Wasyl Kushnir

Wasyl "Basil" Mykhailovych Kushnir (Василь Михайлович Кушнір; September 17, 1893 – September 25, 1979) was a Ukrainian priest and political activist who was elected as the president of the World Congress of Free Ukrianians (WCFU) from 1967 to 1969 and 1973 to 1978, and Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC) from 1940 to 1953 and 1959 to 1971.

Early life and education
Kushnir was born on September 17, 1893, in Vikno, West Ukraine, and finished his high school education in Ternopil and Lviv. He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Italian front during World War I and spent three years in captivity. After passing via Odesa, he joined the Red Army and served in Vinnytsia and Kharkiv before fleeing to his hometown. He was a teacher in 1923–1924.

Kushnir studied theology at the Theological Seminary in Lviv and the University of Innsbruck, Austria, after the war. In 1929, he was awarded a doctorate of divinity from the latter institution. He was a professor at the Theological Seminary in Stanislaviv, from 1930 until 1934.

Career
In May 1934, Kushnir immigrated to Canada and was ordained as a Ukrainian Catholic priest in Winnipeg. The customary Zeleni Svyata memorial service for fallen warriors, started in 1936 by Kushnir. Father Kushnir would go on to serve as UCC president for more than two decades.

Kushnir oversaw UCC efforts to assist Canada's government in the early post-World War II repatriation of over 40,000 anti-Soviet Ukrainian émigrés. He was particularly eager to support and encourage the official initiative to receive veterans of the Waffen SS Galicia. In December 1945, he left for a tour of the Ukrainian displacement camps under American and British occupation.

A strong opponent of communism, Kushnir led a team to the United Nations' first session in 1945 in San Francisco, California, where they contested the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic's authority to represent Ukrainians. He presided over the UCC from 1940 to 1953 and again from 1957 to 1972. He was one of its founders. He signed the NATO declaration in 1954 as one of Canada's delegates.

Under his direction, the Sts. Vladimir and Olga Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral was constructed between 1947 and 1951. He became the UCC's first president, serving in that capacity for the majority of the following thirty years (1940–53 and 1959–71). Pope Pius XII promoted Kushnir to the rank of Domestic Prelate in 1951. Patriarch Josyf Slipyj designated him Mitred priest in 1968. Initiating and chairing the inaugural WCFU, he also served as president of its executive board from 1968 to 1969 and from 1973 to 1978. He founded and served as president of the Pan-American Ukrainian Conference.

Kushnir was dubbed the protonotary apostolic in 1977 in honor of the priesthood's 50th anniversary. He gave radio interviews on Svoboda and published articles in journals.

Death
On September 25, 1979, in Winnipeg, Kushnir passed away. He was buried in the All Saints Cemetery, Rural Municipality of West St. Paul.

Awards and recognitions
Kushnir has earned the following honors:
 * CAN Order of Canada Officer ribbon.svg Officer of the Order of Canada (OC; 1972)
 * CAN Canadian Centennial Medal ribbon.svg Canadian Centennial Medal (1967)
 * UK Queen EII Coronation Medal ribbon.svg Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal (1953)
 * Shevchenko Medal of the UCC (1961)