Fact Sheet
Serena Gohal
Mr. Melnyk
Against:
“Enemy Aliens”
posed a real threat to
A
description of my interpretation of the issue:
Interning enemy aliens was the wrong
thing to because they did not pose a real threat to
Argument
One:
The government tried to use the War
Measurement Act to force all immigrants from countries against
Evidence:
-
1914-
more than 100,000 Germans and Austro-Hungarians lived in
-
Respected
people, helped
- Businessmen, scientists and respected
municipal officials
- Thousands of unskilled workers working on
transcontinental railroad
and
farms(1)
-
No act of spying or sabotage ever proved(1)
-
8% of the German and Austro-Hungarian
population was confined(1)
-
Majority
of others were unemployed (municipal authorities refused to help)
-
The
loyalty of 400,000 Canadians of German origin questioned(1)
-
-
Only
because Ukrainians had Austro-Hungarian passports they were considered “enemy
aliens”
-
British government document
recently found, dated in January of 1915, instructed the Canadian government
that the Ukrainian nationals were hostile to the Austro-Hungarian empire and
should be considered as friendly aliens(5)
-
Most
of the people interned were foreign nationals, a few were Canadian born
citizens, and almost all non-combat, unemployed civilians (victims of the 1913
depression and wartime hysteria)(6)
The government used reason for
internment included like "acting in a very suspicious manner" and
being "undesirable". By the middle of 1915, 4000 of the internees had
been imprisoned for being "indigent" (poor and unemployed). A total
of 8,579 Canadians were interned between 1914 and 1920. Over 5,000 of them were
of Ukrainian descent. Germans, Poles, Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Turks,
Serbians, Hungarians, Russians, Jews, and Romanians were also imprisoned. Of
the 8,579 internees, only 2,321could be classed as "prisoners of war"
(i.e. "captured in arms or belonging to enemy reserves"); the rest
were civilians. (9)*
Argument
Two:
Even if the government had reasons
to put the “enemy aliens” in to internment camps, the conditions they lived
under were hostile and the treatment they faced was unjust (including people
not interned).
Evidence:
-
War
turned people back at the Canadian homefront to hatred and intolerance(1)
-
Public
opinion demanded all “enemy aliens” be fired from their jobs and locked up(1)
-
8%
of the Hungarian/ German population in
-
1916- Old town
-
-
Symphony
orchestras stopped playing composers such as Beethoven & Wagner(!)
-
German
no longer taught in schools
-
Little
boys even threw stones at Dutch Hounds (German dogs)
-
Government banned all “enemy
alien” newspapers
-
International law forbade such
procedures but they were went ahead with anyways
-
-
Austrians who had enlisted in
the war for
-
Internment
camps located where the surrounding territory is hostile to the inmates(5)
-
The
War Time Elections Act of 1917 disenfranchised most immigrants since 1902(5)
-
88000 immigrants required to
register as "enemy aliens"
-
Anyone found without work or
without identity papers, and those who failed to report regularly to the police
became candidates for the camps(6)
- Interns had to provide cheap labour, life in camps was grim, working conditions were harsh, clothing was scarce and food was rationed(6)
-
Desperation led to suicide and
more than 60 escape attempts(6)
-
One hundred and seven internees
died, including several shot while trying to escape(9)
-
Ukrainian Canadians suffered
losses estimated between $21.6 and $32.5 million (1991 dollars) while interned(15)
- Between 10 and 20 farms were lost(15)
- Over $32 000 cash was taken and not returned to immigrants(14)
-
Other internees’ valuables
(property, real estate, securities, etc.) taken from them(14)
Quotes:
``He was arrested only because he
held an Austro-Hungarian passport and was labelled an
enemy alien.''
``They suffered because of cold and
lack of proper clothing''
``Food was poor, and after all this,
they suffered the humiliation of racial slurs and profanity directed at them by
the guards.''
``The
Dominion of Canada confiscated their personal property, including religious
items, conscripted their labour, stripped them of their citizenship, silenced
their presses, and suspended their voting rights, all on the basis of a
perceived allegiance to a homeland many of them had fled.''
“Ukrainians
and others during
One such Ukrainian Canadian, Nick Chonomod, writing from a camp near Halifax to a Captain Adams of the 6th Military Division, recorded that not only had he joined a battalion being formed in Edmonton in August 1914, but that he had lived in Canada for seven years, married a Canadian born woman, become naturalized and taken up a homestead in Alberta. Having so affirmed his loyalty, he added that he could not understand 'on which charge I am being kept here.'"
"Enemy-alien"
Internment of Ukrainians in
"Looking back at my short time I was here, and I was only a boy, I
realized all the time what marvels you can do if you just had the labour...We had plenty of labour.
Anybody who asked us to do anything, we provided the slaves."
- Col. Anderson-Wilson,
"...inform me if I can be released from detention camp. From several weeks
my naturalization papers are laying in the office of the Major Commander of
your camp...If I have my Canadian papers, if I am loyal to this country in
which I am from twelve years I don't think guarantee is necessary."
- J. Leskiw to General Cruikshank,
1915
"...the conditions here are very poor, so that we cannot go on much
longer. We are not getting enough to eat. We are hungry as dogs. They are
sending us to work as they don't believe us and we are very weak."
- No. 98 Nick Olinyk to his wife, 1915
“When
Opponent’s
First Argument:
The War Measures Act was enacted on
Defence:
Even with the War Measurement Act in
place giving
Opponent’s
Second Argument:
Locking up the “enemy aliens” made
Canadian citizens feel safer.
Defence:
The peace-of-mind of the Canadian
citizens was not a good enough reason to lock up thousands of innocent people
who had been loyal to
(1) Morton,
Desmond Years of Conflict 1911-1921
(2) Adams,
Simon World War I
(3) Freeman,
B. and Neilson, R. Canadians in the First World War
(4) Polyphony
Italians in
(5) "Enemy-alien"
Internment of Ukrainians in
www.infoukes.com/history/internment/
booklet02/doc-018.html (
(6) “When
Internment Camps
www.worldweb.com/parkscanada-banff/intern.html (
(7) “Ukrainians and others during
www.artukraine.com/historical/unjustint3.html
(
(8)
“During the First
World War” Prisoners of war and internment
www.nlc-bnc.ca/2/13/h13-4010-e.html
(
(9) “During
World War” Current Issues
www.educ.sfu.ca/cels/past_art28.html
(
(10) “Internment
of Ukranians” World War 1 (Extensive)
www.libraryautomation.com/nymas/nymasww1.html
(
(11) Gregorovich,
J.B. Ukrainian Canadians in
(12) Lupul, M.R. A Heritage in Transition
(13) Thompson, J.H. The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918
(14) Luciuk, Lubomyr. “
Ukrainian Canadians 1914-1920.” A Time for Atonement
http://www.infoukes.com/history/internment/booklet01/
(
(15) Guly, Christopher. “Report details Ukrainian Canadian losses during internment.”
http://www.infoukes.com/history/internment/booklet02/doc-086.html (23 March
2003)