The Camps is a free teaching guide that uses documentary film to raise critical awareness among secondary school students about the largely unknown story of Canada’s First National Internment Operations. Featuring a critical inquiry approach and using historical thinking concepts, this collection of six flexible lessons and related learning materials complements the documentary film series The Camps, created by Ryan Boyko. LEARN MORE
Watch The Camps video series by Armistice Films which explores Canada's First National Internment Operations from 1914-1920.
Developing Understanding through the Arts - Recognizing an Historic Injustice: Canada's First
National Internment Operations, 1914-1920
Designed for students in grades 4 to 9, this resource features nine lessons that use visual and dramatic arts to nurture student understanding of Canada’s First National Internment Operations, 1914–1920.
Learn more
Also available in French
Recognizing an Historic Injustice: Canada's First National Internment Operations, 1914-1920
This resource contains nine lessons intended for students in grades 9 to 12 exploring the events, causes and consequences of the internment of thousands of individuals in Canada during the First World War era.
Learn more
Also available in French
The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation (UCCLF) and the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin Tourism Committee invite you to attend the official opening of a new educational and commemorative exhibit marking Canada’s First World War internment operations of 1914 to 1920.
Located about 100 km south of Winnipeg, the site at Emerson commemorates the hundreds of men who walked from Winnipeg to find work in the United States, only to be arrested as “enemy aliens” by federal authorities at Emerson before they could cross the international border. They were then sent to the Brandon Internment Camp.
In 24 camps across Canada, more than 8,000 men, women, and children, primarily Ukrainians invited by the Dominion government to settle the West, were unjustly interned as enemy aliens from 1914-1920 under the War Measures Act, their possessions taken, and not all returned.
80,000 others were forced to register semi-regularly with authorities. They suffered, not because of anything they had done, but because of where they had come from. Many remained “in fear of the barbed wire fence” long after their release.
The event will take place Saturday, September 17 at 2 p.m. (CT) at Emerson Corner Park (intersection of Main and Church streets), Emerson, Manitoba.
UCCLF worked collaboratively with the Municipality of Emerson-Franklin Tourism Committee and others to create the permanent exhibit, which features a photographic monument, as well as an interpretive panel.
"There cannot be reconciliation without education,” said UCCLF’s Borys Sydoruk. “We are grateful for the hard work by the volunteers in this community and from across Canada in helping plan, design, create and consecrate this important memorial. The exhibit will educate as well as emotionally remind visitors to the park what happened in Canada a century ago, to minorities like Ukrainians and others, when the government implemented laws based on fear and hysteria and directed it at specific ethnic groups.”
The affected communities included Ukrainians, Austrian, Bulgarians, Croatians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenes and others, of which most were civilians.
Please visit the Manitoba Museum for more background information on the Emerson arrests and internment:
https://manitobamuseum.ca/archives/29836
https://manitobamuseum.ca/archives/29757
For further information, please e-mail [email protected] or Borys Sydoruk @ 403.903.5013
Schedule of Events (subject to change)
All times Central Time Zone
Opening Ceremony, 2:00 p.m., Emerson Corner Park, Emerson, MB
National Anthems
Opening Remarks: Wayne Arseny, Master of Ceremonies
Consecration of Monument
Remarks:
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Vernon Internee Cemetery Monument |
Photo credits:
Top Photo 1
Vernon Internment Camp monument
CFWWIRF Endowment Council left to right:
Paul Migus, Ukrainian Canadian Congress; Maxim Bozhilov, Bulgarian Community; Kim Pawliw, Internee Descendant; Borys Sirskyj, CFWWIRF Chair; Carola Lange, President, German Canadian Congress.
Missing from photo: Boris Balan, Shevchenko Foundation, Roman Zakaluzny, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Joseph Patrouch, Austrian Canadian Council.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Malysh
Photo 2
Gallery Vertigo Official Opening of Pause in Plight by Kerri Parnell
Left to Right:
Paul Migus, CFWWIRF Endowment Council; Andrea Malysh, CFWWIRF Program Manager; Maxim Bozhilov, CFWWIRF Endowment Council; Carola Lange, CFWWIRF Endowment Council; Kerri Parnell, Artist, Pause in Plight; Borys Sirskyj, CFWWIRF Chair; Bohdana Bashuk, Shevchenko Foundation Executive Director; Kim Pawliw, CFWWIRF Endowment Council; Charlene Heidt representing Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu; Brigitte Red, Gallery Vertigo Executive Director; and Michelle Loughery, Wayfinder Sunflower Project.
