Canadian government supports educational center at internment site (05/02/99)

Canadian government supports educational center at internment site

CALGARY - The Canadian federal government has announced is providing financial support for the development of an interpretive and educational center at the site of one of Canada's World War I period concentration camps, at Spirit Lake, Quebec, through its Millennium Fund.

Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray announced, among other projects, that a grant of $12,500 is being provided for the development of the Spirit Lake site in northern Quebec, where thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans were imprisoned as "enemy aliens" during Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920.

The total project cost is estimated at $113,120 according to the local supporters of this museum and interpretive center who have been working in cooperation with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association for over a year on plans for the site.

UCCLA's director of special projects, Borys Sydoruk, on learning of the Millennium Fund grant, said: "This is excellent news, representing as it does a small, but promising, first step on the part of Ottawa toward the acknowledgment of this injustice in Canadian history. The amount of the grant is somewhat modest, given that this tragedy befell thousands of Canadians of Ukrainian and other European origins and that it happened in this country. Nevertheless, we see it as being further evidence that one of our goals, making certain that this event is not forgotten, is slowly being met. The UCCLA intends to unveil a trilingual commemorative plaque at or near the Spirit Lake internment camp site later this fall."

UCCLA Chairman J.B. Gregorovich, commented: "Local community-based groups have, time and again, demonstrated their interest in recalling this unfortunate episode in Canadian history, namely the unjust internment of thousands of innocents and the looting of their wealth, much of which remains in Ottawa's coffers to this day. Groups in places as far apart as Kapuskasing and Vernon and Brandon have now all helped the UCCLA place trilingual plaques at their local concentration camp sites. This Millennium Fund grant will help a community in northern Quebec recall its past and it also furthers our efforts to commemorate this injustice."

He added: "We call upon the federal government to provide funding for the plaquing of all of the remaining 14 (out of 24) sites that the UCCLA has yet to reach. We also urge local Ukrainian communities and their supporters across Canada to make applications to the Millennium Fund for grants, based on the Spirit Lake precedent. Working together we can achieve the goal of making all Canadians aware of this dark episode in Canada's past."

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