The Ukrainian Canadian internment was part of the confinement of "enemy aliens" in Canada during and for two years after the end of the First World War, lasting from 1914 to 1920, under the terms of the War Measures Act that would be used again, in the Second World War, against Japanese Canadians; and in 1970, against some Québécois (during the "October Crisis").

About 4,000 Ukrainian men and some women and children of Austro-Hungarian citizenship were kept in twenty-four internment camps and related work sites – also known, at the time, as concentration camps.^[1] Many were released in 1916 to help with the mounting labour shortage. Another 80,000 were registered as "enemy aliens" and obliged to regularly report to the police. Those interned had whatever little wealth they owned confiscated and were forced to work for the profit of their gaolers. They were interned not because of anything they had done but only because of who they were – where they had come from.

During the First World War, a growing sentiment against "enemy aliens" had manifested itself amongst Canadians. The British government urged Canada not to act indiscriminately against subject nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were in fact friendly to the British Empire.^[2] However, Ottawa took a hard line. These enemy-born citizens were treated as social pariahs, and many lost their employment. Under the 1914 War Measures Act, "aliens of enemy nationality" were compelled to register with authorities. About 70,000 Ukrainians from Austro-Hungary fell under this description. 8,579 males and some women and children were interned by the Canadian Government, including 5,954 Austro-Hungarians, most of whom were probably ethnic Ukrainians.^[3] Most of the interned were poor or unemployed single men, although 81 women and 156 children (mainly Germans in Vernon and Ukrainians at Spirit Lake) had no choice but to accompany their menfolk to two of the camps, in Spirit Lake, near Amos, Quebec, and Vernon, British Columbia. Some of the internees were Canadian-born and others were naturalized British subjects,^{[citation needed]} although most were recent immigrants. Citizens of the Russian Empire were generally not interned.

Many of these internees were used for forced labour in internment camps.^[4] Conditions at the camps varied, and the Castle Mountain Internment Camp^[5] – where labour contributed to the creation of Banff National Park^[6] – was considered exceptionally harsh and abusive.^[7] The internment continued for two more years after the war had ended, although most Ukrainians were paroled into jobs for private companies by 1917. Even as parolees, they were still required to report regularly to the police authorities. Federal and provincial governments and private concerns benefited from the internee's labour and from the confiscation of what little wealth they had, a portion of which was left in the Bank of Canada at the end of the internment operations on 20 June 1920.^[8] A small number of internees, including men considered to be "dangerous foreigners," labour radicals, or particularly troublesome internees, were deported to Europe after the war, largely from the Kapuskasing camp, which was the last to be shut down.

Of those interned, 109 died of various diseases and injuries sustained in the camp, six were killed while trying to escape, and some – according to Sir William Dillon Otter's final report – went insane or committed suicide^[9] as a result of their confinement.

A list of the camps follows:^[10]

Since 1985, the organized Ukrainian-Canadian community has sought official acknowledgment for this World War I internment, conducting a campaign that underscored the moral, legal and political obligation to redress the historical wrong.^[11] The campaign included the memorialization of places of internment as historic sites. Currently there are twenty plaques and memorials across Canada commemorating the internment, including two at the locations of former concentration camps in Banff National Park. These have been placed by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and its supporters.

In 1994, award-winning producer-director Yurij Luhovy and the National Film Board of Canada released a feature-length documentary about the internment operations entitled Freedom Had a Price (http://www.yluhovy.com/MML/FHAP.html). While shooting the film, Yurij discovered never before seen pictures of the camps and donated them to the National Archives of Canada.

On November 25, 2005, Conservative MP Inky Mark's Private Member's Bill C-331, "Internment of Persons of Ukrainian Origin Recognition Act", received Royal Assent. This act acknowledges that persons of Ukrainian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and it legally obliges the Government of Canada to negotiate "an agreement concerning measures that may be taken to recognize the internment" for educational and commemorative projects.

On May 9, 2008, the Canadian government established a $10 million fund. The Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund uses the interest earned on that amount to fund projects that commemorate the experience of thousands of Ukrainians and other Europeans interned between 1914–20 and the many others who suffered a suspension of their civil liberties and freedoms. The funds are themselves held in trust by the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko.

Thought to be the last known survivor of the internment measures – Mary Manko – was only a child of 6 when she was interned with her family at Spirit Lake. She died in July 2007. More recently another survivor – Mary Hanchurak, born in the Spirit Lake camp – was found; aged 92 – making her the last known survivor of the internment operations. She died in 2008.

On 12 September 2009 the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was announced formally with a notice published in The Globe and Mail^[12] describing how individuals or groups can apply for funding for commemorative, educational and cultural activities recalling Canada's first national internment operations.^[13]

The "Kingston Symposium" of the CFWWIRF's Endowment Council was held in Kingston, Ontario on 17-20 June 2010, bringing together community activists, descendants, academics and artists to discuss ways and means for commemorating Canada's first national internment operations.^[14]

• Human rights in Canada
• Ukrainian Canadian
• Ukrainian Austrian internment (First World War)
• Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund

• Kordan, Bohdan and Peter Melnycky (1991), In the Shadow of the Rockies: Diary of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp, Edmonton: CIUS Press.
• Farney, James, and Bohdan S. Kordan, "The Predicament of Belonging: The Status of Enemy Aliens in Canada, 1914," Journal of Canadian Studies 39.1 (2005) 74-89 in Project MUSE
• Kordan, Bohdan (2002), Enemy Aliens: Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada During the Great War, Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
• Kordan, Bohdan and Craig Mahovsky (2004), A Bare and Impolitic Right: Internment and Ukrainian Canadian Redress, Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.
• Luhovy, Yurij (1994), Freedom Had a Price: 1914–1920 Canada's First Internment Operation, VHS/DVD, 55 min.
• Luciuk, Lubomyr (2000) Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada and the Migration of Memory (University of Toronto Press, reprinted in 2001).
• Luciuk, Lubomyr (2001), In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence: Canada's First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians, 1914-1920, Kingston: Kashtan Press.
• Luciuk, Lubomyr (2006), Without Just Cause, Kingston: Kashtan Press.
• Martynowych, Orest (1991), “Registration, Internment and Censorship”, in Ukrainians in Canada: The formative period, 1891–1924, pp 323–34. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. ISBN 0-920862-76-4.
• Swyripa, Frances and John Herd Thompson, eds. (1983) Loyalties in Conflict: Ukrainians in Canada During the Great War; 213pp; 8 essays by scholars

• Bill C-331, An Act to acknowledge that persons of Ukrainian origin were interned in Canada during the First World War and to provide for recognition of this event.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to World War I internment in Canada.

• PM Reaches out to Ukrainians - The Globe and Mail, August 25, 2005
• Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association
• Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund
• Escape Attempt at Castle Mountain