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Ottawa opens exhibit on First World War internment camps in Banff, Alta.
BANFF, Alta. – An exhibit has been opened in Banff National Park to mark the thousands of Canadians who were taken prisoner by their own country during the First World War.
The 8,500 civilian prisoners, most of Ukrainian descent, were arrested and held in internment camps only because they were originally from Eastern Europe.
Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney says the camps have been covered up for decades and it’s time to put things right.
He says the prisoners were torn from their families and took part in what could be called slave labour.
Dozens of people, the descendants of the prisoners, attended the ceremony at the exhibit, which is next to where the Banff camp was located.
Nothing remains of the camp, which is grown over with bushes and trees.
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