OBITUARY: Semen Kalba, lawyer and community activist (09/08/96)

OBITUARY

Semen Kalba, lawyer and community activist

TORONTO - Semen Jaroslaw Kalba, well known for his work within the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (now Ukrainian Canadian Congress, UCC) and the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (WCFU, now the Ukrainian World Congress), died on August 25. He was 84.

Dr. Kalba was born on October 22, 1911, in Mozolivka, Pidhaitsi region, and studied law at Lviv University, the Institut des Recherches Economiques in Louvain, Belgium, and the Ukrainian Free University in Prague (doctor of law, 1943).

After the war, Dr. Kalba practiced law in the French occupation zone of Germany and represented the United Ukrainian Relief Committee (ZUADK) and the Ukrainian Canadian Relief Fund before French and German authorities.

Dr. Kalba emigrated to the U.S. in 1950, but returned to Europe two years later, where he served as ZUADK's European director until 1954. Back in the U.S. in 1955, Dr. Kalba worked for the Singer Sewing Co., eventually moving to Canada (and briefly back to Europe) to work as general manager of its branches.

In the mid-1960s, Dr. Kalba settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he became active in the Ukrainian Canadian Committee. He served as the UCC's executive director in 1966-1981, secretary of the UCC's Shevchenko Foundation and editor of the umbrella organization's Bulletin. In these capacities, Dr. Kalba contributed to many briefs submitted by the UCC on the subject of multiculturalism, working in concert with the late Prof. Walter Tarnopolsky and others, in an effort that led to the passing of the Multiculturalism Act (1971) and the enshrinement of multiculturalism in Canada's Constitution (1981).

Upon his retirement from the UCC, Dr. Kalba moved to Toronto, where he was instrumental in the establishment of the International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932-1933 Famine (in 1984), and (together with current Canadian Supreme Court Justice John Sopinka and others) in formulating the briefs presented by WCFU counsel before the International Tribunal in the Hague. He also served as secretary and executive director of the WCFU's Commission on the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine until 1988.

Funeral services were held on August 28 at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto, with interment following at St. Volodymyr Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario.

Dr. Kalba is survived by his wife, Sophia; his son, Konrad Kasian; grandchildren Simon Michael and Sontine; and his brothers and sisters Bohdan, Myroslaw, Anna Bojko and Sophia Fedyshyn.