The Castle Mountain and the Eaton Internment Camp, Canada

Castle Mountain Internment Camp

Commemoration of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp in Banff National Park - the statue is entitled, simply, Why? The Castle Mountain Internment Camp was the largest internment facility in the Canadian Rockies, housing several hundred prisoners at any one time. Established on July 13, 1915, a total of 660 enemy aliens were interned at the facility during its entire operation.[1] Internment Designated enemy aliens under Canadas War Measures Act (1914), some 8,579 enemy aliens were interned during World War I as prisoners of war. Ostensibly nationals of countries at war with Canada, the vast majority however were settler immigrants, primarily of Ukrainian ethnic origin. Despite their civilian status, a great many were sent to prisoner of war camps located in the Canadian hinterland, to be used as military conscript labour on government work projects.[2] Of particular note was the use of forced labour in Canadas national parks, where they were introduced there as a matter of policy to improve existing facilities and increase accessibility by developing the park systems infrastructure. [3] By 1915 several internment camps in and around the Rocky Mountains were in full swing, including a camp at the foot of Castle Mountain, the terminal point of the then uncompleted Banff-Laggan (Lake Louise) road.

Castle Mountain internment camp (1915) Recognizing the value of future tourism, the main purpose of the camp was to push the Banff highway on through to Lake Louise, although, in addition, bridges, culverts and fireguards were also built.[4] The camp consisted of tents within a dual barbed wire enclosure. The tents however proved inadequate during the severe winter climate, forcing the camp to relocate to military barracks built on the outskirts of the town of Banff, adjacent to the Cave and Basin, site of the original Hot Springs. While in Banff, the internees were engaged in a number of special projects: land fill and drainage of the Recreation Grounds; clearing the Buffalo Paddocks; cutting trails; land reclamation for tennis courts, golf links, shooting ranges and ski jumps; rock-crushing; quarrying stone for the Banff Springs Hotel (still under construction) and smaller public works projects such as street and sidewalk repair.[5] With the onset of spring, the camp returned once more to the Castle Mountain site. This process of return and relocation would continue until August 1917 when the camp was finally closed when the internees were conditionally released to industry to meet the growing labour shortage. The Castle Mountain camp was a difficult facility to administer. Abuse was widespread, and although duly noted by the Directorate of Internment Operations in Ottawa, never corrected.[6] Escapes were frequent while conditions at the camp were roundly condemned by neutral observers and the Central Powers, charging Canada with violations of international norms governing the internment of enemy aliens.[7] Understandably, the conditions at the camp would become of interest to the War Office in London and a point of discussion between the British Government and Ottawa. Legacy In 2008, a settlement was reached with the Ukrainian-Canadian community on the matter of acknowledgement and redress for World War I internment. An important part of the settlement was funding for educational purposes. Parks Canada, the government agency responsible for national parks, is working with an understanding to create an interpretive centre at the Cave and Basin site that will highlight and underscore the nature and significance of the experience.[8] Currently interpretive panels are on site. In 1995, a statue commissioned by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca), memorializing the historical event, was erected near the original Castle Mountain campsite.

More information about the redress settlement and the endowment created to commemorate what happened is available at the website of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (www.internmentcanada.ca). References 1. ^ Bohdan Kordan, Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War(Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), p.102 2. ^ Bohdan Kordan, Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War(Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), pp. 90-115 3. ^ Bill Waiser, Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canadas National Parks, 1915-1946(Saskatoon-Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1995), pp. 11-12 4. ^ Bill Waiser, Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canadas National Parks, 1915-1946(Saskatoon-Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1995), p. 14 5. ^ For a detailed description of the work regime, see Bohdan Kordan and Melnycky, Peter, eds., In the Shadow of the Rockies: Diary of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp, 1915-1917. Edmonton: CIUS Press, 1991 6. ^ Bill Waiser, Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canadas National Parks, 1915-1946(Saskatoon-Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1995), pp. 19-21 7. ^ Bohdan Kordan, Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War(Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002), pp. 127-28 8. ^ See http://www.infoukes.com/newpathway/41-2008_Page-3-2.html

Kordan, Bohdan and Melnycky, Peter, eds., In the Shadow of the Rockies: Diary of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp, 1915-1917. Edmonton: CIUS Press, 1991. Kordan, Bohdan, Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2002. Waiser, Bill, Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canadas National Parks, 1915-1946. Saskatoon-Calgary: Fifth House Publishers, 1995. Luciuk, Lubomyr and Sydoruk, Borys, eds. In My Charge: The Canadian Internment Camp Photographs of Sergeant William Buck. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 1997. Luciuk, Lubomyr, In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence, Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2001. Luciuk, Lubomyr, Without Just Cause: Canada's First National Internment Operations and the Ukrainian Canadians. Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2006.

Eaton Internment Camp

Although short-lived, the Eaton Internment Camp was one of twenty-six official internment facilities created in Canada to accommodate prisoners of war during the period 1914-20. It was the only facility of its kind in the province of Saskatchewan.

Sask Railway museum Eaton Hawker memorial marker Under the War Measures Act (1914), 8,579 enemy aliens nationals of countries at war with Canada were interned in Canada during World War I as prisoners of war. Primarily immigrant settlers of Ukrainian origin, they were sent to prisoner of war campsmost located in the Canadian hinterland where they would work on government public projects as military conscript labour. Toward the end of the war however, the majority of internees were conditionally released to industry, the result of the growing labour shortage. This led to some camps being dismantled, others consolidated, as well as to the relocation of those internees considered undesirable. As part of this relocation process, sixty-five internees were sent in October 1918 to an internment facility at Munson, Alberta where they laboured on the railway. However the outbreak of the 1918 flu pandemic (Spanish Influenza) and disciplinary issues forced the relocation of the Munson camp. On February 25, 1919, the internees were removed to a hastily constructed camp on the site of the railway siding at Eaton, Saskatchewan. It was thought that the move would placate the inmate population. It had little effect. Growing resistance among the internees and lack of confidence in the military guard prompted authorities to abandon the Eaton siding location for more secure facilities. On March 21, twenty-four days after the facility was initially established, the internees were transported by rail to a military installation at Amherst, Nova Scotia where they were to be processed for deportation. The Eaton Internment Camp was dismantled shortly after that. The site of the original camp is on the grounds of the present-day Saskatchewan Railway Museum, situated at the junction of Highway 60 and the Canadian National Railway, four kilometers southwest of Saskatoon. In 2005, as part of a national campaign to seek official acknowledgement and redress for the World War I internment of Ukrainians and others, the Prairie Centre for the Study of Ukrainian Heritage, an academic unit at the University of Saskatchewan, in association with the Saskatchewan Railway Museum commissioned and unveiled on the original site a bronze and tindal-stone memorial. The monument entitled Fortitude was sculpted by Saskatchewan artist Grant McConnell. Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Canadian_internment Bohdan Kordan, Enemy Aliens, Prisoners of War: Internment in Canada during the Great War. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.

Bohdan Kordan and Craig Mahovsky, A Bare and Impolitic Right: Internment and UkrainianCanadian Redress. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004. http://www.stmcollege.ca/historic_site.html