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THE SHIFTING IDENTITIES OF THE BULGARIAN-CANADIAN DIASPORA, 1900-2015
the inter-war period, their attachment to Canada grew. The future of the
Bulgarian language in the community was also doomed, especially among
the second generation and due to the fact that all interaction and business
with the mainstream society had to be in English. The First World War also
led to pressure on the Bulgarian Canadians to abandon their native language.
On 25 September 1918, an Order-in-Council banned all printed materials
in fourteen different ‘enemy languages,’ which included Bulgarian, because
Bulgaria was a German ally during the war. The newly founded newspaper
Zora [Dawn], published in Bulgarian by Dr Dimitar Malincheff, had to stop
serving the Bulgarian community.”
During the Second World War, the most influential institutions among the
Bulgarians continued to be the Macedonian Political Organization (MPO) and
its Toronto branch Justice, as well as the two Orthodox Churches - Sts. Cyril
and Methody and St. George. The enthusiastic support by the MPO of the
Bulgarian army, which occupied Greek Aegean Macedonia and the Yugoslav
Vardar Macedonia again revealed the Bulgarian nationalist orientation of the
MPO members. The MPO position, however, prompted the RCMP and the
Canadian Government to consider the MPO members as enemy aliens. In
order to prevent persecutions during the war, on 14 April 1942 the MPO Justice
Chapter in Toronto arranged an agreement among its members, the youth
organization and the ladies’ auxiliary, to discontinue their political activities
until the end of the war.** Thus, unfavorable political conditions suppressed
any open expression of a Bulgarian national identity during the war.
After 1945, the Cold War initiated a new period among Bulgarian immigrants
to Canada. During this period (1945-1989), Bulgarian immigration to Canada
was almost non-existent. Due to the well-guarded frontiers behind the Iron
Curtain, in the period 1945-1965, only 1,207 Bulgarians managed to reach
Canada.” In fact, even the few Bulgarians who dared to apply for immigration
to Canada from within communist Bulgaria were not allowed to leave the
country. In a letter to the Canadian Minister of External Affairs, the British
Legation in Sofia stated that as of 14 July 1956 eleven Bulgarians were approved
for immigration to Canada who had been waiting for Bulgarian passports from
two months to two years.“ The Canadian authorities were also very concerned
that the Bulgarian Penal Law amendments of March 1953 introduced severe
measures against Bulgarian immigrants and their families. According to
the new law, Bulgarian citizens who left their country without permission
#7 Duncan McLaren, Ontario Ethno-Cultural Newspapers, 1835-1972, Toronto, University of
Toronto, 1973, 124.
38 Peter Vasiliadis, Whose Are You, 240.
Gurdev, Bulgarskata emigraciya, 87.
#° ‘Immigration from Bulgaria (1954-1963), Library and Archives Canada (LAC), RG25, Vol.
6332, File 232-BE-40, Pt. 1.
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