Toronto (Canada), Mar 27 (EFE).- York University, the third largest Canadian university, will establish a chair for the study and teaching of the Spanish Civil War, as well as the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion, the more than 1,500 volunteers Canadians who fought for the Republic during the conflict.
The creation of the chair is the result of a donation by the Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Fund of one million Canadian dollars (730,000 US dollars).
A spokesman for York University, located in Toronto, told EFE that the donation will allow the creation of a chair for “research and academic and creative activities” in the Department of Modern History of Spain.
“This donation reinforces the history department’s existing knowledge of modern Europe,” the university explained.
As part of the agreement with the Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Fund, the professor holding the chair will teach classes on the Spanish Civil War and the role that the Canadian Volunteer Battalion played in the conflict.
Despite the fact that the Canadian government at the time prohibited its citizens from participating in the Spanish Civil War, in 1937 1,546 volunteers formed the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion, part of the International Brigades, to fight on the side of the Republican side.
Of the 1,546 members of the battalion, which took the names of William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, two Canadian politicians who led a series of rebellions in Canada in the 19th century, almost half, 721, died in the conflict.
In 2012, the last survivor of the battalion, Jules Paivio, received Spanish nationality at the age of 94 in an act at the Consulate General of Spain in Toronto.
Then, Paivio, who died a year later, explained to EFE how, upon returning to Canada after the end of the Spanish Civil War, he was watched and harassed for years by the Canadian Mounted Police, who considered international brigade members potential threats to the country. country.
Jules Paivio’s son, Martin Paivio, is now the president of the Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Fund which has made the gift to York University.
