PLAST in Canada

• Brief History of Plast
• Plast in Canada
- Hamilton
- Edmonton
- Montreal
- Toronto
- Ottawa
• Plast in the United States
• Plast in Australia
• Plast in other countries
• Interviews

Plast in Toronto, Ontario

Soon after the arrival of the first post-war immigrants, a Plast Initiative Group was formed in Toronto on April 4, 1948 under the chairmanship of Bohdan Hawrylyshyn. On May 23rd of the same year, it reorganised itself, into a stanytsia or Plast Branch. Andrij Charak was elected the first branch president. For a time, the branch bore the name Karpaty, after the branch in Dornbirn, Austria, to which some of its founders had belonged.
All four Plast ulady (divisions) began their activities almost immediately. The youth units (novaky and yunaky) met weekly, went on hikes and participated in Ukrainian community events. Their elders largely recreated the organisational structure that had prevailed in Europe.

Toronto 2

    Meetings were, at first, held at the Ukrainian People’s Home (191 Lippincott St.) until misunderstandings with that institution’s executive forced Plast to search for a building of its own. A house at 992 Dundas St W became the first building actually owned by Plast in the entire history of the organisation. Its acquisition would not have been possible had it not been for the efforts of Plast-Pryiat (Friends of Plast). This auxiliary organisation was founded on July 5, 1948 by a group of pre-war immigrants who wished to support materially the new arrivals’ activities.
     By 1952, the Toronto Branch bought a farm on Lake Ontario near Grafton, for use as a campground. The purchase was financed by leasing part of the property to Plast and Plast-Pryiat members for cottages. Also in 1952, Plast members and supporters set up "Plai," which was, at first a limited company producing uniforms and, from 1954, a retail cooperative.
     With the continued influx of new immigrants in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, Plast membership grew rapidly, reaching 425 by 1953. The house on Dundas St was badly overcrowded, so a new, somewhat larger building at 369 Brock Ave was acquired. Once firmly established in Canada, the post-war immigrants, especially parents of Plast youth, also swelled the ranks of Plast-Pryiat, changing its character to that of a parents’ auxiliary. Their enthusiastic support enabled Plast Toronto to acquire a much larger building in 1961 at 2199 Bloor St W, where it remains today.
     The crowning achievement of the Toronto Branch’s early years was the International Plast Jamboree held in 1957 at Plastova Sich, Grafton, Ont. Dr. Oleksander Tysovsky attended, as did Severyn Levytsky and over 1000 Plast members from the United States and Canada. Toronto hosted Plast’s 75th Anniversary world gathering in 1987. The branch also took an active part in all the jamborees that followed: East Chatham, NY (1962, 1972, 1982, 1992), Montreal (1967), the Alberta Rockies (1978) and Manitoba (1998). Members of the branch have also played a leading role in Canadian Plast Jamborees since 1954.
     Besides these anniversary gatherings, members of the Toronto branch organised a wide range of camps every year. Novaky camped in the permanent facilities at Plastova Sich, while yunaky pitched their tents both at Plastova Sich and further afield. In time, more specialised canoeing, hiking, sailing, sports, and cultural camps developed. More recently, winter ski camps have been added.
     The Toronto Branch was the largest in Canada, and was, therefore, a natural choice for the location of the National Executive. The first National Convention was held there in 1950, as have all subsequent ones. Toronto also hosted the 1970 Convention of the Konferentsiia Ukrainskych Plastovykh Orhanizatsii (KUPO: Conference of Ukrainian Plast Organisations), the coordinating body of the six national Plast associations (Argentina, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, West Germany) and provided its executive, the Holovna Plastova Bulava (Executive Council) from 1970-73. The necessity of staffing at least two executives has been a considerable strain on the human resources of the Toronto Branch.
     Membership in the Toronto Branch reached its peak in 1968. (835 active members excluding parents. The baby boom, obviously, did not leave the Ukrainian community untouched.) This necessitated the creation of more kureni (for a total of 9) and hnizda (for a total of 7). The declining birth-rate and Plast’s steadfast commitment to accepting only Ukrainian-speaking children caused a levelling-off and by the early 1970’s, a decline in membership. Nonetheless, Plast remains one of the more dynamic Ukrainian community organisations. The Second Plast Congress, a four-year long series of seminars and workshops, whose final session took place in Toronto in 1970, attempted to map out the future of Plast as a diaspora rather than an émigré organisation.
     The Toronto Branch has also served as headquarters for Plast Publishing, at one point producing two monthlies, and a quarterly magazine.
     Plast Toronto is currently at the centre of efforts to redefine the national organisation’s relationship with Scouts Canada.

Toronto 8
Toronto 9