Ukrainian Canadian internment

The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for 2 years after the end of World War I, lasting from 1914 to 1920. About 5,000 Ukrainian men of Austro-Hungarian citizenship were kept in twenty-four internment camps and related work sites, also known, at the time, as concentration camps. Another 80,000 were registered as "enemy aliens" and obliged to regularly report to the police. Those interned had whatever little wealth they owned confiscated.

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 the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were in fact friendly to the British Empire [Lubomyr Y. Luciuk, Without Just Cause (Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2006), p. 50] . 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 Austro-Hungary fell under this description. 8,579 males were interned by the Canadian Government, including 5,954 Austro-Hungarians, most of whom were probably ethnic Ukrainians. 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 their menfolk 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, although most were recent immigrants. Citizens of the Russian Empire were not interned and so could enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. One of them, Filip Konowal, would win the Victora Cross for his valour during the Battle of Hill 70, just beyond Vimy Ridge, in August 1917. Thought to be the last known survivor of the internment measures, Mary Manko, was only a child of 6 when she was interned with her family at Spirit Lake. She died in July 2007. More recently another survivor, Mary Hanchurak, born in the Spirit Lake camp, was found, aged 92, making her the last known survivor of the internment operations ((see photograph above).

Many of these internees were used for forced labour in internment camps. Conditions at the camps varied, and the Banff/Castle Mountain camp, where labour contributed to the creation of Banff National Park, was considered exceptionally harsh and abusive. 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 benefitted from the internee's 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, 20 June 1920. 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 Sir William Dillon Otter's final report, went insane or committed suicide as a result of their confinement.

Legacy

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 Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and its supporters. On November 25, 2005, Conservative MP Inky Mark's Private Member's Bill C-331, "Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act", received Royal Assent. This act acknowledges that persons of Ukrainian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and it 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.

On May 9, 2008, the Canadian government established a $10 million fund with the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, for commemoration of the experience of thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans that were interned between 1914–1920 and the suspension of civil liberties of tens of thousands of fellow Canadians. [http://www.shevchenkofoundation.com/news20080509.html]

See also

*Human rights in Canada;First World War
* Ukrainian Canadian
* Ukrainian Austrian internment;Second World War
* Operation Wisła
* Central Labour Camp Jaworzno

The Ukrainian Canadian internment is sometimes compared to the Japanese Canadian internment of World War II, but the Japanese internment applied to Canadian citizens, who had their belongings confiscated, were separated from their families, and interned.

References

* Kordan, Bohdan & Mahovsky, Craig, A Bare and Impolitic Right: Internment and Ukrainian Canadian Redress, Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004
* Luhovy, Yurij (1994) "Freedom Had a Price: 1914-1920 Canada's First Internment Operation," VHS/DVD, 55 min.
* Luciuk, Lubomyr (2001). "In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada's First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920". Kingston: Kashtan Press.
* Luciuk, Lubomyr (2006). "Without Just Cause," Kingston: Kashtan Press.
* Martynowych, Orest (1991), "Registration, Internment and Censorship", in "Ukrainians in Canada: The formative period, 1891–1924", pp. 323–334. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. ISBN 0-920862-76-4.
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/legisinfo/index.asp?Language=E&Chamber=N&StartList=A&EndList=Z&Session=13&Type=0&Scope=I&query=4229&List=toc-1 Bill C-331] : An Act to acknowledge that persons of Ukrainian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and to provide for recognition of this event

External links

* [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050825/UKRANIANS25/TPNational/TopStories PM Reaches out to Ukrainians] - The Globe and Mail, August 25, 2005
* [http://www.uccla.ca/ Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association]