Museum exhibition provides insight on wartime internment camps in Canada
They came to Canada in the early 20th century looking for opportunity and a new life, but became enemy aliens during the First World War and many were sent to internment camps.
The history of Canada's wartime internment operations is explored in the current exhibition at the Swift Current Museum, titled Enemy Aliens – Internment in Canada, 1914-1920.
This travelling exhibition was developed by the Canadian War Museum in partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation.
Melissa Shaw, the City of Swift Current's general manager of cultural and aquatic services, said the exhibition is effectively combining photographs and historical details to highlight an aspect of the Canadian past that is not talked about much.
“It gives that detail and an insight that isn't readily available,” she noted. “I think the Canadian War Museum and the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation did a phenomenal job of tying information together and presenting it in a manner that's really easy to understand, even though it's a tough subject.”
The term enemy aliens was used to refer to citizens from countries that were at war with the British Empire during the First Word War. The exhibition includes historic photographs from various Canadian archival collections.
“There is a ton of media images that are gathered from multiple sources,” she said. “City of Toronto archives and Queens University archives provided some. The Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund provided some imagery. So there's a really broad range of groups that came together to develop this exhibition.”
The Canadian government interned 8,579 people identified as enemy aliens in a network of 24 camps across the country from the start of the war in 1914 until 1920, which was two years after the war ended.
The exhibition consists of 25 graphic panels and two large maps. One map illustrates the European alliances during the First World War, which determined who was declared as an enemy alien in Canada. The other map shows the location of internment camps and receiving stations across Canada from 1914 until 1920.
Shaw felt the map of camp locations is one of the really interesting aspects of the exhibition. There were several camps in western Canada, but only one in Saskatchewan. The Eaton internment camp was located southwest of Saskatoon and the site is now part of the Saskatchewan Railway Museum grounds. It was open for a short period at the end of the war to accommodate relocated internees from the Munson camp in Alberta.
Canada welcomed thousands of German and Ukrainian immigrants before the war, but the War Measures Act gave the federal government the authority to suspend civil liberties and to incarcerate enemy aliens.
Perceptions about class and ethnicity played a role in the treatment of internees. German internees received better treatment as so-called first-class internees, but treatment and camp conditions were worse for second-class internees such as Ukrainians and others from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.
The exhibition provides details about camp conditions and daily life in these facilities. It also refers to the arrangements made for the families of internees.
Many internees tried to escape from these camps. Guards had the authority to shoot at prisoners during such attempts and six were killed. Camp conditions and various diseases caused the death of 107 internees.
The exhibition notes that the Ukrainian Canadian community was one of the groups most affected by this internment policy and they also played a leading role in ensuring that this history is not forgotten.
The exhibition includes a powerful quote from Mary Manko Haskett, whose father was interned at Spirit Lake, Quebec.
“I don't want an apology … I want people to remember,” she said.
Shaw felt the quote is very fitting and also highlights the relevance and purpose of this exhibition.
“War is multifaceted and we need to look at all the different levels,” she said. “So this just gives a bit of a different insight to it. And by bringing in an exhibit like this to our community, it really helps to get that message out to not just Swift Current, but surrounding area.”
This is the third travelling exhibition on display at the Swift Current Museum in 2023 and she felt they serve a useful purpose.
“We would not have the ability to curate or to acquire all of these images or these panels ourselves by working with the different museums and archives across Canada,” she said. “So by bringing in these traveling exhibits, it allows us to extend our reach and bring something new to the community. It's an amazing opportunity that we are happy to share with the community.”
The exhibition Enemy Aliens – Internment in Canada, 1914-1920 is on display at the Swift Current Museum until Jan. 2, 2024. Admission is free and the museum is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 1-5 p.m.