EDITORIAL: Hear the silence (06/25/00)

EDITORIAL

Hear the silence

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of Canada's first national internment operations of 1914-1920, which came on June 20, 1920, with the closing of the Office of Internment Operations two years after the end of the World War I, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (UCCLA) appealed to all Ukrainian Canadians to observe two minutes of silence on Tuesday, June 20, beginning at 11 a.m. The moment of silence was in memory of those killed or abused while interned in Canadian concentration camps.

In 1914-1920 Ukrainians and other Europeans were categorized as "enemy aliens" and subjected to internment, censure, the looting of their valuables and property, and other indignities as a result of passage of the War Measures Act of 1914. Then, with the adoption of the War Time Elections Act of 1917, they were disenfranchised.

All of this occurred needlessly and only because these Ukrainians were victims of circumstance: many of them had immigrated to Canada from Halychyna and Bukovyna, lands in western Ukraine then under the control of Austria-Hungary. Some of them were even born in Canada. There was not a shred of evidence of disloyalty on the part of Ukrainians in Canada that could have even partially justified this heinous operation.

In all, 8,579 enemy aliens - 5,000 of them Ukrainians - were interned in 24 camps throughout Canada in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia, where they served as forced laborers, doing work that benefited the government and business sectors. Another 80,000 persons - the vast majority of them Ukrainians - were forced to register as enemy aliens and to report to local authorities on a regular basis. They were also required to carry identity papers with them at all times.

In "A Time for Atonement," published in 1998, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk wrote: "Today, Ukrainian Canadians, in reminding the nation of what they suffered as a people in this country, are appealing to the government of Canada, asking that it publicly acknowledge responsibility for the wrongs done to the Ukrainian Canadian community between 1914-1920 and that it compensate them for their losses. The meaningful and honorable redress now called for will help ensure that Canadians are never again subjected to such a mass violation of their human rights and civil liberties. Although what happened can never be undone, a time for atonement has surely come."

Two Canadian prime ministers had promised to do the right thing. In his two terms in office Conservative Brian Mulroney did nothing. Liberal Jean Chrétien, while still leader of the Opposition, also had promised that the government would honor its promise to provide redress to victims of the internment operations. Two terms later, his record is as bad as his predecessor's: he's done nothing to right this historic wrong.

In a March 16 commentary in the National Post titled "An apology long overdue," Ian Hunter wrote: "Most Canadians know about the injustice done to Japanese Canadians who were interned as enemy aliens during the second world war; the government of Canada has publicly apologized and made compensation. But few people know that Ukrainian Canadians suffered the same fate in the first world war; to date, the Canadian government has refused even to acknowledge this injustice."

"Ukrainian Canadians have not sought compensation, although they would like to have confiscated property returned to its rightful owners. Primarily they seek official acknowledgment of an injustice done a very long time ago. This is not a partisan issue. But it is a disgrace that successive Canadian governments, Conservative and Liberal, have only stonewalled," Mr. Hunter underscored.

Commenting on why the UCCLA felt compelled to proclaim the nationwide two minutes of silence, project coordinator Walter Halchuk said: "These internment operations had a crippling legacy for the Ukrainian Canadian community - the effects of which can still be measured. By understanding the harm done to our people in the past we hope to begin the process of accounting, healing and reconciliation that is essential to recovery."

We can only hope that on June 20 Ottawa heard the silence.

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