Description

The start of the Second World War placed Canadian officials in the difficult position of trying to maintain their stated position of respect for national self-determination while refusing to further Ukrainian Canadian requests that Canada support the principle of Ukrainian independence. Bohdan Kordan shows that Canadian officials, claiming that Ukrainian independence was not in the interest of the Canadian state, used measures such as close surveillance of the community and intervention in community affairs in the attempt to manage the so-called Ukrainian problem.

Focusing on the difficulties the government faced in trying to reconcile moral imperatives and political interest, Kordan provides an innovative interpretation of government policy toward Ukrainian Canadians. Drawing extensively on Canadian, British, American, and Soviet archival material, he highlights the connection between the government's foreign and domestic concerns and the implications of each for Canadian nation building.

Meticulously researched and richly detailed, Canada and the Ukrainian Question, 1939-1945 offers a clear but critical statement about Canada's uneven approach to ethnic integration and policy making. It will be of interest to historians as well as those interested in foreign policy.