Canada's First World War Internment Operations

Vernon

Hub of BC's Internment Camps

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Greater Vernon Museum and Archives

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Greater Vernon Museum and Archives 2639

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Malysh Private Collection

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The land upon which Vernon was built has been home to the Syilx Okanagan people for thousands of years. European settlement first began in the early 1800s, with a steady influx of fur traders, missionaries, miners, and ranchers. By 1885, enough Europeans had settled in the region that a townsite was laid out, and shortly thereafter the community was officially named Vernon, after an early rancher. With the arrival of a railway line in 1891, the town grew much more quickly and was incorporated as a city. By the outbreak of the First World War, Vernon was prospering. It was also home to an important militia unit: the Okanagan Mounted Rifles. Soon after the war started, the federal government designated Vernon as the site of a large internment camp for so-called "enemy aliens." This camp was established on the grounds of the asylum, on what we today know as Macdonald Park. <<>> *Video credit: Armistice Films*

This project has been made possible by a grant from the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund.

We respectfully acknowledge that Vernon is located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people.

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Tours

Buried at Pleasant Valley

Remembering the Victims of Internment

In a corner of the Pleasant Valley cemetery, overlooking Vernon, British Columbia, are the graves of seven men from the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire. They died in Canadian internment camps during the First World War. In this tour we will reflect on these men who had been welcomed as immigrants before the war, but then suddenly found themselves interned as "enemy aliens" in conditions that led to their deaths.

An Abuse of Power

Vernon's Internment Camp

Vernon's W.L. Seaton High School today occupies the location of BC's main internment camp. This is where many German prisoners were kept with their families, and they lodged many legal challenges to their internment. In this tour we'll see how the Canadian legal system struggled to justify the arbitrary mass internment of civilians. We'll also see how the exceptional Canadian practice of civilian forced labour violated international law and embarrassed Canada on the world stage.

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Vernon

Then and Now Photos

Internees on Parade

Library and Archives 3379298

1914-1918

An audience watches internees in white summer clothes on parade during an afternoon of diversions at Vernon's Internment Camp.

Internee Families

Vernon Museum and Archives

1915-1920

Several families of internees, including a number of young children, pose for a photo in the first-class section of the camp.

Wind Mill

Library and Archives Canada 3379299

1914-1916

Several internees, including a couple men, women, a child, and a dog, pose for a photo beside a pole that has been fitted with an ornamental windmill. The internees had a lot of time for woodworking in the Vernon camp.