Photo courtesy of Gallery Vertigo
Photo 3
Vernon Internee Cemetery monument
CFWWIRF Endowment Council left to right:
Maxim Bozhilov, Bulgarian Community; Lawrna Myers, CFWWIRF Researcher; Carola Lange, President, German Canadian Congress; Borys Sirskyj, CFWWIRF Chair; Kim Pawliw, Internee Descendant; Andrea Malysh, CFWWIRF Program Manager and Paul Migus, Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Malysh
GRANT OPPORTUNITY
The Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) is requesting a professional researcher or researchers to collect, catalogue and prepare a finding aid and database of articles in Canadian ethnic newspapers reporting on the internments of 1914-1920. The internees were members of many different ethnic communities, including Hungarian, Turkish, German, Czech, Armenian, Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Slovak, Bulgarian, Romanian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, and Italian.This research project is meant to complement the existing materials drawn from English-language newspapers and is accessible through the Fund’s website: www.internmentcanada.ca
The ideal candidate will have excellent research skills and knowledge of the internment operations. You will be capable of carrying out a wide range of activities such as appraisal, arrangement, description, creating reference guides and providing access to all records, in all formats (e.g. paper, electronic). You will comply with meeting of legal obligations in areas such as copyright, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Note that all relevant permissions for use of the collected materials on the CFWWIRF website must be obtained by the researcher.
If this opportunity interests you, please submit an online grant application with an expected financial budget and your resume clearly demonstrating the qualifications below:
Application Deadline: June 30, 2022, with research and reporting completed by March 31, 2023.
For any questions regarding this grant opportunity, Contact Joseph F. Patrouch, Endowment Council at (780) 492-4568 or email: [email protected].
We thank all those who apply for your interest in Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920.![]() |
Enemy Alien: A True Story of Life Behind Barbed Wire by Kassandra Luciuk Between the Lines 2020 |
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Fields of Light and Stone by Angeline Schellenberg University of Alberta Press 2020 |
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Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva Knopf Canada 2020 |
October 1, 2021. OTTAWA, ON. Today the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) launched an Internment Education Campaign . This campaign will reach thousands of Canadians on various media platforms with emphasis on mobile devices and social media.
The campaign will promote awareness of First World War Internment Operations using a series of innovative video ads and still images that will be featured on social media and with BellMedia.
“We have adapted creatively to seek new audiences and engage online to promote awareness about the First World War Internment,” stated Alexandra Chyczij, National President of the UCC. “This innovative campaign will run throughout October, in the lead up to October 28, National Internment Education Day.”This campaign is funded by the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF), which supports projects to commemorate and recognize the experiences of ethno-cultural communities affected by First World War Internment.
“The Internment Recognition Fund is committed to the ensuring that the long-forgotten story of Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920 is rightfully placed in our nation’s history,” said Borys Sirskyj, CFWWIRF Chair.
The CFWWIRF was established to support commemorative and educational projects that recall the unjust internment of 8,579 so-called “enemy aliens”. The affected ethno-cultural communities include Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, various people from the Ottoman Empire, Polish, Romanians, Russians, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenes, among others, of which most were Ukrainians.
Since the inception of the CFWWIRF, over $5M has been approved in grants which include educational resources for teachers, an Augmented Reality Map and an online digital map which houses The Camps webseries along with over 12,000 newspaper articles.
To learn more about this project, please click here to visit the UCC's website.Winnipeg, July 15, 2021 – The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) joins Indigenous communities and all Canadians in mourning the loss of thousands of innocent children at Canada’s residential schools.
In support of the continued investigations into these deaths, CFWWIRF is pleased to have provided its Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) unit to assist in locating potential unmarked burials at two Indian Residential School (IRS) sites in British Columbia. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation requested that Dr. Sarah Beaulieu of the University of Fraser Valley use GPR to assist in locating potential unmarked graves near the Kamloops Residential School. Dr. Beaulieu has also surveyed an additional IRS site but due to confidentiality is unable to disclose that location.
For the full Media Release, click here.
