The Honorable Judge Basil Danchyshyn
(September 4, 1924 - October 12, 2004)

Born on September 4th, 1924 in Montreal, he was the son of Theodore Danchyshyn, butcher and grocery store owner, and Maria Agres. His parents arrived from Zbarasz, Western Ukraine circa 1910. He served as an altar-boy at the St. Michael Archangel Church on Iberville Street and Father Jean used to give him $0.25 in paper money. He also sang in the church choir, played the violin and took Ukrainian dance lessons.
In 1931 Father Jean organized a mass in St. Victor's church followed by a concert in the church hall celebrating Ukrainian's in Canada, in conjunction with the St. Jean Baptiste Society. He studied rhetoric and theology at Thomas D'Arcy McGee College.
He married Olga Swecth in 1951 and had a daughter Marilyn. He worked in the laboratory at Shell Oil on shift work. While working full time he decided to complete his studies and obtained his Bachelor of Arts diploma from the University of Montreal. He then applied and was accepted as a full time student in the Law faculty of the University of Montreal. In order to support his family while going to school, he worked, nights and weekends, as a waiter at the Canasta Club. He was accepted to the Bar in 1959 and worked with lawyers Samuel Greenblatt and Andre Drouin.
From 1959-61 he was President of the Ukrainian Committee of Montreal, founder and first President of the Ukrainian Catholic Young Men's Association. He was involved in politics starting in 1960 when he ran in the municipal elections with Paul-Emile Legare against Mayor Jean Drapeau. In 1965 he was asked by the Conservative Party to run in the Federal election against Guy Favreau who was then the Minister of Justice.
In 1963 Judge Danchyshyn was one of the founding members of the Father Josaphat Jean Scholarship Foundation Inc. which purpose was to give recognition to deserving Ukrainian Catholic students through its scholarship program.
In 1966, he joined the prosecution attorneys of the Montreal Municipal Court. On March 11,1970 he was named judge of the Social Welfare Court and in 1974, he was invited to participate in the Fourth Symposium on mental health care at the Jewish General Hospital. In 1978 he transferred to the Juvenile Youth Court. From 1979 to 1984 he was the treasurer for the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges, family and juvenile section. He retired as a judge on December 1, 1990.
His daughter Marilyn, who resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, survives the honorable Judge Basil Danchyshyn.
Judge Danchyshyn was widowed and in 1981 married Denise Chapdelaine. He passed away peacefully, after a long illness, on October 12, 2004. He will be sadly missed.