He became a Ukrainian Catholic priest and moved to Canada, where he served in many different parishes and missions, including St Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Kingston, Ontario. He was an advocate for Ukraine's independence from Soviet tyranny. A research associate at the Department of Entomology at the Royal Ontario Museum Riotte eventually published over 100 papers in the field.
He was a prolific author of papers in Hawaiian entomology. After his death his remains were returned to Kingston, Ontario, where he was buried in St Mary's Roman Catholic cemetery thanks to the support of the Ukrainian Canadian Club of Kingston and the Kingston Branch of the League of Ukrainian Canadians; a marker recalling his contributions as a man of faith and of science is maintained in that cemetery by the Ukrainian Canadian community there.
'A few words about my life: the recollections of Rev Dr J C E Riotte',' co-edited by Lubomyr Luciuk and Weldon Mersiovsky (Kingston: The Kashtan Press, 2021, ISBN9781896354996)