Jules Peter Paivio

Jules Peter Paivio (1916 – 2013) was a Canadian architect, professor, and soldier; a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, he was the last surviving member of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion.

Paivio was born near Port Arthur, Ontario, and raised in nearby Sudbury by his Finnish parents. 

Paivio left Canada at the age of 19 to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He was captured during the war, saved from execution by an Italian officer, and placed in a prisoner-of-war camp. Paivio was the last surviving Canadian veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and in 2012 he was honoured by the Spanish government by being granted honorary citizenship.

Canadian volunteers of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion in the Spanish Civil War

Jules Paivio died on 4 September 2013, at the age of 97.

Writer Terrence Rundle West talked to Paivio when he was writing his new novel about the Spanish Civil War. His book is titled Not In My Father’s Footsteps.