Canadian First World War
Internment Recognition Fund

Fonds canadien de reconnaissance de l'internement durant
la première guerre mondiale


News & Events

News Articles


    2016

    Doc looks at dark history
    October 20, 2016
    Darren Handschuh, Castanet.net

    A long way to go: Healing requires admission of Saskatchewan's racist past, present
    October 8, 2016
    Jason Warick, Saskatoon StarPhoenix

    Opinion: First World War "enemy alien" measures reminder of how not to treat our neighbours
    Mark Minenko, Edmonton Journal, 23 September 2016
    Mark Minenko is Edmonton lawyer currently researching the War Measures Act and the administration of justice in Canada during the First World War.

    Monashee Mountain Camp Internees Remembered
    July 2016
    The Cherryvillan

    Plaque pays honour to internees
    July 13, 2016
    Vernon Morning Star

    Calgary teacher explores dark period in Canada's past with debut novel, Kalyna
    June 25, 2016
    By Eric Volmers, Calgary Herald

    No request for apology

    Re: "Cult of apologies raises issues," June 4.

    Canada's Ukrainian community never requested an apology from Ottawa for what other Europeans and Ukrainians endured during this country's first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920. Instead, our efforts reflected the wishes of one of the last known survivors, Mary Manko Haskett. She was a Montreal-born child whose family was transported into the Abitibi wilderness where they found themselves behind Canadian barbed wire at the Spirit Lake internment camp. Her sister, Nellie, perished there. Even so, Mary wanted our redress campaign to be "about memory, not money." It took nearly a quarter of a century of work before the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was established, in 2008. It provides grants for educational and commemorative initiatives focused on the need for remaining vigilant in defence of civil liberties and human rights in times of domestic and international crisis. Membership on the Endowment Council administering this fund has always been inclusive of the many communities harmed by these internment operations and related state-sanctioned censures.

    As for exposing what really happened to Ukrainians and other "enemy aliens" in Canada during the Great War, that is not an attempt at rewriting history but rather an exercise in illuminating it.

    Lubomyr Luciuk,
    Member, Endowment Council, Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund

Ryan Boyko's, “The Camps” series in the news in Ukraine!
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Spirit Lake: the federal cemetery that Ottawa forgot
Monday, March 14, 2016

Group Demands Restoration of Former Internment Camp Cemetery
February 19, 2016
Written by New Canadian Media

Campaign revived to designate Quebec wartime cemetery a historic site
February 19, 2016
By Alan Hustak, Catholic Register Special

Tribute to Spirit Lake Internment Captured in Musical Compositions
February 9, 2016
New Pathway