EDITORIAL: Historic wrong must be righted (11/03/02)

EDITORIAL

Historic wrong must be righted

Between 1914 and 1920, 8,579 "enemy aliens" were interned by order of the Canadian government under the War Measures Act, their property and possessions confiscated, their civil rights revoked. Over 5,000 of them were Ukrainians - immigrants from the territories then under the control of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Another 80,000 - the vast majority of them Ukrainians - were required to register as enemy aliens and to report regularly to local authorities. The internees were used as labor to develop Canada's infrastructure: national parks, logging, mills, mines, railways and bridges. It was slave labor, pure and simple. All this occurred despite the fact that none of these people was shown to be disloyal to Canada.

In April of last year, Member of Parliament (MP) Inky Mark introduced a bill "to recognize the injustice that was done to persons of Ukrainian descent and other Europeans who were interned at the time of the first world war." What exactly does the bill seek? Plaques at all of the 24 sites of internment camps, a museum in Banff National Park to tell the story of the internment operations and educational materials to be used in schools. The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, which for 15 years has been the leading organization lobbying for redress, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the umbrella organization of Ukrainians in Canada, today speak with one voice in negotiating restitution for the internment operations. The two groups are negotiating a settlement with the government based on Mr. Mark's Bill C-331.

At the beginning of this month, as part of Project Roll Call, over 37,000 Canadian households will receive a postcard from UCCLA asking if they are descendants of those interned in 1914-1920. These thousands were chosen because their surnames matched or were similar to the names on the UCCLA's Roll Call list of internees; thus, they may be descendants or perhaps even survivors of the internment operation. Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, UCCLA's director of research, explained that part of the tragedy of the internment operations lies in the fact that those interned "rarely, if ever, mentioned what was done to them - they did not leave memoirs or documents, and the few who did to this day are often reluctant to share them with researchers like us." He added, "So there was fear - there may still be some fear out there." Nonetheless, the UCCLA is hopeful that it will find some survivors and more documentation, and that it will succeed in persuading them to join in the community's united effort to secure redress.

To be sure, Bill C-331 will have to be reintroduced, since the Parliament was prorogued in September, and Mr. Mark has indicated that he will do just that. The good news is that the bill was supported in the past by MP Jean Augustine, now secretary of state for multiculturalism, and that recent meetings with Ms. Augustine and Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps have shown that both are inclined to work with UCCLA/UCC negotiators on some kind of "reconciliation." In addition, just this week there were signals from Prime Minister Jean Chrétien that he will review the 1-million-strong Ukrainian Canadian community's calls for recognition of this historic injustice and reconciliation.

That, indeed, would be a positive and honorable legacy, much akin to that of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who heeded Japanese Canadians' calls for justice regarding their internment during World War II and in 1988 rose in the House of Commons to issue an apology. Furthermore, if PM Chrétien were to act on the internment issue, he would keep the promise made in writing nine years ago during the election campaign.

The Ukrainian Canadian community has waited 82 years for justice. We hope that justice is at hand, and that a legacy of the Chrétien years will be that such a heinous episode in Canadian history is never, ever repeated.

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