War Mania, Mass Hysteria and Moral Panic: Rendered Captive by Barbed Wire and Maple Leaves WWI veterans who protested against the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, were held hostage by all the key narratives of Canada’s rampant mass hysteria: Xenophobia, British Imperialism, Muscular Christianity, Law and Order, and antiCommunism.

By Richard Sanders secret police and spy agencies can now ness prevailing national narratives to cap- century ago, in 1915, a youthful target and pre-emptively jail anyone they ture the hearts, minds and loyalties of main- Canada was already waging its believe might possibly threaten the estab- stream society. This public support was Asecond imperialist war overseas.1 lished order of business. required not only to wage the imperial war The colony’s political and economic elites The legal boundaries of the word abroad, but the one at home as well. —ably represented in Parliament by Sir “terrorist” have been redrawn. Expanded The War Measures Act of 1914 was Robert Borden and his pious AngloProt- to capture activists said to cause “interfer- a reaction to what its framers called “the estant cabinet—had rallied mainstream ence with the economic or financial sta- existence of real or apprehended war, in- Canada behind the imperial hubris of a bility of Canada,” the term “terrorism” now vasion or insurrection.”4 Gripped by fear phoney “war to end all wars.” encloses those “unduly influencing a gov- of revolts, rebellions and resistance to au- Subjected to every propaganda ernment” by “unlawful means.”2 This thority, global elites were in crisis. Canada trick imaginable—from patriotic political makes terrorists out of unionists who use was not immune to the political anxiety speeches, popular novels, classroom tripe illegal strikes, or even pacifists devoted to disorder that plagued imperialists around and religious sermons, to flag-waving pa- using Gandhian acts of nonviolence. the world. Canadian elites were preoccu- rades and church picnics—Canadians were After 100 years, Canadian business pied and obsessed with phobic worries propelled into a mass hysteria that justi- elites, driven by the same endless pursuit about seditious uprisings by radicalised so- fied not only the imperial war abroad but of profits, still wrap themselves in the Ma- cialists and labour activists. By 1917, the harsh repression on the homefront. ple Leaf and use simple narratives to instil angst among Conservative/Liberal elites Exploiting the endemic classism, a fear of fiendish, foreign enemies. And, went viral. Canada was under siege by racism and xenophobia that riddled main- Canada’s security-fixated, state institutions mass, public hysteria. This moral panic stream Canadian society, opinion leaders are still the gravest threat to our civil rights. attack is known as the “First Red Scare.” demonised their foreign enemies, and ra- While the foreign enemies du jour But the foreboding that afflicted tionalised the domestic persecution of a are now said to be radicalised Muslims, European capitalists began decades before very specific demographic of newcomers. Canadians of a century ago were caught in the Russian revolutions of 1917. Their fear Armed with the wartime pretext that an epidemic of fear that was stirred up by was sparked by popular mutinies that up- Canada was under siege by diabolical al- dire warnings that east Europeans—mostly set imperial and monarchic control on five iens who had infiltrated the gates of our Ukrainians—were being radicalised by continents. Popular insurrections and revo- “Peaceable Kingdom,” the Conservative militantly socialist labour activists. lutions included: Ghana, 1900; Angola, government crafted draconian new secu- Between 1914 and 1920, Canada 1902; Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, 1903- rity legislation. Passed in 1914—with the was held captive not just by jingoism, but 1908; Armenia, 1904; Namibia, 1904; loyal support of all Liberal MPs, and the by a virtual dictatorship. When MPs unani- Paraguay, 1904; Argentina, 1905; German lone Labour Party politician in Parlia- mously passed the War Measures Act, they East Africa, 1905-1906; Russia, Poland, ment—the War Measures Act gave authori- gave extraordinary powers to Borden’s Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, 1905- ties a new arsenal of repressive powers for clutch of Tories. His Cabinet—working 1907; Persia, 1905-1909; Romania, 1907; exerting control over Canadian society. with the Governor General, a son of Queen Turkey, 1908; Bali, 1908; Syria, 1909; Mo- Among these powers were tools to moni- Victoria—used the “emergency” of war to rocco, 1909-1910; Monaco, 1910; Portu- tor and detain anyone even suspected of bypass Parliament and issue laws they saw gal, 1910; Mexico, 1910-1920; China, becoming a potential enemy of the state. as “necessary...for the security, defence, 1911-1913; Mongolia, 1911-1921; Bal- History has been repeating itself peace, order and welfare