Participating in Canada’s victory

The Finnish community in Canada during World War II

Abstrakti

A little known event of World War II, Canada’s declaration of war against Finland on 6–7 December 1941 and the impact of this decision on its resident Finnish community, makes for an interesting case study. The 1941 Census of Canada listed a total of 41,683 residents of Finnish origin living in Canada; more than half had arrived during the 1920s. Documentation shows that these immigrants had been adapting to life in their new homeland – many quite readily, others with varying difficulties. At the start of the war in 1939, Finnish immigrants had been in Canada at least 9 years and many much longer.1Significant wartime events in Finland affected the Finnish community in Canada, namely when the Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939 precipitating the Winter War, and, later in June 1941, when Finland, in alliance with Nazi Germany, invaded the Soviet Union as part of the Barbarossa Plan. Yet, while large segments of the Finnish community in Canada were concerned about the situation of families and friends in their former homeland, their overwhelming loyalty was to Canada. Approximately two thousand Finnish Canadians (whether Canadian or Finnish-born) enlisted in the Canadian armed forces – many serving overseas. Thousands of other Finnish Canadians (men and women) served Canada through employment on the home front in war industries and in other occupations deemed essential to the war effort.