Canada’s concentration camps

Most Canadians aren’t aware that we interned the “enemy” during WW2. Why don’t we ever hear of these poor (literally) Italians? Why isn’t this taught in Canadian schools? What about the Japanese? The German immigrants?

Since most were interned in these work camps for years, it makes me wonder if, like other rules of war, there was a worldwide agreement on how to treat interned “aliens”. If there were rules for humane treatment, then why is the world so sure that Germany did not abide by the rules and take the  Russian position that these work camps were turned into gassing centers to exterminate the alien?

After all, if Germans had a worthy propaganda enemy, let alone military enemy, it was the great Russian war machine.  They not only defeated the Germans physically, but also in the historical narrative.


In the early hours of June 10, 1940, RCMP officers began rounding up 44 Italian-Canadian men in Vancouver. Mussolini had joined forces with Nazi Germany; Canada was at war with Italy. These men were declared enemy aliens and sent to an internment camp in Kananaskis, Alta.

More than 600 Italian Canadians were interned across the country, at camps in Petawawa, Ont., and Minto, N.B., as well. The British Columbia men – of which there are no survivors today – were held for up to three years; no charges were ever laid.

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Knightly News

In the book Cruel Britannia A Secret History of Torture by Ian Cobain, it is discussed that British Nationals who were deemed too sympathetic to the enemy were interned. The most prominent sent to special unregistered “cages” for special treatment. An interesting read that backs up your suspicions about fable of allied Honesty and Forthrightness during WW2.

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