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Ukrainian Canadian Internment Educational documents

UCCLF Unveil Panel Commemorating "Enemy Aliens" in Calgary, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, July 19, 2023

Lest we forget. The Ukrainian Weekly, July 7, 2023

Lest We Forget

We don't know a lot. I'm guessing the three men never met in life. Two were buried in the summer of 1915. In February 1916 the third of them died. They might have known each other before they got to Kingston - but since we don't know where they came from, or when they arrived, there's no way of knowing. They weren't the only ones who died in captivity - twenty men succumbed after being confined in Kingston's Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane, also known as the Rockwood Lunatic Asylum. Eight were mis-identified as "Austrians" while the other twelve were Germans. All were branded as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. "Dozens" of those deemed "insane," collected from various asylums across Canada, were among the 2,000 or so "aliens" returned to Europe after the war. The first repatriates sailed in July 1919 aboard the SS Sicilian. The last batch were on the SS Melita, which steamed east from St John in March 1920. None of them had any choice. They were deported whence they came.

The Rockwood three we know something about were called Dezső Benscura, Walter Grooham and Andreas Moritsky. Whether those are accurate renderings of their names, recorded by immigration officials or jailers who had little knowledge or interest in the languages, nations, or faith groups of eastern Europe, I can't say. As noted on 30 September 1920, in a final report tabled by General Sir William Desmond Otter, the officer in charge of the Office of Internment Operations, 8,579 men along with 81 women and 156 children, were herded into 24 camps behind Canadian barbed wire. Of that number 106, a majority of them "Austrians," were deemed "insane" and placed in provincial institutions - at Ponoka, Alberta; Essondale, British Columbia; Brandon, Manitoba; Hamilton, Rockwood, and Mimico, Ontario; St Jean de Dieu, Quebec, with 3 other internees hospitalized in Nova Scotia. Only one man, an "Austrian," died of "insanity." What killed the other two at Rockwood is not preserved in the historical record.

General Otter claimed: "Great care was observed in having the cause of death established and recorded, the place of burial marked, due regard being paid to the latter ceremony, while the effects of the deceased were cared for and whenever possible their nearest of kin informed."

Records were kept about some deaths, like the names of the six men killed attempting to escape including the dates on which they were shot. And perhaps the possessions of some of the 107 deceased internees were, somehow, returned to their families. But the three buried in Kingston were laid to rest in unmarked graves, somewhere within the confines of St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, no one knows exactly where. That they ended up in this burial ground is likely because they were Catholics, as many immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have been. Or perhaps it was because their mortal remains were not wanted at the Cataraqui Cemetery, a territory then reserved for this city's Anglo-Celtic and Protestant elites.

Were they buried close to each other? No one knows. Was a prayer said over each man before he was covered, as General Otter wrote? I hope so. But I doubt that any of their family members or friends left in the "old country" - somewhere in that multinational, multi-confessional, and multilingual Austro-Hungarian Empire that would itself disintegrate at the end of the First World War - would ever find out what happened. These men simply disappeared. Having left their homelands hoping for a better life they never suspected that arriving with an Austro-Hungarian passport would mark them, under the terms of the War Measures Act, as "enemy aliens," subject to detention and forced labour. Even more galling was that they knew they had done no wrong. They had immigrated legally. They were not criminals. And yet, following the outbreak of the Great War, they found themselves suddenly treated as prisoners-of-war, without just cause. Thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans suffered various state-sanctioned indignities. For many the racism and xenophobia they endured would be debilitating. As Watson Kirkconnell, who served as a militia officer and would become a Queen's University professor and later a president of Acadia University, admitted privately:

Insanity was by no means uncommon among the prisoners, many being interned it was suspected to relieve municipalities of their care, while in others the disease possibly developed from a nervous condition brought about by the confinement and restrictions entailed.

Today, thanks to a grant from the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, three markers bearing the names of these three internees are laid out beside each other in St Mary's Cemetery. They did not die together. They may never have known each other. Yet they will be remembered together because of what they suffered in a country where they hoped to find a better life. This much we can be certain of.

**********

Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor of political geography at the Royal Military College of Canada and a Fellow of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto. His forthcoming book, Lest They Forget (Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2023), documents the Ukrainian Canadian redress movement.

