Many long years ago I sat in a social studies class at Teachers’ College, Saskatoon. The instructor was reading to us an article about the migration of Ruthenians--including Ukrainians and certain other Slavic people--to Canada in the early 20th century. The article spoke of earlier settlers helping the new immigrants to settle in--including the ladies’ teaching the Ruthenian ladies about cooking.

Big Joe Zolkavich spoke up. “I think,” he said, “the Ukranian women could teach the English ladies a lot about cooking.” I’m paraphrasing him, but he had a point, Ukrainian dishes have become very popular here on the prairies. ( Pass the Borscht please.)

Joe’s family likely came to Canada in the first Ukrainian migration to Canada which began in the late 1800s and continued into the early 20th century. In the 19th century 80% of Ukrainians lived in the Russian Empire. They kept steadfastly to their own culture--which was already centuries old--and strongly resisted the pressure to integrate with the Russians.  As a result they were often treated with injustice and cruelty  by the Russian authorities. The Russians, it seems have been a pain in the ass for a long time on this planet.  (I’m speaking here politically, the Russian people are no worse or better than any others.)

At the same time Canada was eager to fill up the huge prairie region with settlers  to carry on farming there. They sent  a heavy promotional presence--speakers, advertisements, demonstrations, films--to Europe urging emigration to Canada. They emphasized the high quality of the land and the opportunity to acquire it quickly and cheaply.  They forgot to mention the cold winters and dry--sometimes much too dry--summers. Or maybe they wanted to save that for a surprise.

Well the farming methods, the land, the climate, the types of crops raised, all were quite similar to what they were in Ukraine. The temptation to escape the oppression of the Tsarist regime in Russia and take advantage of the Canadian offers was tremendous. The Ukrainians came by the thousands. So many in fact that 10,000 of them were enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces during World War I. The saddest and stupidest part of that period was that thousands of Ukrainians were interned as “enemy aliens” by the Canadian government because their origins were in the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, an ally of the Germans--an empire which they had been glad to leave and come to Canada!

Some 70,000 Ukrainians came to Canada between the two World Wars. A great many took farmland in Saskatchewan and in general  turned out to be very successful farmers and valued members of their communities.                                               

Unfortunately some of them faced a certain amount of bigotry. That was a by-product  of  an attitude that existed in the late-19th and early 20th century as settlers came to the prairies  in their thousands.  Most of the earliest were of British stock from eastern Canada. Some of them resented immigrants from continental Europe. They feared the newcomers would dilute and change the “British culture” of  western Canada. Scandinavians, Germans and Dutch had largely defeated  that attitude by the 1940s and in fact some of them shared the foolish notions of the British toward Ukrainians and Poles. (I must admit here that of my many Ukrainian and Polish friends I was never sure which was which.)

When a huge wave of Irish immigrants came to Canada and the U.S. in the late 1800s--some of them were my ancestors--they were very poor, often unhealthy due to famine back home, and they were very badly treated . That’s when the many jokes came into fashion painting the Irish as lowly, lazy, drunken, dishonest louts--and not too bright. The Irish quickly adopted those jokes,  and used them to display their love of humour as their standing in society. They still very much enjoy them though the sorry reputations of old have long vanished

When I was a kid and young man Ukranian jokes took over--replaced the Irish jokes, dang them. And they were smart enough, like the Irish, to adopt those jokes (except some cruel ones). It seemed to me no one enjoyed telling those jokes as much as the Ukrainians did. That unfortunate nonsense is no longer with us.

Well here we are again, 100 years after the first Ukrainian migration to Canada and for much the same reason--Russia, where an unbelievably cruel monster of a man has caused the killing of them by the thousands. And again large numbers of them are coming here--some for the duration of the war, some to stay permanently. And I am very proud of the way my country, my province and my city are putting out the welcome mat. So many Saskatchewan organizations are making preparations to supply things they will need--Esther has done some work on this--and to be made to feel as comfortable as possible.

They deserve it: The courage of their countrymen and women--including family members left behind-- inspires us all with their refusal to allow tyrants to feel free to have their way on our planet. To give the bullies of the world no easy gains.

To comment on columns contact Esther or me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 306 384 8657 or 110 - 201 Cree Place Saskatoon,  S7K 7Z3