For Immediate Release (Ottawa, 12 September 2007)
The eighth annual conclave of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association will be held this year in Montreal, Quebec, from Thursday, 27 September to Saturday, 30 September.
Whereas the conclave deliberations are private, the public is invited to the unveiling of a trilingual bronze plaque recalling the help offered to Ukrainian and other European internees by the YMCA's Military Service Department, under the direction of Mr F S Shepard.
During Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920 YMCA educational and recreational services were provided to internees at the Fort Henry, Petawawa & Kapuskasing camps in Ontario, at the Spirit Lake in Quebec, at the Morrissey and Vernon camps in British Columbia and the camp in Amherst, Nova Scotia. It is likely that other camps
were also visited by the YMCA's Internment Camp Work committee.
The plaque is being unveiled in North America's first YMCA, 1440 Stanley Street, Montreal, on Saturday, 29 September 2007, at 11 am. The public is cordially invited to attend this event which will be followed by a reception and the launch of Marsha Skrypuch's most recent book, Prisoners in the Promised Land The Ukrainian Internment, Diary of Anya Soloniuk (Scholastic Canada, 2007)