13) JULES PAIVIO, 1917-2013
Jules Paivio, the last surviving Canadian who fought in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, died on Sept. 4 at the age of 96. Born near Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) in April 1917 and raised in Sudbury's working-class Finnish community, Paivio was among more than 1,600 Canadians who joined the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. In all, some 36,000 International Brigade volunteers went to Spain to defend its democratically elected republican government. For over two years, they fought shoulder to shoulder with the people of Spain against a fascist revolt led by Generalissimo Franco, who had the support of planes, tanks, and soldiers supplied by Hitler Germany and Mussolini's Italy.
In the spring of 1938, Paivio was captured by Italian troops in the hills west of Gandesa and lined up with his comrades to be shot. He was saved by a passing Italian officer looking for prisoners to exchange, and spent the rest of the war in a state of semi‑starvation in a fascist concentration camp. Upon their return, the Mac-Paps were widely regarded as heroes for their sacrifices to stop fascism in Europe, but shunned by successive Canadian governments, and targetted by RCMP Cold War tactics. Even though Canada fought on the Allied side against fascism in World War II, the contribution of the Mac-Paps has never been formally recognized. The Canadians who died in the Spanish Civil War are not included in the Books of Remembrance in the Peace Tower, and they are not commemorated in Remembrance Day services. Those who survived the war in Spain were never entitled to veterans' benefits.
Paivio himself served in the Canadian Army in the Second World War, training soldiers in map-reading. He graduated from the University of Toronto in architecture in 1952, and later became a professor and administrator at Ryerson University. Upon retirement he continued his dedication to progressive causes, including Veterans Against Nuclear Arms (VANA).
Paivio and other Mac-Pap veterans remained in contact with each other, helping to organize campaigns to erect monuments in Ottawa and Victoria to honour the Canadians who fought in Spain. Last year, he was awarded Spanish citizenship. Eudaldo Mirapeix, Spain's ambassador to Canada when the citizenship process began, said that through Jules, Spain was honouring all the Canadians who came to help his country during its darkest days.
As the Brigades prepared to leave Spain in 1938, they were addressed by the famous Spanish Communist leader Dolores Ibarruri, known as La Pasionaria, who said, "They gave up everything - their loves, their countries, home and fortune, fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters and children." La Pasionaria called the volunteers a heroic example of democracy's universal solidarity. "You can go proudly," she said. "You are history. You are legend."
Jules Paivio was truly such a legend. He and his comrades will never be forgotten!
(The above article is from the October 1-15, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)