Legacy of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in Canada
Monument to the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion in Victoria, B.C.
The fate of Canadian veterans of the Spanish Civil War is discussed in a recent article by Canadian author Terrence Rundle West. Like their American counterparts, Canadian volunteers faced great discrimination from their government after returning to Canada that lasted well into the 1980s. Of the approximately 1,500 volunteers in the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion only the 95-year-old Jules Paivio is still alive and yet the Canadian government still refuses to acknowledge the role these volunteers played in Spain from 1937-1939.
Seventy-five years have passed, yet they still get no respect. To this day the government ignores their legacy. The National War Museum of Canada is completely silent on the subject: not one picture, artifact or plaque marks the Mac-Pap memory. It’s as if they never existed.
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