In the 1800s, most Ukrainians were impoverished tenant farmers and Ukrainian leaders decided they had to settle their people somewhere else. First they tried Brazil, but they were not used to the tropics, so they barely survived. In 1891, a couple of peasants settled in Canada and wrote back that the land was cheap and plentiful. Soon, Ukrainians were arriving by boats and ships,
Most Ukrainians settled on the Prairies; others arrived broke and Montreal became their new home. The Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Immigrants existed from 1904 to 1906. When Ukrainian immigrants arrived in Montreal, they would seek them out and persuade many to stay here rather than continuing west to a farm.
By the 1930s, almost 4 000 Ukrainians lived in Pointe Saint Charles in the south-west and Rosemont, Ahunstic, and St. Michel north of the downtown core. Many Ukrainians anglicized their names. Yuriy became George, Iwan was John and Andruch changed to Andrew. Some kept Ukrainian names at home and used Canadian names outside. Family names changed as well. Holodiwiski might become Holden and Krushelniski, Krush. Most of the Ukrainians were unskilled workers, and by the mid-1930s, almost half of all window-cleaning companies in the city were Ukrainian owned and staffed.
In 1917, a Ukrainian church was built on Iberville St., but it was not until 1930 that it received a charter from the Quebec government. Until then, the priest had no authority to perform marriages, christenings or burial rites. To get the charter, the community had to prove to the provincial government that Ukrainians weren�t Communist. This wasn�t an easy task since the community had split into several groups such as the Ukrainian Farm Labour Temple Association which declared that the Ukraine�s future lay within the USSR.
The federal government was particularly suspicious of Ukrainians. If they came from the Soviet Union they were considered Communists. During WWI Austria held much of the Ukraine and Ukrainians who were not Canadian citizens became enemy aliens. Several thousand were interned under the War Measures Act and some were arrested when they tried to enlist in the Canadian army.
While the opposing forces made for a stimulating brew, they prevented the community from presenting a united front to the federal government. With the outbreak of WWII, the Canadian government actually stepped in and, to ensure unity and a high enlistment in the armed forces, they set up the Ukrainian National Committee, which exists today as the Ukrainian Congress of Canada.
After WWII, between 35 000 and 40 000 Ukrainian displaced persons were resettled in Canada. Most moved to cities in Ontario and Quebec and took a long time to integrate into the established Ukrainian community. These newcomers felt that they had been forced to come and believed they would return to Ukraine as soon as it was independent from the USSR
In 1947 a Ukrainian church was built in Pointe Saint Charles. The community happily moved away and many people re-settled in Rosemont. In 1991 the Ukrainian community celebrated 100 years in Canada. With a strong community of about 20 000, it has retained its distinctiveness, more than other Eastern European groups.