He Appears As A Ghost, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 15, 2023

Monument recognizing Ukrainian internment during First World War unveiled in Calgary, Calgary Herald, June 10, 2023

New monument marks Ukrainian internment during First World War, Calgary Sun, June 20, 2023

8,000 European immigrants, the majority of them Ukrainians, were brought to 24 internment camps across Canada, including five in Alberta.

Canadian WW1 internment operations marked by new Calgarian Ukrainian monument, CTV Calgary News, June 10, 2023

Voices of Internment, Ideas with Nahlah Ayed, CBC Radio, May 16, 2023

It’s a hidden chapter of Canadian history that’s slowly emerging. Thousands of Ukrainians labelled ‘aliens of enemy origin’ were interned in labour camps during the First World War. Descendants of those imprisoned in the camps share their stories.

Vulnerable, vengeful and tenacious, artist John Boxtel didn’t even try to live by the rules. The Globe and Mail, April 17, 2023

Descendants of Ukrainian internees want same gov't support as Chinese, Castanet, April 14, 2023

Cochrane artist illustrates dark period in Canadian history. Cochrane Today, April 6, 2023

We Remember by Halyna Kravtchouk, March 2023

Ми Пам'ятаємо, Галина Кравчук, березень 2023

A Peek into the Past: Methodist Missions, Promin, February/March 2023

ПАМ’ЯТАТИ ПРО ІНТЕРНОВАНИХ, БОРОТИСЯ З ВІЙСЬКОВИМИ ЗЛОЧИНАМИ СЬОГОДЕННЯ, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, November 23, 2022

Emerson exhibit recalls 1915 border arrests, internment, September 25, 2022, The Carillon

UCCLF Unveils memorial to "The March to Emerson" in Manitoba Border Town, September 22, 2022, New Pathway Ukrainian News

Emerson monument honours Ukrainian and Eastern European men arrested during First World War, September 19, 2022, Pembina Valley Online

'Putting them in internment camps is wrong': new memorial marks 'March to Emerson', September 17, 2022 CTV Winnipeg News

The Materiality of Mental Health at the Morrissey World War I Internment Camp. Beaulieu, S.E. Hist Arch 56, 482–503 (September 2022).

To date, very little is known archaeologically about First World War–era internment camps, especially in Canada, where this history was actively erased through the destruction of the federal internment records in the 1950s. This research focuses on the Morrissey Internment Camp, one of Canada’s 24 World War I internment camps, with the aim of using the material culture record at the camp as a point of access to examine the coping strategies prisoners of war adopted to help mitigate mental-health issues triggered by confinement. Fieldwork involved surveying, mapping, the deployment of ground-penetrating radar, and excavation within the grounds of the internment camp. A formal walking traverse of the site was conducted to map the surface collections of archaeological material. In addition, archival materials that included government reports, maps, and photographs complemented interviews conducted with the descendant community. The findings indicate that arts and handicrafts, religion, communication, resistance, tobacco, alcohol, and purchased comforts may have helped prisoners of war stave off depression and sustain a degree of mental health.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-022-00366-z

Southern Manitoba monument pays tribute to Canadian internment camp survivors. September 17, 2022, CBC News

Emerson installation commemorates Ukrainians placed in Brandon internment camp.

Repenting past means repaying with memory. The Catholic Register, September 14, 2022

Profiting from past pain of others just plain wrong, The Kingston Whig Standard, July 29, 2022

USask professor emeritus helps preserve the history of local internment camp, University of Saskatchewan, July 6, 2022

Dr. Bohdan Kordan (PhD) has become one of the most steadfast guardians of a very painful memory in Canada’s history. He calls it his duty to remember.

Family of WWI Ukrainian internment camp survivor searches for lost great-uncle. CBC News. May 25, 2022

Michelle Loughery says her great-uncle Stephen was last detained at a labour camp in Banff, Alberta in 1920

A dark chapter in Bow Valley's history, Rocky Mountain Outlook, May 13, 2022

For two years during the First World War, the Bow Valley was home to one of the harshest internment camps in Canada, where hundreds were held for simply being born in a country Canada was at war with.

