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Wilek Markiewicz
March 13, 1930 - November 16, 2014
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<div itemprop="description">William (Wilek) Markiewicz, passed away after complications from surgery on Sunday, November 16, 2014. <br />Wilek was born in Krakow, Poland. After the war he immigrated with his parents to France and lived in Paris. His parents were energetic and creative and built a successful business which began with designing and making beautiful gloves, then the fashion. <br />From early on, Wilek knew he was a writer and that expression was life to him. Then, in Paris, he found his vocation as a painter and those two talents went forward throughout his life and were the basis of all his accomplishments. His work as a painter was recognized with many awards and his painting, &ldquo;Vue Urbain&rdquo;, was purchased by the French Ministry of Culture. <br />He earned his &ldquo;Licence&rdquo; degree in Biology from the University of Geneva and this discipline helped inform his ideas about life, expressed in painting and writing. Wilek, travelled and was fluent in several languages. He came to Canada to start a new life. <br />In 1972 Wilek founded The Polish Canadian Courier, the first Polish independent paper in North America and published and edited it until 1986. He illustrated his book of original aphorisms, &ldquo;Extracts of Existence&rdquo;, with 43 woodcuts. Silcan House published &ldquo;Okruchy Bytu&rdquo; in 2004. His articles, stories and illustrations have appeared in journals and newspapers in Canada, Switzerland, Poland and Spain. He sold Editor Peter Worthington of the Toronto Sun on the idea that the opinions of the ethnic community were important to Canadians; his knowledge of many languages made this possible and the &ldquo;Ethnic Press&rdquo; column ran 13 years in the Toronto Sun. Recently, his illustrated book &ldquo;Woodcut-Aphorism&rdquo; was published in English and Polish versions by ASPECTSPRESS, Inowroclaw, Poland. <br />Wilek&rsquo;s archives and a series of paintings are part of the permanent collection in Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland. In 1995 Wilek started vagabondpages.com with its motto, &ldquo;The Vagabond &ndash; attached to nothing, aware of everything&rdquo;; it is one of the few websites to be continuously updated for twenty years. In Polish, he ran stronawilka-m.com. <br />Wilek never supported any ideology and approached each subject with an intense focus. To spend time in conversation with Wilek was delightful and challenging. <br />He will be deeply missed by his wife, Nikolette Jakovac; his son, Edouard and daughter-in-law, Silvana, grandchildren, Laslo and Kiara; his daughter, Marga, and her husband, Philippe Mampuya, and by everyone who knew him. <br />Friends and family are invited to gather at the York Cemetery and Visitation Centre, 160 Beecroft Rd., North York (North of Sheppard Ave., West of Yonge St.) on Sunday November 23, 2014 from 12:00 p.m. until time of service in the York Chapel at 1:00 p.m. Interment to follow at York Cemetery. Any remembrance of Wilek would be welcomed by one of his favourite charities: Toronto Wildlife Centre 416-631-0662 x3207 or email donations@torontowildlifecentre.com; <br /></div>