Canada's First World War Internment Operations

Buy this Print

Buy this Print

Buy this Print

Buy this Print

During the First World War the Canadian government established a network of 24 internment camps and receiving stations to imprison immigrants from enemy countries who were designated "enemy aliens." 8,759 people were interned between 1914 and 1920. Almost two-thirds were civilians living in Canada who'd committed no crime except being born in an enemy nation.
The victims of internment included Ukrainians, Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Romanians, Turks, Jew, Russians, and Italians. The majority of internees were Ukrainian.
They were made to do forced labour in sub-zero temperatures in remote camps. The conditions were appalling. The guards meted out arbitrary punishments and physical abuse. Some were tortured. 107 prisoners died in captivity. The humiliating and nightmarish experience left mental scars on many survivors.
A further 80,000 civilians were forced to register with the police and had their civil rights sharply curtailed. Tens of thousands more were fired from their jobs, had their property seized, and lost their right to vote.

Efforts to Remember
Few of the survivors ever spoke of their experiences, and this dark chapter in Canadian history was largely forgotten. In 1954 the National Archives of Canada destroyed almost all records of these events.
Efforts to gain recognition for Canada's first national internment operations began in 1978 when Nick Sakaliuk gave testimony to historians about his experience of internment. Many survivors and their children began to come forward with their own stories.
In November 2005, Parliament passed the Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act, which finally recognized these historic injustices. In 2008, representatives of the Ukrainian Community agreed with the Canadian Government to create the Canadian First World Internment Recognition Fund which would support commemorative, educational, scholarly and cultural projects that reminded Canadians of this dark chapter in our history.
This series of tours, created by On This Spot in partnership with the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund aims to raise awareness of these events and the experiences of those affected. All the tours are available in English and French in both audio and text formats.

Places

Chicago of the North

Winnipeg

Hub of BC's Internment Camps

Vernon

Soul of the Rockies

Jasper

Gateway to Opportunity

Lethbridge

Capitale-Nationale

Quebec City

Montreal

Training for the Trenches

Valcartier

On the Arrow Lakes

Edgewood

Heart of the Elk Valley

Fernie

Kingston

Home of the Snuneymuxw

Nanaimo

Amherst

Village in the Badlands

Munson

Canada's Metropolis

Toronto

Canada's Atlantic Gateway

Halifax

Canada's Arsenal

Petawawa

Garden City & Model Town

Kapuskasing

Brandon

Canada's First National Park

Banff

Internment in the Shuswap

Mara Lake

Honeymoon Capital of the World

Niagara Falls

Dynamo on the Rapids

Sault Ste Marie

Forced Labour in the Snow

Yoho

Archaeology on the Mountain Pass

Monashee

Meadows in the Sky Parkway

Revelstoke

Walking Tours

Canadian Dream to a Canadian Nightmare

First World War Internment in Banff

Today the Banff National Park is enjoyed by millions of visitors every year, but few know about the civilian internees who worked at gunpoint to build the park's roads and infrastructure in hellish conditions. This walking tour of the camp's former site at the Cave and Basin National Historic Site tells the shocking story of the best-documented of Canada's First World War internment camps.

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.

Enslaved in a 'Glorious Playground'

Internment in Jasper in 1916

In early 1916 several hundred internees were dispatched to Jasper National Park to build park infrastructure. Severe flooding and protest strikes in response to abuse of the internees by the guards and the near-starvation rations, meant that work slowed to a crawl. The camp was shut down only a few months later.

Horror at Exhibition Park

Lethbridge's Internment Camp

At Lethbridge's Exhibition Park hundreds of internees were crammed into some old chicken barns, and forced to live in squalid conditions. The camp gained a notorious reputation for the poor treatment of its prisoners, and embarrassed Canada when reports of torture were published in the world's press. In this tour we'll learn about the experience of 'enemy aliens' in Alberta, as well as hear about the many daring attempts to escape from the camp.

Moving Mountains

Conflict & Construction at Edgewood

The small community of Edgewood in BC's Kootenays was home to a road-building labour camp for internees. This tour tells the story of the abuses and injustices these men had to endure as they laboured in the mountains at gunpoint. We'll see how even in these dire circumstances they held their heads high and, despite the brutal consequences defied their captors and brought the work to a standstill.

From the Coal Pit to the Barbed Wire

How Internment Came to Fernie

Fernie was the centre of coal mining in the Kootenay region, and when the war broke out many miners found themselves redesignated as 'enemy aliens.' In the dark days of 1915, the Allied miners threatened to strike unless all the 'enemy alien' miners were interned, resulting in the mass arrest of hundreds of miners. In this tour through downtown Fernie, we'll learn about the history of coal mining in this region, and see how the collapse of worker solidarity helped push Canada down the road to the mass internment of civilians on grounds of national origin.

