Canada’s First National Internment Operations, 1914-1920: The Serbian experience

differs from it in two ways. First, any Federal Cabinet declaration of
a national emergency “must be reviewed by Parliament, and secondly,
any temporary laws made under the Act are subject to the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms” 5), thus guaranteeing that a suspension of civil
rights is subject to the Charter.
Compounding the severity of the ramifications of the War Measures
Act was the Wartime Elections Act in effect from 1917 to 1920
which authorized the disenfranchisement of “enemy alien” citizens
naturalized after 31 March 1902. Kingston’s Daily British Whig, one
of the few voices of protest, reacted to the Wartime Elections Act in an
8 September 1917 commentary with these words: “It is very probably
that if this proposal (Wartime Elections Act, 1917) becomes law, the
‘alleged’ foreigners and hitherto ‘naturalized’ Canadians will bear their
reproach meekly, but they will have sown in their hearts the seeds of
a bitterness that can never be extirpated. The man whose honour has
been mistrusted, and who has been singled out for national humiliation,
will remember it and sooner or later it will have to be atoned for.”6)

Setting the stage for internment
With the enforcement of the 1914 War Measures Act, Canada issued an
Order in Council on 28 October 1914 for the immediate registration and
internment of “enemy aliens”. Those who fell into this category were
those registered at entry as “Austro-Hungarians”, mainly Ukrainians,
Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, German-speaking Austrians,
Poles, Italians, Croats, Russians, Jews, Czechs and Slovaks.
Among them were also Armenians, Bulgarians, Kurds and other citizens
of the Ottoman Empire. More than 80,000 so-called “enemy
aliens” were obligated to carry identification and report regularly to
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, while 8,579 “Austro-Hungarians”,
including women and children, were rounded up and shipped to 24 internment
camps across the country. Those classed as POWs (prisoners
of war) were of German nationality and German-speaking Austrians
and were treated as first class internees not obliged to do hard labour.
The remaining internees, actually civilians who were already naturalized
citizens of Canada or in the process of obtaining citizenship, were
treated as second class internees.
Were these stigmatized new Canadians truly “enemy aliens” or
were they “loyal aliens”? Although there was never any evidence of
disloyalty, thousands were subjected to this injustice and humiliation
even though the British Foreign Office had confirmed that these people
were “friendly aliens”. In a letter to the Honourable Secretary of State
dated 29 December 1916, US Consul G. Willrich disagreed with their
mistreatment: “The prisoners in Canadian internment camps came to
the Dominion as peaceful emigrants and the good majority of them
have been good, law-abiding citizens residents… most of them desiring
to become Canadian citizens. The idea, therefore, of a treatment of
such men as quasi criminals seems contrary to the best interests of the
Dominion.” 7)

Dichotomous situation of the Serbs
In this scenario the Serbs found themselves in a unique dichotomous
situation. Serbs affected by the slipshod registration at the point
of entry and the resulting internment were those from regions within
the boundaries of Austria-Hungary, namely Bosna-Hercegovina and
today’s Croatia (Lika, Kordun, Slavonija and Dalmacija). Ironically,
these Serbs left the Empire as its opponents to seek a better life in
Canada where their dreams were quickly shattered precisely because
of the Empire.
Unlike the Ukrainians who numbered more than 100,000 in 1914,
the number of Serbs has not yet been confirmed, other than to say
that the estimated minimum number was 2,500. Confirmation of the
number of Serbian internees is complicated by the fact that many
Serbian and Croatian surnames are similar, or actually the same. The
number of Serbian internees can be finalized only when the ethnic
origin of the names are substantiated through primary research.
In contrast to the above, Serbs from the other side of the Drina
River, from Serbia proper or Montenegro, were not affected by the internment
as they were automatically viewed as Canada’s allies.

