Commemorative events to remember the unjust treatment of these immigrants are taking place Oct. 24 and 27 in Regina.
Dr. Bohdan Kordan retraces the steps of internees at Munson Internment Camp in Alberta. The video is one of 33 vignettes in a series titled “The Camps” produced by filmmaker Ryan Boyko and Armistice Films. The project was funded by the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, today known as the WWI Internment Legacy Fund.
October 28, 2024, marks the 110th anniversary of Order-in-Council PC 2721 issued under the 1914 War Measures Act. As a result of this ordinance, some 8,570 enemy aliens were arrested and sent to 24 internment camps across Canada. They were immigrants from states at war with Britain and Canada (Germany, the Austro–Hungarian and Ottoman empires, Bulgaria) and, therefore, considered a threat. Over 5,000 were ethnic Ukrainian settlers from the territory of Austria-Hungary; the remainder included Germans, Poles, Croats, Turks, and others. The internment camps operated throughout Canada between 1914 and 1920.
First World War, Enemy Aliens, and Internment in Canada
The start of the First World War in Canada was accompanied by fear and suspicion. It was widely felt that the loyalty of immigrants originating from countries at war with the British Empire — notably Germany and Austria-Hungary — lay with their former homelands. As a result, under the War Measures Act, the Government of Canada passed executive orders that enabled it to monitor these individuals. Labelled “enemy aliens,” 80,000 were required to register with authorities, carry a pass card, and report to local officials. An additional 8,579 individuals, mostly of Ukrainian origin, would be interned as prisoners of war (POWs).
Although the war measures aimed at security, the government’s emergency powers proved expedient in addressing other issues. Rising unemployment within the enemy alien population — a consequence of widespread anti-foreigner sentiment — prompted the Canadian government to use internment to address the problem. Arresting and interning unemployed and destitute enemy aliens as POWs under Order-in-Council PC 2721, the government established camps on the Canadian frontier — primarily the Rocky Mountains and the northlands of Ontario and Quebec — where they were put to work clearing land and constructing roads under arduous and difficult conditions. The prisoners were subject to a military regime, being compelled to work under armed guard; disobedience and defiance were met with corporal punishment. In desperation, scores attempted escape. A few were shot, some fatally. Others succumbed to the mental anguish of their false imprisonment and cruel treatment. Most, however, stoically bore their torment in silence, believing this was all a mistake.
Economic growth and the demands of industry eventually led to the parole of the internees, who, after spending years behind barbed wire, were invited once more to participate in Canada’s economy and society. Internment, however, remained for those considered “undesirable,” and as a policy measure continued to be used against labour and political activists who were interned during the labour turbulence of the post-war period. The signing of the peace treaty in 1920 set the conditions for the removal of the internees and their families from the country. Over 1,000 individuals would be deported.
Internment and other political measures (censorship, political disfranchisement, the selective banning of ethno-cultural organizations) grimly coloured a largely unknown episode in Canada’s history of participation in the First World War, highlighting the unjust treatment of immigrants who called Canada home. Reflecting on this historical wrong, we are reminded of the importance of rights and freedoms, especially when the din of war overwhelms reason, and the hearts of men are hardened. To those who suffered we owe a duty to remember and reflect on the meaning and significance of the experience.
The Saskatchewan Connection
Fourteen kilometres southwest of the city of Saskatoon, at a railway siding then known as Eaton, a WWI Canadian internment camp was established. The only facility of its kind in Saskatchewan, it was located on the grounds of the present-day Saskatchewan Railway Museum (junction of Highway 60 and the Canadian National Railway).
With the signing of the November 11 armistice and the winding down of internment operations, 65 enemy alien prisoners from the Munson internment camp in Alberta were relocated for logistical reasons to the Eaton railway siding on February 25, 1919. Once on site, the German and Ukrainian internees protested their compulsory labour. Work stoppages, escapes, and an unreliable military guard persuaded authorities to abandon the site for more secure facilities. On March 21, 1919, 24 days after the facility was created, the internees were transferred to an internment camp in Nova Scotia where they awaited their deportation. The Eaton camp was dismantled shortly thereafter.
Knowledge of the camp’s location disappeared after the name of Eaton was changed to Hawker in 1919 by the railway company. Research would lead to its re-discovery as a place of internment, guiding the Rural Municipality of Corman Park to designate the location a Heritage Site.
In 2004, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Saskatchewan and Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage at the University of Saskatchewan, in cooperation with the Saskatchewan Railway Museum, commissioned and erected a monument to commemorate the historic site. In 2018, the partners in association with the Saskatchewan German Council placed an interpretative bronze plaque, adding a memorial garden and bench for reflection alongside the monument. In June 2022, a major permanent exhibit was also created to recognize the history of the location as a place of Canadian internment. The site and exhibit are open to the public. All are welcome to remember and reflect.
One hundred and ten years on, we remember. Вічная Пам’ять. Eternal Memory.
For more information, visit https://www.internmentcanada.ca/
-Dr. Kordan is Professor Emeritus, Political Studies, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan
Link to the article in the Regina Leader-Post: https://bit.ly/40kOeGa