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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. + 63 +
