“Remember, Learn, Never Forget Them. One hundred years ago a wave of repression as “enemy aliens” were herded into 24 internment camps from coast to coast. One hundred years later a wave of remembrance hallowing all victims of Canada’s first national internment operations when thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans found themselves rounded up as enemy aliens, ” says professor Lubomyr Luciuk PhD and project lead of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

This was achieved by having 100 plaques simultaneously unveiled across Canada at 11 am local time on Friday 22 August 2014.

Fernie/ Morrissey are included as one of the 24 internment camps and so the City of Fernie participated in this wave of unveiling.

I first heard of internment camps from a senior friend Mrs. Maria Anibaldi who often spoke of how she and her mother brought food to the Italians in the Morrissey camp. She said every evening they would bring apples or bread or whatever they could spare and slip it through the wire fence.

I was young at that time and had no idea that such camps had existed in Canada. I asked Mrs. Anibaldi why these people were prisoners and she would say it was just because of their nationality and because of the wars.

She also said that here in Fernie those fortunate enough not to be put in the camp had to report to government officials on a daily basis.

I couldn’t comprehend it then and today as an adult understanding the reasons why people were branded “enemy aliens” it’s still difficult to recognise this treatment of citizens many of whom were Canadian born.

The 24 camps across Canada were first established under the War Measures Act in 1914 to 1920.
Ukrainians and other Europeans were the majority of the civilian internees in the first war.

Women and children were held in two camps, one in Vernon, BC and the other in Spirit Lake, Quebec.
People were forced to do heavy labour, subjected to separation of family members, loss of personal property and exposed to other government endorsed humiliation not because they had done anything wrong but only because of their ethnic background although some were been born in this country, some right here in Fernie.

This act used during the First World War was deployed again during the Second War against Canadians of German, Italian and Japanese heritage and in 1970 against some Quebecois.

This national event held on Friday was the first- ever in Canadian history. I was proud to be part of this historic wave of plaque unveiling that started in Amherst Nova Scotia and ended in Nanaimo, British Columbia, two of the 24 camp sites.

This event is of utmost significance as it recalls the memory of all the people unnecessarily confined during the first Canadian internment operations.

In remembering what they suffered let’s hope that this repression is never repeated.

In Fernie about 28 people attended the ceremony held at the site of the internment camp at Dogwood Park next to the river.

Local resident Alex Gredzuk and his family attended. Alex spoke about a member of his family being interned and said how prisoners were kept working even after the war was over as it was deemed cheap labour.

Guests Mayor Wayne Stetski of Cranbrook and Sparwood Mayor Lois Halko also spoke regarding the effects this war measure had on families.

Retired museum curator Mike Pennock well versed in local history also gave a short presentation.
Fernie native Herma Pozniak whose uncle was interned, Florence Traska, Jim Rawson, Alex Gredzuk and myself assisted in unveiling the plaque.