In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence - Ukrainian Canadian Civil ...
In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence - Ukrainian Canadian Civil ...
In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence - Ukrainian Canadian Civil ...
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“Wood for <strong>the</strong> cooks, Banff”<br />
Needlessly interned<br />
<strong>In</strong>nocent <strong>of</strong> any disloyalty, thousands <strong>of</strong> <strong>Ukrainian</strong>s and o<strong>the</strong>r Europeans<br />
were never<strong>the</strong>less needlessly interned in <strong>Canadian</strong> concentration camps as<br />
“enemy aliens” following <strong>the</strong> outbreak <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> First World War on 4 August<br />
1914. Following <strong>the</strong> British Empire’s declaration <strong>of</strong> war <strong>the</strong> Government <strong>of</strong><br />
Canada issued an order-in-council providing for <strong>the</strong> registration and, in<br />
certain cases, for <strong>the</strong> imprisonment <strong>of</strong> aliens <strong>of</strong> “enemy nationality” (see<br />
Document II, pages 3-4). Reassuring <strong>of</strong>ficial proclamations to <strong>the</strong> contrary, <strong>the</strong><br />
government instituted <strong>of</strong>ten draconian measures against those deemed to be<br />
alien enemies. [1]<br />
Thousands <strong>of</strong> Eastern European immigrants, including naturalized<br />
British subjects and even <strong>Canadian</strong>s categorized as being <strong>of</strong> “foreign-born”<br />
origins, found <strong>the</strong>mselves herded toge<strong>the</strong>r into what were <strong>of</strong>ten makeshift<br />
encampments, located in some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Dominion’s frontier hinterlands. [2]<br />
They were afforded no grounds for legal recourse. [3] Wartime hysteria,<br />
ignorance, xenophobia, and racism would combine over <strong>the</strong> following six<br />
years to fuel various repressive measures directed against <strong>the</strong>m. Since<br />
<strong>Ukrainian</strong>s were also known at <strong>the</strong> time by such regional names as “Galician”