Polish Canadians

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Polish Canadian

Wayne Gretzky • Peter Gzowski
Total population

817,085 [1]
2.76% of the Canadian Population
Flag of Canada Flag of Poland
Regions with significant populations
Ontario, Western Canada, Atlantic Canada, Quebec
Languages
English, Polish, French
Religions
Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish
Related ethnic groups
Polonia, Western Slavs

Polish Canadians are Canadians of Polish ancestry. According to the 2001 census by Statistics Canada, 817,085 Canadians claim full or partial Polish ancestry.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

The earliest Polish immigrants to Canada were members of the Watt and De Meuron military regiments from Saxony and Switzerland sent overseas to help the British Army in North America. Several were émigrés from Poland who took part in the November Uprising of 1830 and the 1863 insurrection against the Russian occupation of their own homeland.[2]

The first Polish immigrant on record, Dominik Barcz, is known to have come to Canada in 1752. He was a fur merchant from Gdańsk who settled in Montreal. He was followed in 1757 by Charles Blaskowicz, who worked as deputy surveyor-general of lands. In 1776 arrived army surgeon, August Franz Globensky. His grandson, Charles Auguste Maximilien Globensky was elected to the House of Commons in Ottawa in 1875.

Sir Casimir S. Gzowski from Historic Sites of Ontario.
Sir Casimir S. Gzowski from Historic Sites of Ontario.
Canada provinces 1867-1870.
Canada provinces 1867-1870.

In 1841, Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski arrived in Canada from the partitioned Poland via U.S.A. and for 50 years worked in engineering, military and community sectors in Toronto and Southern Ontario, for which he was knighted by Queen Victoria.

Charles Horecki immigrated in 1872. He was an engineer with the cross-Canada railway construction from Edmonton to the Pacific Ocean through the Peace River Valley. Today, a mountain and a body of water in British Columbia are named after him.

[edit] Group-settlers

The first significant group of Polish group-settlers were Kashubians from Northern Poland, who were escaping Prussian oppression resulting from the occupation. They arrived in Renfrew County of Ontario in 1858, where they founded the settlements of Wilno, Barry’s Bay, and Round Lake. By 1890 there were about 270 Kashubian families working in the Madawaska Valley of Renfrew County, mostly in the lumber industry of the Ottawa Valley.

The consecutive waves of Polish immigrants in periods from 1890-1914, 1920-1939, and 1941 to this day, settled across Canada from Cape Breton to Vancouver, and made numerous and significant contributions to the agricultural, manufacturing, engineering, teaching, publishing, religious, mining, cultural, professional, sports, military, research, business, governmental and political life in Canada.

[edit] Religious services, first Churches

The first Polish Catholic priest visited Polish immigrants in 1862 in Kitchener. The first church serving Polish immigrants was built in 1875 in Wilno, Ontario. In Winnipeg, the Holy Ghost Church was built in 1899.

The first Polish-Canadian Roman Catholic bishop is Reverend Mathew Ustrzycki, consecrated in June 1985, auxiliary bishop of the Hamilton Diocese. There are Polish-Canadian priests in many congregations and orders, such as the Franciscans, Jesuits, Redemptorists, Saletinians, Resurrectionists, Oblates, Michaelites, and the Society of Christ. In addition, 80 priests are serving in 120 parishes.

[edit] The Victoria Cross

Polish-Canadians have been recognized by awards and appointments by the Queen, and the Canadian governments, universities and various organizations. Notably:

Andrew Mynarski, pilot-gunner from Winnipeg, awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for extreme valor in World War II

[edit] Polish Canadian recipients of the Order of Canada

  • Irena Ungar, Citizenship Judge
  • Stefan Sznuk, Group Captain
  • Rev. Anthony Hylla, Oblate priest
  • Rev. Michael Smith, missionary Oblate priest
  • Rt. Rev. Monsignor Anthony Gocki of Regina
  • B. Dubienski of Winnipeg, lawyer
  • Peter Taraska of Winnipeg, Knight of St. Gregory, alderman and citizenship judge
  • Casimir Stanczykowski of Montreal, multilingual radio station founder and broadcaster
  • Captain Andrew Garlicki of Ottawa
  • Jan Drygala of Oshawa, WWII staff-sergeant of the Polish Army.

[edit] Polish Canadian Queen’s Counsels and lawyers appointed as judges

Their Honors
  • Judge Allan H. J. Wachowich, of the Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton
  • Judge P. Swiecicki, of the Superior Court of BC in Vancouver
  • Judge Paul Staniszewski, of Toronto, Montreal and the County Court of Windsor
  • Judge E.F. Wrzeszczinski-Wren, of the County Court of Toronto.

[edit] Notable Polish Canadians

[edit] Science and Engineering

  • Witold Rybczynski - architect, professor and writer
  • Jan Żurakowski of the Avro Aircraft Company in Malton, awarded Canada’s top Aviation Award, the McKee Trophy in 1959
  • P. Wyszkowski, Chief Structural Engineer of Toronto’s Bloor Street subway
  • Dr. Tadeusz Blachut of Ottawa, member of the National Research Council, a photogram metric expert
  • Z. Krupski, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Bell Telephone company of Canada
  • J. Norton-Spychalski, a co-founder of the Computing Devices of Canada in 1949

[edit] Education

  • Izaak Helmuth, from Warsaw, via England, one of the founders of the University of Western Ontario.

[edit] Politics

[edit] Public Service

  • Frank Glogowski - Vice-Chairman of the Immigration Appeal Board
  • Stan Zybala - a Deputy-Director of the Multicultural Directorate
  • Irene Ungar of Toronto - Citizenship Court Judge
  • Peter Taraska of Winnipeg - Citizenship Court Judge

[edit] Music

[edit] Culture and Media

[edit] Armed Forces

[edit] Sports

[edit] Other Polish Canadians

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Statistics Canada, Population by selected ethnic origins, by province and territory, 2001 Census, last modified: 2005-01-25. Accessed 2008-01-03.
  2. ^ Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2002, Archival Sources for the Study of Polish Canadians. Accessed 2008-01-03

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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