''Vapaa Sana'' was a

Finnish-Canadian Finnish Canadians () are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers i ...

weekly newspaper located in

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Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. ''Vapaa Sana'' was founded in 1931 and when closing in 2012 it was one of the oldest surviving newspapers that early Finnish immigrants founded in North America. By 1934 it had over 4000 subscribers and was the largest Finnish newspaper in North America. Articles in ''Vapaa Sana'' were in the Finnish language, although a special English section called ''Finnish Canadian Reporter'' was published in most editions from 2006 until 2012. The owner Vapaa Sana Press Ltd was also the publisher of the ''

Canadan Sanomat ''Kanadan Sanomat'' is a Canadian weekly Finnish language newspaper established in 2012 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as a merger between two earlier publications both owned by Vapaa Sana Press Ltd. It is also promoting the logo ''KS'' as a short ...

'' newspaper in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

. The company had purchased its Thunder Bay based competitor in 2004. The two papers continued parallel publishing until June 2012. From July 2012, the company merged the two papers into a weekly paper named ''Kanadan Sanomat''. The last issue of ''Vapaa Sana'' was published on June 19, 2012. In the 1930s, ''Vapaa Sana'' was a left-wing newspaper although more moderate than the then leading Finnish language newspaper in Canada ''Vapaus''. The launch of ''Vapaa Sana'' was caused by the internal disagreements in the Finnish Organization of Canada, the publisher of ''Vapaus''. After the war, ''Vapaa Sana'' became increasingly conservative in its coverage and attitudes. It was not until 2006 when the Finnish Organization of Canada was again included in the paper's list of Finnish activities in Canada. After the closing of ''Vapaus'' in 1990 the main competitor of ''Vapaa Sana'' was the Thunder Bay-based Finnish newspaper.

''Kanadan Sanomat''

In April 2012, the owners Vapaa Sana Press Ltd. announced that their two newspapers, ''Vapaa Sana'' published in Toronto, and ''Canadan Sanomat'' published in Thunder Bay, would merge late during 2012. The new newspaper would be named ''Kanadan Sanomat'', with the country spelled with a "K", as customary in the Finnish language.

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* Defunct Finnish-language newspapers Newspapers published in Toronto Finnish-Canadian institutions Multicultural and ethnic newspapers published in Canada Newspapers established in 1931 Weekly newspapers published in Ontario Newspapers disestablished in 2012 1931 establishments in Ontario 2012 disestablishments in Ontario Defunct weekly newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Ontario {{Canada-newspaper-stub

''Kanadan Sanomat''

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