of Canada.”3 kans, 1912-1913; Ireland, 1912-1923; Al- ever since. When Harper’s Conservative By dictating the legal definitions bania, 1912-1914; and South Africa, 1914. government used Bill C-51 to revamp captured by these vague grab-all terms, the So, for decades prior to WWI, Eu- Canada’s institutions of repression, the so- Governor in Council also became Cana- rope’s colonial powers were increasingly called Anti-Terrorism law was approved da’s semantic gatekeeper. But besides be- terrified by growing social movements for with overwhelming Liberal Party support. ing the despotic guardian and ward of the democracy, justice and labour rights that Armed with these new weapons, Canada’s word of law, this official cabal helped har- were organising mass protests and huge March 2016 (Issue # 68) Press for Conversion! 5 general strikes. The nearly successful Rus- gated community, were an infection that slaught of spellbinding stories that pull at sian revolution of 1905-1907, pushed had to be stopped from spreading through- our collective heart strings and build na- many capitalist power brokers to conclude out the body politic. Cabinet used its new tionalist feelings that support the armed that they needed to take even more des- powers of preventative, mass detention to forces. The government, corporate media perate measures to contain the spread of capture and enslave thousands of single, and mainstream civil-society groups have socialism, if not to crush it completely. recently-laid off labourers mostly from memorialised Canada with poignant tales During WWI, Canadian authorities eastern Europe. These young men—then of soldiers who lost their lives in WWI. rallied loyal citizens around the Union Jack amassing in Canada’s cities—were feared Official WWI narratives have also to support Britain’s imperial interests not only as a source of anticapitalist ideas, been used to justify Canada’s military and abroad. But the War Measures Act not only but as the group at highest risk of being foreign policies. “Nothing has changed,” consolidated state power to wage a foreign agitated into action by radical socialists. said then-Prime Minister Harper at a 2014 war, it provided special tools to quell a ceremony marking WWI. Continuing with feared socialist revolt within Canada’s Capturing History what the Canadian Press called a “veiled borders. The war thus furnished a conven- The WWI-era repression of Canada’s rad- reference to Canada’s tough stands in sup- ient pretext for targeting domestic enemies ical left has been all but erased from main- port of Ukraine and Israel,” he went on to of the state. Authorities imagined that for- stream narratives about the period. Instead, say that “Canada is still loyal to our friends, eign radicals who had infiltrated Canada’s the war’s centenary has created an on- unyielding to our foes,” and stands “once Empire and Sons: From Sir William Otter, to the NDP... By Richard Sanders anada’s Major General Sir William Otter is revered as Cthe “father” of Canada’s Army. His family tree is laden with archdeacons, bankers, barons, a British Governor of Bermuda, a chief justice of Nova Scotia, and his grandfather was the Anglican Lord Bishop of Chichester, England.1 With the war’s outbreak in 1914, Otter was brought out of re- tirement to be appointed Director of Internment Operations. His qualifi- cations included collaboration in Stephen Lewis two imperial conflicts that involved Sir William Otter and his and his father, the mass internment of civilians. grandson, Desmond Morton David Lewis In 1913, Otter was made a 1967 Companion of the Most Honourable Mili- contest of empires, British troops forced Otter was immortalised in a gentle tary Order of the Bath.2 For what service 116,000 Blacks into concentration camps.6 biography by his grandson, Desmond Mor- to Empire did he receive this title? Was it They also herded 118,000 Boer women, ton, one of Canada’s leading military his- his role in the North West Rebellion of children and elderly men into deadly pris- torians. Morton’s narrative on Otter in the 1885 when he led a battalion of British on camps. Of these civilians, more than Dictionary of Canadian Biography, pre- troops against a Cree and Métis uprising 42,000 died from preventable diseases in sents him in as favourable a light as possi- led by Poundmaker and Big Bear?3 His role the camps, including 28,000 Boers7 and ble. Morton’s narrative on the Boer War, in crushing that revolt led the Montreal over 14,000 Blacks.8 In addition, 26,000 while noting that the soldiers under his Daily Star to urge that “Otterism” be used Boer men were shipped to British prison grandfather’s command “became the ide- “as a synonym for merciless repression.”4 camps in India and Caribbean colonies.9 al symbols of a great victory for the Brit- Otter had dutifully served as an imperial In 2014, to honour the Canadian ish empire,”11 makes no mention of war’s weapon to smash resistance to Canadian troops who died