 Halyna's Ukrainian Catholic parents were Mykhailo Khomiak (Anglicized as Michael Chomiak), born in Stroniatyn, Galicia, and Alexandra Loban, originally of Rudniki, near Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk).As Ukraine experienced democratic backsliding from the 1990s, Freeland, who grew up in Alberta, saw "firsthand" the consequences of her mother's activism as a "prominent member of the Ukrainian Canadian community.