In Pictures: Canada’s first national internment operation
Under the federal War Measures Act, Canada forced 8,579 “enemy aliens” of Ukrainian and Eastern European descent into 24 receiving stations and internment camps across the country between 1914 and 1920.
STANLEY BARRACKS -- WORLD WAR I -- TORONTO -- C.N.E. Stanley Barracks Receiving Station for Internees. This image shows a view of the WWI internment camp at Stanley Barracks at the Toronto Exhibition grounds where Canadians of Ukrainian extraction were held from 1914 to 1916.
Canadian authorities rounded up thousands of immigrant families they considered "aliens of enemy nationality" in World War I. Photo shows women and children is from the Spirit Lake internment camp, Quebec.
Among those thousand of immigrant families Canadian authorities rounded up were 5,954 Austro-Hungarians, most of whom were probably ethnic Ukrainians. Many were used for forced labour in internment camps. Photo shows men at Castle Mountain internment camp in Banff National Park.
Beginning today, a group of scholars and descendents of those families are looking to the future with the establishment of a fund to support research on this largely forgotten episode. Photo shows a group of men beside buildings is also Internees at Cave & Basin internment camp, Banff National Park.