Canada's governor general speaks

on 'one of saddest stories' in history: internment operations

DAUPHIN, Manitoba - Speaking before members of the Ukrainian Canadian community at Dauphin's Selo-Ukraina during the annual Ukrainian National Festival, Canada's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson said on August 4 that the imprisonment of several thousand Europeans during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920 - the majority of whom were Ukrainian Canadian immigrants - represents "one of the saddest stories in our country's history," a part of Canada's history that remains relatively unknown.

Ms. Clarkson, accompanied by her husband, John R Saul, viewed a trilingual bronze plaque that was unveiled officially later that day at Selo-Ukraina by the Ukrainian Centennial Memorial Committee in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

While there was no internment camp in the Dauphin area, this plaque is intended to symbolically recall all of the Ukrainians and other Europeans who were victims of Canada's first national internment operation.

Thousands of men, women and children were unjustly imprisoned, forced to register as "enemy aliens," work under trying conditions, while also suffering the confiscation of their properties and valuables, disenfranchisement and other state-sanctioned censures, as provided for under the terms of The War Measures Act and The War Time Elections Act.

The plaque unveiled in Dauphin recalls this episode in Canadian history and portrays, on a map of Canada, all 24 Canadian concentration camps where Ukrainian Canadians and other innocent victims of these internal security measures were held.

Commenting on the governor general's remarks, Borys Sydoruk, director of special projects for the UCCLA, said: "It was most reassuring to be able to witness just how sensitive the governor general of Canada, the representative of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is in remembering what these innocent Ukrainians suffered during Canada's first national internment operations."

He added: "Without a doubt both Madame Clarkson and her husband, the distinguished philosopher and social commentator John R. Saul, are very much aware of the indignities and other difficulties that encumbered Ukrainian immigrants in Canada, and likewise appreciative of the fact that many members of our community somehow managed to persevere and contribute to the emergence of the far more accepting and Canadian society that we share today."

"We hope that her awareness of this issue will prompt the government of Canada, and specifically the Rt Hon. Jean Chrétien, our prime minister, to finally acknowledge this injustice and negotiate reconciliation."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 20, 2000, No. 34, Vol. LXVIII

| Home Page |