Additional information
by Myron Momryk (Author)
The Cold War in Val-d Or, A History of the Ukrainian community in Val-d Or, Quebec is a mini-history of an ethnocultural community in northwestern Quebec. The story has many similarities to the evolution of immigrant and ethnocultural groups in many one-industry towns in northern Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. This study should be of special interest to the many former residents of Val-d Or who lived in an isolated resource town in a predominantly francophone milieu. The mining economy and the local cultural environment shaped this community but also the left-right political rivalry during the Cold War years documented in the surveillance reports prepared by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). This surveillance by the RCMP may also interest students and researchers in Canadian labour and political history. Ukrainian immigrants arrived in the Abitibi region as prospectors and miners in the 1930s and established the first rival pro-communist and nationalist community organizations that reflected their political orientation. This rivalry was the motor that activated the community but also perpetuated political differences that is the main theme of this study.
Author Biography
Myron Momryk grew up in Val-d'Or and was a witness to many of the events described in this story about the local Ukrainian community. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1972 with an M.A. in Canadian history and worked for over twenty-five years as an archivist in the area of multicultural archives at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. In addition to many articles in journals and presentations at academic conferences, he is the author of Remember the Flag, Mazeppa Legion History (2009) and Mike Starr of Oshawa, A Political Biography (2017).
