DREAM TO REALITY

UKRAINE: May 2, 1928 Tears welled up in his eyes as the train pulled out of the railway station. It was May 2, 1928, and Michael Tkaczyk, age 26, was leaving his home, his village of Uzhentsi (Uzhenetz) in Bukovina, Western Ukraine. But most of all, he was leaving his family, all be it for a short time, at least that was his initial intention. His family had gathered on the station platform in Chernivtsi to bid their good-byes and good wishes. Foremost among the large family gathering were his wife Parascheva (Paraska) and their firstborn child Maria (Mary), two months old. It had been a difficult decision to temporarily leave his family, travel to a foreign land to start a new life, then return to bring his family back, but it had to be done. Leaving his wife and two month old daughter Maria (Mary), their first child, was not easy, but what other choice did Michael have? Timing was crucial. He may not get another chance at this new life and an opportunity for freedom, independence and prosperity. The offer of sponsorship to Canada was in place, as was financial assistance. His ticket had been pre-paid by his brother-in-law Bill Kotyk who was already in Canada. The political situation in Eastern Europe, Ukraine in particular, was brittle at best. The time limit on the ticket was ten days and he just made the time line. Others from his village and surrounding communities had travelled to Canada before him, in fact, his father had been to Canada in 1898 and again in the early 1900’s, and had come back to bring his family over to Canada but had been trapped in his native Ukraine upon his return, by the politics and the political turmoil of the time. His father couldn’t get the proper documentation for himself and the rest of his family. The stories that Michael’s father told him about the new land Canada, were just too intriguing and too enticing to Michael and now was the appropriate time to strike out on this new venture for himself and his family. Michael had been corresponding with his brothers-in-law Nick and Bill (William) Kotyk who had immigrated to Canada several years earlier. Nick had been in Canada since 1914 and had his Canadian citizenship. Since he had not yet purchased land, and one had to be a land owner to sponsor immigrants, Nick would assist in locating sponsors for the new emegres. Nick had already maximized his sponsorship capabilities, since he had sponsored his sister Mafta to come to Canada in 1921. He sponsored his brother Bill who came in 1924, and was presently in the process of sponsoring his brother George to come to Canada. Therefore, Bill had arranged the transportation fares and the sponsorship to Canada for Michael. Bill had been working for the Canadian Pacific Railroad and was financially stable enough to lend Michael the money for ship passage, but he did not have his Canadian citizenship. In addition, Bill had to be a landowner to sponsor Michael so that he could guarantee employment to the new landed immigrant. Since Bill had not yet been able to purchase land, he sought out the assistance of a landowner by the name of Thomas Kuryliuk, who was a Canadian citizen, to sponsor Michael. Thomas Kuryliuk came from “Stavchany”, the village from where the Kotyks came, and a neighboring village to the east of Uzhenetz. The Kuryliuks had a farm at Wroxton, a small farming community which was 42 kilometers east of Yorkton, Saskatchewan. The Kuryliuks could provide several months work during the spring planting, summer haying and autumn harvest. Michael would have a start financially and then be on his own to find work elsewhere. For many in politically and economically deprived Eastern Europe, this was the only way out of a desperate situation. Getting help financially and being sponsored was a great asset and Michael was not about to let it slip through his grasp. As mentioned previously, being sponsored as an immigrant to Canada at this time required a registered landowner to sponsor the immigrant so that he would have a place to stay and so that he would be employed by the landowner. While the Canadian Government wanted reliable immigrants to settle this country, they had not yet developed the social safety nets of today to support the newly landed immigrants. Agricultural enterprises required a great deal of manual labor, since mechanization as we know it today, was to make its appearance in the 1940’s and later. Thus the need for manual labor was the logical sponsorship vehicle that would settle Canada’s West. Ukrainians from the Bukovina region as well as other regions of Ukraine were most eager to get to Canada, since the first wave of immigration in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s were successful in setting up farms, small lumber mills and getting employed in various labor intensive ventures such as railroading and mining. However, in the 1920’s and 1930’s, immigrants required sponsorship by relatives or Canadian citizens, and this was not always easy to come by. Most Ukrainian Canadians were besieged for sponsorships, and by the mid 1930’s the Canadian government had narrowed sponsorships down to immediate family only.