Internment of Ukrainians in Canada 1914-1920

Introduction

The purpose of these pages is to inform the general population about the Canadian Government's internment of Ukrainian Canadians in Concentration Camps in Canada during the period of 1914-1920.

With the outbreak of World War I, the War Measures Act (1914) was implemented as a result of an Order In Council by the Canadian Government. This resulted in the internment of 8,579 "enemy aliens" of which over 5,000 were Ukrainians who had emigrated to Canada from territories under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It also meant an additional 80,000 individuals (of which the vast majority were Ukrainians) were obliged to register as "enemy aliens" and then required to report to local authorities on a regular basis.

These internees were used to develop Canadian infrastructure as "forced-labourers". They were used to develop Banff National Park, the logging industry in Northern Ontario & Quebec, the steel mills in Ontario & Nova Scotia, and in the mines in British Columbia, Ontario & Nova Scotia. This infrastructure development program benefited Canadian corporations to such a degree that the internment was carried on for two years after the end of World War I.

To this date it has not been determined what was the driving force for the Internment. Was it due to wartime xenophobia and war fever, or the Economic benefits of a forced-labour system, or bigoted-driven emotions against Canada's first non-Official language speaking immigrants? The truth is that it was probably due to mixture of these reasons. Unfortunately, the War Measures Act formed the basis for future government incursions on the Civil liberties of Citizens and immigrants to Canada. This act was used as the basis of the internment of the Japanese Canadians in 1941 and the French-Canadians (or Quebecois) in 1970. This act was always implemented via an Order in Council, rather than through approval via the democratically elected parliament. This Act was first implemented during World War I where Ukrainian Canadians were primarly and unjustly made it's first victims.

The internment issue exposed many of the anti-immigrant feelings of the general population of the day. Reading through some of the references, it is shocking that the fundamental comments made 80 years ago are also prevalent in today's society. Perhaps by gaining an understanding of past historical examples of intolerance and abuses, it can help prevent such an attrocious actions being taken in the future by the Government of Canada.

These series of pages were motivated by the reluctance of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to show Yurij Luhovy's excellent documentary Freedom Had A Price. It took over a years' worth of lobbying of the CBC and the government to get this film aired on the CBC. The CBC found excuse after excuse of why they could not air this excellent film. When they finally did show it, it was aired Sunday April 23rd 1995 at 4 PM EST with very little prior notice. It was not apparent in any TV guide what this film was: it was simply labeled "Sense of History" with no explanation of what it was. In other words, the CBC successfully camouflaged the show to minimize it's exposure to the Canadian viewing public.

It was obvious to many Ukrainian Canadians that this was a part of Canadian that the Government and CBC did not wish the general public to learn about. This belief was strengthened by the government's destruction of a large percentage of the government documents about Canada's First National Internment Operations in the 1950's.

Because of this inexcusable behaviour by the CBC, we decided to take it upon ourselves to better educate the general public about this sad chapter of Canadian through the one and only uncensored medium left to the general public, the Internet.

To gain a better understanding of this sad chapter in Canadian please feel free to explore the following listed pages.

Yaroslav Kokodyniak & Vasyl Pawlowsky

Table of Contents

A Time for Atonement: Canada's First National Internment
Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians 1914-1920
by Lubomyr Y. Luciuk (Limestone Press, 1988)
In Ukrainian (K018)
Righting An Injustice: The Debate Over Redress for
Canada's First National Internment Operations
Edited by Lubomyr Y. Luciuk (The Justinian Press, 1994)
In My Charge: The Canadian Internment Camp
Photographs by Sergeant William Buck
by Lubomyr Y. Luciuk & Borys Sydoruk (The Kashtan Press, 1997)
Badly Treated in Every Way: The Internment of
Ukrainians in Quebec During the First World War
by Peter Melnycky
Canadian Gulag Archipelago
(Internment Camp Locations)
Image Gallery: Photographs of Life for Ukrainians
in Internment Camps in Canada
Requests - Requests to the Government of Canada
for Restitution on the Internment Issue
Political Reality Check on the Internment Issue
[What is said versus What is done]
Press Releases
Freedom had a Price
Comments on Yurij Luhovy's Film Documentary
Internment: Additional Articles
Internment: Bibliography
Internment: Other Sites

Awards

Netizen Site for the Day
Thursday November 28th 1996
History Channel Recommended Site
History Television Approved Site

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Document Information

Document URL: index.html

Page layout, design, integration, and maintenance by G.W. Kokodyniak, V. Pawlowsky, and R. Zakaluzny

Copyright © 1995-1999 InfoUkes Inc.
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Originally Composed: Saturday November 18th 1995.
Date last modified: Monday April 12th 1999.