while assisting Britain’s great success in killing tens of thousands land plunder and the genocidal herding of imperial conquest of South Africa, Cana- of civilians trapped in internment camps. Indians into mass captivity on reserves. da’s government added the Boer War, and Morton, whose father was a Briga- (See pp.15-21.) But this crime was only Afghanistan, to the conflicts that are now dier General in WWII, is perhaps best re- one step on Otter’s journey to knighthood. officially commemorated at the National membered for his rendition of WWI as the Otter’s next major opportunity to War Memorial in Ottawa.10 defining moment in Canada’s long strug- serve imperial conquest came when he led Considering his commanding role gle for freedom from its imperial masters. 1,000 troops of the Royal Canadian Infan- in squashing the Northwest Rebellion and “The Great War,” he said, “gave [Prime try Regiment, during the Boer War (1899- in leading troops during the Boer War (in Minister] King and the Liberals arguments 1902).5 This war was fought to secure the which more than a 250,000 civilians were and support enough to take Canada to full British elite’s access to diamonds and gold interned), it is no small wonder that Otter and unquestioned independence.”12 controlled by the Boer (Dutch/Africaan- was knighted and then appointed to lead During his tenth year in Canada’s er) regime in South Africa. During this Canada’s internment camps during WWI. army, Captain Morton “was anxious to 6 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 68) March 2016 again beside allies whose sovereignty, attacks that may be linked to terror- to arrest, detain and deport anyone, with- whose territorial integrity—indeed, whose ism.”7 (Emphasis added.) out trial. Cabinet was soon using this very freedoms and existence—are still at The pre-emptive jailing of those thought power to wage war against a specific set risk.”5 (Canada’s “tough” support for the to be thinking about actions that might be of immigrants. Many of them—not coin- Ukrainian and Israeli governments contin- “linked to terrorism,” requires extreme cidentally—were sympathetic to anticapi- ues apace under the Trudeau Liberals.) paranoia. Ironically, Canada’s current war talist ideas and radical, labour actions. The October 22, 2014, murder of against IS—framed as a humanitarian at- While official stories of Canada’s an army reservist at Ottawa’s National War tack on ultraconservative religious fanat- WWI internment now critique the ethnic Memorial (built to commemorate our ics—was begun by evangelical neocons profiling of Ukrainians, they usually ignore WWI military losses), was used to justify keen on restraining domestic civil liberties. the role of economics, class and politics in the deployment of troops and warplanes Missing from the militarised hu- targeting them. Such renditions of history to Iraq. On the next day, Harper told Par- man-interest stories of WWI are historical are common among Canada’s nationalist liament that “laws and police powers...in narratives about Canada’s harsh attacks on Ukrainians. For example, on Remem- the area of surveillance, detention, and ar- domestic civil rights. In 1914, when To- brance Day 2010, the ultraright Ukrainian rest ...need to be much strengthened.”6 On ries and Liberals passed the War Measures Canadian Congress (UCC) said that: October 24, then-Public Safety Minister Act, Cabinet was given unlimited powers “Thousands of Ukrainian Canadians Steven Blaney said the government was to restrict and control communications, were jailed in Canadian internment “eyeing the thresholds established in travel, manufacturing, property and trade. camps....not because of anything they had done, but only because of where Canadian law for the preventive arrests The Act also gave them absolute powers of people thought to be contemplating they had come from.”8 The “Waffle Manifesto” set out a References ...and the Waffle socialist policy of independence from US 1. “William Otter” (Bishop of Chichester) wars and hegemony. Its platform includ- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Otter 2. Canadian Troops to South Africa. ed nationalising “the essential resources in- albertagenealogy-research.ca dustries, finance and credit, and industries 3. George Maclean Rose, A Cyclopaedia of strategic to planning our economy.”15 Canadian Biography, Vol. 2, 1888, p.621 Morton’s 1972 success in ousting books.google.ca/books?id=dm0ZAQAAIAAJ 4. Desmond Morton, “William Dillon Otter,” the Waffle from the NDP, is similar to Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 2003. when Rev.J.S.Woodsworth led the purge www.biographi.ca of radicals from the party’s forerunner, the 5. 