Nanaimo Museum’s new First World War ‘enemy alien’ exhibit opens this weekend, Nanaimo News Bulletin, February 9, 2022

Enemy Aliens: Internment in Canada, 1914-1920, Nanaimo Museum, February 12 to May 21, 2022

Lost Liberties - The Measures Act, Canadian Museum of History, January 2022

The Lost Liberties exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History has a very useful teachers’ zone website providing good information about civil liberties and human rights in Canada during times of domestic and international crisis. Please circulate this to others so that the story of Canada’s first national internment operations becomes even better know to our fellow Canadians.

Ukrainian Canadians fight to save a forgotten cemetery in Quebec's Abitibi region, CBC, November 10, 2021

Despite calls for help to restore the cemetery, federal government says it's not its jurisdiction

I don’t much care for snakes, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, October 30, 2021

Calgary marks Internment Commemoration Day, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, November 3, 2021

Today commemorates internment of Ukrainian Immigrants, Lakeland Today, October 28, 2021

Relics In The Shadows, Canadian Museum of History, October 22, 2021

In December 2021, the Canadian Museum of History will open an exhibition, Lost Liberties − The War Measures Act, generously supported by a grant from the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. The exhibition explores three periods in Canadian history when personal freedoms were curtailed. In this article, Professor Lubomyr Luciuk shares his thoughts on the importance of artifacts in presenting stories about Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914−1920.

Observe National Internment Commemoration Day, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, October 20, 2021

That Never Happened, Canmore Museum, August 7, 2021

Vandals ignorant of Canadian History, Respect, July 13, 2021

Redressing Indigenous erasure in Ukrainian history, Natalia Fedosieieva, The Eastern Door, July 23, 2021

Remember the Ukrainians found in Spirit Lake cemetery, The Whig Standard, July 9, 2021

UCCLA condemns hate crimes against Ukrainian churches in Canada, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 8, 2021

Hooligans ignorant of internment history, Letters to the Editor, The Calgary Herald, July 7, 2021

The cretins who vandalized a Ukrainian Catholic church in Calgary also damaged a historical marker recalling the victims of Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920. Thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans were unjustly branded as ‘enemy aliens’ and many were forced to do heavy labour for the profit of their jailers, including in the national parks at Banff and Jasper.

Some died in captivity and were buried in unmarked graves, including those transported to Spirit Lake in Quebec’s Abitibi region.

To this day, Ottawa has ignored repeated pleas for restoring this internee cemetery, doing nothing to help hallow the remains of the men and children who were left there. The hooligans who spray-painted our plaque at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church obviously know little about Canadian history and demonstrated only cowardice as they perpetrated this hate crime.

Lubomyr Luciuk, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association

Two Ukrainian churches vandalized in Canada, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, July 6, 2021

Canada's First Internment Operation Against It's Own Citizens, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 9, 2021

Park People: Conversation With A Historian, National Parks Traveler, June 21, 2021

Conversation With A Historian, Meg Stanley, who had a role in the Canada First World War internment operations exhibit at the Cave and Basin, Banff National Park.

The Prisoner of War Diet: A Material and Faunal Analysis of the Morrisey WWI Internment Camp, Sarah Beaulieu, Journal of Conflict Archaeology, May 3, 2021

Canada's tragic history of war-time internment, The Toronto Sun, February 22, 2021

Internment campaign about memory – not money, says Dr. Luciuk. New Pathway - Ukrainian News. February 10, 2021

Spotlight put on dark internment camp history at Vernon school, Kelowna Capital News, February 8, 2021

Artifact likely created by First World War prisoner at Fort Henry discovered, The Kingston Whig Standard, January 9, 2021

‘Fear of the barbed wire fence’: remembering Nanaimo’s WW1 internment camp, by Kevin Forsyth, Oceanside News, November 11, 2020

UCC Calgary commemorates 25th anniversary of internment monument, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, September 1, 2020

Remembering the 600 internees of Castle Mountain Internment Camp, Crag and Canyon, August 24, 2020

Centenary of the End of Canada's First World War Internment Operations, UCC Saskatchewan Visnyk, Summer 2020

Gravestone of Ukrainian Canadian First World War vet restored, Whig Standard, August 13, 2020

Who died at Burwash? When the 1918 flu epidemic collided with Canada’s ‘enemy aliens’ policy, Sudbury.com, July 6, 2020

A forgotten piece of Canadian History, by Peter Manastyrsky, Winnipeg Sun, 20 June 2020

