A monument of Ukrainian poet Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814-1861), by New York sculptor Andrew Daragan assisted by Winnipeg sculptor Roman Kowal, was constructed between 1960 and 1961, and unveiled on the west grounds of the Manitoba Legislative Building by Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker on 9 July 1961.
Among dignitaries attending the ceremony were Premier Duff Roblin, Labour Minister Michael Starr, Veterans Affairs Minister Gordon Churchill, Lieutenant Governor Errick Willis, University of Manitoba President Hugh Saunderson, Winnipeg Alderman Slaw Rebchuk, Monseigneur Wasyl Kushnir, Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko, and Archbishop Maxim Hermaniuk.
A plaque was placed beside the monument on 11 October 1998 by the Province of Manitoba in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Tara Shevchenko, and the Ukrainian Canadian community of Manitoba. It memorializes those held in the Winnipeg Receiving Station between 1 September 1914 and 29 July 1916, and it commemorates the thousands of Ukrainian Canadians and other eastern Europeans who were unjustly imprisoned as “enemy aliens” during Canada’s first national internment operations from 1914 to 1920.
Taras Shevchenko Monument (2010)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.88474, W97.14848
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Legislative Building (450 Broadway, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Taras Shevchenko Monument (Burrows Avenue, Winnipeg)
A New Monument on the Legislative Building Grounds by Paul Yuzyk
Manitoba Pageant, Volume 7, Number 1, September 1961Memorable Manitobans: Roman Ivan Kowal (1922-2004)
“Shevchenko monument construction started,” Winnipeg Free Press, 30 September 1960.
“25,00 pay tribute to Taras Shevchenko,” Winnipeg Free Press, 10 July 1961, page 12.
We thank Tetyana Haraschuk and Ostap Skrypnyk for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 10 July 2022
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