Collection search - Petelko, Joe - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Petelko, Joe - Interview

Item number (ISN):

379297

Series title:

[The Great War and Canadian Society]

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1974-07-11

Item number (ISN):

379297

Type of material:

Sound recordings

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

THE GREAT WAR AND CANADIAN SOCIETY PROJECT

Accession:

1975-0098

Media:

Sound

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1974-07-11

Production company:

Opportunities for Youth

Production credit:

interviewer, Deirdre Bekerman

Description:

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Interview of Joe Potelko, age 82, of Toronto, who was born in Ukraine in 1892. He moved to Canada in 1912 and settled in Saskatchewan. He talks about: growing up ion a small farm in Ukraine; moving to Canada to seek work and escape the threat of war; settling in Saskatchewan where he had relatives; his father selling a cow to pay the fare to travel to Canada; arriving in Quebec City aboard a cargo ship with many other immigrants; illness among fellow passengers; the 11-day crossing; working in construction and on his uncle’s farm; working for the railway; working conditions; living conditions; going back to his uncle’s farm to work; not being accepted for military service when the First World War broke out; arrests of people who were put in detention camps; his being registered as an enemy alien and having to report to the police; the inability to find work or get relief payments; needing to live off his own savings; getting work on the railway in 1916; working on the harvest in the summer; working as a carpenter; being out of work in the winters; winter activities such as playing pool, going to the theatre and taking a course in teacher training for the Ukrainian Labour Temple (a union); working for the union, which sent him to Port Arthur; teaching music there; moving back to Saskatoon where he taught for two years; moves to Kirkland Lake, Thorold, Ottawa and Sydney, Nova Scotia to teach children of factory workers; government persecution of communists; the government closing down of a school where he taught; going to Toronto to work as a mechanic and then as a tailor; reading about and hearing about the Winnipeg General Strike; how the Ukrainian community was split along political lines; the One Big Union newspaper; the founding of the Communist Party; demonstrations in which people demanded work and relief; how he knew no one when he went home to visit because all of his Ukrainian friends died during the First World War; his father and brother going to war; becoming a citizen in Winnipeg in 1928; voting; the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and J.S. Woodsworth; a visit to the Labour Temple by Woodsworth; current problems of farm workers in Saskatchewan; how his uncles prospered but their children abandoned the farms; the On-to-Ottawa Trek; the criss-crossing of the country by thousands of transients; and how some of the very poor people in Winnipeg in 1920 got work so that they could get on the relief rolls.

Language:

English

Notes:

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1. The interviews took place in 1974 and resulted in the publication of a book entitled "The Great War and Canadian Society" edited by Daphne Read - copyright 1978 - New Hogtown Press, Toronto.~2. Release forms, data sheets, and summary analysis/transcripts are available in binders labelled Opportunities for Youth - War and Canadian Society in VSA's audio-visual section.~3. Part of a series of recorded interviews with elderly citizens who lived in Canada during the period of World War I. The interview material consists of their opinions and observations about the war, the war years, and the effect on Canadian society during and after WWI.~4. The interviewee signed an agreement giving consent for a recording of this interview to be placed in the Public Archives of Canada for the purposes of historical research and also signed a publication agreement allowing any transcribed portions of the interview to be used in the book under the condition that no full names, addresses or phone numbers would be published.~5. Subject description is based on information found in the fact sheet, deposit agreement, publication agreement and summary analysis.

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

436398

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01412

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

436399

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

C01413

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

R/R

Technical description:

POLY

Made from:

FROM LOANED MATERIAL

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

439362

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A1 2007-06-0027

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Duration:

52:21

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

737084

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

1975-0098/119

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CASSETTE

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

ORIG

Vault ISN:

1003847

Format:

SOUND

Location number:

A4 2007-06-0027

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

CD

Made from:

C01412
C01413

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

A1 2007-06-0027

Restrictions on consultation:

No Restrictions / Pas de restrictions

Reproduction access:

With written permission of Copyright Owner / Avec la permission écrite du détenteur des droits d'auteur

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