Petition to: Edmonton City Council, the Mayor of Edmonton, and the City Naming Committee

Background:
Recent calls have been made to rename Savaryn Drive because of Peter Savaryn’s brief wartime service as a teenager in the Galicia Division during the Second World War. These calls omit essential historical facts and risk distorting the legacy of a respected Canadian community leader.

Peter Savaryn was thoroughly vetted by Allied authorities after WWII and again by Canadian officials, including the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry, which found no evidence of war crimes and concluded that mere membership in the division was insufficient to justify prosecution.

After immigrating to Canada in 1949, Mr. Savaryn dedicated over 70 years to public service:

Chancellor of the University of Alberta;
Founder of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies;
Advocate for human rights and multicultural education;
President of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians;
Recipient of the Order of Canada.
The naming of Savaryn Drive in 2007 recognized these decades of civic service—not his wartime past. Erasing his name now, without context or new evidence, is unjust and risks echoing propaganda narratives historically used to discredit Ukrainian Canadians.

Our Call:
We, the undersigned, urge Edmonton City Council and the City Naming Committee to:

Retain the name “Savaryn Drive” in recognition of Peter Savaryn’s lifelong contributions to Canadian society.
Ensure historical context is considered in all deliberations about public names and monuments.
Consider educational alternatives (such as contextual plaques or public forums) rather than erasure, which distorts rather than clarifies history.
Conclusion:
Peter Savaryn’s story is not one of a war criminal. It is the story of a displaced young man who survived impossible choices in WWII and built a life of service in Canada. Justice demands that his memory be judged in full, not reduced to a single wartime footnote.

Sign this petition to stand for historical truth, fairness, and respect for Canadian values of justice and integrity.