1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Canada says "no" to redress request (12/25/94)

1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Canada says "no" to redress request

After a decade of trying, advocates seeking some form of compensation or recognition of First World War internment of Ukrainian Canadians from the Canadian government were finally given a response.

No. However, that could spell a truce between the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), who remained at loggerheads over who should represent the case before Prime Minister Jean Chretien's government.

Following is a chronology of developments concerning the redress issue.

Early in 1994, Mary Manko Haskett, 85, honorary chairwoman of the National Redress Council of the UCCLA and a survivor of the Spirit Lake, Quebec, internment camp, issued a plea through The Weekly for a resolution of the claim. In the January 30 edition, Mrs. Haskett prophetically wrote: "The officials who think they can deal with this issue by ignoring me will probably outlive me. But they won't outlive my testament."
Montreal filmmaker Yurij Luhovy's controversial film on internment operations, "Freedom Had a Price," premiered on May 27 in Toronto.
A memorial plaque was unveiled at the first internment camp site at Fort Henry, near Kingston, Ontario, by the UCCLA on August 4, coinciding with the anniversary of the start of the first world war and the start of internment operations in Canada.
On October 1 an official parliamentary delegation, representing all five Canadian federal parties, addressed a group of Ukrainian Canadian redress activists in Banff, Alberta, near the Castle Mountain internment operation. The politicians outlined how their parties view Canadian compensation.
A joint UCCLA-UCC brief was drafted following the meeting and submitted to Parks Canada and the Banff National Parks administration. It requested the Canadian government to preserve the Castle Mountain site and build a historical monument there.
In October, UCC representative Bohdan Kordan left the redress negotiations in disgust because of the turf war between the UCC and the UCCLA over who represents Ukrainians regarding the issue.
A month later, the UCCLA issued a 15-point internment-compensation claim to Canadian members of Parliament and senators, calling for a national education campaign, the placement of historical markers at 26 internment camp sites and the construction of a national memorial in Ottawa.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's English-language television network (CBC-TV) acceded to community pressure in November and announced that it will broadcast Mr. Luhovy's embattled internment documentary, "Freedom Had a Price." However, the network, which once questioned the program's objectivity and suitability for broadcast, stops short of choosing an air date.
On December 14, Canada's Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Sheila Finestone tells Ukrainian Canadians, along with five other Canadian ethnic groups, that the Canadian government will not recognize $400 million in redress claims for historic indignities. Instead, Secretary Finestone announces the creation of a $24 million Canadian Race Relations Foundation to be based in Toronto.

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