Thousands of people of Ukrainian and Eastern European descent were interned in across Canada when the Canadian government’s First National Internment Operations occurred during 1914-1920. These people were interned not for something they had done but simply because of where they had come from. These internment camps were reflective of the government’s gross infringement on the civil liberties of its citizens and immigrants to Canada at that time.
At the onset of World War I, the War Measures Act 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. An additional 80,000 individuals, of who the vast majority were Ukrainians, were obliged to register as “enemy aliens” and report to police authorities regularly.
The camp internees were used to develop the 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 was so beneficial to Canadian corporations that the internment program lasted for two years after the end of the war.
The effect of internment was devastating to the internees, their friends and families, and had a lasting impact on the Ukrainian community as a whole in Canada.
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