Southern Manitoba monument pays tribute to Canadian internment camp survivors
CBC
The traumatic legacy of Canada's Ukrainian internment camps is being commemorated in a new permanent exhibit in southern Manitoba.
An educational photographic exhibit in Emerson created by the the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation (UCCLF) and the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin Tourism Committee marks Canada's First World War internment operations from 1914 to 1920.
UCCLF chair Borys Sydoruk said the unveiling of the interpretive panel commemorates a march by Ukrainians looking for work from Winnipeg to Emerson in May 1915.
More than 1,000 men left the provincial capital in the hopes of finding work in the United States. By the time they arrived in Emerson, a community located about 100 kilometres south of Winnipeg, their numbers had dwindled to around 200 and they were arrested as "enemy aliens."
Sydoruk says those who were detained were later sent to the Brandon internment camp.
It is important to educate Canadians about internment operations, he says, because many people have never been exposed to this dark moment in the nation's history.
"They were not arrested for doing something, they were arrested for who they were, where they were born," Sydoruk said. "Men left Canada to look for work because they were unemployed and hungry and they got arrested as enemy aliens for that."
The experience left people feeling embarrassed, ashamed and hesitant to share their stories.
Sydoruk says he has spoken with many people whose grandfathers, great-uncles and other family members were interned, and in most cases these stories were never spoken of. In some cases, the tales "were taken to the grave" or documents detailing their horrific experiences were found after their deaths.
The Emerson memorial, which has been in the works for two years, will be officially installed at the park on Main and Church sometime this week, weather permitting. The ceremonial unveiling of the installation took place at the Emerson community centre.
"If we don't know our history, we tend to repeat it," Sydoruk said. "When I was in social studies in high school we did not learn anything about this … so having these types of events, having these types of interpretive panels which people can read in less than two minutes, at least they get some sort of idea that things happen in Canada."
According to the Canadian War Museum, more than 8,500 Ukrainians were detained at Canadian internment camps from 1914 to 1920.
The internment camp in Brandon was located at the Winter Fair buildings on the corner of Tenth Street and Victoria Avenue. Between November 1914 and July 1916, more than 900 men at a time were imprisoned there. The camp shut down on July 30 1916 after the remaining inmates were transferred to Alberta.
In 2005, the federal government passed the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act, recognizing the injustice to those interned during the First World War.
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