Unearthing Injustice

Archaeology at Morrissey

After some time in Fernie, the miners interned at the ice rink were sent a short distance south to Morrissey, a disused mining camp. One of the camps with the worst reputations for the mistreatment of prisoners, the site of the camp is totally totally overgrown by thick forest. In this tour we will look at the recent archaeological excavations of the site by Sara Beaulieu and her team from the University of the Fraser Valley. We will show how her numerous findings help fill in many gaps in this dark chapter of Canadian history.

Imprisoned at Fort Henry

Kingston's Internment Camp

Kingston's Fort Henry was one of few major fortifications in Canada, and during the war it became an internment camp, primarily for Germans and Austrians considered to be of the 'officer' class. In this tour of the national historic site, we use a remarkable set of photos to tell the story of the men who languished in captivity here.

Fear, Hate, and Xenophobia

Toronto's Stanley Barracks

21st century Toronto is a cosmopolitan metropolis home to immigrants from every corner of the globe. A century ago it was a far less welcoming place. In this tour of the internee receiving station at Stanley Barracks, we will see how the Canadian public turned on so-called 'enemy aliens', and consider the war's lasting legacies of hatred and persecution.

Locked in the Citadel

Halifax's Internment Camp

The Citadel overlooking Halifax became an internment camp primarily for those captured at sea during the first Battle of the Atlantic. In this tour we will examine Halifax's naval history, its crucial role in Canada's First World War, and learn about the daring escape attempts by prisoners who could no longer tolerate the grinding monotony of captivity.

Walking Kapuskasing Camp

Exploring Canada's Dark History

This major camp was established in remote northern Ontario with the aim of having internees prepare the land for settlement at gunpoint. The camp became known for its harsh discipline, physical abuse by the guards, official corruption, and was the scene of a major riot which left an internee dead. In this tour we'll walk the grounds of the camp and reflect on the experiences of the men imprisoned here.

Twin Highway Camps

Forced Labour at Mara Lake

Most of those internees who came from the many nations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were deemed 'second-class' prisoners and sent to forced labour camps to build roads in awful conditions. The road alongside Mara Lake in the Shuswap was built by these men. In this tour we will learn how these forced labour camps came about, and hear the stories of the mostly Ukrainian men who, despite pledging loyalty to the British Empire, were sent to the camp.

For or Against Canada?

Niagara Falls, Enemy Aliens, and Canada's Defense

The internment camps were originally set up to hold those who posed a wartime security risk. We tell this part of the story at the Niagara Falls receiving station, just across the border from the neutral United States. Starting with Canada's persistent fears of America, we'll then examine hysteria about spies and saboteurs, and learn about a plan to invade Canada with a massive secret German-American army dressed in cowboy outfits.

Stories

Interned at Fort Osborne

First World War Internment Site

Fort Osborne was located on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature between 1873 and 1917. During the first years of the First World War, the fort was used as a receiving station for 'enemy aliens.'
Starting in 1914, the Canadian government reclassified all immigrants from enemy nations as "enemy aliens," a status that stripped them of virtually all their civil rights. Any who were suspected of disloyalty were interned, along with enemy aliens who were homeless. The majority of the internees were poor men of Ukrainian or other nationalities who had immigrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
At that time a large number of Ukrainian men lived in Winnipeg, many of them working at the massive railway yards on the north side, or for the City of Winnipeg as street cleaners or construction labourers. When the war broke out they immediately came under suspicion, and were required to register with the police and report regularly, while carrying special identification papers with them at all times.
The receiving station set up at Fort Osborne was the first destination for enemy aliens that had been arrested in Winnipeg and the surrounding area. In most cases they would be sent on to remote forced labour camps in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario or Quebec.
As the number of aliens being arrested was winding down by 1916, the receiving station was shut down. Fort Osborne itself was relocated, to make way for construction of the provincial legislature.

Interned at Beauport Armoury

First World War Internment Site

Shortly after Canada joined Britain to fight the Austro-Hungarian empire in World War I, mistrust towards those who originated from enemy nations shifted from general xenophobia to outright fear and suspicion. Soon, reports of sabotage and enemy espionage activity began to hit the newspapers. In August 1914, the Edmonton Bulletin reported the following:
"A score of Italians and Austrian workmen were arrested last night around the Levis dry dock while they were attacking the sentinels in charge of the dynamite store. The mob fired at the soldiers, who called to the camp for help and a detachment came to their rescue in time to capture the foreigners. The attacking party were composed of former employees of the government plant and it is thought that their aim was to blow up the dry-dock."

