UCCLA and UCC to issue joint position on redress for World War I internment

WINNIPEG - At its annual meeting in Winnipeg on June 22, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress agreed to refine a joint position in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association regarding redress for the World War I period internment operations.

The cooperative effort is being led by attorney Andrew Hladyshevsky, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. For several months, the director of research for the UCCLA, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, and Paul Grod, first vice-president of the UCC, have worked with Mr. Hladyshevsky to ensure that a thorough and comprehensive redress package is ready for presentation to the government of Canada sometime later this fall.

Commenting after the meeting, Mr. Hladyshevsky said: "We now have a very positive measure of support from the national board of UCC and from UCCLA to develop a common front that will represent what our community expects from the federal government with respect to acknowledgment and redress for Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920. Once completed, this document will represent a united statement from the Ukrainian Canadian community which, once agreed to, will bring closure to this issue by righting this historical injustice."

During Canada's first national internment operations, members of the Ukrainian Canadian community and other Europeans were imprisoned, had their assets confiscated without just cause, were disenfranchised and subjected to various other state-sanctioned censures.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 14, 2002, No. 28, Vol. LXX

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