Canada s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920

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1 Canada s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920

2 Lured with promises of freedom and free land

3 First Ukrainian pioneer settlers en route to Edna-Star, Alberta, 1897

4 Mandate of War Measures Act 1914 State-sanctioned deprivation of rights included: disenfranchisement restrictions on freedom of speech, movement & association internment deportation confiscation of little accumulated wealth

5 War Measures Act 1914 Implemented 3 times in Canadian history: World War I: Ukrainian and other Europeans originally from Austro-Hungary World War II: Japanese, Italian & German Canadians October Crisis 1970: Quebecois during FLQ crisis

6 Canada s First National Internment Operations During Canada s first national internment operations of thousands of men, women and children were branded as enemy aliens. Many were imprisoned. Stripped of what little wealth they had, forced to do heavy labour in Canada s hinterlands, they were also disenfranchised and subjected to other statesanctioned censures - not because of anything they had done, but only because of where they had come from, who they were. CFWWIRF

7 Major General Sir Wm. D. Otter

8 Enemy Aliens Canada issued an Order in Council for the registration and internment of enemy aliens : 8,579 Austro-Hungarians including: Ukrainians, Poles, Italians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Germans, German-speaking Austrians, Croats, Romanians, Hungarians, Russians, Jews, Czechs, Slovaks, Armenians and Ottoman Turks, among others were interned 80,000 forced to carry ID, report regularly to the Mounted Police, disenfranchised

9 Austrian Passports

10 Registration Card numbers documented in Passport

11 Enemy Alien Registration Card

12 Wartime Elections Act 1917 In effect until 1920, it authorized the disenfranchisement of: all citizens naturalized after 1902 persons born in an enemy nation persons who spoke a language of an enemy nation

13 Renaturalization paper - Malysh

14 Why were individuals interned? Dear General: I, Jacob Kondro, received a letter from my wife that my son, John Kondro, is in prison at the Internment Camp, Banff. I do not think Canada would take their own people and put them in prison in an Internment Camp. --- I am naturalized as a citizen of the Dominion of Canada. Please let him go. John Kondro

15 POWs & Civilians Of the 8,579 enemy aliens incarcerated: 3,138 were classed as POWs : Most POWS were of German nationality and German-speaking Austrians, treated as first class internees and not obliged to hard labour Remaining internees were actually civilians : naturalized citizens or in process of obtaining citizenship sent to internment camps in Canada s hinterlands as second class

16 Internment Camps 24 camps established across the country Some camps closed as late as 1920, 2 years after the war ended 2 camps held women and children; Spirit Lake, Quebec and Vernon, BC

17 Internment Camp Map From the CFWWIRF 2009 Annual Report

18 Women and children interned at Spirit Lake, Quebec

19 Women and children interned at Vernon, B.C.

20 Fred Kohse, POW #5019 and cousin Victory Heiny, POW #5035 Photo courtesy Andrea Malysh Private Collection

21 The Affirmation of Witnesses My dear father, [Katie Domytryk, 9, to H Domytryk, internee #1100, arrested in Edmonton, March 1916, father of four.]

22 Impact of Individuals and Families Families uprooted Property and valuables seized Some money stolen Economic losses staggering Labour exploitation of civilian internees Human costs cannot be measured

23 Internees as Forced Labour Internees used as forced labour: to develop Banff National Park & Parks Canada in logging, steel & mining industries for Government & private companies

24 Building Canada s National Parks

25 Castle Mountain Clearing land for roads, Government project

As you know yourself there are men running away from here every day, because the conditions here are very poor, so that we cannot go much longer, we are not getting enough to

26 As you know yourself there are men running away from here every day, because the conditions here are very poor, so that we cannot go much longer, we are not getting enough to eat we are as hungry as dogs. They are sending us to work, as they don t believe us, and we are very weak. -N. Olynik, prisoner at Castle Mountain camp, to his wife, fall 1915.

27 B.C. Provincial Jailhouse becomes B.C. Internment Camp headquarters, Vernon.

28 B.C. Central Internment Camp, Vernon

29 Mara Lake Internment camps building Hwy 97A link to the Okanagan.

30 Edgewood/ Monashee camps, building Hwy 6, link to the Okanagan.

31 Camp Living Conditions 107 internees died while in custody.

32 Badly treated in every way General Otter, December 1915 Castle Mountain Barbed Wire Disease 106 internees were treated for insanity.

33 Released from the Camps: Work Parole The plain fact is that, because of their Austrian birth, these people have been too hastily classed by Government officials and others as alien enemies...the great mass of them are entirely out of sympathy with Austria. Many have volunteered for service with the Canadian overseas battalions, and left to themselves, they have no desire but to be loyal and industrious Canadians. Editorial, Manitoba Free Press, 1916.

34 Government Decision: Destruction of Records 1954

35 The could arrest me again Nick Lypka, 1994, interned at Banff Castle Mountain

36 Filip Konowal, Victoria Cross 10,000 Ukrainians served with the CEF.

37 Redress Campaign In 1987 Ukrainian Canadian community initiated campaign to acknowledge this WWI internment operation, the first in Canada In 2005 Inky Mark, MP proposed Private Member Bill C-331 acknowledging the internment of Ukrainians received Royal Assent

38 Mary Manko Haskett Request of Last Internee survivor Mary Haskett, one of the last known survivor of the internment operations, was interned at Spirit Lake. She lived to the age of 97. He sister Nellie died in the Spirit Lake camp. It was Mary Manko Haskett who charged us, when she was still able, to never forget what was done to her and all the other internees. She did not ask for an apology, or compensation. She asked only that we secure their memory. (Without Just Cause, p. 56)

39 Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund In May 2008 representatives of the Ukrainian Canadian community reached an agreement with the Government of Canada for the creation of an endowment fund to support commemorative, educational, scholarly & cultural projects to remind all Canadians of this episode in our nation s history. CFWWIRF

40 Endowment Council Remembering the Internees Commemorative plaques have been placed at 23 internment camp locations Artifacts are being collected Vernon Museum holds a sideboard built by internees Projects funded: Spirit Lake interpretive centre, documentary films, National Educational initiative, books, and primary research. Apprising museums, libraries, boards of education

41 National Internment Exhibit opens at Cave & Basin in Banff, AB

42 Educational Materials Available

43 The Critical Thinking Consortium National Internment Education Program

44 Freedom Had A Price by Yuriy Luhovy

45 Lesia s Dream by Laura Langston

46 Blood and Salt by Barbara Sapergia

47 Silver Threads by Marsha Skrypuch

48 Dear Canada Diary Series

49 Vernon, B.C. Internment Mural Artist Michelle Loughery

50 Commemorative Stamp unveiled by Senator Andreychuk, March 31, 2014

51 National Centennial of Canada s First National Internment Operations of 1914 to plaques to be unveiled across Canada on August 22, 2014

Impact timeline visually demonstrating the sequence and span of related events and show the impact of these events

targeted adaptable Primary Intermediate Middle Senior 4 4 4 Impact timeline visually demonstrating the sequence and span of related events and show the impact of these events Learning outcomes identify