About CFWWIRF
The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was established in 2008 within the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko to support commemorative, educational, scholarly and cultural projects that commemorate and recognize the experiences of all the ethnocultural communities affected by Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920. Since its inception, over $4 million in grants have been awarded in an effort to shed light on this tragic yet little-known chapter in Canadian history.
For more information on the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund
contact the Program Manager,, at [email protected]
or toll free at 1-866-524-5314.
www.internmentcanada.ca
October 28th is National Internment Education Day, commemorating Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920.
The Endowment Council is pleased to offer its newest project, “Discovering Canadian WW1 Internment”, an augmented reality digital map to educate Canadians about this tragic page in Canada’s history, to schools, educators and museums across Canada.
This project has delivered an immersive, accessible Augmented Reality (AR) exhibit that brings to life the history of Canada’s first national internment operations. 360 Story Lab has created an AR map of Canada printed on heavy vinyl. The map includes small visual icons, or “targets” that are recognized by the AR software program and activate the AR experience.
To obtain the vinyl AR Map in English or French, please contact the CFWWIRF Program Manager,.
Toronto, Canada – Pause in Plight, a 17-piece art exhibit, created by artist, Kerri Parnell reveals the Canadian WW1 national security fears and wartime prejudice, which led to the internment of more than 8,000 men, women and children primarily of Ukrainian and Eastern European descent deemed as "enemy aliens".
KUMF Gallery is pleased to host an introduction by the artist, Kerri Parnell, and special remarks at an outdoor commemoration by guest speaker, Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk on Sunday, September 13, 2020 @ 1:00 p.m.
KUMF Gallery will house, Pause in Plight from September 13 to October 11, 2020.
The Board of Directors of the Shevchenko Foundation is currently seeking an internee descendant representative for April 2020 to March 2021. This appointment is for a one year fixed term. The submitted names will be considered as potential candidates for the Internee Descendant Endowment Council position. (Non-voting)
We invite you to complete the attached form along with your resume by February 28, 2020.
Please click here for the English application form (PDF).
Please click here for the French application form (PDF).
Please submit to:
The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund
202- 952 Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2W 3P4
Attention: Program Manager
Email: [email protected]
For more information, or to receive this release in an alternate format:
Grant Hamilton
Director, Marketing & Communications
Brandon University
204.571.8542
[email protected]
Program Manager
Canadian First World War
Interment Recognition Fund
1-866-524-5314
[email protected]
Danielle Adriaansen
Director, Public Affairs
Assiniboine Community College
204.725.8717
[email protected]
BANFF, ALBERTA – The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) hosted the Rocky Mountain Premier of the award winning internment documentary, “That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations” on Friday, November 17, 2017 at the Cave & Basin National Historic Site, one of the 24 First World War Internment Camps.
Internment directly impacted 8,579 so called “enemy aliens” including, among others, Ukrainians, Croatians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Macedonians, Polish, Romanians, Russians, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Turks and others from the Ottoman Empire, of which most were Ukrainians and most were civilians.
The Endowment Council of the CFWWIRF is working hard on shedding light on this tragic yet little known chapter in our Canadian history. Since the inception of our Fund back in 2008, the Endowment Council has awarded over $3 million in grants. Grant projects include: historical exhibits, awareness campaigns and presentations, commemorative plaques and statues, internee cemeteries, films, historical research, artistic endeavors, symposiums, and educational resources, among others.
The CFWWIRF provided a grant to Ryan Boyko of Armistice Films in support of “The Camps” webseries and the documentary, “That Never Happened” which focuses on one of the dark chapters of our Canadian history.
CFWWIRF Chair, Mr. Emil Yereniuk stated during his opening remarks, “On behalf of the Endowment Council, I would like to thank the Parks Canada for providing this venue for the Rocky Mountain Premier. The Cave & Basin internment exhibit on this site ensures that visitors will learn of the effects of the War Measures Act and its crippling legacy 100 years after it was first implemented. It also represents an important contribution to remembering, commemorating and recognizing the historic injustice suffered by thousands of innocent people and to learning from our Canadian history as ensuring that a similar tragedy not be repeated again.”
