The
Ukrainian Experience
in
Quebec
Intro
- Preface
By:
Alexander Biega
Introduction
With this book of essays, the Quebec Centennial Commission
completes
the centennial projects honoring the Ukrainian pioneers who settled in
Quebec.
Though the first Ukrainian immigrants to Canada moved westward to
settle
in Manitoba and Alberta, the Ukrainians who followed in their footsteps
continued to enter Canada via the port of Montreal. Many chose to
forego the westward trek and make their home in the province of Quebec.
Though their numbers were relatively small, those who did settle here
brought,
along with their children, their culture and their history which, in
turn,
both nourished and impeded assimilation as citizens of their adoptive
country.
The essays in this collection cover a wide range of topics: the history
of Ukrainian immigration to Quebec and Canada, the early efforts to
establish
churches, schools, and secular organizations, the plight of those
interned
during World War I because they had the misfortune of bearing passports
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the struggle to establish viable
settlements
in northern Quebec, the attempts to register children in French
Catholic
schools, the establishment and growth of Ukrainian credit unions, the
dedication
of Ukrainian Quebecers in the two world wars, the remarkable
participation
of Ukrainian women in the affairs of their community, and the role of
music
and education in nurturing communal life.
Although a variety of essays and articles on the Ukrainian experience
in
Quebec have papered in newspapers and magazines, to date this is the
first
collection on this subject in book form. As Managing Editor I hope that
this book will be the first of numerous subsequent studies on the
history
of Ukrainians in Quebec. Many areas are not covered in this
volume;
Ukrainian Quebecers have contributed significantly to the visual and
cinematographic
arts. A whole book could be written about the work of filmmakers,
painters, sculptors and architects. There is no chapter here on
Ukrainian
writers. And a study of the reflection of Ukrainians in the
Quebec
media would also be of great interest. A chronicle of Ukrainian
life
in rural Quebec would also help to complete the picture of the
Ukrainian
presence here.
What this book does show, however, is how different waves of the
Ukrainian
immigrants to Quebec and to Canada, managed to establish themselves
into
a full-fledged community, despite strong external and internal forces
acting
against them, and contributed to the building of the country and giving
it a new face.
Alexander
Biega,
Q.C.
President
Ukrainian
Canadian Centennial
Commission
- Quebec
Managing
Editor
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