The Hon. Andrew Scheer, Leader of Canada’s Conservatives and of the Official Opposition, issues statement to mark 100 years since the end of Canada’s first national internment operations during the First World War, June 20, 2020

James Bezan, MP, issues statement to mark 100 years since the end of Canada’s first national internment operations during the First World War, June 20, 2020

Yvan Baker, MP, Remembering the 100th Anniversary of the End of Canada's First National Internment Operations, June 20, 2020

Canada marks a most unsettling centenary, by Lubomyr Luciuk, Winnipeg Free Press, June 19, 2020

Marking the centenary of Canada’s first national internment operations, by Marco Levytsky, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 19, 2020

The story of Nick Sakaliuk, by Lubomyr Luciuk, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 12, 2020

Internment Centenary commemorated, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 11, 2020

Internment centenary provides lessons for today, by Marco Levytsky, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 8, 2020

End of Mara internment camp to be commemorated, Salmon Arm Observer, June 7, 2020

BC’s Internment Camps, Royal BC Museum

June 20, 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the closing of the first wave of internment camps in Canada and British Columbia.

Online exhibit focuses on internment of Ukrainians during World War I, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 29, 2020

CONFINED, Reflections on Internment in Canada during the First World War, Canadian Centre for the Great War

A war prisoner’s story, by Benjamin Weistra, The Lethbridge Herald, March 24, 2020

Vernon part of end of internment camp ceremonies, Vernon Morning Star, February 24, 2020

Enemy Alien A True Story of Life behind Barbed Wire, a book by Kassandra Luciuk and Nicole Marie Burton, February 12, 2020

This graphic history tells the story of Canada’s first national internment operations through the eyes of John Boychuk, an internee held in Kapuskasing from 1914 to 1917. The story is based on Boychuk’s actual memoir, which is the only comprehensive internee testimony in existence.​

The novel follows Boychuk from his arrest in Toronto to Kapuskasing, where he spends just over three years. It details the everyday struggle of the internees in the camp, including forced labour and exploitation, abuse from guards, malnutrition, and homesickness. It also documents moments of internee agency and resistance, such as work slowdowns and stoppages, hunger strikes, escape attempts, and riots.​

Little is known about the lives of the incarcerated once the paper trail stops, but Enemy Alien subsequently traces Boychuk’s parole, his search for work, his attempts to organize a union, and his ultimate settlement in Winnipeg. Boychuk’s reflections emphasize the much broader context in which internment takes place. This was not an isolated incident, but rather part and parcel of Canadian nation building and the directives of Canada’s settler colonial project.​

Paperback / softback, 96 pages

ISBN 9781771134729

Coming March 2020

It happened, son of interned Ukrainian says, St. Albert Today, January 10, 2020

That Never Happened, Now on DVD, Armistice Films, December 6, 2019

The film reveals the story of Canada's first national internment operations between 1914-1920 when over 88,000 people were forced to register, and more than 8,500 were wrongfully imprisoned in internment camps across Canada, because of the country they came from. In 1954, the public records were destroyed, and in the 1980's a few brave men and women began working to reclaim this chapter in history and ensure future generations would know about it.  THAT NEVER HAPPENED was released theatrically across Canada last year, and was the Official Selection of the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations in September 2018. The film screened for the Human Rights Council in Geneva, as part of celebrations marking the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Right

The troubling story of internment in Canada, St. Albert Today, November 29, 2019

"That Never Happened" on CBC Documentary Chanel, November 20, 2019

Film looks at Canadian Internment Camps, Yorkton This Week, November 16, 2019

Identifying the Enemy in First World War Canada: The Historiography and Bureaucracy of Enemy Alien Internment and Registration, Mary Chaktsiris, Canadian Military History, Vol 28, Issue 2, November 2019

Internment monument unveiled in St. Paul, New Pathway/Ukrainian News, October 8, 2019

Sculpture, ceremony preserve the memory of Ukrainian Canadian internment, Jeff Gaye, Respect News, October 8, 2019

Looking through the wire, Opinion, Jeff Gaye, Respect News, October 8, 2019

A history of Canada's first national internment operations, Respect News, October 8, 2019

Internment monument unveiled in St. Paul, Alberta, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 4, 2019

21 Strands represents Ukranian-Canadian history, St. Paul Journal, October 2nd, 2019

New monument honours unlawfully imprisoned immigrants, St. Paul Journal, September 24, 2019

"Enemy Aliens: Internment in Canada 1914-1920" Fort Henry National Historic Site, St. Lawrence Parks Commission final project report, 2019

During the First World War, Fort Henry was used as an internment camp. Currently Fort Henry houses a travelling exhibit on permanent load titled "Enemy Aliens: Internment in Canada 1914 - 1920", which was developed by the Canadian War Museum in partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation.

