While the governments of King and Frank were clearly very different, they did share some very extreme social phobias that were common among the white, power elites of European political, corporate, media and Christian institutions. They were, for example, all infected with virulent strains of antisemitism, Russophobia and anticommunism.

The Nazis banned the Communist Party in 1933 and within a few months had arrested "100,000 Communists, Social Democrats, union officials, and other ‘radicals.’"2 Canada’s government outlawed the Communist Party in 1940, as it had previously done in 1917. When the RCMP arrested hundreds of Red activists and leaders in 1940, leftwing émigré groups like the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians were also outlawed. It had long been the dominant force in Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora. The government outlawed all of its publications, literally burned many tons of its books, and confiscated 108 of its Labour Temples. These centres, which were hubs of activity for other progressive activists as well, were practically given away to the far-right Ukrainian groups and churches that were loyal to Canada’s antisemitic/anticommunist government.3

ProNazi newspapers were produced by the UCC's Ukrainian Publishing House, of which Kubijovych was also president. Those newspapers, edited and managed by Michael Chomiak, printed edited speeches by Adolph Hitler and his henchmen, promoted Nazi news and recruited for the Waffen SS Galicia.

After WWII, Kubijovych was fixated on creating The Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Since his 1976 visit to Canada, the encyclopedia has been a project of the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies, at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton. Both Nazi-propagandist Chomiak and his granddaughter Chrystia Freeland, worked on Kubijovych's encyclopedia.

Uniting these émigrés was the Ukrainian Central Committee (UCC). It represented the Melnyk faction of the fascist, antisemitic, antiSoviet Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) which aided Germany throughout the war. When UCC president, Volodymyr Kubijovych, "the most senior Ukrainian collaborator with Nazi Germany,"2 urged Germany to create a Ukrainian unit to fight the Soviets, the Waffen SS Galicia was born. It recruited through the Nazis, the Ukrainian churches (Orthodox and Catholic) and UCC papers edited by Chomiak.

 Thanks to Nazi largesse, the UCC printed millions of papers, magazines and books. Working under Kubijovych, Chomiak was the UCC’s chief news editor and oversaw Nazi propaganda. After WWII, Kubijovych began The Encyclopedia of Ukraine to rewrite nationalist history. In 1976, Kubijovych went to Edmonton to sign a deal with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta to copublish his encyclopedia. Both Chomiak and Freeland worked on Kubijovych’s propaganda effort.

During WWII, the Nazis controlled the UCC. It was housed in "a shared building" in Krakow, says Polish historian Pawel Markiewicz: "The Ukrainians were headquartered there as well as the German military intelligence or Abwehr."3

When Nazi Colonel Alfred Bisanz was arrested at war’s end, he described the UCC’s utter subservience to its Abwehr masters:

The Abwehrstelle-Krakow was Abwehr HQ for occupied Poland. The UCC, being an asset of Abwehr’s "Second Department," was responsible for "sabotage," particularly the "direction of covert contacts" and "exploitation of discontented minority groups in foreign countries for intelligence purposes."5

It also created two Nazi-trained, -armed and -led Ukrainian battalions (Roland and Nachtigall), which were set up by Stepan Bandera’s faction of the OUN. The latter battalion’s Ukrainian commander, war criminal Roman Shukhevych, is glorified as a freedom-fighting hero by Bandera-revering émigré groups that are among the fascist-rooted groups that receive generous funding from Canada’s government.

In 1940, Mackenzie King’s Liberal government created the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC). This alliance, claiming to speak for all Ukrainian émigrés, was an explicitly anticommunist front intent on squashing leftist groups then dominating the diaspora. Renamed the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in 1989, it unites businesses, credit unions, churches and associations of veterans, women, youth, the arts and education.

Immediately after WWII, 40,000 Ukrainian émigrés with extreme Russophobic/antiSoviet biases, boosted the UCC and its member groups. They also brought the internal conflicts of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Formed in Vienna in 1929 by fascist Ukrainian groups, it engaged in assassinations against Polish and Soviet officials. Although united by eugenics, Christian antisemitism and toxic anticommunism, the OUN split apart in 1941. This rift is still seen in within the UCC.

Monument to Stepan Bandera Lviv, Ukraine

The strongest faction, led by Stepan Bandera (the OUN-B), worked with the Nazis until 1941 when they dared to declare an "independent" fascist Ukrainian state. Their close support for the Nazis began again in 1943, when they formed what became the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations. Banderites, led in Canada by the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), have dominated UCC leadership for decades. One LUC affiliate, the Ukrainian Youth Association (UYA), like scouting outfits across the former British empire, is structured along military lines. LUC’s Bandera youth wear army-style uniforms, march in formation with WWII battle flags and venerate such leaders of the OUN(B) and its Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko and Roman Shukhevych.

Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
The group representing UPA vets in Canada was also deeply engaged in the UCC. In 2010, when Ukraine’s proNATO president declared UPA vets as "Heroes of Ukraine," he was praised by then-UCC president Paul Grod.  Grod, a former UYA leader, then called on Canada’s government to change the law so that UPA vets who were still alive in Canada could receive military benefits. ( See list of "National Members (Ukrainian Organizations)" from UCC website, below.)

The OUN(M) faction, led by Andriy Melnyk, was associated with the Ukrainian Central Committee. It led Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis during WWII. Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland’s maternal grandfather, Michael Chomiak, was the chief editor and office manager for this Committee’s proNazi newspapers. This OUN(M) heritage is represented in Canada by the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF) of Canada which was pivotal in creating the UCC. The UNF was founded, says its website, by OUN figures whose "influences and vision remain a vital part of the organization to this day."

The UNF has had long, close organizational ties with veterans' association of the Nazi's Waffen SS Galicia in Canada. For example, in 1982, at its 27th national convention in Edmonton, Mychajlo Romach was elected president of the UNF presidium and its national executive board. Romach was also a leader of the Ukrainian SS veterans' association in Canada. (See below.)

14th Division Waffen SS Galicia

Formed in 1943, this division was created, trained, armed, funded and led by the Nazis. Its volunteers, who swore an oath to fight to the death for Adolph Hitler, battled the USSR’s Red Army and fought partisans in Ukraine, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria. Recruitment was done by Nazi Germany, the Ukrainian churches (both Catholic and Orthodox) and the Ukrainian Central Committee. Its papers, edited by Michael Chomiak, told Ukrainians that it was their duty to enlist.

Proud of these SS veterans in Canada and those of Bandera’s UPA, their associations were listed as member groups on the UCC website until mid-2016. See list of "National Members (Ukrainian Organizations)" from UCC website, left.

The Waffen SS Galicia veterans association is deceptively listed as the "Brotherhood of Veterans 1st Division UNA [Ukrainian National Army] National HQ." (The name "1st Division UNA" was only adopted about one week before the end of WWII when it was obvious that the Nazis were about to lose.)

The longtime leader of this key UNF member group was Father Wasyl Kushnir who promoted antisemitic beliefs in the 1930s. In 1940, he became the first UCC president and filled that post for most of its next thirty years (1940-53 and 1959-71).

Government funding

The Public Accounts of Canada show that far-right Ukrainian groups receive millions in government grants. For example, Ukrainian Canadian Congress(UCC)-Toronto has received $10.2 million to run language programs since 1995. In addition, UCC HQ received $300,000 while its local chapters and provincial councils (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) received $145,000 since 2008.

During that same period, $983,000 was dispersed to ultranationalist Ukrainian groups for mass public events in Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba. The largest of these, the UCC’s Toronto festival, which promoted far-right Ukrainian groups, received $667,000.

Major UCC member groups also benefit. For example, the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF) of Canada received $141,000 (2012-19) and the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada (an Orthodox affiliate of the World Ukrainian Congress) got $58,000 (2015-19).

Banderite fronts like League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), through its Ukrainian Echo publication, and its women’s group (LUCW), received $114,000 (2010-19) while its Ukrainian Youth Association (UYA) received $141,000 (2015-19).

Cultural centres of the LUC, UPA and UYA got grants for repairs in Winnipeg ($47,000 in 2013) and Edmonton ($279,000 in 2015).

In 2008, the UCC-created Shevchenko Foundation (SF) received $10 million to memorialize Canada’s internment of Ukrainians during the WWI/Red-Scare era (1914-20). Claiming this was based solely on ethnicity, SF ignores the fact that Canada targeted single, young, laid-off, urban, male Ukrainians whose protests were feared might spark a leftwing revolution. (See Richard Sanders, "Rendered Captive by Barbed Wire and Maple Leaves." Captive Canada, Press for Conversion! #68. http://bit.ly/CapCda)

Provincial governments also give generously. For example, the Public Accounts of Saskatchewan record that its government gave $1.6 million to the UCC (2007-16) plus $587,000 to UCC-Saskatchewan, $335,000 to UCC-Regina and $1 million to UCC-Saskatoon (2013-19).

Since 2008, the leftwing Association of United Ukrainian Canadians received one federal grant of only $5,500.