Ukrainian Canadian internment

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Commemorative plaque and a statue entitled "Why?" / "Pourquoi?" / "Chomu (Chomu)?", by John Boxtel at the location of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp, Banff National Park Castle mountain internment camp.jpg
Commemorative plaque and a statue entitled "Why?" / "Pourquoi?" / "Чому (Chomu)?", by John Boxtel at the location of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp, Banff National Park

The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for two years after the end of the First World War. It lasted from 1914 to 1920, under the terms of the War Measures Act .

Contents

Canada was at war with Austria-Hungary. Along with Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war, about 8,000 Ukrainian men, women, and children – those Ukrainians of Austro-Hungarian citizenship as well as naturalized British subjects of Ukrainian descent – were kept in twenty-four internment camps and related work sites (also known, at the time, as concentration camps). [1] Their savings were confiscated and many had land taken while imprisoned as the land was "abandoned". Some were "paroled" from camps in 1916–17, many were put to work as unpaid workers on farms, mines, and railways, where labour was scarce. Much existing Canadian infrastructure from 1916 to 1917 was built by this unpaid labour.

Another 80,000 were not imprisoned but were registered as "enemy aliens" and obliged to regularly report to the police and were required to carry identifying documents at all times or suffer punitive consequences.

The embarrassment and trauma of internment caused many Ukrainians to change their family names, hide their imprisonment and abandon traditions due to fear of negative repercussions – causing PTSD and intergenerational trauma. In addition, some maintain that the Government of Canada approved key records to be destroyed in the 1950s, leaving documentation to be based on individual family records and pleas to the local communities where the camps were located. [2]

Internment

During the First World War, a growing sentiment against "enemy aliens" had manifested itself amongst Canadians. The British government urged Canada not to act indiscriminately against subject nationalities of Austria-Hungary who were in fact friendly to the British Empire. [3] However, Ottawa took a hard line. These enemy-born citizens were treated as social pariahs, and many lost their employment. Under the 1914 War Measures Act , "aliens of enemy nationality" were compelled to register with authorities. About 70,000 Ukrainians from Austria-Hungary fell under this description. 8,579 males and some women and children were interned by the Government of Canada, including 5,954 Austro-Hungarians, most of whom were probably ethnic Ukrainians. [4] Most of the 8,600 people interned were young men apprehended while trying to cross the border into the United States to look for jobs; attempting to leave Canada was illegal. [5] Most of the interned were poor or unemployed single men, although 81 women and 156 children (mainly Germans in Vernon and Ukrainians at Spirit Lake) had no choice but to accompany the men to two of the camps, in Spirit Lake, near Amos, Quebec, and Vernon, British Columbia. Some of the internees were Canadian-born and others were naturalized British subjects,[ citation needed ] although most were recent immigrants. Citizens of the Russian Empire were generally not interned.

Commemorative statue entitled "Never Forget" / "Ne jamais oublier" / "Nikoli ne zabuti (Nikoly ne zabuty)", by John Boxtel, and damaged plaque at the cemetery of the Kapuskasing Internment Camp; Kapuskasing, northern Ontario Kapuskasing ON 3.JPG
Commemorative statue entitled "Never Forget" / "Ne jamais oublier" / "Ніколи не забути (Nikoly ne zabuty)", by John Boxtel, and damaged plaque at the cemetery of the Kapuskasing Internment Camp; Kapuskasing, northern Ontario
Commemorative stone at the Saskatchewan Railway Museum, formerly "Eaton Siding" near the Eaton Internment Camp, one of twenty-four, where 8,579 civilians were interned. It reads "Fortitude. To the memory of those who were interned at this site during the Great War. Eaton Internment Camp 1919." Hawker-Eaton-InternmentCamp.jpg
Commemorative stone at the Saskatchewan Railway Museum, formerly "Eaton Siding" near the Eaton Internment Camp, one of twenty-four, where 8,579 civilians were interned. It reads "Fortitude. To the memory of those who were interned at this site during the Great War. Eaton Internment Camp 1919."

Many of these internees were used for forced labour in internment camps. [7]

There was a severe shortage of farm labour, so in 1916–17 nearly all of the internees were "paroled". [8] Many parolees went to the custody of local farmers. They were paid at current wage rates, usually 20 cents per hour, with fifty cents a day deducted for room and board. Other parolees were sent as paid workers to railway gangs and mines. [9] The internees turned over all their cash to authorities – $329,000 in total, of which $298,000 was returned to them on release. [10]

Camps

Conditions at the camps varied, and the Castle Mountain Internment Camp [11] – where labour contributed to the creation of Banff National Park [12] – was considered exceptionally harsh and abusive. [13] [ page needed ] The internment continued for two more years after the war had ended, although most Ukrainians were paroled into jobs for private companies by 1917. Even as parolees, they were still required to report regularly to the police authorities. Federal and provincial governments and private concerns benefited from the internees' labour and from the confiscation of what little wealth they had, a portion of which was left in the Bank of Canada at the end of the internment operations on June 20, 1920. [14] A small number of internees, including men considered to be "dangerous foreigners", labour radicals, or particularly troublesome internees, were deported to Europe after the war, largely from the Kapuskasing camp, which was the last to be shut down.