2 SS Bn Royal Canadian Regiment Infan- Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in try, South African War, Facts & Myths www.angloboerwar.com/forum/8-events/9795- the 1930s and ‘40s. Ousting the Waffle kept 2-ss-bn-royal-canadian-regiment-infantry-south- radical economic, antiwar and anti-impe- african-war-facts-myths 6. Concentration Camps - Blacks rialist ideas from infecting the NDP. The www.angloboerwar.com/other-information/88- Royal Commission into RCMP crimes, concentration-camps/ said that because of their concern “that 7. Women and Children in White Concentra- Trotskyists and Communists were joining tion Camps during the Anglo-Boer War, 1900-1902. the Waffle,” the Mounties “volunteered in- www.sahistory.org.za/topic/women-children- formation to one leader of a provincial white-concentration-camps-during-anglo-boer- war-1900-1902 New Democratic Party” to make him 8. Methods of Barbarism? “aware of subversives within his Party.”16 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/census/ Besides being spied on by the events/britain7.htm serve as [the NDP’s] assistant provincial 9. Prisoner-of-War Camps Overseas RCMP and expelled from the NDP, Waf- www.anglo-boer.co.za/pow/pow-camps- secretary.” So, the party’s executive agreed fle organisers were also targeted for intern- overseas-2.php to “negotiate” Morton’s “release from the ment during the Cold War. This top secret 10. Josh Wingrove, “Police presence in Ottawa 13 doubled for sombre ceremony,” Globe and armed forces.” He was soon working for Canadian program was called Operation the Ontario NDP. In the early 1970s, as a Mail, November 11, 2014. Profunc. (See pp.35, 49.) From 1950 until www.theglobeandmail.com close advisor to NDP leaders, David and the 1980s, the RCMP created annual lists 11. Morton, Op. cit. Stephen Lewis, Morton was instrumental of thousands of radical leftists who—in 12. Desmond Morton, “Was The Great War in helping this father and son team to oust case of a war, or some vaguely-defined Canada’s War of Independence?” a youthful reform group from the party. In www3.nfb.ca/ww1/independence.php emergency—were to be interned. In the 13. J.T. Morley, The CCF/NDP in Ontario, A 1971, the “Waffle Movement for an Inde- 1950s, the first generation of this program Biography, 1984, p.82. pendent Socialist Canada,” was seen as a targeted communists like Edna and Rob- books.google.ca/books?id=ANavAw AAQBAJ threat that the NDP leadershipand the ert Mendel Laxer. The latter was a WWII 14. RCMP brief to Soliciter General, Jean- Mounties both wanted to contain. A secret Pierre Goyer, March 1971. Quoted in veteran who became a paid organiser for “Commission of inquiry concerning certain RCMP report said the Waffle was hoping the Communist Party, and later a clinical activities of the RCMP,” 2nd Report, Vol.1, “to change the NDP from within and psychologist. Under Profunc, their chil- Ch.3, August 1981, p.483. radicalise the NDP socialist policies.... dren, Jim and Gord, were also to be round- epe.lac-bac.gc.ca In its present relatively infant form, the 15. The Waffle Manifesto: For an Independent Waffle Group is rapidly becoming a ed up. Jim, now a York University politi- Socialist Canada, 1969. melting pot for radicals of all ‘Left’ cal science prof, was a leader of the Waf- www.socialisthistory.ca/ groups....”14 fle, which he and his father helped to found. 16. “Commission...” Op. cit., pp.353-354. March 2016 (Issue # 68) Press for Conversion! 7 Concentration Camps up so that their toes just touch the floor.” plenty of labour. Anybody who asked us Between 1914 and 1920, 8,579 men “of Another US Consul, G.Willrich, said “petty to do anything, we provided the slaves.”17 enemy nationality” were interned in what officers” inflicted punishments to “gratify Enslaved by federal and provincial gov- authorities originally called “Concentra- their brutal instincts,” “as is so often the ernments and private firms, they hewed tion Camps.” Of these, 7,762 (90%) were case when men of inferior intelligence are trees, built structures, fences, railways, civilian residents of Canada. Also impris- invested with autocratic powers.”14 roads and parks, and sweated on farms or oned were 81 women and 156 children. While 2,009 of the men were German, Under the bayonet at the Castle Mountain 5,954 were listed as “Austro-Hungarians, Concentration Camp, Banff Alberta covering Croats, Ruthenians, Slovaks and Chzecks.”9 (Serbs were also among those interned.) About 5,000 of these “Austro- Hungarians” were actually Ukrainian. Canada’s 24 internment facilities were commanded by Maj.Gen. Sir William Otter, who is still fondly heralded as the “father” of Canada’s Army. His official report, Internment Operations, 1914-1920, says he “suspected that the tendency of mu- nicipalities to ‘unload’ their indigent was the cause of the confinement of not a Slave Labour few.”10 By mid-1915, 4,000 of the aliens Although “first class” internees, mostly in factories, steel mills and coal mines. forced into these prison camps, were be- German officers, were not forced to work, Getting a pittance for their 10-hour ing described as “indigent.”11 “second class” prisoners, mostly Ukrain- work days, many got only 25 cents a day To abide by the Hague Convention