Amherst museum gets exhibit about First World War internment camps, The Chronicle Herald, July 21, 2019

Local artist of Ukrainian descent tells story of Canada’s immigrant internment camps, by Angela Brown, The Battlefords NOW, July 5, 2019

Remembering a forgotten piece of Nova Scotia history; 100th anniversary of POW camp’s closure commemorated, The Chronicle Herald, Amherst, NS, July 3, 2019

Amherst event will mark 100 years since POW camp closed, CBC News, July 1, 2019

'We can't forget' Honouring thousands held in Canadian concentation camps, Rocky Mountain Outlook, June 27, 2019 by Tanya Foubert

Yoho WWI internment camp site memorialized and consecrated, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 24, 2019

Strike casualties were immigrants searching for brighter future, Peter J. Manastersky, Winnipeg Free Press, June 21, 2019

Digital technology brings local history chapters to life, Dave Mabell, Lethbridge Herald, June 13, 2019

Концентраційні табори Канади / Canada’s First World War Internment Camps, Ukrainian People Journal 2019

Thinking about Labour and the Carceal State in Canada, March 14-15, 2019 Workshop, Brock University

The Stories Were Not Told: Canada's First World War Internment Camps' author Sandra Semchuk, Feb 7, 2019, CBC Radio Calgary, The Homestretch with Doug Dirks

From 1914 to 1920, thousands of men who immigrated to Canada from Europe were called 'enemy aliens' and sent to internment camps during the First World War. Some families were imprisoned as well. Sandra Semchuk explores that dark period in our history in her new book, 'The Stories Were Not Told: Canada's First World War Internment Camps' -- inspired by a stop at Castle Mountain near Banff. Sandra joined host Doug Dirks in studio.

Left in the Cold, Canada's First Internment Camps, Calgary Journal, January 29, 2019

Imprisoning Our Own: First World War Internment in Winnipeg (Part 1) Dr. Leah Morton, Assistant Curator (History), Manitoba Museum, January 2, 2019

Imprisoning Our Own: Caught At Emerson (Part 2) Dr. Leah Morton, Assistant Curator (History), Manitoba Museum, January 9, 2019

Канадійска неволя: Canada’s Internment of Ukrainians, 1914–1920, Poster by Orion Keresztesi, Essay by Kassandra Luciuk

'Yes, this happened': How Lubomyr Luciuk found out about the internment camp in his hometown, CBC News, November 8, 2018

Saskatchewan-raised filmmaker Boyko explores a 'shocking' Canadian history, The Saskatoon Star Phoenix, November 8, 2018

Ukrainian Internment Documentary, Ottawa Morning with Robyn Bresnahan, CBC Listen, November 8, 2018

Did you know Ukrainian Canadians were interned during the First World War? The little known story is now the subject of a film, Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press, The Toronto Star, November 7, 2018

Fernie marks 100th anniversary of internment camp closure, October 27, 2018 The Free Press, Fernie, British Columbia

"That Never Happened" Tue, Oct 23, 2018: Ryan Boyko joins Global News Morning Calgary to talk about a documentary he directed charting Canada’s first national internment operation.

Documentary "That Never Happned" fights to have audiences remember the shameful past of Canada's first national internment operations, Calgary Herald, October 19, 2018

Documentary reveals Fernie’s role in WWI internment operations, October 17, 2018, The Free Press, Fernie, BC

Discoverying Rewritten History, by David McConkey, September 24, 2018 Brandon Sun

Prisonniers de la terre promise, 8 septembre 2018, LEDEVOIR

“That never happened:” Film reveals the hidden history of Canada’s First World War internment operations, September 6, 2018, Canadian Geographic

Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way: How and why the Civil Liberties Commission became the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, by Lubomyr Luciuk, Studenetz, March 1993, page 3

Uncovering a Canadian Injustice, Interview with Dr. L. Luciuk, MUSE Magazine, Canadian Museums Association, Sep-Oct 2018

Spirit Lake: l’assemblée publique est reportée, 22 Août 2018, De La Vallee-De-L'or Le Citoyen

Exhibit sheds light on dark part of Jasper’s past, The Jasper Local, page B1, August 15, 2018 Issue 127

The Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives’ latest exhibit “Enemy Aliens” traveled from the Canadian War Museum and explores a part of the nation’s First World War history that’s not often discussed.

