Ferley, Taras

Ferley, Taras [Ferlej], b 14 October 1882 in Balyntsi, Kolomyia county, Galicia, d 27 July 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (Photo: Taras Ferley.) Community leader. He was a Ukrainian Radical party sympathizer at Lviv University before emigrating in 1903 to Canada, where he became one of the major pioneer figures in the Ukrainian-Canadian community. He taught at the Ruthenian Training School in Brandon, Manitoba, and, as a Liberal member of the Manitoba legislature for Gimli (1915–20), he actively opposed the abolition of the province’s bilingual schools (see Ukrainian bilingual education) in 1916. As a founder of the Ukrainian Publishing Company (see Trident Press), Ferley became the first manager of Ukraïns’kyi holos. He helped to establish the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada, the Ukrainian National Home Association in Winnipeg (which he headed, with minor interruptions, for some 25 years), the Ukrainian Fraternal Society of Canada, and the Ukrainian Canadian Committee. He served as a director of Saint Andrew's College in Winnipeg. In 1933 he was elected to the Winnipeg city council.

[This article was updated in 2009.]