| Group: | Croatian Canadians |
| Native Name: | Hrvati u Kanadi, Hrvatski Kanađani or Kanadski Hrvati |
| Pop: | 200,000 (2020)[1] |
| Popplace: | Toronto, Vancouver, Windsor, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Victoria, Ottawa, Waterloo Region |
| Langs: | Canadian English, Canadian French, Croatian |
| Rels: | Majority Christian |
| Related: | Croatian Americans, European Canadians, Yugoslav Canadians |
Croatian Canadians (French: link=no|Canadiens d'origine Croate) are Canadian citizens who are of Croatian descent. The community exists in major cities including the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Windsor, Montreal and Waterloo Region.
Popular events celebrated in the Croatian-Canadian community include the Canadian-Croatian Folklore Festival (held both in eastern and western Canada), the Croatian-North American Soccer Tournament, North American Mladifest and annual Croatia days, organised by Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver.[2]
There were approximately 114,880 Canadians of Croatian ethnic origin as reported in the 2011 Census compiled by Statistics Canada,[3] rising to 133,965 by the 2016 Census.[1] Although predominantly found in Ontario, Croatian Canadians are present in most major Canadian cities throughout the country. The ten largest Croatian communities are found in the following cities:[4]
The town with the largest percentage of people of Croatian ethnic origin is Kenaston, Saskatchewan – 17.5% of its 285 inhabitants claim Croatian ethnic origin.Statistics Canada also designates Census Metropolitan Areas in the collection of its data. The ten Census Metropolitan Areas with the highest concentration of Croatian Canadians are:
Most Croatian Canadians are Roman Catholic who follow the Latin Rite of their ancestors in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is in line with the population in Croatia, which is also majority Catholic. A very small minority of Croatians are Byzantine Rite Roman Catholics. There is also a very small community of Croats who follow Islam, the descendants of those who converted after the 16th century, after the conquest of much of Croatia by the Ottomans. Communities of Protestants have historically been negligible in Croatia.
In Canada, the first ethnic Croatian parish was established in Windsor in 1950. Soon, parishes were established in Toronto (1951), Hamilton (1958),[5] Vancouver (1967), Winnipeg (1968). On 9 September 1976, mons. Paul Reading issued a decree on establishing Croatian Catholic parish of the Most Holy Trinity in Oakville.[6] [7] Today there are ethnic Croatian parishes and missions in seventeen cities in Canada. One of the most prominent Croatian Catholic parishes is the Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Norval, Ontario. The establishment of the parish began in 1976 when community members, under the guidance of the Franciscan Friars, gathered for one evening to discuss the necessity and logistics of creating a place of gathering and cultural and faith building and preservation for the large Croatian immigrant population. In May 1977, 160 acres of property were purchased by the organizing committee with the specific dedication to Croatian Catholics.[8] In the Norval Croatian Centre, as is in many other Croatian Catholic parishes, brochures, books, CDs and other forms of Croatian media are offered.
The Croatian Catholic youth in particular have started and taken part in many faith developments of their own. The Croatian Catholic Youth Group (CCY) is a faith-based group that comes together by schedule to discuss Catholic subjects and strengthen their religious belief.[9] In addition, Mladifest is an annual event started in 2013 by the Queen of Peace Parish and has each year attracted hundreds of young Catholic Croatian to further explore the intersection of their faith and culture. As the event continued to develop over the years, the rotation of it between host parishes started, with the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Mladifest being in Norval, 2016 in Sacred Heart, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2017 in Immaculate Heart of Mary, Vancouver, British Columbia, 2018 in Croatian Martys Church, Mississauga, Ontario, and 2019 in Saint Nicholas Tavelic, Montreal, Quebec.[10] It is an event funded by each parishes' members donations and contributions to bake sales, banquets and other events held to amass funds.
While an overwhelming percentage of Croatians in Canada remain Roman Catholic, there are non-Catholic populations, including Protestants (most of whom have been in Canada for more than one generation) and Eastern Orthodox (the majority of whom are of mixed ethnic background).
Previously unorganized Croats of the Muslim faith, with the arrival of eminent physician Asaf Duraković[11] founded the Croatian Islamic Centre[12] on 23 June 1973 in Etobicoke (75 Birmingham Street, Etobicoke, ON M8V 2C3),[13] helped by the Croatian Catholic community.[11] [14] An old Catholic school was bought for 75,000 CAD and readjusted into masjid. Since the old building was in bad condition, a new mosque was built on the site of the old one in 1983.[11]
Today, given changing political affiliations and political pressures from 1990's, and influx of non-Croat option of Bosnian Muslims, the center is now known as the Bosnian Islamic Centre. Despite that, today 4 out of 64 Canadian mosques have the attribute "Croatian".[13] In Croatian Islamic Centre the children are taught the Croatian and Arabic languages, but there also Croatian Islamic newspapers, books, brochures, etc.[14] [15] [16] Croatian Islamic Center called on Muslim governments, organisations, and individuals to press the Yugoslav regime, to end the persecution of Islam and to grant genuin equality of Muslims in Yugoslavia. The director of Centre Kerim Reis wanted that Belgrade releases the Muslim prisoners of conscience and to end to restrictions on the building of mosques.[17] During Yugoslavia, this group often spoke accused Tito's Yugoslavia for practising discrimination both Muslim and Catholic Croats.[18]
The Croatian Folklore Federation of Canada (Croatian: Hrvatsko-kanadski folklorni savez) was founded in Sudbury on 27 October 1973, after successfully organised Folk Dance Festival.[19] First Canadian-Croatian Folklore Festival was organised in Sudbury in 1975, as well as first folklore seminars. Western-Canadian section of CFFC was established in Edmonton in the beginning of the year 1978. On 20 and 21 May 1978, CFFC West held fourth edition of the Festival.[19] Western and Eastern section of the CFFC held three joint festival editions (Sudbury 1983, Winnipeg 1987 and Calgary 2000). Federation also organised three festivals in Croatia: two in Zagreb (12 and 13 July 1991 and 1997) and one in Split (10 and 11 July 2004).[19] Federation also organises Tamburafest, with different hosts every year (Jadran Toronto in 2017, KUD Vukovar in 2018, FEC Mississauga in 2019, Vatroslav Lisinski – Mississauga in 2022).[20]
Group of Croatian emigrants in Vancouver, fishermen from Sumartin, started in 1979 Klapa "Zvonimir", as a form of immigrant singing society. In the first decade Klapa was active in a form of traditional klapa, in informal and occasional ways. When Croatian ethnomusicologist Joško Ćaleta became a director, Klapa transformed into festival klapa type, formal and organised setting. While Ćaleta was conductor, Klapa "Zvonimir" was double winner of the best ethnic choir award in Canada (1994 and 1996).[21]
In 1928, Croatian emigrants founded Croatian National Home of Hamilton (Croatian: Hrvatski narodni dom) in Hamilton, Ontario.[22]
Several organisations of Croatian Canadias received Charter of the Republic of Croatia, conferred by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in 2019: