Canadian Polish Congress#History

The organization was federally integrated on 7 February 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was initially known as the Federation of Polish Societies in Canada.{{Cite web |title=Federal Corporation Information - 034950-0 |url=https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cc/lgcy/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=349500&V_TOKEN=1552620673980&crpNm=canadian%20polish%20congress&crpNmbr=&bsNmbr}} The KPK was founded in 1944{{Cite web |title=Historia {{!}} CANADIAN POLISH CONGRESS |url=https://kpk.org/regulaminy/historia |access-date=2023-12-27 |language=en-US}} or 1948 as an umbrella association of 115 different organizations. From the beginning, prior to the arrival of exiled Polish combatants in 1946, the KPK was political, excluding communists from the organization and supporting the Polish government-in-exile.{{Cite journal |last=Payseur |first=Eric L. |date=2011 |title=Gendering the Generations: Polish-Canadian Women in the 1950s and 1970s |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23075180 |journal=Polish American Studies |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=85–105 |issn=0032-2806}} In the post-war period, the KPK was dominated by WWII veterans associated with the Polish Combatants Association.[http://www.oralhistoryforum.ca/index.php/ohf/article/viewFile/598/674 Clements, Chris. "Voluntary Ethnic Groups and the Canadian Polish Congress’ Role in Cold War Canada." Oral History Forum d'histoire orale. Vol. 1. 2015.]

In the 1950s, under the presidency of Tadeusz Brzeziński, the KPK was involved in the transfer of the Wawel Castle treasures and a number of Chopin manuscripts, under its safekeeping since World War II, to Poland.{{cite book|author=Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm|title=Untold Stories of Polish Heroes from World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IrE5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|date=2 November 2017|publisher=Hamilton Books|isbn=978-0-7618-6984-9|pages=15–17}}

In 1973, the left of centre Polish Alliance of Canada (PAC, founded in 1907) left the KPK in disagreement over the proponents of total independence of Poland that controlled the KPK, the close ties between the KPK and the government in exile, and accusations that the PAC was pro-communist. The disagreement between the PAC and KPK started to surface in the late 1960s, with the PAC advocating that the main focus of Polish-Canadian organizations should be assimilation and integration in Canada while promoting Polish culture, and opposing a non-Canadian political focus. In 1982, following the emergence of Solidarity, the PAC rejoined the KPK.

The KPK spearheaded the construction of the Katyn monument in Toronto in 1980, being the first such monument in the world erected in a public place.{{cite web| title=1980 Katyn Memorial, Toronto, Ethno-Cultural Monuments in Canada | url=http://ethnoculturalmonuments.ca/portfolio-items/1980-katyn-memorial/}}{{Cite web | author=Jack Bauming | title=Monumental Type | publisher=Torontoist | date=2008-08-19 | url=https://torontoist.com/2008/08/monumental_type/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314092820/https://torontoist.com/2008/08/monumental_type/ | archive-date=2016-03-14}}

The KPK was a vocal supporter of Poland’s Solidarity movement.Michal Mlynarz. “‘It’s Our Patriotic Duty to Help Them’: The Socio-Cultural and Economic Impact of the ‘Solidarity wave’ on Canadian and Polish-Canadian Society in the Early 1980s.” Past Imperfect, vol. 13 (2007): 56-83. In 1981 and 1982, the KPK staged widespread protests in Canadian cities in support of Solidarity and in opposition to the Soviet Union and the imposition of martial law in Poland. The KPK, in what Clements describes as "the most contentious tone the CPC [KPK] had recorded in its history", urged the Canadian government to take action against the Polish authorities and to accept Polish political refugees. KPK's demands were largely rejected by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, though they did succeed in getting Trudeau to address Parliament in January 1982 in support of loosening the martial law restrictions in Poland.

The KPK spearheaded the founding of the Chair of Polish History at the University of Toronto and established the Council for the Support of Polish Studies at the University of Toronto to sustain Polish language and literature studies.{{Cite web|url=http://sites.utoronto.ca/slavic/polish/donors.html|title = Donors - Polish Language and Literature at the University of Toronto}}{{Cite web |title=Council for Support of Polish Studies {{!}} |url=https://cspsut.org/ |access-date=2023-06-29}}

In 2014 the KPK was said to represent about 150 Polish-Canadian organizations.{{Cite web|url=https://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/kongres-polonii-kanadyjskiej-ma-70-lat|title=Kongres Polonii Kanadyjskiej ma 70 lat|website=dzieje.pl|language=pl|access-date=2019-03-06}} That year also saw an academic conference in Poland dedicated to the history and activities of the KPK. As of mid-2010s, the KPK is involved in the construction of a Memorial to the Victims of Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge in Ottawa.

