LUC centres often focus on aiding the Bandera youth movement. Structured along military lines, the UYA scouting movement2 was begun in the 1920s by fascist Ukrainians fighting an "armed struggle against the forces of Bolshevism."3 In 2016, a UYA event at Montreal’s Ukrainian Youth Centre praised former UCC presidents Paul Grod (2007-18) and Eugene Czolij (1998-2004) as "lifelong members and products of growing up within the ranks of UYA."4 Both have led the World Ukrainian Congress (WUC),5 a Toronto-based global network of Banderite front groups. Formerly called the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, it worked closely with the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN). LUC "prides itself on being one of the principle founding members" of WUC and gave it "three consecutive secretaries-general."6

Neighbouring Etobicoke also boasts a Ukrainian centre. In 2012, it hosted a national UYA event honouring the birth of Yaroslav Stetsko, a leader of the OUN(B), the ABN and the World AntiCommunist League. Uniformed youth marched with Stetsko’s portrait and the battle flag of Bandera’s fascist army.9

For the UYA’s 65th anniversary in 2013, then-UCC President Paul Grod posed with youth activists from across Canada. (See photograph below.) Other photos from this event show that the Etobicoke centre also gives pride of place to portraits of Stetsko and Yevhen Konovalets.10


The photograph below, also from the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Etobicoke, shows a national 2017 meeting of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) and LUC Women. Just to the left of centre, in the front row of the photo below is president of LUC Women, Lisa Shymko. Also in the front row, but just right of centre, wearing a red tie, is Orest Steciw (see p.61) who was the longtime chairman of Antibolshevik Bloc of Nations in Canada. (Click here, or on the photo below, to see its source. Read a translation of this source here.)

The ABN frequently glorified its Nazi-collaborating leaders, such as General Roman Shukhevych. Source:  ABN Correspondence, Sept./Oct. 1972.

Shukhevych Ukrainian
Youth Centre Complex, Edmonton

Canada’s largest Ukrainian centre, the Roman Shukhevych Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in Edmonton, is named after another nationalist war hero. Shukhevych, a Ukrainian war criminal, fought communists before, during and after WWII. The 27,000-sq.ft centre named for him includes classrooms, a library, gym, pool and a huge meeting hall with portraits of Bandera, Shukhevych and other revered "heroes."

The complex was built in 1973 for the equivalent of $4.7 million today, with 10% of this from Alberta’s government. Funding also came from the Government of Canada, LUC, its women and youth affiliates, the local Nazi Waffen-SS Galicia veterans’ group and Ukrainian Catholic churches.11 (According to the Public Accounts of Canada, the Shukhevych Centre received $279,000 for renovations in 2015.)

The centre’s grand opening event in 1973 "combined militaristic, religious, folkloristic and völkisch elements" and was blessed by Edmonton’s Ukrainian Catholic Bishop. Politicians from the mayor and MLAs to Alberta’s Conservative premier, Peter Lougheed, all gave glowing speeches. There were also Ukrainian nationalist hymns, poems by uniformed children and patriotic youth singing soldiers’ songs. Describing the scene, an Edmonton-based Ukrainian Catholic paper, Ukrainian News, said that the Shukhevych Youth Centre would

Ukrainian war veterans and youth laying a wreath at the monument to Shukhevych outside Edmonton's Ukrainian Youth Complex. From Bairak, Ukrains‘ka Strilets’ka Hromada v Edmontoni 195, cited by Per A. Rudling, "Multiculturalism, Memory and Ritualization: Ukrainian Nationalist Monuments in Edmonton, Alberta," p.744.

In 1981-82, this Ukrainian-language Catholic paper was edited by Michael Chomiak, grandfather of Canada’s deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland. Prior to his being its editor he had written articles for the paper. As a youth, Freeland also worked for this same publication. (See also.)

Outside Edmonton’s centre is a "larger-than-life bronze bust of a uniformed Shukhevych," where, said historian Per Anders Rudling, "believers ... perform their nationalist rituals."13 These commemorative rites celebrating Shukhevych’s place in the pantheon of Bandera cult idols have involved uniformed veterans of fascist armies and Ukrainian youth.

The Banderite Ukrainian Youth Association (UYA) has branches in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, the UK and US. In 2009, its World Executive Committee met in Munich to plan their 8th world meeting (held in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics).

The Munich event, scheduled for Bandera’s 100th birthday, allowed UYA activists to join church leaders and others on a pilgrimage to his tomb in the Waldfriedhof cemetery14 where Yaroslav Stetsko is also buried. At Munich’s Ukrainian centre, the UYA held an event to honour Bandera. Youth performing patriotic songs included two Toronto groups: the Baturyn marching band (above) and the Prolisok Youth Ensemble choir (right). A huge Bandera image rose behind them on stage.15  (The Baturyn band regularly marches in the Ukrainian Festival parade in Toronto.)

Sheltered from history by their elders, Bandera youth are unaware that their nationalist heroes were fascists with leading roles in the genocide of Jews, Poles and communists. Being raised in the Bandera cult, these youth are taught to denounce such facts as Russian lies, smears and propaganda.