The Internment of Ukrainian Canadians During the First World War, The Vintage News, Aug 11, 2018 Patricia Grimshaw

New museum exhibit shows history of Canada’s internment camps, Jasper, Alberta, August 8, 2018

The Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives’ latest exhibit “Enemy Aliens” traveled from the Canadian War Museum and explores a part of the nation’s First World War history that’s not often discussed.

Memorial Garden Opened at Site of World War 1 Internment Camp, New Pathway - Ukrainian News, June 7, 2018

"Saving Heritage": Stakeholders, Successes, and Project SUCH, Nadya Oneschuk, 2018

Internment fund’s legacy project. The Ukrainian Weekly, June 23, 2017

Priest, Patriot, Prisoner of War, and Prelate: Petro Kamenetsky (1891–1973), Religious Information Service of Ukraine, September 13, 2016

Priest, Patriot, Prisoner of War, and Prelate - Petro Kamenetsky (1891 - 1973), Annales Ecclesiae Ucrainae, September 11, 2016

Video: First World War internment camp a little known part of Sask. history, The Star Phoenix, May 26, 2018

On February 25, 1919, 65 internees were forcibly relocated from the Munson Internment Camp in Alberta to the railway siding at Eaton, Sask., where a camp was constructed. On Friday, the Eaton Internment Camp Memorial Garden was officially dedicated with a reflection area and a bronze plaque. This event will also mark the beginning of a year of remembrance, recognizing 2019 as the centenary of the Eaton Internment Camp.

Ukrainian association seeks to protect Spirit Lake Internment Camp cemetery, February 22, 2016, The McGill Daily

Cemetery Almost Lost To The Forest, February 16, 2016, The Whig Standard

Un bâtiment historique sous le pic des démolisseurs, February 16, 2016

Canadian Heritage Minister Joly Asked for Help, An Appeal, The Internee Cemetery at Spirit Lake (La Ferme), Quebec. February 9, 2016

On February 9, 2016, the Minister for Canadian Heritage, Mélanie Joly, is being asked for help in saving a Great War cemetery holding the remains of at least 16 "enemy aliens."

Tribute to Spirit Lake Internment Captured in Musical Compositions, March 27, 2016

Campaign revived to designate Quebec wartime cemetery a historic site, Catholic Register, February 19, 2016

100 years since first death in Kapuskasing internment camp, CBC News, June 1, 2015

Spirit Lake Internee Cemetery Almost Lost To The Forest, The Whig Standard, February 15, 2016

Remembering Laurier's support, The Kingston Whig Standard, November 19, 2015

Render unto Ceasar, The Greek Catholic Church's Reaction to the Internment of Ukrainians in Canada during WWI, A. McVay, Logos, Vol 56, 2015

This is what happened to our people', page 10, Surrey North Delta Leader, January 13, 2015

WWI Saskatchewan internment victims honoured almost a century later, Global News, October 29, 2014

Canada's internment of 'enemy aliens' during World War One. www.france24.com September 24, 2014

It's a piece of history unknown to many, even in Canada. During World War 1 thousands of people were interned in 24 camps across the country. Their place of birth was their only crime: being from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was enough for the Canadian government to consider them as subjects of an enemy country. But the stories of these men and women - most of them Ukrainian - have begun to resurface, thanks in part to the work being done at memorial sites like here in Spirit Lake, Quebec.

