UCCLA hits another snag with Spirit Lake memorial (06/23/96)

UCCLA hits another snag with Spirit Lake memorial

by Christopher Guly

OTTAWA - The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association's (UCCLA) campaign to place commemorative plaques at the 24 historic internment sites across Canada has hit another brick wall. The organization wants between $10,000 and $15,000 to establish a memorial at the site of one of two internment camps which housed Ukrainian Canadian women and children along with men.

Spirit Lake, which operated between January 13, 1915 and January 28, 1917, is situated in Beauchamp, or La Ferme, near the north central Quebec community of Amos. The other "family" camp was in Vernon, British Columbia.

Spirit Lake holds extra significance since the only two known survivors - Mary Manko Haskett and Stephania Mielniczuk Pawliw, both in their 80s - spent time there as young girls.

However, before the Department of Canadian Heritage's National Historic Sites Directorate decides whether it will give UCCLA any money, the owners of the land on which the cemetery is located must approve of the memorial.

In a May 17 letter to UCCLA Research Director, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, George Ingram, director of policy, legislation and government relations for the directorate, identifies the owners as Denis Trepannier and his wife, Marie Bigue, who purchased it in April 1988. The letter also lists two local contacts to provide additional information.

One of them, Claude McGuire, secretary of the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, told The Weekly he "understood" Mr. Trepannier had objections for anyone entering the cemetery.

In a telephone interview, Mr. McGuire also read parts of a 1979 legal contract in which a Catholic male religious community, the Clerics of St. Viator, sold the land to a company called Denommee and Sons.

"It says the land is historic and must be accessible to anyone," said Mr. McGuire. "I know the place. There were 1,536 Ukrainians working there in that concentration camp."

But Mr. Trepannier appears to have no problem with allowing people to enter the cemetery. In a telephone interview with The Weekly, the cattle farmer who owns the land, said he also had no objections to UCCLA erecting a plaque in the cemetery. Now, the ball is back in Ottawa's court.

"I now plan on writing a letter to [Secretary of State for Multiculturalism] Hedy Fry," said Dr. Luciuk upon hearing of Mr. Trepannier's lack of objection.

This latest impasse follows on the heels of a more cooperative relationship between UCCLA and the federal government. On June 1, the association unveiled three trilingual historical panels at the Cave and Basin site in Banff National Park. The panels, which feature text and archival photographs, and which explain how, when, why and where Ukrainians were interned in Canada's first national park, were paid for by Parks Canada. So far, that contribution remains the only one by Ottawa.

The UCCLA has set up its own memorials at Castle Mountain (also at Banff), as well as Kapuskasing, Ontario - the last camp to close - and Fort Henry, in Kingston, Ontario.

The association also plans to place plaques in Vernon and Nanaimo, British Columbia, Alberta's Jasper National Park, and two in Manitoba, in Brandon and Winnipeg, which was the site of a receiving station for internees.

"We refuse to simply wait and do nothing, especially since there are still a few survivors with us," said UCCLA chairman John Gregorovich. "We must make sure that before they are gone they know that we made a real effort to ensure that what happened to them is never forgotten."

Dr. Luciuk accused Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien's government of betraying Ukrainian Canadians. He said when Mr. Chretien was still Opposition leader prior to his 1993 election, he sent a letter to former Ukrainian Canadian Congress redress committee chairperson Ihor Bardyn promising to resolve the issue should he ever form the next government.

"Here is a prime minister who was willing to take flack over his government's recent amendments to the Canadian Human Rights Act offering anti-discriminatory protection for gays and lesbians - which one of his flunkies promised in a letter to a gay organization - but obviously thinks Ukrainian Canadians don't count at all," said Dr. Luciuk.

"It's not like we're asking for a lot of money. Yet, [former Conservative Prime Minister] Brian Mulroney's government resolved the Japanese-Canadian internment issue [in 1988] and the feds give native Canadians billions of dollars in perpetuity for historic wrongs done against them. This is all a big joke."

However, Dr. Luciuk doesn't lay the blame entirely on Prime Minister Chretien's doorstep. "I think, years ago, bureaucrats dug themselves deep in a hole on this issue and won't back down now. And I think there is a certain 'Uncle Tom' mentality in some parts of the Ukrainian Canadian community in which we act like hungry dogs looking for scraps. But to me, it's becoming a waste of time to spend hours composing and writing letters when someone takes six months to answer with some wishy-washy reply."

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