The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) expresses its deep sorrow and sympathy for the passing of Dr. Borislaw Bilash, a well-known Ukrainian public figure in Canada, linguist, and first Chair of the UWC International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC).
Dr. Bilash, a third-generation Canadian-born Ukrainian, became a leading Ukrainian linguist and one of the most influential figures in the development of Ukrainian education in Canada and the diaspora as a whole. Beginning his career as a teacher, he served as an advisor on multiculturalism and modern languages at the Manitoba Ministry of Culture and Multiculturalism. He worked as a professor at the University of Manitoba in Canada, the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, and at the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences, where from 1983-1988 he served as Secretary General. Dr. Bilash was one of the founders and first Chairs of the Canadian Association of Ukrainian Language Teachers and was one of the initiators of the bilingual Ukrainian school curriculum in Manitoba public schools. He edited various pedagogical journals, wrote a number of articles, and published Ukrainian books and textbooks for Ukrainian schools in the diaspora.
In 1967, during the First Congress of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, Dr. Bilash chaired the UWC International Educational Coordinating Council and, having formed an initiative and effective team, worked actively during his term to develop Ukrainian education at the global level.
Dr. Bilash was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Taras Shevchenko Medal of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
The UWC and the Ukrainian diaspora mourn alongside the relatives and friends of Dr. Borislaw Bilash and pray for the rest of his soul.
May his memory be eternal!