Of those interned, 109 died of various diseases and injuries sustained in the camp, six were killed while trying to escape, and some – according to Major-General Sir William Dillon Otter's final report – went insane or committed suicide [15] as a result of their confinement.

A list of the camps follows: [16]

LocationDate of openingDate of closingDescription
Montreal, Quebec August 13, 1914November 30, 1918Immigration Hall
Kingston, Ontario August 18, 1914November 3, 1917 Fort Henry
Winnipeg, Manitoba September 1, 1914July 20, 1916Fort Osborne Barracks
Halifax, Nova Scotia September 8, 1914October 3, 1918 The Citadel
Vernon, British Columbia September 18, 1914February 20, 1920Provincial Government Building
Nanaimo, British ColumbiaSeptember 20, 1914September 17, 1915Provincial Government Building
Brandon, ManitobaSeptember 22, 1914July 29, 1916Exhibition Building
Lethbridge, Alberta September 30, 1914November 7, 1916Exhibition Building
Petawawa, OntarioDecember 10, 1914May 8, 1916 Militia Camp / Tents
Toronto, OntarioDecember 14, 1914October 2, 1916 Stanley Barracks
Kapuskasing, OntarioDecember 14, 1914February 24, 1920Bunk Houses
Niagara Falls, OntarioDecember 15, 1915August 31, 1918The Armoury
Beauport, QuebecDecember 28, 1914June 22, 1916The Armoury
Spirit Lake, QuebecJanuary 13, 1915January 28, 1917Bunk Houses
Sault Ste. Marie, OntarioJanuary 13, 1915January 29, 1918The Armoury
Amherst, Nova ScotiaApril 17, 1915September 27, 1919Malleable Iron Works
Monashee–Mara Lake,
British Columbia		June 2, 1915July 29, 1917Tents & Bunk Houses
Fernie–Morrissey,
British Columbia		June 9, 1915October 21, 1918Rented Premises
Banff–Castle Mountain and Cave & Basin, AlbertaJuly 14, 1915July 15, 1917 Dominion Park Building at Cave & Basin, Tents at Castle Mountain
Edgewood, British ColumbiaAugust 19, 1915September 23, 1916Bunk Houses
Revelstoke–Field–Otter, British ColumbiaSeptember 6, 1915October 23, 1916Bunk Houses
Jasper, AlbertaFebruary 8, 1916August 31, 1916Dominion Parks Buildings
Munson, Alberta–
Eaton, Saskatchewan 		October 13, 1918March 21, 1919Railway Cars
Valcartier, QuebecApril 24, 1915October 23, 1915Militia Camp / Tents

Legacy

Memorial at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east of Edmonton, Alberta. Includes a map showing the locations of the internment camps across Canada. Dedicated on August 11, 2002. Ukrainian Internment Memorial Alberta.jpg
Memorial at the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village, east of Edmonton, Alberta. Includes a map showing the locations of the internment camps across Canada. Dedicated on August 11, 2002.

Since 1985, the organized Ukrainian-Canadian community has sought official acknowledgment for this World War I internment, conducting a campaign that underscored the moral, legal and political obligation to redress the historical wrong. [17] The campaign, spearheaded by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA), included the memorialization of places of internment as historic sites. Currently there are twenty plaques and memorials across Canada commemorating the internment, including two at the locations of former concentration camps in Banff National Park. These have been placed by the UCCLA and its supporters.

In 1994, Yurij Luhovy and the National Film Board of Canada released a feature-length documentary about the internment operations entitled Freedom Had a Price. [18] While researching for and shooting the film, Luhovy discovered never before seen pictures of the camps and donated them to the National Archives of Canada.

On November 25, 2005, the Senate of Canada voted unanimously to pass Bill C-331, the Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, closely following the vote of the House of Commons on November 23, 2005, and it received royal assent. [19] This act acknowledges that persons of Ukrainian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and legally obliges the Government of Canada to negotiate "an agreement concerning measures that may be taken to recognize the internment" for educational and commemorative projects.

Thought to be the last known survivor of the internment measures, Mary Manko Haskett was only a child of 6 when she was interned with her family at Spirit Lake. She died in July 2007. In 2007 another survivor – Mary Hancharuk, born in the Spirit Lake camp – was found; [20] then aged 92, making her the last known survivor of the internment operations. She died in 2008.

Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund

The Ukrainian Canadian campaign for acknowledgement and redress was spearheaded by members of the UCCLA from the mid-1980s (at that time within the Ukrainian Canadian Congress). On May 9, 2008, the Government of Canada established a $10 million fund. [21] The Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) uses the interest earned on that amount to fund projects that commemorate the experience of thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans interned between 1914 and 1920 and the many others who suffered a suspension of their civil liberties and freedoms. The funds are themselves held in trust by the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko.

