That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations is a documentary film which premiered in 2017.
The topic of this film is a dark chapter of Canadian history: the internment of enemy aliens (mainly Ukrainians) during World War One.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Ryan Boyko
** Writers: Ryan Boyko and Diana Cofini
** Available on TUBI TV
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 78 minutes
THE STORY OF THE INTERNMENT
Director Ryan Boyko (born 1980) grew up in Canada. His ancestors are from Ukraine. When he was a student in the 10th grade, he watched a documentary film which mentioned the internment of enemy aliens (mainly Ukrainians) in Canada during World War One.
He was interested in the topic. After watching the film, he tried to talk to his history teacher about it. He wanted to know more. The teacher asked him:
“Do you mean the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War Two?”
“No,” Ryan said. “The internment of Ukrainians during World War One.”
The teacher said:
“That never happened.”
Ryan was surprised by this response. He could not forget it. Many years later, when he became a director and had a chance to make his own film about this topic, he decided that he had to use the teacher’s response as the title of his film:
That Never Happened.
This dark chapter of Canadian history is not well-known outside Canada. Even in Canada it is not well-known, as the teacher’s response so clearly shows. The teacher did not say that he did not know anything about it. He did not say that he would try to look into this topic. Instead, he simply declared:
“That never happened.”
With this film, Ryan wants to set the record straight. He wants to cover the whole story. He wants to tell us what happened before, during, and after the internment of the people who were branded as enemy aliens during World War One.
According to official records, the internment program began in 1914, shortly after the beginning of World War One. It ended in 1920, which is the official end of the war.
An armistice was signed in 1918. The Treaty of Versailles was written and signed in 1919. The treaty was effective from 1920. This year is the official end of the war.
More than 8,500 enemy aliens were placed in 24 internment camps across Canada. This means the average number of persons in each camp was around 350.
Most inmates were young single men. Some men were married. In most cases, women and children were not taken. But 81 women and 156 children volunteered to be interned in order to keep their families together.
How many were interned?
Where did they come from?
According to official records, the figures are as follows:
** The total number of enemy aliens interned = 8,579
** Men from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, mainly Ukrainians = 5,954
** Germans = ca. 2,000
** Turks = ca. 200
** Bulgarians = ca. 100
The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed guards.
The inmates were regarded as prisoners of war, even though they were civilians and not soldiers.
The inmates were not allowed to sit around and pass the time in the camps. They were taken out to work on different government projects, building a road, building a railroad, or developing a national park.
When they were working outside the camps, they were constantly supervised by armed guards.
In addition to those who were placed in camps, around 80,000 enemy aliens, again mostly Ukrainians, had to carry a special ID card and report to the authorities every month, while the program was running (1914-1920).
Director Ryan Boyko has interviewed many people who have something to say about the topic:
** Bohdan S. Kordan is a historian who has studied the topic and written about it in books and articles.
** Inki Mark is a politician who has raised the topic in the Canadian parliament.
** John Boxtel is a Dutch-Canadian artist who has created a number of sculptures which are placed near the sites of several internment camps across Canada
** Most participants in the film were chosen because their ancestors were victims of the internment program.
The list of participants includes the following:
** Sara Beaulieu
** John Boxtel
** John Garaliuk
** Ivan Grbesic
** Andrew Hladyshevsky
** Bohdan S. Kordan
** Michelle Loughery
** Andrea Malysh
** Inki Mark
** Peter Melnycky
** Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
** Borys Sydoruk
The statements of the participants are supplemented and supported by old photographs and old documents. Articles published in contemporary newspapers are shown to illustrate how the case was covered by the media.
In the 1970s, some Canadians who had Ukrainian ancestors, came together to build an organization and to start a campaign to raise public awareness of the internment camps during World War One.
From the outset, they stated that they were not asking for economic compensation.
They simply wanted the government to acknowledge that it happened and that it was wrong. “Not money, but memory” was the slogan of the campaign.
The progress was slow, but after many years of patient work, the campaign began to produce some significant results:
** Historical markers were erected near the 24 sites where internment camps existed during World War One.
** In some cases, a statue created by John Boxtel was placed next to the historical marker.
In 2005 and 2008, the Canadian parliament adopted two bills which acknowledge that enemy aliens were interned during World War One and that it was wrong to do so, because there was no specific evidence against these people; only suspicion; only general distrust and dislike.
These people were suspected of being disloyal to Canada, but there was no specific evidence of disloyalty.
RATINGS AND REVIEWS
What do reviewers say about this film?
On IMDb it has a rating of 89 percent, which corresponds to a rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon.
On Amazon there are at the moment three ratings with three reviews. The average rating is five stars (100 percent).
Here are the headlines:
** That DID happen!
** Groundbreaking – A must see
** Everybody knows about the Japanese internment camps in the USA but few know Canada’s story
CONCLUSION
What do I think? In my opinion, this is an important film about an important topic. I understand the positive reviews and I agree with them.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent)
REFERENCES
# 1. Books
** Enemy Aliens: Prisoners of War by Bohdan S. Kordan (2002)
** A Bare and Impolitic Right: Internment and Ukrainian-Canadian Redress by Bohdan S. Kordan (2004)
** Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk - Spirit Lake, Quebec, 1914 by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (2007)
** No Free Man: Canada, the Great War, and the Enemy Alien Experience by Bohdan S. Kordan (2016)
** The Stories Were Not Told: Canada’s First World War Internment Camps by Sandra Semchuk (2018)
** Enemy Alien: A True Story of Life Behind Barbed Wire by Kassandra Luciuk (2020)
# 2. Items available on the internet
** Jesse Tahirali,
“First World War internment camps a dark chapter in Canadian history,”
CTV News,
3 August 2014
** Katherine Lissitsa,
“Film reveals the hidden history of Canada’s First World War internment operations,”
Canadian Geographic,
6 September 2018
** Patricia E. Roy,
“Internment in Canada,”
The Canadian Encyclopedia,
11 June 2020 – updated 25 February 2021
# 3. Items available on YouTube
** “Canada’s Forgotten History: World War One Internment Camps”
Posted by Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada
Date = 8 April 2016
Run time = 7 minutes
** “The surprising story of Canada’s enemy aliens”
Posted by Telus Storyhive
Date = 19 May 2017
Run time = 5 minutes
** “Internment camps in Canada during the First World War”
Posted by Valour Canada
Date = 5 January 2021
Run time = 11 minutes
*****
On this blog
Three items about Canadian history
** The Famous Five:
Women's Rights in Canada
** Journey to Justice (2000)
** Long Road to Justice:
The Viola Desmond Story (2011)
*****
Prisoners in the Promised Land:
The Ukrainian Internment Diary of
Anya Soloniuk,
Spirit Lake, Quebec, 1914
By Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
(2007)
*****
No Free Man:
Canada, the Great War, and the
Enemy Alien Experience
By Bohdan S. Kordan
(2016)
*****
Camp 33 - Petawawa
Enemy aliens (mainly Ukrainians)
behind barbed wire in Canada
during World War One
*****
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