Paul Francis Wynnyk

My grandfather Roman Wynnyk and his wife emigrated to Canada in 1903. My father, Walter Wynnyk, is a Ukrainian. I am a part of the Ukrainian diaspora, which is important because it is my heritage.

Paul Wynnyk

Paul Francis Wynnyk is a Canadian military officer of Ukrainian descent, statesman, lieutenant general, vice chief of the Canadian Defence Staff, Commander of the Canadian Army, and Commander of the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command.

Paul Wynnyk was born in Edmonton, Canada, on June 29, 1964. He is the grandson of Ukrainian immigrants who came to Canada in the early twentieth century from Pozdymyr, Lviv region. His father, Walter Wynnyk, participated in the Second World War. Later, he was a high school principal and a commander of the army cadet corps. It is not surprising that Paul Wynnyk decided to become a military officer as a child.

After graduating from high school, the young man entered Royal Roads Military College in Colwood, British Columbia, and after graduation, continued his studies at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston. In 1986, Paul Wynnyk joined the Canadian Military Engineers, whose primary mission was to ensure the mobility and combat capability of the country’s armed forces.

Paul Wynnyk’s military career developed rapidly. Thanks to his hard work and perseverance, he achieved great success  during his almost forty years of service in the Canadian Armed Forces. In 2014 he was appointed head of the Canadian Forces Intelligence Command. Two years later, he became the Chief of the Army Staff and Commander of the Canadian Army and, in 2018, the Vice Chief of the Defense Staff. He resigned in 2019. Upon completing his military career, Paul Wynnyk began working for the Canadian government.

Paul Wynnyk remembers and is proud of his Ukrainian roots. In 2016, as the Commander of the Canadian Army, he and a Canadian delegation paid an official visit to Ukraine. He visited the Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy in Lviv, the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, and his ancestral villages of Pozdymyr and Radvantsi, where his relatives still live.