The Kingston Remembers plaque, entitled Enduring Roots, commemorates the historical experience of Ukrainians in the City of Kingston.
Jan Murphy
The Kingston Whig-Standard
Aug 26, 2024
Under a warm sun, and before dozens of fellow Ukrainian Canadians and supporters – and on Ukrainian Independence Day no less — sisters Solomiia Opanasiuk, 4, and Mariia, 7, helped bring the past to life forever on Saturday at Riverview Park in the city’s downtown area on Saturday morning.
As Ukrainian Canadian and Kingston native Lubomyr Luciuk spoke about the more than century long history that Ukrainians share with the Limestone City’s past, the young girls removed the cover on a new plaque situated in the park along Rideau Street, permanently recognizing Ukrainians past, present and future.
“The Ukrainian Canadian Club of Kingston has worked with the City of Kingston before, when we restored the Gaskin Lion to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Kingston,” Luciuk, president of the club, said before the ceremony. “As we began doing more research, we realized that there’s actually an even deeper history that Ukrainians have been in this city at least 110 years, certainly from before the First World War, not just the Ukrainians who were held up in Fort Henry as enemy aliens during the internment operations, but in fact people who had immigrated here for economic opportunities to work in places like the old Davis Tannery. Now we know that there were Ukrainians working in the tannery as early as March of 1911.”
Armed with that information, the club approached the city about a larger commemoration of that history, Luciuk, a professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada, said.
“We began discussing that with Mayor (Bryan) Paterson, he was very sympathetic,” Luciuk said. “So finally, we decided with the city’s heritage department to unveil a Kingston Remembers plaque, in a north-end location, and here we are today, and it turns out to be Ukrainian Independence Day, so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”
Before the ceremony, a reflective Luciuk spoke about what the north end of the city meant to him as a boy growing up in Kingston.
“I’m an old guy now,” he said. “I grew up over on Nelson Street, but I used to play in the Ukrainian hall that opened up here on Bagot and North streets. This was a neighbourhood that I roamed. I’d go down to the Davis Tannery. I’d go to the Rosen Fuel yard and the Anglin tanks and we’d go to a timber yard and build forts. There’s a corner store on the corner where we used to pilfer penny candies. I mean, this is the Kingston I remember, the north end, as a boy. This was the immigrant, working class Ukrainian area. It’s just a good memory. I’m happy to be able to work on putting up a plaque here that will recall that historical experience for all the people
who come by here because it’s recalling our history, it’s recalling our contributions. The plaque’s called Enduring Roots. That sense that we’ve been here for 100-plus years, that people planted their roots here, that they’ve grown with the city, contributed to the city as soldiers, as workers, as scholars, as homemakers, as professors, whatever. It’s just kind of a nice completion, it’s a nice thing to finish.”
As the youngsters revealed the plaque, the crowd broke into applause, while curious passersby stopped along the street to listen.
Luciuk spoke about how a professor at Queen’s pushed him to do his master’s research around the history of Ukrainians in Kingston, which he said he remembers objecting to, but inevitably doing, altering his life forever.
“At the time, 60 years ago, I thought that’s really all there was, Ukrainians who had come here after World War Two, my parents, their friends, and some who had been here from the end-of-war periods,” Luciuk told the crowd as he opened the ceremony. “It wasn’t until the late 1970s that I learned differently, and it’s thanks to a man standing here in the audience today, my friend and professor at the time, Peter Goheen, from the department of geography at Queen’s University. I began discovering a lot that I didn’t know about my own community, particularly that had been Ukrainians in Kingston from even before the First World War.”
Luciuk said the plaque represents, among other things, the opportunities that Kingston has afforded generations of Ukrainians.
“We wanted to celebrate the fact that in this city, Ukrainians have found opportunity, Ukrainians have found asylum, Ukrainians have found fellowship, culture and friendship,” he said. “They’ve been able to preserve their faith, they’ve been able to preserve their ideals, they’ve been able to move forward with their lives. In recent years, as you all know, we’ve had some newcomers. There was the first wave of Ukrainian pioneer settles, the interwar wave, the (displaced persons) wave – my parents– some who came here after 1991 when Ukraine became independent and now, we have a fifth wave, and some of them are here with us today. We planted the roots, those roots have endured, and now today with this celebration, we’re saying to that next new generation, soon it’ll be your turn to take over and to preserve what we have built and what others before us have built and made of this city.”
Kingston and the Islands member of Parliament Mark Gerretsen addressed the crowd and spoke about his admiration for the identity that Ukrainian Canadians in Kingston have proudly held onto.
“What I find so amazing about the Ukrainian community is that despite so many other cultural communities assimilating and losing some of that identity, including mine – my father’s Dutch and my mother’s Italian — and although those were vibrant communities when we were younger, they certainly have not kept the unity that has been seen within the Ukrainian community,” he said. “We see people like Nadia Luciuk and Lubomyr, who are doing such an incredible job keeping that. Every year, Nadia continues to have an event right here in Kingston to celebrate Ukrainian community that we have and the culture and how rich and diverse it is
right here in Kingston. And that’s so important for future generations. I’m very proud to represent the community, a Ukrainian community, that has such a great tie to its roots.”
Gerretsen, a representative for member of provincial parliament Ted Hsu and Mayor Paterson all spoke about the significance of Ukraine’s independence at a time when Ukraine is fighting for its independence against Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invaded the country in 2022.
“It has never been more important to reaffirm Ukraine’s independence and its right to self-determination,” Hsu said in a statement read by his representative. “Back in Ukraine, brave men and women are fighting and contributing to the war effort, ensuring that the nation’s independence holds strong. Today let us recognize their strength and resilience in protecting Ukraine’s culture, language and people. As we reflect on the importance of this day, we also recognize the invaluable contributions of the Ukrainian community right here in Kingston.”
Gerretsen said Ukraine is not only fighting for itself, but for the West.
“Let’s be honest, Ukraine is at the forefront of not just a fight for Ukraine, but a fight for the West, a fight for the ideals of democracy that we believe so strongly in,” he said. “I often tell my friends, I say, ‘If it wasn’t for Ukraine, we would be fighting that war right now; they are fighting it for us, so we need to do everything we possibly can as Canada to ensure that we support Ukraine right through to the end, to that they win this war, this unprovoked act of aggression from Vladimir [Putin].’”
The City of Kingston has flown the Ukrainian flag over City Hall daily since the invasion began, a sign of solidarity that will continue, Paterson said.
“There’s a reason why that Ukrainian flag flies over City Hall today,” Paterson told the crowd. “It’s flown over City Hall for the last two-and-a-half years, and it will continue to fly over City Hall until this conflict is over. It is a statement of support, it is a statement that we’re all in this together, it’s a statement from the city that as a city, we stand with Ukraine, we stand with the Ukrainian community, not only to celebrate the history, but also to stand in the days ahead.”
Luciuk personally thanked the city for the show of solidarity.
“Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalated in February of 2022, the City of Kingston has flown the Ukrainian flag over City Hall every day. It’s the only city in Canada that has done that. I want to especially thank the mayor and city council for their stalwart support of Ukraine as Ukraine and Ukrainians defend themselves against the genocidal agenda of the Russian Federation.”