The film screening at this symbolic location was shown on 4 giant screens to a packed house. Included in the VIP guest list was the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, Board of Directors and internee descendants, of whom are highlighted in the film. Mr. Andrew Hladyshevsky Q.C., President of the Shevchenko Foundation, spoke during the Q&A session with Ryan Boyko and co-Producer, Diana Cofini. Mr. Hladyshevsky described to the audience the negotiation process with the Government of Canada and the signing of the agreement with the Shevchenko Foundation on May 9, 2008 at Stanley Barracks, a former internee receiving station in Toronto. He commented to the audience that, “During the seven years of negotiations with 3 Canadian Prime Ministers; 6 Ministers of Heritage; 5 Secretaries of State for Multiculturalism and 7 Directors for Multiculturalism, we were able to achieve an honourable settlement with the creation of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. I believe we have begun to honor the memory of the men, women and children who were imprisoned or had their civil rights abused during Canada’s First National Internment Operations.”
Ryan Boyko has also written a historically approved feature film screenplay on internment called “Enemy Aliens.” The Ukrainian State Film Agency has chosen the movie “Enemy Aliens” to receive its largest grant and over one third of the movie’s budget is now secured. Ryan Boyko and co-Producer, Diana Cofini is currently in talks with numerous Canadian and International Production and Distribution companies to help finance the remainder.
The Documentary, “THAT NEVER HAPPENED” reveals the story of Canada's first national internment operations between 1914 - 1920, when over 88,000 people were forced to register and more than 8,500 were wrongfully imprisoned in concentration camps across Canada, not for anything they had done but because of where they came from. In 1954, the public records were destroyed and in the 1980s a few brave men and women began working to reclaim this chapter in history and ensure future generations would know about it.
To date, “That Never Happened” has won 5 Film Festival awards:
10° Hotter - Best Documentary - Valley Film Festival LA
People’s Choice Award - Bay Street Film Festival
Best Documentary - Festival Vues du Monde - Montreal
Best Investigative Documentary - Regina International Film Festival and Awards (RIFFA)
Silver Award - Best Documentary - Spotlight Documentary Film Awards - Atlanta, GA
The CFWWIRF digital map on its website contains “The Camps” webseries along with over 10,000 digitized news articles dating from 1914 to 1920 that describes the opinion of the time and presents the hardship unjustly endured by new immigrants who were invited to Canada and then had their civil and human rights taken away by the War Measures Act. The Camps DVD’s are now available for purchase on the Armistice Films website, www.armisticefilms.com.
About CFWWIRF
The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) was established to support projects that commemorate and recognize the experiences of all of the ethno-cultural communities affected by Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920.
For more information on the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund contact the Program Manager,, toll free at 1-866-524-5314.
SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE #16 – Ottawa, Ontario
In the series finale, Internee Descendant Jerry Bayrak gives a powerful, heartfelt account of his family’s struggle, resulting from their internment in Spirit Lake.
Link: http://internmentcanada.ca/map.cfm - Click on Spirit Lake
For more information on this webseries of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund contact the Program Manager,, toll free at 1-866-524-5314.
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA – March 2, 2017 – The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) announces release of Season 2 - Episode #9 of The Camps webseries located on the digital interactive map on its website - www.internmentcanada.ca.
Over 100 years ago the Cave & Basin internment camp in Banff was opened. Forced labour was used for park development to enhance access to Rocky Mountains National Park as well as its appeal to the general public.
SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE #9 – Banff, Alberta
Internee descendant Walter Gerdts returns to the Banff Cave and Basin Museum on the location where his father was wrongfully imprisoned during Canada’s First National Internment Operations.
Link: http://internmentcanada.ca/map.cfm - Click on Banff
Thank you to everyone who has been watching the series. The Camps has Won 2 Awards.
Indie Fest - Award of Merit: Special Mention
Hollywood International Motion Pictures Film Festival - Award of Recognition
For more information on this webseries of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund contact the Program Manager,, toll free at 1-866-524-5314.
For more information on this webseries of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund contact the Program Manager, toll free at 1-866-524-5314.
Over 100 years ago today the Niagara Falls Internment Camp opened. The armoury held enemy aliens after their arrest at the Canada - USA Border crossings.
SYNOPSIS OF EPISODE #15 – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Military Museum volunteers Sarah Stewart, Kathy Doherty and Berndt Meyer, retrace the steps of internees at Niagara Falls Internment Camp in Ontario.
Link: http://internmentcanada.ca/map.cfm - Click on Niagara Falls.
For more information on this webseries of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund contact the Program Manager, toll free at 1-866-524-5314.