Canada's new ambassador to Ukraine creates furor with remarks on internment (12/06/98)

Canada's new ambassador to Ukraine creates furor with remarks on internment

by Christopher Guly
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

OTTAWA - While Ukraine's new ambassador to Canada was hobnobbing with his vice-regal hosts, his Canadian counterpart in Kyiv created a minor furor back home over remarks he made to a Ukrainian publication.

In an interview with the Kyiv-based newspaper Den (Day) about Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's forthcoming visit to Ukraine, Canada's newly named ambassador to Ukraine, Derek Fraser discussed the Ukrainian-Canadian community's request for an apology from Ottawa over the internment of some 5,000 Ukrainian Canadians between 1914 and 1920.

In a December 1 release issued by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA), Mr. Fraser is quoted as having said that "there were no camps for Ukrainians as such in Canada ... [the] camps were for enemy aliens, including Austrian citizens."

The UCCLA also states that the Canadian ambassador "belittled claims for restitution of the internees' confiscated wealth, saying that the redress campaign had emerged only after Japanese Canadians received compensation."

"Because the latter were interned for racist reasons during the second world war, whereas Ukrainians and others were allegedly only imprisoned because they were 'Austrian citizens,' the ambassador implied that the [Ukrainian Canadian] claims were somehow less legitimate," noted the UCCLA statement. The UCCLA added that Mr. Fraser said that what had occurred during World War I is now "ancient history."

In the news release, UCCLA Chairman John Gregorovich said interned Ukrainian Canadians had their "wealth looted and some of it remains in Ottawa's coffers to this day."

He said that, "a distinctly racist attitude prejudicial to Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans often motivated government decision-makers in this period. These unfortunates were forced to work under difficult conditions for the profit of Ottawa and big business, they were stripped of their right to vote, they had their newspapers and organizations censured, some were deported, and others were even sterilized as racial inferiors."

Many of these actions were carried out under the War Measures Act, which was later used against Japanese Canadians during Canada's second national internment operations at the time of World War II, said Mr. Gregorovich. "What was done to our community imparted a crippling legacy to organized Ukrainian Canadian society, which resonates to this day," he said.

"The ambassador is quite clearly unaware of these facts and should probably be better briefed on this subject before he publicly pronounces on it, embarrassing Canada in Ukraine by revealing his ignorance of this unfortunate episode in Canadian history," Mr. Gregorovich said.

He added that Ambassdor Fraser's comments represent an "insult" to the Ukrainian Canadian community and said the UCCLA would be writing to Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy requesting both an explanation and an apology from Mr. Fraser.

| Home Page |