in Canada through various activities and programs. These include:
• Ukrainian folk dance groups, choirs, operas, musical ensembles, libraries, museums, summer camps, sports clubs, educational courses, Ukrainian schools, seniors’ and computer clubs.
• Publishing books, magazines, and the weekly newspaper The New Pathway, founded in 1930. Five years ago, Toronto’s New Pathway merged with Edmonton’s Ukrainian News to form New Pathway – Ukrainian News, which has become Canada’s leading
Ukrainian-Canadian newspaper and continues to be the window to the Ukrainian Canadian Community.
• Coordinating cultural, educational and charitable activities.
• Encouraging members to participate in the community and political life of Canada.
• Conducting, over many years, “Summer Cultural” and “Leadership Courses” (now UNF “Summer Teen Leadership Camp”), which foster leaders of the Ukrainian community in Canada.
• Cooperating with Ukrainian organizations in Canada, in Ukraine, and other countries.
The UNF was a founding member of: the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (1940), the Taras Shevchenko Foundation (1963), and the Ukrainian World Congress (1967).
Throughout its 90 years, the UNF has been a trail blazer in the development of Ukrainian community life in Canada. In 1939 it founded the first Ukrainian credit union in Canada in Saskatoon and many since then, including the Ukrainian Credit Union in Toronto, which is the largest in Canada. In 1944 the UNF founded the Ukrainian Canadian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Canada’s major Ukrainian museum, library, and archives. The UNF was one of the leaders in promoting the establishment of the official Government of Canada policy on multiculturalism.
It has also welcomed newcomers to Canada with open arms. This started with the arrival of the Third Wave of Ukrainian immigration following World War II, continued with the Fourth Wave of immigrants from Poland and former Yugoslavia, and the Fifth Wave of immigrants from post-independence Ukraine. Members of all these waves have taken on leadership roles contributed greatly to the growth of the UNF.
Currently, the UNF is most active in helping members of what has become the Sixth Wave – refuges from the current war in Ukraine. Through a variety of wellness and support programs, we help Ukrainian families transition into life in Canada. All programming is free for newcomers who arrived on the CUAET visa.
Our Programs offer the newcomers:
• A warm welcome to Canada
• A sense of belonging to a community – an extended family of sorts
• Support and Guidance in navigating systems and services
• Introduction to Canadian Culture and Values
• An environment that is welcoming and offers some familiarity in terms heritage, customs, language, religion, and culture
• Well-being Support – Social, Emotional, Spiritual, Etc.
• Social support for parents and children
• New friends and acquaintances!
Throughout its 90 years the UNF has been unflinching in its support for a free, independent and democratic Ukraine. That’s why today it is channeling its energies towards Ukraine’s war effort and humanitarian crisis. What is at stake today is nothing less than the survival of Ukraine as a nation. Because of its support the UNF has recently been bestowed with the highest honour a Ukrainian diaspora organization can hope for. On August 19, 2022, the ministry of justice of the Russian Federation declared the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada an “undesirable organization”, banning the organization from activity in Russia and Russians from engaging with the UNF. The UNF shares this honour with only two other Canadian organizations — the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Macdonald Laurier Institute.
“We are proud of our efforts in support of Ukraine, as well as Ukrainian’s who have been displaced by Russia’s unjust war and invasion of Ukraine,” stated Jurij Klufas, National President. “For 90 years the UNF has been a beacon for the Ukrainian national identity and we will continue to work steadfastly to support our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in their fight for independence while also maintaining and growing the Ukrainian-Canadian identity here at home.”
All UNF and Affiliate Members can take pride in this recognition and are encouraged to continue their work locally and nationally including supporting the UNF’s patronage of the Canada Ukraine Parliamentary Internship Program, The UNF Foundation’s
Together Stronger Programs, and the many individual branch activities, schools, cultural and educational programs and initiatives being led by the UNF.
May the next 90 years be as successful and the first and may we all soldier on to support independent Ukraine in its struggle for survival and meet the challenges of rebuilding our ancestral home into the vibrant democratic and prosperous society it deserves to become. And may we continue to preserve our rich, dynamic and vibrant culture here in Canada and continue to contribute greatly to our adopted country’s development.
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