Montreal Receiving Station

First World War Internment Site

Today, Montreal is renowned as a multicultural, cosmopolitan city but throughout its history, it has often been a hotbed of cultural conflicts. When Canada entered World War I, there were at least 17,000 to 20,000 Austro-Hungarian immigrants living in the city, largely from Ukraine, along with 10,000 Austrian Jews. They were mostly working class labourers, making a living in mining and railway construction, as well as working seasonally at the steel works and mines in other mining centres in eastern Canada.
These workers often encountered hostility from English and French Canadians, partially due to cultural, linguistic, and religious differences, but also because Austro-Hungarians workers were often willing to perform more dangerous labour for lower wages. As World War I escalated, incidents across the country such as fires and explosions were blamed on Austro-Hungarian immigrants who were thought to be acting as saboteurs on behalf of Austro-Hungary.

Valcartier Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

The Canadian military base at Valcartier served as an internment camp for 'enemy aliens' between April and October 1915. Enemy aliens were people who had immigrated from countries that Canada went to war with in the First World War. "Enemy alien" was an official legal category, meaning they had almost all their civil liberties stripped away, and were required to register with police and report regularly.
If these people came under suspicion of disloyalty, or were destitute (destitution amongst enemy aliens was criminalized) they were sent to an internment camp. In practice most of the internees were unemployed men of one of the dozen nationalities comprising the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Over half of the total 8,579 internees were Ukrainian.
In 1915 the government had decided to recoup some of the costs of interning these civilians by forcing them to work. A number of forced labour camps were opened from the Rockies to Quebec.
The military found internee labour very helpful in developing the rapidly growing military base at Petawawa, Ontario, and decided they could do the same at the huge new base at Valcartier, just north of Quebec City. By early 1915 the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force had departed the Valcartier camp for Europe, which left it vacant as new troops were being raised.
Thus, starting in April 1915, the Valcartier internment camp received 150 internees from Montreal, 23 from Halifax, and a further 12 from the Beauport Armoury in Quebec City. We have a report of their conditions from the American consul in Quebec City, who visited the site that summer. He wrote that the "actual conditions of the prisoners [are] very good and they are cheerful and contented."
He noted that a "single German of superior intelligence," was made prisoner foreman, and apparently relations between the internees and the camp authorities were good.
The camp closed in October 1915 and the remaining prisoners were dispatched to Spirit Lake, Quebec, or Fort Henry at Kingston, Ontario.

Nanaimo's WWI Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

Near this spot, just by the intersection of Stewart Ave and Townsite Road, there was an internment camp during the First World War. It was located in the old provincial jail building that is no longer extant, and opened on September 20, 1914. Those incarcerated were called 'enemy aliens', that is people living in Canada originating from Germany and Austria-Hungary. While the government claimed they were imprisoned to protect national security, in most cases people were interned for reasons that were either completely arbitrary or jealously cynical.
A barbed wire fence some 14-feet tall was erected around the jail building. Guards were billeted at the nearby Agricultural Hall and oversaw the internees as they were put to work planting trees around downtown Nanaimo.
Ultimately over 100 internees were kept here, including some of the wives and children of the male internees. The camp stayed open until September 1915, when it was closed and its prisoners transferred to the primary internment camp in Vernon in the province's interior.

Amherst Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

"Bordered by Patterson, Park, and Hickman Streets, the vast property owned today by Casey Concrete Ltd was once home to Canada’s largest First World War-era internment camp. In fact, the word “camp” is a misnomer, for internees were housed not in tents but in the cavernous confines of a former foundry. What they experienced behind the barbed-wire walls and fences in this corner of Amherst was the product of political division and insecurity during one of Canada’s darkest moments."

Munson Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

The Munson Internment Camp was one of a network of 24 internment stations set up by the Canadian government during the First World War. The camp opened on October 13, 1918, just a month before the end of the First World War, but it did not close with the war's end. Instead it would stay open until March 21, 1919.
The men interned here were forced at gunpoint to do back-breaking labour laying railway tracks over the course of the freezing Alberta winter. Their misery was exacerbated by their living conditions: they were housed in overcrowded and poorly-heated railway boxcars; they had inadequate winter clothing; and their diet was inadequate, so hunger was a constant complaint. To make matters worse, the deadly 1918 flu pandemic swept through the camp, causing panic amongst guards and internees, and prompting many internees to risk escape.

As at the rest of Canada's internment camps, the men interned at Munson were so-called 'enemy aliens. In almost all cases they had committed no crime save being born in a country that Canada went to war with.

