Association of United Ukrainian Canadians

Seventh convention of the Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association

The Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association (ULFTA) was established in Winnipeg in 1918 as an association of left-leaning cultural societies and community halls and the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party of Canada (USDPC). By 1928 it had 167 branches across Canada. Labour Temples and other associated halls existed in cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Toronto (1921),[1] as well as in rural communities in the Ukrainian Block Settlements. These Labour Temples competed directly with nationalist-related halls called narodny dim (national homes) to provide services and attract patrons, and the UFLTA competed against a plethora of nationalist and Church-backed cultural groups for the loyalty of Ukrainian Canadians. It was funded, in part, by Moscow, and assumed an uncritical pro-Stalinist position, even as a broad consensus was formed about the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine (the Holodomor). A small group of UFLTA dissidents (Lobay movement) would break away from the main body and join the Ukrainian Canadian Committee.

As no form of public medicare was available at the time, ULFTA founded the Workers Benevolent Association (WBA) in Winnipeg in 1922, with branches and membership rapidly spreading throughout Canada; it even extended its membership to all workers, irrespective of ethnic origin. It was also a front organization for the ULFTA, supporting it financially.

In 1940, the ULFTA was banned under the wartime Defence of Canada Regulations, because of its support for Stalinism and the Soviet-Nazi pact, and a few of its leaders and journalists were interned along with the leadership of the Communist party. Several Labour Temples were confiscated by the federal government as "enemy property" with several being sold off.[2]

In 1940, as a result of the entry of the Soviet Union now becoming an ally of Canada in the war against the Nazis, the group changed face and its name to Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC).[3] During the Cold War, the AUUC declined in membership

Few post World War II immigrants joined the AUUC as most were opposed to the Soviet Union and Communism.

Today, very few of the original Temples still exist.

However, the AUUC has a legacy of senior's homes, children's camps, monuments and museums to Ukrainian literary giants, most notably the monument to the Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka, a gift from Soviet Ukraine, on the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan in 1976. In addition, the AUUC still runs programs such as Edmonton's Trembita dance ensemble.

The AUUC faced controversy in April 1988 when it published a positive review of Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard, a book by Douglas Tottle in which he asserted that claims the Holodomor was an intentional genocide are "fraudulent", and "a creation of Nazi propagandists".(The Ukrainian Canadian, April 1988, p. 24).[4]

There is a Association of United Ukrainian Canadians fond at Library and Archives Canada.[5] The archival reference number is R3120, former archival reference number is MG28-V154.[6] The fond covers the date ranges 1929 to 1996. It includes 8 meters of textual records; 7 photographs; 3 film reels.