Nathalie Chevrier
Lori Marion (left) presents the Award for Community Service in Heritage and Culture to Mary Kureluk, board member of the Camp Spirit Lake Corp.
MONTREAL – Spirit Lake Internment Interpretative Center received its second award from the Quebec organization Neighbours in recognition of its outstanding contribution toward community enrichment, and its active participation in furthering awareness of Quebec’s diverse heritage.
Neighbours serves the English-speaking community in Quebec and is a partner with Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) and Canadian Heritage. The QCGN was founded in 1995, and is “a voice for community commitment and collaboration” linking 41 English-language community organizations across Quebec, with its headquarters in Montreal.
The award, in the category of Community Service in Heritage and Culture, was presented at the awards gala held at Hotel des Gouverneurs on March 29 in Rouyn- Noranda. The award was accepted by Mary Kureluk, representing the nine-member volunteer board of directors of Camp Spirit Lake Corp. that is chaired by James Slobodian. The board oversees the daily operation of Spirit Lake Center’s museum and documentation center.
This center is the largest internment museum in Canada telling the story of Spirit Lake internment camp. Spirit Lake was the second largest internment site established during Canada’s First National Internment Operations. Over 1,200 were unjustly interned at Spirit Lake; the majority were Ukrainians, mainly taken from Montreal area.
Among the 150 in attendance at the gala were officials from the City of Rouyn-Noranda. The event received extensive coverage in the French and English media of Quebec.
In 2014, Spirit Lake Center won the prestigious Les Grands Prix du Tourism Quebecois Award. Now in its fifth year of operations, the center’s unique internment exhibits have been viewed by over 20,000 visitors, and thousands of students with their teachers have visited through the center’s education outreach program.
The year 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Spirit Lake internment camp (1915-1917). The interpretive center at the site of the camp has contributed to the awareness of internment story and to the early Ukrainian immigrant history to Quebec. It has developed close links between the French- and English-speaking populations, working in a spirit of partnerships between the two language groups. Many events are planned to mark this historic anniversary, including a project titled “On the Road to Camp Spirit Lake,” the erection of trilingual (French, English, Ukrainian) permanent markers indicting the location of former buildings on the internment site, the location of railway tracks used to transport internees, officers’ quarters, location of internees’ barracks, the lake which internees had to cross in winter doing forced labor, the location of the Spirit Lake cemetery and more.
Located 350 miles from Montreal, Spirit Lake Center is open all year. The documentary films “Freedom Had A Price” and “Ukrainians in Quebec” include the story of Spirit Lake internment. For further information readers may call 819-727-2267 or 819-763-7627, or see www.campspiritlake.ca.