Petawawa Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

The Canadian military base at Petawawa served as an internment camp for so-called 'enemy aliens' between December 1914 and May 1916. The camp was located several kilometres from CFB Petawawa, on the north side of Centre Lake.
By fall 1914 it was becoming clear that the small internment facilities set up in major cities and old fortresses were becoming drastically overcrowded. The government decided they needed a new internment camp that could be expanded, and perhaps serve as a place where the internees' labour could be put to use.
The small army base at Petawawa was being dramatically expanded in the early months of the First World War. The government decided to move the internees here and use them to help expand the base.
It was the first camp where internees were put to work—a fateful distinction. It would set the pattern for larger internment camps in places like Kapuskasing and Spirit Lake, and in Canada's Rocky Mountain National Parks.

Brandon Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

Those seeking help from the Brandon Police Service are today welcomed into a modern facility at 1020 Victoria Avenue, surrounded by a nicely landscaped parking lot. Flower gardens add some beauty to what is otherwise a sea of asphalt, and prisoners being taken into custody here can at least be assured that their quarters will afford them some level of dignity – a testament to how far Canada has come from the early twentieth century, when xenophobia combined with a number of other social, political, and economic factors to lay the groundwork for the internment camp once located where the Brandon Police Service’s headquarters is now situated.

Sault Ste. Marie Receiving Station

First World War Internment Site

During the First World War, Canada set up a network of 24 internment camps and receiving stations to process and imprison some 8,579 'enemy aliens' and prisoners of war. In Sault Ste. Marie, the federal building, which is now home to the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, became a receiving station for those immigrants from enemy countries. Between January 1915 and June 1918, some 43 enemy aliens were held here as they awaited transfer to other purpose-built internment stations, like the forced labour camp at Kapuskasing in northern Ontario. By 1916 there were apparently 1,700 "enemy aliens" registered in Soo and required to report every week to the registrar. If they failed to report, or were found to be homeless or destitute when they did, they would be fined and, in some cases, interned at the Sault Ste Marie Receiving Station to await transfer to another internment camp.

Forced Labour in Yoho Park

First World War Internment Site

Chief among Canada's finest natural wonders are its beautiful and awe-inspiring national parks. Few today know however, the link between some of these parks and Canada's First World War internment operations. In the Rocky Mountains, Austro-Hungarian prisoners interned for their nationality labored on park infrastructure projects such as land clearing and road construction. The Otter Internment Camp, shown in the photo above, was located in the Kicking Horse River Valley, not far from the community of Field, British Columbia. From October 1915 to April 1916, this camp held 200 internees who endured the freezing cold, snow storms, and isolation through the winter months while they did back-breaking labour for Yoho National Park.

Archaeology at the Monashee Camp

First World War Internment Site

During the First World War the Monashee Mountains were the site of an internment camp for those deemed 'enemy aliens' by the government. Hundreds of men were forced to work on deplorable conditions to build the road over the mountains that we today call Highway 6.
In the summer of 2021 a team of archaeologists led by Dr. Sarah Beaulieu from the University of the Fraser Valley, excavated the former site of the camp. Their work brought forth many new revelations about this dark chapter of Canadian history.
This short documentary tells the fascinating story of what they uncovered.

This documentary was created by Greg Laychak from UFV's Community Health and Social Innovation Hub with the support of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund.

Revelstoke Internment Camp

First World War Internment Site

In the winter of 1915 this mountain was the site of a brutal ordeal for 200 Austro-Hungarian men imprisoned and under armed guard by Canadian soldiers. They were among thousands of civilians, many naturalized Canadian citizens, who were arrested because Canada had gone to war with their mother countries.
They were sent to a small camp near this site, and then forced to begin construction on the road to the mountain summit in September 1915. The project was ill-conceived from the outset. The camp was disastrously situated and had a haphazard water supply. The guards were cruel, abusing and overworking the prisoners. It also began to snow.
In just over a month further road construction became impossible. The camp was abandoned. The internees were dispatched to Yoho National Park where the Otter internment camp was being built. Today, Mount Revelstoke internment camp has almost completely disappeared. The site is overgrown with trees. If one looks closely, they can see the rotting wooden foundations of the bunkhouses. Rusted barbed wire is still ominously wrapped around some of the older trees. They are a painful reminder of a dark chapter of Canada’s history that is only in recent years getting the attention it deserves.

Partners

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

To take these interactive walking tours and view and recreate hundreds of photo opportunities yourself, download our free App.

Apple Store

Google Play Store

Cities
Shop

Subscribe for Updates

©

Top