ian civilians, were used as slaves. Even for hard labour, when a standard wage was on POWs, Otter had two classes of intern- upon release, their slavery did not end. In 20 cents an hour. Although not paid until ees. Only a few were among what he called 1916 and 1917, when the British Empire’s after the war, some were not paid even the military “officer class or its [civilian] increased demands for Canadian cannon then. By mid-1929, the government still equivalent.” Mostly German, these “first fodder in Europe led to a shortage of work- owed $23,000 to prisoners for their work,18 class” prisoners—held largely in cities— ers, the government’s corporate friends i.e., 92,000 hours of labour. In contrast, received “better quartering and subsist- asked for welfare assistance. Borden’s on top of his pension, for his part in run- ence.”12 And, they were not forced to work. government was only too happy to oblige ning Canada’s slave labour camps, Otter “Second class” internees were mostly by providing thousands of foreign slaves got $30,000, i.e., $5,000 per year from Ukrainian civilians. Banished to rural from Canada’s labour camps. In the offi- 1914 to 1920. (In 1914, $5,000 was the camps, they laboured under the gun, en- cial narratives however, these historic re- equivalent of $103,000 in 2015.) dured hunger, disease, unsanitary condi- alities were rendered in more euphemistic Some internment-camp labourers tions, overcrowding and dangerous work terms. Otter’s narrative captures the offi- were denied any allowance. As the Con- environments. Some were beaten, prodded cial history with these words: sul of Switzerland wrote in 1917, after vis- with bayonets, or viciously tortured. Ten “[W]hen the most strenuous call for re- iting the camp near Fernie, BC: were shot dead trying to flee the camps. inforcements was made by the Allies, “They complain that the allowance of Otter’s narrative claimed that “very the depletion of men in many of the One dollar per month has been with- little friction occurred between troops and large corporations of the country was drawn in consequence of which some so keenly felt that application [was] of the men are absolutely destitute.”19 prisoners.” His report also said he had “lit- made for the services of our prisoners ($1 in 1914 was equal to $21 in 2015.) tle complaint” about guards. Otter did ad- to supply the want.... This system Mark Workman, president of the mit that Canada’s prison camp conditions proved a great advantage to the organi- Dominion Iron and Steel Corp., was so en- may have led to “insanity.” Noting that “In- zations short of labour.”15 thused with the government’s forced labour sanity was by no means uncommon among Otter also reported that 6,000 “Aus- program that he requested “troublesome” the prisoners,” Otter said that in some cas- trians,” mainly Ukrainians, were “released internees. As he put it, “there is no better es, “the disease possibly developed from from confinement on signing a ‘parole.’” way of handling aliens than to keep them a nervous condition brought about by the For example, over 1,300 mostly Slavic in- employed in productive labour.” In 1917, confinement and restrictions entailed.” In mates were released from a northern On- Workman asked Borden to request that “many other cases,” Otter said he “suspect- tario camp in Kapuskasing when it was Britain transfer their internees to Canada ed” that the “insane” were “interned ...to “decided to parole them to work for the for work in his Cape Breton mines.20 relieve municipalities of their care.”13 Dominion Steel Corporation and other big Even after November 11, 1918, The psychotic brutality of Canadian manufacturers.”16 Paroled prisoners were with WWI over, Canada continued its re- camp guards was described by US Consul kept on a tight leash. They could be re- pressive internment program. The govern- Samuel Reat. He said in 1915 that some turned to captivity if they failed to report ment reported that as of December 19, prisoners in the Lethbridge Alberta camp regularly to the police, or lost their jobs. 1918, there were still 2,222 prisoners be- were put in “dark cells and given a diet of Col.Anderson-Whyte, a former ing held in four camps: Munson, AB (63), bread and water from 1 to 4 days.” Others, guard from the Castle Mountain internment Vernon, BC (388), Kapuskasing, ON he reported, were “handcuffed and drawn camp in Banff, was more blunt: “We had (1,007) and Amherst, NS (764).21 8 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 68) March 2016 Conflicting Narratives Fear is the only agency To explain why some Canadian prison that can [be] successfully employed camps stayed in operation until 1920, BC to keep them within the law and I have no lawyer Diana Breti argued that the “forced labour program was such a ben- doubt that...the foreign element here will efit to Canadian corporations that in- soon be as gentle and as easily ternment was continued for two years controlled as a lot of sheep. after