UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CIVIL LIBERTIES FOUNDATION
LA FONDATION UKRAINIENNE-CANADIENNE DES DROITS CIVILS
УКРАЇНСЬКО-КАНАДСЬКA ФУНДАЦІЇ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКИХ СВОБОД
UKRAINIAN
INTERNMENT IN CANADA
On August 22, 1914, the Government of Canada enacted the War Measures Act, permitting the government to suspend civil liberties and to incarcerate “enemy aliens” – citizens of countries or empires legally at war with Canada. Under the authority of The War Measures Act, Canada interned 8,579 such men, women and children – invited by Ottawa to settle the country and, in some cases, born here – in 24 internment camps from 1914 and 1920. Another 80,000 were forced to register regularly with police officials. The majority of the affected were Ukrainians, targeted because they came from Bukovyna or Halychyna (Galicia), then provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The commemorative notice that appeared in the June 20, 2020 Globe and Mail newspaper.
The commemorative postcard that was mailed to 4,500 Canadians
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
LOST LIBERTIES — THE WAR MEASURES ACT
The Canadian Museum of History has produced a travelling exhibition which examines the internment of Canadians of Ukrainian origin and other nationalities during the First World War, the internment of Italian Canadians and the internment and forced relocation of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, and the arrest of hundreds of people in Quebec during the 1970 October Crisis.
For more information on this travelling exhibition, please visit: https://www.historymuseum.ca/event/lost-liberties