Vilification by media and politicians
The general atmosphere of wartime anxiety led to measures which abrogated
the civil rights of both naturalized and non-naturalized Canadians.
In that atmosphere, xenophobia was on the rise and all those labeled
“enemy aliens” were viewed as a threat to the country, to the job market,
to society in general. There were street protests with banners openly
condemning the “enemy aliens”. The hostilities continued even after the
war. In 1919 Herbert S. Clements, Member of Parliament for Kent West
near Chatham, still showed no mercy for these destitute people, some
of whom were still incarcerated when he said: “I say unhesitatingly that
every enemy alien who was interned during the war is today just as much
an enemy as he was during the war, and I demand of this Government
that each and every alien in this Dominion should be deported at the
earliest opportunity. Cattle ships are good enough for them.” 8)
Vilification went beyond the internees. The Globe for 2 August 1918
wrote: “No Civic Aid for Alien Enemy Baby - Under the order recently
passed the City Council the authorities at City Hall have decided that
an eight-weeks old baby, born of Austrian parents, is an alien enemy,
and it has been denied civic assistance at one of the hospitals. A city
official has undertaken to pay for the infant for two days to see if in the
meantime some way out of the difficulty cannot be found.” 9)
On 10 September 1917 Sir Wilfrid Laurier rose above the clamour
and xenophobia to demonstrate true statesmanship when he assessed
the misguided path of the internment operations with these words:
“This measure is such that it must have serious consequences. If it be
said in Canada that the pledges which we have given to immigrants
when inviting them to come to this country to settle with us, can be
broken with impunity, that we will not trust these men, and we will
not be true to the promise which we made to them, then I despair for
the future of this country.” 10)

Mass arrests
The authorities arrested the “enemy aliens” en masse and sent them
to 24 internment camps of which two were family camps with men,
women and small children at Spirit Lake in northern Quebec and
Vernon, British Columbia. The other 22 camps were located at military
forts, government buildings, barracks, bunk houses, armouries,
railway cars, militia camps and malleable iron works. From east to
west these were at: Halifax and Amherst in Nova Scotia; Montreal,
Valcartier and Beauport in Quebec; Kingston, Toronto, Kapuskasing,
Niagara Falls, Sault Ste. Marie and Petawawa in Ontario; Winnipeg
and Brandon in Manitoba; Eaton, Saskatchewan/Munson, Alberta;
Lethbridge, Banff National Park (Castle Mountain and Cave and
Basin) and Jasper in Alberta; Monashee-Mara Lake, Fernie/Morrissey,
Edgewood, Revelstoke/Field-Otter and Nanaimo in British Columbia.
Kapuskasing was the last camp to close in 1920, two years after the
Armistice. Generally speaking, the liberated internees remained silent
about their experience out of fear of reprisals, re-arrest or other punishment.
Some started a new life in Canada while others, embittered
by the injustice they had endured, returned to their homelands. Their
reticence explains why Ukrainian and other scholars were totally
unfamiliar with Canada’s first national internment operations for
more than six decades.

Internees dispossessed
The arrest of “enemy aliens” left indelible marks on the internees and
their families. Uprooted and marginalized, the families’ property and
valuables were seized, their money was stolen, economic losses were
staggering.
General William Otter, Chief of the General Staff of the Canadian
Army and founder of the Royal Canadian Military Institute, came out
of retirement to oversee Canada’s first national internment operations.
He said with assurance: “As many of those interned were residents
of Canada and possessed real estate, securities, etc. such have been
turned over to the Custodian of Enemy Alien Properties for the future
decision of the Government.” 11) Years later Professor J. H. Thompson
of McGill University reported a very different observation: “The Canadian
government sold the seized property of “enemy aliens” at auction
for 10 cents on the dollar.” 12)
_______________
5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergencies_Act
6) Luciuk 12.
7) CFWWIRF . Canada’s First National Internment Operation, 1914-1920.
Brochure. n.d.
8) CFWWIRF . Brochure.
9) Endowment Council. The Causes and Consequences of Canada’s First
National Internment Operations, 1914-1920: The Affirmation of Witnesses.
Working Paper. (Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2011): 17.
10) Endowment Council 18.
11) Luciuk 7.
12) Luciuk 16.