Ukrainians in Sault Ste. Marie - often troubled history, valuable contribution to community (7 photos)

As economic sanctions on Russia by Canada and many other nations go into effect, there has been no shortage of moral support for Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues his attack on the country.

Locally, that support has included words of encouragement from the public and businesses.

While Ukrainians have suffered -  both in their homeland and as immigrants to Canada - the current troubles call for a fresh look at the valuable and colourful contribution made by Ukrainians to the Sault.

Traditional religious and national holidays celebrated by the Ukrainian community in the Sault and across Canada include:

• Christmas Eve (Jan. 6, according to the Julian calendar)
• Christmas Day (Jan. 7)
• New Year’s Eve (Jan. 13)
• New Year’s Day (Jan. 14)
• Ukraine Independence Day (Jan. 22), marking the establishment of the first Ukrainian republic in 1919 (though independence was short-lived, the newly formed Soviet Union exerting its control over the country in the early 1920s)   

Christmas Eve dinner is a most important family celebration. The table is set beforehand with a handful of hay placed under a linen tablecloth, representing the bed of hay upon which Jesus laid as a newborn baby. The dinner includes kutya (a grain dish) with borscht (beet soup), followed by various fish dishes such as pike, trout and salmon, cabbage rolls, potatoes, mushrooms and other vegetables, fruit, honey cake, nuts and candies.

Culturally, there was a Ukrainian Band in the Sault, established in August 1924. Growing to a membership of 33, its first performance was in January 1925, the band performing at weddings and many concerts.

The Ukrainian community built a concert hall for $3,000, a lot of money in that day.

In the 1930s there were four Ukrainian schools in the city in the Bayview area where Ukrainian children could attend weekly classes to learn the culture, history and language of their heritage. 

Ukrainian dancing clubs have also existed and performed in the Sault over the years.

In the early years of the 20th century, industrialists such as Francis Clergue and Sir James Dunn built Sault Ste. Marie into a city including a power plant, paper mill, steel mill and a railroad to transport forest, mill and mine products, creating jobs and attracting a host of European immigrants, including Ukrainians.

Ukrainian immigrants settled primarily in Bayview and other parts of the Sault’s west end, successive generations of Ukrainians and other Europeans becoming part of the mainstream of Canadian society.

A second wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada before the Second World War, including labourers, discharged soldiers, political refugees, university professors and farmers.

A third wave came after the Second World War, consisting of displaced persons who had been sent to Germany as forced labourers who then left Europe to escape Soviet tyranny. They included farmers, skilled workers and professional men and women such as scholars, scientists, musicians and artists.

Numbers from that time show 3,000 Ukrainian people lived in the Sault.

Ukrainian settlers have commonly worked as labourers in order to educate themselves and to elevate their children, notably to the teaching profession.    

A particularly difficult part of the Ukrainian experience in the Sault and the rest of Canada began in 1914, when Canada joined the fight alongside the British Empire, France, Russia and Italy (and later Japan) in the First World War against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.

As a result, Ukrainian-Canadian residents were sent to internment camps for having come from Austria-Hungary as the Canadian government sought to stop suspected espionage and prevent them from returning to their country of origin for military service against the Allies.

Between 1914 and 1920, approximately 5,000 civilians, including women and children, were sent to those camps.

Some died of illness, others were executed for trying to escape.

A few committed suicide.

An internee receiving and transfer location was established in the Sault at the Gouin Street Arena, those people then sent to internment camps in other northern Ontario communities.

A look at files from the Sault Ste. Marie Museum shows a former Ukrainian internee - Mary Manko Haskett - said “what was done to us was wrong, and because no one bothered to remember or learn about the wrong that was done to us, it was done to others again and yet again. Maybe there’s an even greater wrong in that.”

A bronze plaque mounted on granite rock outside the Sault Ste. Marie Museum (the former Dominion Building) in 2008 by the Ukrainian Heritage Committee in Sault Ste. Marie reads:

“During Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 - 1920, thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans were rounded up as ‘enemy aliens.’ This plaque recalls the internee receiving station established in The Armoury at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, 13 January 1915 to 29 January 1918.”

Troubles past and present notwithstanding, the Ukrainian economic and social contribution to the Sault and across Canada remains.

The Ukrainian community has drawn solace from its own culture and from St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church as a cultural and religious gathering place.

A special prayer service for Ukraine is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at the church on St. Georges Avenue.

With files from the Sault Ste. Marie Museum and David Helwig/SooToday