Laugh or Cry at Non Response to Internment Question

Ottawa – On November 16, the Conservative government’s response to a question on the unresolved internment issue clearly illustrated that this issue is not one that has even been discussed at the Conservative Cabinet table. During Question Period, Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti pressed about the lack of movement on the resolution of the internment of Italian Canadians during the Second World War. Fellow Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj took the opportunity to interject and also remind the Conservative front bench of their failure to resolve the issue of the internment of Ukrainian Canadians during World War I. In the response, the Conservative government’s Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson failed to even acknowledge the internment issue and instead talked about a completely unrelated matter.

“Despite almost two years of being questioned in parliament and pressured by the Ukrainian and Italian communities, no minister wanted to respond to Mr. Pacetti’s question on internment. It finally fell to Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson to respond and based on his non-response, it’s obvious that the resolution of the internment question for these two communities has not been given serious consideration by this Conservative government. Does one laugh or cry when a top Conservative government Minister shows such complete ignorance on an issue of crucial importance to the over 1.1 million Ukrainian Canadians and the over 1.3 Italian Canadians. This demonstrates that after cancelling agreements signed by these two communities with the previous government, this Conservative government is not the least bit interested in resolving the internment issues,” stated Wrzesnewskyj.

Positive Message in Response to Internment on CBC

On Monday, November 26, 2007, after the 9 am News, the CBC Radio One program The Current aired an hour long segment on the Ukrainian Canadian redress and reconciliation campaign. The segment deals particularly with the Spirit Lake (La Ferme) camp and the Late Mary Manko Haskett’s daughter Fran’s recent attempt to find the grave of her mother’s sister, Nellie (Carolka) Manko, who died there.

At about the same time, the Ukrainian Canadian community began negotiations with the Honourable Jason Kenney, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity, on a comprehensive settlement, as required by Bill C 331 - The Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Act, which received Royal Assent on November 25, 2005.
 

Please Contact The Cbc - The Current as soon as possible with a comment on the redress segment aired that day. If the CBC gets no feedback or very little, they come away thinking the community does not care about the internment issue. Go to: cbc.ca/thecurrent and click on the “contact” link. To comment, call the CBC Feedback line: 1 877 287 7366.