An Open Letter to Mr. Stuart Murray, CEO, Canadian Museum For Human Rights, 15 September 2014

Recalling Canada's First National Internment Operations, 1914 - 1920

NDP Statement on the 100th Anniversary of The War Measures Act, August 25, 2014

Plaques mark internment of Ukrainian immigrants, Calgary Herald, August 23, 2014

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch: Author interview for Dance of the Banished, August 23, 2014

When Canadians were caged. National Post. Aug 22, 2014

Fulfilling Mary's Dream, The Kingston Whig Standard, August 22, 2014

Project CTO advertisement in the Globe and Mail, August 16, 2014

Internees were forced into hard labour, lived in deplorable conditions. The Edmonton Journal, August 16, 2014

Grave restoration shines spotlight on dark period of Vernon history, Global News, August 11, 2014

Internment camp memorial unveiled at Exhibition Park, Lethbridge Global News, October 29, 2013

Ceremony honours those held in internment camps, Lethbridge, Global News, October 29, 2013

Tue, Oct 29: Southern Alberta is rich in history, and Lethbridge is no exception. Internment camps were set up in our city during the first and second world wars. From 1914 to 1916 an internment camp was set up at the exhibition grounds. Quinn Campbell reports.

Federal internment camp exhibit opens in Banff, Global News, September 13, 2013

First World War exhibit opens in Banff National Park, CTV Calgary, September 13, 2013

First World War internment camps a ‘difficult scar’ for Canadian Ukrainians, Global News, September 2, 2012

Marsha Skrypuch presentation at Banff Public Library, June 19th, 2013

The death of Mary Manko: Righting a historical injustice, Kingston Whig-Standard, Aug 1, 2007

DEATH OF MARY MANKO: RIGHTING A HISTORICAL INJUSTICE

COMMENTARY: By Lubomyr Luciuk, The Kingston Whig-Standard
Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We buried her under a maple. Seeing Mary's grave sheltered by a tree
whose leaf symbolizes our country was comforting. Nearby stands a
spruce. That evergreen would have reminded her of the boreal forest
she knew as a young girl.

Even though she was born in Montreal, Mary was branded an "enemy
alien" and transported north to the Spirit Lake concentration camp, along
with the rest of the Manko family. Thousands of Ukrainians and other
Europeans like them were jailed, not because of anything they had done,
but only because of where they had come from, who they were.

What little wealth they had was taken, and they were forced to do hard
labour for the profit of their jailers. The Mankos lost something even more
precious, their youngest daughter, Nellie, who died there.

Mary Manko Haskett passed away 14 July, the last known survivor of
Canada's first national internment operations. She was 98. For years she
lent her support to the Ukrainian Canadian community's campaign to
secure a timely and honourable redress settlement.

Disappointingly, she did not live to see that happen, despite the Honourable
Stephen Harper's own words. On 24 March 2005 he rose in the House of
Commons to support fellow Conservative Inky Mark's Bill C 331 - The
Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act, saying: "Mary Haskett, is still alive..
I sincerely hope that she will live to see an official reconciliation of
this past injustice." The Prime Minister might now ask the bureaucracy
why his wish was ignored.

The government did, at least, send a representative to Mary's funeral,
Conservative MP Mike Wallace, (Burlington) who read a prepared
statement, subsequently added to the website of the Secretary of State
for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney: " We were saddened to hear of
the death of Mrs. Mary Manko Haskett, the last known survivor of
Canadian internment camps during the First World War and the
postwar period.

On behalf of Canada's New Government, I would like to extend my
condolences to Mrs. Haskett's family, as well as the Ukrainian-Canadian
community. Born and raised in Montreal, Mary was six years old when
she and her family were detained in the Spirit Lake internment camp.

Despite advice from British officials that 'friendly aliens' should not be
interned, Ottawa invoked The War Measures Act to detain 8,579 'enemy
aliens' including Poles, Italians, Bulgarians, Croats, Turks, Serbs,
Hungarians, Russians, Jews, and Romanians - but the majority (perhaps
as many as 5,000) were of Ukrainian origin.

Many were unwilling subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and thus
not 'enemy aliens' at all. For years. Mrs Haskett and others argued that
'Canada's first internment operations' herded together individuals based
on nationality - many of them Canadian-born - and compelled them into
forced labour.

Despite the original wartime justification for these measures, many were
kept in custody for two years after the Armistice of 1918. We are all
grateful for Mrs. Manko Haskett's dedication to the cause of remembering
and commemorating this important event in Canada's history."

Official condolences for those recently deceased, for example Bluma
Appel and Ed Mirvish, can be found on the Canadian Heritage website.
The innocuous text cited above wasn't included, however, being deemed
"too political." And so yet another indignity was heaped upon Mary,
posthumously. Remembering her means recalling what was done to her
and by whom. That's a no-no. While this gaffe may be corrected, even
if Mary wasn't rich or a patron of the arts, it's too late. We got the
message.

