UCC launches new campaign to promote awareness of First World War Internment

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.”

From 1914-1920, 8,579 Ukrainians and other Europeans, who were branded ‘enemy aliens’ were imprisoned in 24 internment camps across Canada. Men, women, and children suffered during Canada’s First National Internment Operations, not because of anything they had done, but only because of who they were and where they had come from.

 

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.

This project has been made possible by a grant from the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund.