Canadian First World War

Category: Events

Vernon Internment Camp Talk & Slide Show

During World War I, Vernon came to the attention of leading politicians in Ottawa, Washington, London, Berlin, and even Vienna. Why? Because of the men, women, and children imprisoned at an internment camp in the town’s north end – subjects of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires, transformed into “enemy aliens” by the outbreak of war. Recent research by members of the Vernon and District Family History Society has brought to light a vast amount of information about the lives of these prisoners and the men who guarded them.

The book launch of Bohdan Kordan’s No Free Man

The book launch of Bohdan Kordan’s No Free Man: Canada, the Great War, and the Enemy Alien Experience will take place at THE CANADIAN MUSEUM FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, 85 ISRAEL ASPER WAY, Winnipeg, MB on Thursday, February 23rd,  7:00pm. The launch is part of a national speaking tour that will include presentations in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Victoria, and Ottawa. 

That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations

That Never Happened reveals the story of Canada’s first national internment operations between 1914–1920, when over 88,000 people were forced to register and more than 8,500 were wrongfully imprisoned in camps across Canada, not for anything they had done but because of where they came from. In 1954 the public records were destroyed, and in the 1980s a few brave men and women began working to reclaim this chapter in history and ensure future generations would know about it. The Toronto premiere will be followed by a Q&A with the director and team behind the film.