British Columbia city acknowledges role in internment operation (06/29/97)

British Columbia city acknowledges role in internment operation

by Yaro Koropecky

NANAIMO, British Columbia - After more than 80 years of silence, the city of Nanaimo, located on the shores of Vancouver Island, publicly acknowledged its role in the internment of immigrants to Canada during World War I. On Saturday, May 24, a bronze trilingual plaque inscribed in English, French and Ukrainian, and dedicated to the memory of the thousands of Ukrainian and other European immigrants who were imprisoned as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920, was unveiled in a small park overlooking Nanaimo Harbor.

This site is located about one kilometer from the old Provincial Jail, where between 125 and 150 internees, including women and children, were detained under armed guard from September 20, 1914, until September 17,1915, when they were transferred to the Vernon Internment Camp in the interior of British Columbia.

The procurement, placement and unveiling of the plaque was organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Victoria, British Columbia, under the direction of Kari Moore, president, and in cooperation with many of the Ukrainian organizations of British Columbia, particularly the Ukrainian community and its leaders in Nanaimo, and with the strong support of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA).

Funds for this project were raised entirely within the Ukrainian community. This was the seventh plaque to be erected; it is the goal of the UCCLA to dedicate a similar plaque at each of the 26 internment sites across Canada. The next unveiling was scheduled for June 7 at Vernon, British Columbia.

Approximately 120 people were present at the very moving and dignified ceremony conducted by George Horonowitsch of Nanaimo. Attendees included Dale Lovick, Speaker of the British Columbia Legislature, City Councilor Douglas Rispin, and representatives from the Ukrainian Canadian communities of Vancouver Island and the lower British Columbia mainland.

Upon the unveiling, the inscription was read in all three languages, and the plaque was consecrated by the Rev. Volodymyr Dmyterko of St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church of Nanaimo, and the Rev. Roman Szewczyk of St. George's Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Victoria. Ms. Moore spoke the following words:

"With this plaque we confirm upon you the honor of paying the ultimate price, the price of losing your freedom in a country that invited you, and promised you work and freedom. You labored with a pick-axe and shovel, in the neighboring mines and forests, laying the rails for transport and prosperity. Then history changed your world.

"Overnight you became an enemy alien, to be feared and unjustly interned. If history could replay itself, you could tell us of your shame, and your unimagined confusion. You still worked with an axe and shovel, but from behind the barbed fence. And for years you carried the stigma of becoming an unwanted citizen.

"This plaque shall stand in your memory, and serve as an educational tool to remember this dark part of our history, and assure us that future Canadian governments, with the stroke of a pen, shall not again put any Canadian citizen behind a barbed wire fence."

The ceremony continued with Prof. Paul Thomas of the University of Victoria giving the keynote address. He outlined the historic background to Canada's internment operation and explained the almost hysterical political atmosphere that led to these extreme actions against innocent immigrants.

In his view, the denial of social equality, or even of Ukrainian origin to these immigrants "was the most serious crime committed against the early Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, for in effect, it constituted a form of 'cultural genocide' that was to have very tragic consequences from 1914 onwards."

Mr. Lovick spoke of the complacency that Canadians have developed in recent years, "how wonderful we are and how nasty others are. And the sad truth is that we as Canadians have a great deal to be ashamed of ... And the day we forget that our civil liberties are only as strong and secure as our willingness to extend those liberties to our neighbors, we are doomed."

Robert Herchak, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of British Columbia, spoke about the efforts of the UCCLA to negotiate a redress settlement with the government of Canada with respect to the internment and loss of freedom by Ukrainian Canadian immigrants between 1914 and 1920. To date, while expectations had been raised by such political figures as Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien, no results have been achieved.

Mr. Herchak congratulated the Ukrainian Canadian Business and Professional Association of Victoria, and the Ukrainian community of Nanaimo for "successfully establishing a public record and local testament to a regrettable and little-known part of Canadian history."

The ceremony ended with the laying of a wreath by children from the Nanaimo community, and by the singing of "Vichnaya Pamiat" (Eternal Memory) and "O Canada" by St. Michael's Church Choir. After the unveiling, all participants were invited to a small reception at St. Michael the Archangel church hall.

Yaro Koropecky is a retired Canadian Navy officer now living in Victoria, British Columbia.

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