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This study explores the challenges and changes facing Polish organizational life in Canada during the interwar period. Before 1918, the community's life centred on parish and parish-related organizations. However, the reestablishment of the Polish state in 1918, the arrival of consuls in Canada, and another wave of Polish immigrants redefined the Polish diaspora's organizational lifc. By the early 1930s, three main federations had emerge& Zjednoczenie Zrzeszefl Polakow w Kanadzie (Federation of Polish Societies, ZZPwK), Stowarzyszenie Polakow w Kanadzie (Association of Poles, SPwK), and Zwiazek Polakow w Kanadzie (Polish Alliance Friendly Society of Canada, ZPwK). Each wanted to bring together the entire community under its own roof to stave off denationalization. However, each federation offered a distinct vision of what it meant to be a Pole and the manner in which to protect it. Central to this ideological struggle was the relationship between nationalism and religion (i.e., Catholicism). Cette etude explore les defis et les changements rencontres par les Polonais dans leur vie associative pendant l'entre-deux-guerres. Avant 1918, la vie communautaire reposait sur des organisations paroissiales ou en rapport avec des paroisses. Cependant, le retablissement de l'Etat polonais en 1918, l' arrivee des consuls au Canada et une autre vague d'immigrants polonais ont donne corps a la vie communautaire de la diaspora polonaise. Vers le debut des annees 1930, trois federations principales ont vu le jour: Zjednoczenie Zrzeszeh Polakow w Kanadzie (Federation des societes polonaises, ZZPwK), Stowarzyszenie Polakow w Kanadzie (Association des Polonais, SPwK), et Zwiqzek Polakow w Kanadzie (Amicale de l'Alliance polonaise du Canada, ZPwK). Chacune avait l'objectif de rassembler sous sa banniere la communaute toute entiere pour empeeher la denationalisation. Neanmoins, chaque federation donnait une vision distincte des valeurs qui font un Polonais ainsi que de la facon de les proteger. La relation entre nationalisme et religion (le catholicisme par exemple) etait au centre de cette lutte ideologique., 'Keeping vigil over nationalism belongs to agents of government and clerics, [and the] church, and not to individual persons,' (2) a Polish consul admonished a farmer who emigrated to Canada [...]