The Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Federation

Thursday, March 16, 2000

Ian Hunter
National Post

Most Canadians know about the injustice done to Japanese Canadians who were interned as enemy aliens during the second world war; the government of Canada has publicly apologized and made compensation. But few people know that Ukrainian Canadians suffered the same fate in the First World War; to date, the Canadian government has refused even to acknowledge this injustice.

In 24 labour camps that stretched from Amherst, Nova Scotia to Nanaimo, B.C. several thousand Ukrainian men, women, and children were interned from 1914 to 1920; by the accident of birth, they were considered descendents of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and therefore "enemy aliens". The internment camps located at Kapuskasing, Ontario and Spirit Lake, Quebec were the two largest camps, each one holding more than a thousand inmates.

Under the War Measures Act suspected "enemy aliens" were rounded up, their valuables and their property were seized, and they were assigned to camps. Major General Sir William Dillon Otter, who was brought out of retirement to supervise the internment, wrote to his superiors: "As many of these internees were residents of Canada and possessed real estate, securities, etc. such have been turned over to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Properties…"

Harsh conditions prevailed in the camps. In addition to forced labour felling trees and building roads (at 25 cents a day), access to newspapers was denied, and personal correspondence was censored. More than 100 internees died. On June 17, 1915 a Ukrainian Canadian inmate was killed while trying to escape from Spirit Lake camp. Some internees committed suicide. General Otter reported: "Rough treatment by the guards {is} by no means an uncommon occurrence"; also "…insanity was by no means uncommon among the prisoners."

In July, 1916 a group of journalists published an appeal for an end to the policy of internment. "Ukrainian Canadians are treated as enemy aliens. They are persecuted, by the thousands they are interned, they are dismissed from their employment, and their applications for work are not entertained. And why? For only one reason, that they are so unhappy as to be born into the Austrian bondage."

And yet Ukrainian Canadians who were not interned (sometimes because they adopted Canadian surnames) enlisted in the Canadian army in disproportionate numbers; one Member of Parliament (H. A. Mackie of Edmonton) wrote to Prime Minister Borden that Ukrainians "…had given a larger percentage of men to the war than certain races in Canada have, after having enjoyed the privileges of British citizenship for a century or more."

The government's response was the War Times Elections Act of 1917 that stripped Ukrainian Canadians of the right to vote. The Kingston Whig Standard had the courage to oppose this legislation; on September 7, 1917 it editorialized: "If the [Act] becomes law the 'alleged' foreigners and hitherto 'naturalized' Canadians will bear their reproach meekly, but many will have sown in their hearts the seeds of a bitterness that can never be extirpated. The man whose honour has been mistrusted, and who has been singled out for national humiliation, will remember it and sooner or later it will have to be atoned for."

Later, much later… or, perhaps, not at all. When he was Leader of the Opposition, Brian Mulroney promised to acknowledge the injustice done to Ukrainian Canadians if the Conservatives ever formed a government. Well, the Conservatives did; Mulroney was Prime Minister for two terms, but nothing was done.

As Leader of the Opposition, Jean Chretien wrote on June 8, 1983: "The Liberal Party understands your concerns …we support your efforts to secure the redress of Ukrainian Canadians' claims arising from their internment and loss of freedoms during the First World War. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and seek to ensure that the government honours its promise." Chretien has now been Prime Minister for two terms; again, nothing has been done.

Ukrainian Canadians have not sought compensation, although they would like to have confiscated property returned to the rightful owners. Primarily, they seek official acknowledgment of an injustice done a very long time ago.

This is not a partisan issue. But it is a disgrace that successive Canadian governments, Conservative and Liberal, have only stonewalled.

Ian Hunter is professor emeritus in the faculty of law at the University of Western Ontario.

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Last Updated: Apr 30, 2000