Ukrainian Canadian Internment – Redress

Between 1914 and 1920, during Canada’s first national internment operations, thousands of Ukrainian Canadians and other Europeans: were branded  “enemy aliens;” herded into 24 Canadian concentration camps; had whatever wealth they owned confiscated; and were forced to do labour for the profit of their “keepers.” Others who were not interned had to register and report weekly to police authorities, or else fear the threat of internment and confiscation of personal property. Notwithstanding Britain’s position in WWI and advice to the Dominion of Canada that Ukrainians are “friendly aliens”, Ukrainians in Canada were subjected to state-sanctioned censures, including disenfranchisement, not because of anything they had done, but only because of who they were, where they had come from. This attitude traumatized the Ukrainian Canadian community resulting in name changes, fear of discrimination and prejudice which lead to irreparable damage still felt today.

The Ukrainian Canadian community’s claims arising out of Canada’s first national internment operations have been voiced consistently over nearly two decades. Those requests - for Recognition, Restitution and Reconciliation - are legitimate, modest, necessary, and fair. The Community has never, and does not now, seek an apology from the federal government, nor compensation to survivors, or their descendants. Instead, we have asked only for an official acknowledgement of what happened to Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada’s first national internment operations.

The Ukrainian Canadian community seeks the restitution of the contemporary value of that portion of the internees’ confiscated wealth that was not returned, and of the value of the internees’ forced labour. In 2007 terms, these two amounts would total about $45 million. We had agreed to accept less, in the form of an endowment of $12.5 million, in symbolic redress, to be set up within the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko (established in 1963 by an Act of Parliament).

The $12.5 million amount was promised on August 24, 2005 when, in good faith, we signed an Agreement in Principle, in Regina, with the Government of Canada, specifying that this funding would be used for commemorative, educational, research and cultural initiatives, determined by our community. Although an Acknowledgement, Commemoration and Educational Fund (ACE) of $25 million was included in the federal budget, none of the promised funding was ever delivered to our community.

On February 16, 2007, the Hon. Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, said that the CHRP (Community Historical Recognition Program) and the NHRP (National Historic Recognition Program) have been created. A total of $25 million has been dedicated to the former and $10 million to the latter. We note that these programs were set up without consultation. We understand that the NHRP is to be administered entirely by civil servants within the Ministry of Canadian Heritage. Meanwhile, the CHRP’s $25 million is apparently a fund to which a dozen or so ethno-cultural communities that experienced discriminatory immigration policies or wartime internment measures can apply for project funding, again managed by bureaucrats.

These remedies are unacceptable to the Ukrainian Canadian community. We believe that we are far better able to determine project priorities and to deliver services efficiently, expeditiously, and effectively to our community.

Furthermore, the CHRP program is paternalistic, insufficient (the maximum allowed for our community would be $2.5 million) and, in essence, a “one size fits all” remedy. Our view is that the Ukrainian Canadian experience was unique, that a precedent was set by the way in which two previous Conservative governments dealt with our fellow Japanese Canadians (Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney) and Chinese Canadians (Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper), and that, since the Government has a legal obligation to negotiate a settlement with us, given the Royal Assent afforded to Bill C-331 - Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act (Mr. Inky Mark), November 25, 2005 - our case should be treated separately, and a settlement reached soon, while the last known survivor, Montreal-born Mary Manko, remains alive to bear witness to such a reconciliation. Mr. Harper spoke eloquently on just this point in the House of Commons on March 24, 2005 when he endorsed Bill C-331 - the Ukrainian Canadian Restitution Act.

Therefore, the Ukrainian Canadian community reiterates the call for an endowment of $12.5 million in symbolic redress to be established within the Shevchenko Foundation, in full and final settlement of the community’s issues and claims.

In dealing with the Government of Canada, the Ukrainian Canadian community affirms that its represented by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (Dr Lubomyr Luciuk), the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Paul Grod, LLB) and the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko (Andrew Hladyshevsky, QC). On behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian community, they are prepared to continue and undertake the necessary redress settlement negotiations immediately with the Government of Canada.