In 2021, the youngest President of KPK history was elected into the KPK BC branch at the age of 29, Michael Dembek.{{cite web|url=https://www.kpkbritishcolumbia.com/executive-2021-2023?fbclid=IwAR1KOtjtZYQVIJxPq2JrQI1HHja5AfxhL6vrmAldCB4lTNXkZPdXg-p2hw4 |title=Michael Dembek |accessdate=May 3, 2021}}

On October 5th, 2024 a new board was voted in. President Dominic Roszak, Vice President Iwona Malinowska, second Vice President Michael Dembek.

The KPK's ideology is conservative, anti-communist, and supportive of the Catholic Church.Polec, Patryk. "From Hurrah Revolutionaries to Polish Patriots: The Rise of Polish Canadian Radicalism, 1918-1939." Polish American Studies 68.2 (2011): 43-66.Patryk Polec. Hurrah Revolutionaries: The Polish Canadian Communist Movement, 1918-1948. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2015, p.180.Henryk Radecki & Benedykt Heydenkorn, A Member of a Distinguished Family: The Polish Group in Canada. McLelland & Stewart, 1976, p. 72-77

While Poland was under communist rule, the KPK distinguished between the government and the people of Poland. Member organizations were forbidden to have contact with the Polish government, and communists or those sympathetic to communists were barred from positions in KPK member organizations. The KPK supports the Catholic Church, and statements or resolutions in support of the Church have been made at nearly every KPK convention.

The KPK is engaged in information-providing and anti-defamation activities, and was instrumental in securing two rulings by the Ontario Press Council regarding the misuse of “Polish concentration camps.”{{Cite web | title=Texts of 1988 & 1992 Ontario Press Council rulings on “Polish concentration camps” | url=http://kpk-toronto.org/wp-content/uploads/Ont-Press-Council-rulings1.doc | format=DOC}}

The KPK has advocated that a central focus of the "mass atrocities section" in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights should be on "the injury caused to Poles and other Eastern Europeans by Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia".{{Cite journal|last1=Dhamoon|first1=Rita Kaur|last2=Hankivsky|first2=Olena|date=December 2013|title=Which Genocide Matters the Most? An Intersectionality Analysis of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/which-genocide-matters-the-most-an-intersectionality-analysis-of-the-canadian-museum-of-human-rights/5BF7062A91847573070138C7365AC882|journal=Canadian Journal of Political Science|volume=46|issue=4|pages=899–920|doi=10.1017/S000842391300111X|s2cid=155709668|issn=0008-4239|url-access=subscription}} The KPK protested against "rewriting history" in Our Class,{{cite journal | url=https://ctr.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/CTR.153.010 | doi=10.3138/CTR.153.010 | title=Studio 180's Political Engagements: Finding the Jewish Soul in Canadian Theatre | date=2013 | last1=Levin | first1=Laura | last2=Zatzman | first2=Belarie | last3=Greenberg | first3=Joel | journal=Canadian Theatre Review | volume=153 | pages=50–55 | s2cid=145094400 | url-access=subscription }} a theatre play whose historical accuracy has been questioned by others.{{Cite web |title=Is Our Class at the National Theatre really such a reliable history lesson? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/6530381/Is-Our-Class-at-the-National-Theatre-really-such-a-reliable-history-lesson.html |access-date=2023-06-29 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk}}Being Poland: A New History of Polish Literature and Culture Since 1918. University of Toronto Press, 2018, p. 556. According to Jacek Kopciński, Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Our Class is “far from a historical reconstruction of the tragic events... The casting of Polish history as a Polish-Jewish war...is a gross simplification.”

The following foundations are associated with the Canadian Polish Congress:{{cite web|last=Canadian Polish Congress|title=CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS|url=http://www.kpk.org/charitablefoundations-97|accessdate=April 3, 2014}}

• Charitable Foundation of the Canadian Polish Congress
• Canadian Polish Millennium Fund
• W. Reymont Foundation
• Adam Mickiewicz Foundation of Canada
• Polish Heritage Foundation of Canada

• Polish American Congress, a similar organization in the USA

There is a Canadian Polish Congress fonds at Library and Archives Canada.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Canadian Polish Congress fonds description at Library and Archives Canada|url=http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=190520&lang=eng|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=November 14, 2022|website=}} The archival reference number is R12243.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Finding Aid of Canadian Polish Congress|url=http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000385.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=November 14, 2022|website=}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.kpk.org/ Canadian Polish Congress - Home] Official Website

• {{cite book|author=Canadian Polish Research Institute|title=Half a Century of Canadian Polish Congress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2DpKtgEACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Canadian Polish Research Institute|isbn=978-0-920517-04-8}}

Category:Canada–Poland relations

Category:Polish diaspora in Canada

Category:Polish diaspora organizations

Category:1944 establishments in Canada

Category:Organizations based in Toronto