The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #95037   Message #1845686
Posted By: ragdall
29-Sep-06 - 12:47 AM
Thread Name: BS: Growing up in post-holocaust Germany
Subject: RE: BS: Growing up in post-holocaust Germany
I didn't learn until a year or so ago that Canada too interned their West Coast Japanese.


Ebbie,
Not only Japanese.

World War II
During World War II the War Measures Act was used again to intern Canadians, and 26 internment camps were set up across Canada. In 1940 an Order in Council was passed that defined enemy aliens as "all persons of German or Italian racial origin who have become naturalized British subjects since September 1, 1922". (At the time, Canada didn't grant passports and citizenship on its own, so immigrants were "naturalized" by becoming British subjects.) A further Order in Council outlawed the Communist Party. Estimates suggest that some 30,000 individuals were affected by these Orders; that is, they were forced to register with the RCMP and to report to them on a monthly basis. The government interned approximately 500 Italians and over 100 communists.

In New Brunswick, 711 Jews, refugees from the holocaust, were interned at the request of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because he thought there might be spies in the group.

Source

rags