George Wuksanovich (b. 1880)
George Wuksanovich was born in Montenegro. He was a labourer in Dawson when he enlisted for service in the First World War.1) Wuksanovich accompanied George Black and two hundred and twenty-five other Yukoners overseas to fight on the Western Front. Private Wuksanovich fought with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Yukon Infantry Company, in 1917.2)
In 1922, in Jasper, Alberta, Wuksanovich was charged with killing a man with a knife during a labour dispute. He was put on trial in Edmonton and found guilty. Black had travelled from Ottawa by train for the trial, and he gave an impassioned plea on behalf of the war veteran. Despite this, Wuksanovich was sentenced to ten years hard labour at Prince Albert Penitentiary as a lesson to foreigners who dared to cause trouble in Canada.3) Later newspaper accounts of the trial confused Wuksanovich with Mike Zarkovich who was charged with murder in Edmonton about the same time.4)