In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence - Ukrainian Canadian Civil ...

Foreword
More than a decade ago Lubomyr Luciuk wrote, and Limestone Press
first published, an account of Canada’s internment operations undertaken
against Ukrainian Canadians from 1914 to 1920. Professor Luciuk has now
revised and expanded the text, and more than doubled the number of period
photographs diligently searched out in archives and family albums. It is an
honour to be invited to write a Foreword.
Professor Luciuk relates, and the photographs - with at times an almost
unbearable poignance - depict, what was a shameful and unnecessary decision
made many decades ago by the Government of Canada, a decision for which
neither that Government of the day, nor any of its successors in office to the
present day, has seen fit to apologize for.
Like most who are the product of a Canadian education, I had never
heard of Canada’s first world war internments. It was not a subject covered
in History classes at my schools; if the situation has since changed (which,
frankly, I doubt) it would be due to the perseverance of Professor Luciuk and
the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
The idea that the Government of Canada would round up and forcibly
intern thousands of people, some recent immigrants, some Canadian citizens,
and would indiscriminately label them “enemy aliens”, simply on the grounds
of ethnicity, seems improbable; indeed it seems fantastical and abhorrent. Yet
that is just what happened. As one scholar put it: “The alien became a
problem for the Government not because he was disloyal – in fact the
evidence indicates the contrary – but because many native born Canadians
suspected him of being disloyal.”
I had my eyes opened to this hidden corner of Canadian history when,
in December 1999, I was retained by the UCCLA to prepare a legal opinion
on a possible Charter challenge. Because almost a century had passed since
the events in question, I started the project believing that there was little
chance of success. However I was delighted to be proved wrong, and to
discover that the jurisprudence might provide solid grounds for hoping that
such a challenge would receive favourable judicial consideration if only the
case could be brought before a Court of competent jurisdiction. True,
Canada has no obligation to provide redress for historical wrongs; but our
contention was that, having once decided to do so, and having set the
precedent for Japanese Canadians, then section 15 of the Charter required
that the Canadian Government treat Ukrainian Canadians equally.