With the end of World War Two, an unprecedented displacement of Ukrainians from their homeland took place. Among the displaced were tens of thousands of people who either supported or were active in the Ukrainian liberation movement of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and most of whom had been victims of Nazi and Soviet repression. They constituted the backbone of the third wave of Ukrainian immigrants to reach the West after World War Two. They were highly motivated political immigrants fresh from the resistance frontlines of Ukraine.

About 40,000 of these political immigrants came to Canada, renewing and strengthening within the established Ukrainian Canadian community the bond with the homeland, and exposing it directly to the new historical and political realities enveloping Ukraine. Against this historical and political background, a large number of Ukrainian newcomers to Canada considered it their life-long duty to maintain an awareness of their nation's struggle for independence. As a result, the Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine (CLLU) and the Women's Association of the Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine were established.

The Women's Association of the Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine began as an integral part of the Canadian League for the Liberation of Ukraine with a greater focus on cultural, educational and charitable activities. The founding conference for the CLLU, which took place on December 25, 1949, elected a representative to the executive responsible for organizing women. The second conference in December, 1950 elected a chairperson for the Women's Section of the CLLU, after which branches began organizing membership. In December, 1955 the Women's Section became the Women's Association of the CLLU with its own by-laws and national executive. Marking its 25th anniversary in 1975, the Women's Association adopted its own constitution and became an autonomous body.

On the community level, the Women's Association has initiated, developed and sustained a wide range of specific activities. To promote the vast Ukrainian cultural heritage within Canada's multicultural framework, the Association has frequently sponsored Ukrainian - language programs on radio and television and organized numerous cultural exhibits at libraries, museums and ethno cultural events. Accomplishments of particular importance to the community were the Ukrainian Heritage Exhibit at Casa Loma in Toronto and the erection of a monument to the great poetess Lesia Ukrainka in Toronto's High Park.

In the field of education, the Women's Association has played a formidable role by establishing and staffing kindergartens, day care centres and Sunday schools, by organizing social events for Ukrainian children both in cities and rural areas, by counseling young mothers and by providing support for the activities of the Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada.

The Women's Association engaged its membership in various social and charitable services: visiting senior citizens' homes and hospitals; caring for the elderly and infirm; and helping the needy in Latin America and Europe, including Ukraine.

As a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Women's Committee (UCWC), which it joined in May, 1959, the Women's Association has made a noteworthy contribution to the Ukrainian Canadian women's movement. It has brought initiatives, human resources and leadership to UCWC activities.

Ukraine's right to independence was always at the forefront of the organization's activities as it raised awareness among the Canadian public about the plight of women in Ukraine who, as wives and mothers, were subject to persecution for refusing to renounce their arrested husbands and children, and for opposing the policy of Russification, atheism, colonialism and police control of family and public life, and who themselves frequently became prisoners of conscience.

The Women's Association, along with other Ukrainian women's organizations, successfully raised the plight of Ukrainian women in the USSR at EXPO'67; the International Women's Conference (Mexico City, 1975); the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements "Habitat" (Vancouver, 1976); the Conference of the International Women's Council (Vancouver, 1976); and the UN Decade for Women Conference (Nairobi, Kenya, 1985). Frequent appeals were made to the Canadian government, the International Red Cross, the International Association of Jurists and Amnesty International to intercede on behalf of Ukrainian women - prisoners of conscience.

In December, 1980, the CLLU and the Women's Association of the CLLU formed The Council for the Release of Ukrainian Political Prisoners to focus on the plight of the many individuals imprisoned in the USSR for their political beliefs.

When the Chornobyl nuclear disaster occurred in Ukraine in April, 1986, the Women's Association worked both with the Ukrainian Canadian Social Welfare Service and independently to bring relief to the victims and to press for a full investigation of the disaster by international agencies.

It also worked with the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society to help resettle Ukrainian refugees from the East Bloc and Ukrainian immigrants from other parts of the world.

In 1991, the Women's Association of the League for the Liberation of Ukraine, similar to other Ukrainian organizations in the West, began a new era of its existence. With the proclamation of an independent Ukraine, the focus shifted to building a strong, democratic, economically stable, independent country. The Women's Association of the League for the Liberation of Ukraine changed its name to the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women and began searching for ways not only to assist Ukrainian women in Ukraine with their difficult task, but to further harness its potential for the benefit of the Ukrainian community, Ukrainian women and their families in Canada.

The League of Ukrainian Canadian Women is an active member of the National Council of Women of Canada, the Ukrainian Canadian Women's Committee, the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations and the World Congress of Ukrainians.

Learn more about the League's history.