On September 12, 2009, the CFWWIRF was announced formally with a notice published in The Globe and Mail describing how individuals or groups can apply for funding for commemorative, educational and cultural activities recalling Canada's first national internment operations. [22]

One of the first projects funded by the CFWWIRF was the documentary Jajo's Secret directed by James Motluk and broadcast on Omni Television in 2009. [23] [24] This film tells the story of Motluk's discovery of a parole certificate issued to his late grandfather, Elias, in 1918. More recently the CFWWIRF supported two additional films, The Camps and That Never Happened, by Ryan Boyko, as well as the preparation of lesson plans and other educational materials suitable for teachers across Canada (available for free on the website of the CFWWIRF).

The Kingston Symposium of the CFWWIRF's Endowment Council was held in Kingston, Ontario on June 17–20, 2010, bringing together community activists, descendants, academics and artists to discuss ways and means for commemorating Canada's first national internment operations. [25]

Construction of the Spirit Lake Camp Interpretive Centre was launched in July 2010 [26] and on November 26, 2011, opened officially in a ceremony attended by the Honourable Jason Kenney, then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who referred to the internment operations as "a blight" on Canadian history. The CFWWIRF's Endowment Council made the funding of this interpretive centre one of its top granting priorities, budgeting $400,000 over five years for this project. A permanent exhibit on Canada's first national internment operations was opened at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site in Banff National Park in September 2013 by Kenney, then Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism. [27]

On August 22, 2014, one hundred bilingual English-French plaques were unveiled to recall the 100th anniversary of the implementation of the 1914 War Measures Act and the start of internment operations across Canada. [28]

In 2017, the CFWWIRF supported the installation of a permanent exhibit about Canada's first national internment operations in the Canada History Hall of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. Funding has also been committed by the CFWWIRF for the unveiling of a major new exhibit in 2021 at the museum dealing with the War Measures Act and civil liberties during the First World War, the Second World War and the October Crisis.

The 100th anniversary of the end of Canada's first national internment operations was commemorated on June 20, 2020 – a notice was published by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation in the national edition of The Globe and Mail, with the support of the Endowment Council of the CFWWIRF. [29]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Ukrainian History -- Internment of Ukrainians in Canada 1914-1920 -- Canadian Gulag Archipelago". InfoUkes. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Ukrainian History -- Internment of Ukrainians in Canada 1914-1920". InfoUkes. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
  3. ↑ Luciuk 2006, p. 50.
  4. ↑ Kordan 2002, pp. 16–51.
  5. ↑ Swyripa & Thompson 1983, p. 4.
  6. ↑ "100 years since first death in Kapuskasing internment camp". CBC News. June 1, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ Kordan 2002, pp. 90–115.
  8. ↑ Swyripa & Thompson 1983, p. 14.
  9. ↑ Minenko 1991, pp. 297–298.
  10. ↑ Minenko 1991, p. 298.
  11. ↑ "Internment Camp Started". Crag & Canyon . Vol. 16, no. 18. June 26, 1915. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Internment Camp Formed". Crag & Canyon . Vol. 16, no. 17. June 19, 1915. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012.
  13. ↑ Kordan & Melnycky 1991.
  14. ↑ Kordan & Mahovsky 2004, pp. 27–41.
  15. ↑ "Banff Internment Camp - Prisoner Suicide". Crag & Canyon . December 30, 1916. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved January 7, 2025– via Canadian Great War Project.
  16. ↑ Source: Report on Internment Operations Canada • Report by Major-General Sir William Otter, K.C.B., C.V.O • Ottawa, Thomas Mulvey
    Internment Operations, 1914 1920 Director Internment Operations Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1921
    Canada's first national internment operations, 1914–1920
  17. ↑ Kordan & Mahovsky 2004, pp. 45–62.
  18. ↑ "Freedom Had A Price". yluhovy.com. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  19. ↑ Bill C-331. 44th Canadian Parliament. November 25, 2005. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  20. ↑ "Internment camp survivor found". ucc.ca. Ukrainian Canadian Congress. November 29, 2007. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2014.
  21. ↑ "About the Fund". internmentcanada.ca. Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Recognition, Restitution & Reconciliation" (PDF). The Globe and Mail . September 12, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2025– via Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund.
  23. ↑ Motluk, James (2009). "Projects funded to date – Jajo's Secret" (PDF). Recalling Canada's first national internment operations: Annual report of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (Report). Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund & Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 6, 2011. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  24. ↑ "Canadian Documentary Premiere on OMNI.2" (Press release). Omni Television. June 4, 2009. Archived from the original on December 25, 2009. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  25. ↑ "National Symposium on Internment Operations Held at Queen's University" (PDF) (Press release). Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. June 23, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2015. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  26. ↑ "Launch of Quebec Internment Spirit Lake Interpretive Centre" (PDF) (Press release). Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. July 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 16, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  27. ↑ "Banff National Park - Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Canada's First World War Internment Operations, 1914-1920". pc.gc.ca. Parks Canada. September 6, 2013. Archived from the original on September 26, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  28. ↑ For a complete list of all of the "One Hundred" (Ukrainian : Сто, romanized: Sto) plaque sites, see "CTO – 100 Plaques". uccla.ca. Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Archived from the original on July 10, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  29. ↑ "Remembering the 100th year since the end of Canada's first national internment operations" (Press release). Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation. June 19, 2020. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2025.

Further reading

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