Uncovering our unknown POWs

The Collective Voice column from Sammy S. concerning the War Measures Act in 1914 has prompted me to write in about a partial account of some of Canada’s unknown prisoners of war during 19401942.

I have been scrapbooking my own and my husband’s family trees. I did not know very much about my Ukrainian father’s history. I wanted to learn about why and how his father came to Canada to homestead. I searched the internet and found older used books at book sales pertaining to this.

I found the book Dangerous Patriots by William and Kathleen Repka published in 1982 by New Star Books Vancouver B.C. It contains personal accounts written by 16 of these internees and some of their wives. It tells the story of many left-wing trade union activists and others who were interned without trial for two years.

At that time the RCMP had extra-legal powers to arrest people who the government was suspicious of. These people were denied their civil liberties and democratic rights. There were three internment camps. One at Kananaskis, Alberta; one at Petawawa, Ontario; and one at Hull, Quebec.

More than a third of internees were Ukrainian or others of Slavic origin. German Nazis and Italian Fascists and a large number of Jewish people were held as well. Reading this book has given me a new perspective relating to negative feelings caused by prejudice.

Elaine Bauer, Saskatoon