OTTAWA – On an unusually warm November 11 in Ottawa, when COVID-19 restrictions kept the usually large crowds in cooler weather away from the Remembrance Day ceremony at the National War Memorial, Ukrainian Canadian filmmaker John Paskievich reflected on the disproportionately outsized contribution members of his community made during the second world war.
“Their enlistment rate was the highest percentage of any ethnic group outside of the British in Canada,” explained Mr. Paskievich – co-director of the 1982 award-winning documentary short, “Ted’s Baryluk Grocery” – by telephone from his home in Winnipeg. He said that of the more than 1 million Canadians who served in Canada’s Armed Forces, between 35,000 and 40,000 – mainly men – were of Ukrainian origin.