Years ago Mary provided a prescription for the redress campaign. She
insisted we should never demand an apology, or compensation for
survivors, or their descendants. Instead we should ask, politely, for
recognition and the restitution of what was taken under duress.

Those funds, to be held in a community-based endowment, would
underwrite commemorative and educational projects that, hopefully,
will ensure no other ethnic, religious or racial minority suffers as
Ukrainian Canadians once did.

While no survivors remain, and even their descendants are senior citizens,
a new generation of Canadians of Ukrainian heritage took up Mary's
cause nearly two decades ago, even though none of us had any ties to
the victims. That changed the day of Mary's funeral, when my mother
and sister returned from western Ukraine. They knew about Mary but,
being away, did not know she had died.

They brought the news that my cousin, Lesia, had married Ivan Manko,
himself distantly related to Mary's parents, Katherine and Andrew,
whose graves are found in Mississsauga's St. Christopher's Catholic
cemetery, not far from Mary's mound.

This crusade was always about righting an historical injustice and, in
that sense, is political. It just got personal too. -30-
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NOTE: Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk is director of research for the Ukrainian
Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca)
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LINK: www.thewhig.com

Mary Manko Haskett on righting an injustice, page 4, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 22, 2007

Mary Manko Haskett, 98, last survivor of Canadian internment operations, dies. Page 4, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 22, 2007

Ukrainian Canadians reject Community Historical Recognition Program, page 4, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 22, 2007

Bill C-331, Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, November 25, 2005

The last survivor finds peace, Globe and Mail, August 26, 2005

Armoury plaque marks 'enemy aliens' internment. Niagara Falls Review, November 1, 2004

Munson Internment Camp, Alberta Internment Camp unveiling program, August 5, 2002

Memorial dedication to Ukrainian internment camp at 2 Mile (Mara Lake Internment Camp), 2002, British Columbia Regional Digitized History,

Canada’s governor general speaks on ‘one of saddest stories’ in history: internment operations, Ukrainian Weekly, August 20, 2000

Ukrainian Canadians press Chretien for justice, Calgary Herald, June 26, 1997

Kapuskasing Internment Camp Plaque, Ontario Heritage Foundation, July 2, 1996

At 2 p.m. on July 2, 1996, an Ontario Heritage Foundation provincial plaque commemorating the Kapuskasing Internment Camp was unveiled in the park outside the Ron Morel Memorial Museum, Macpherson Street at Hwy 11, Kapuskasing.

A continuing Presence: North America's Ukrainians by Lubomyr Luciuk, page 109, The Cambridge Survey of World Migration 1995

Please visit pages 109 to 113

Banff Internees Still Wonder Why by Bob Bergen, Calgary Herald, August 13, 1995

Ukrainians Recall Brutalities by Lubomyr Luciuk, Calgary Herald, August 11, 1995

A continuing Presence: North America's Ukrainians by Lubomyr Luciuk, page 109, The Cambridge Survey of World Migration 1995

Please visit pages 109 to 113

Canada denies redress requests of Ukrainians, other communities, The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 1994

Castle Mountain Internment Camp, Banff National Park, Topical Survey, July 1994

Luciuk sets record straight. The Ukrainian Weekly, February 7, 1993 page 7

Sir William Otter and Internment Operations in Canada during the First World War, Desmond Morton, The Canadian Historical Review, March 1974

Internment of Ukrainian Canadians in World War 1, Forum, A Ukrainian Review, no. 61, Spring 1985

Internment Operations 1914 - 1920 Report by Major General William Otter, Director of Internment Operations

Kapuskasing Internment Camp 1914-1920

Plaque Location: The District of Cochrane, The Town of Kapuskasing. At the Ron Morel Memorial Museum, on McPherson Avenue just south of the Trans-Canada Highway

Canada's First National Internment Camps Opening and Closing Dates

Map of Canada's First Internment Camps

Canada's First National Internment Operations, 1914 - 1920 pamphlet

La première campagne nationale d'internement au Canada, 1914-1920 brochure

Перші всенаціональні операції інтернування в Канаді, 1914-1920 брошура

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