the end of the War.”22 In 2005, Liberal MP Borys Wrze- snewskyj gave Parliament the same narra- tive when he lauded efforts by the Ukrain- ian Canadian Congress (UCC). He said: Sir John’s son, Hugh, was Winnipeg’s Police Magistrate. “This infrastructure development pro- During the 1919 General Strike, he said Canada should gram benefited Canadian corporations “get rid of as many undesirable aliens as possible,” to such a degree that even after the end especially east Europeans and Jews who were, he said, of World War I, for two more years the prone to“Bolsheviki ideas.” After he sent radical aliens to Sir Hugh Canadian government carried on the the Kapuskasing internment camp, many were deported. MacDonald internment.”23 This official story is still found on and made conciliation obligatory and ternment camp at Kapuskasing, Ontario, the UCC website. “This infrastructure de- binding in industrial disputes. [A] pat- and subsequently deported in secret.”31 velopment program,” says the UCC, “was tern of action was installed which was This treatment was pushed by Sir so beneficial to Canadian corporations that ...putatively aimed at wartime security, Hugh MacDonald,32 Winnipeg’s Police but actually aimed at controlling and the internment program lasted for two years disciplining the working class.”26 Magistrate and the son of Sir John A. Mac- 24 after the end of the war.” Canada’s antiRed psychosis Donald. In 1919, Sir Hugh wrote to Cana- The UCC has worked closely with reached a frenzied peak in the 1919 Win- da’s Interior Minister Arthur Meighen government ever since Prime Minister nipeg General Strike. The madness was about “getting rid of as many undesirable King’s Liberals facilitating its creation in inflamed by elites at every level, from the aliens as possible” because of the “large 1940. Their shared goal was to unify federal Cabinet to a local “Citizens’ Com- extent Bolsheviki ideas are held” by Ukrai- Ukrainian anticommunists and to margin- mittee” of Winnipeg’s richest industrial- nians, Russians, Poles, and especially alise their common socialist enemies. (See ists, lawyers, bankers and politicians. Join- Jews. He urged Meighen to “make an ex- “Consolidating the Ukrainian Right,” p.46) ing the fray were media moguls whose ample” of these radicals, by saying that While it is useful to expose the con- papers branded radical labour activists “fear is the only agency that can [be] successfully employed to keep them fluence of government and corporate in- with slurs like “Bolsheviks,” “Bohunks” terests in exploiting WWI-era slave labour within the law and I have no doubt that and “alien scum,” or depicted them in car- if the Dominion Government persists in camps, this narrative ignores the political toons as crazed, bomb-throwing anarchists. the course that [it] is now adopting the function of internment. Camps were also Despite such vivid propaganda tac- foreign element here will soon be as used to contain the spread of radical so- tics, when police rounded up strike lead- gentle and as easily controlled as a lot cialism. This was particularly obvious af- ers at gunpoint in late-night raids, 30,000 of sheep.”33 ter the Russian revolution of 1917. supporters rallied on June 21, braving the To see why Canadian prison camps In 1917, Canadian censors banned city’s ban on all public gatherings. When kept operating until 1920, we must look at many leftwing publications, making hun- Mounties got orders to fire into the crowd, the global context. While Russia’s revolu- dreds of books and periodicals illegal to they killed two people. They then charged tion inspired many poor workers around print, import, distribute or even possess. in on horseback, injuring dozens. Fleeing the world, it alarmed elites in Canada, the By September 1918, Borden’s regime out- protesters were beaten with bats and wag- US, Europe and elsewhere. Panic strick- lawed all publications in languages spo- on spokes wielded by “special police” and en by Russian events, and fearful of home- ken within enemy states, including Ger- about 100 “Reds” were arrested.27 grown radicals, desperate powerbrokers man, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Ro- In summing up this “Bloody Satur- scared their societies into a mass psycho- manian, Ukrainian, Russian, Finnish, Syr- day” police riot, Sir George Foster, MP, sis of antiRed hysteria. The paranoia of this ian, SerboCroatian and Latvian. This eth- remarked that: “Some blood was shed but “First Red Scare” was fired up by state nic profiling did not apply to religious texts law and order was maintained….”28 propagandists, media owners, church lead- or other materials that officials found un- Winnipeg was an occupied city pa- ers, and progressive civil-society activists objectionable.25 Describing this crack- trolled by army trucks mounted with ma- held captive by xenophobic narratives. down, labour activist Michael Martin chine guns.29 When the strike was called The Canadian government’s mad- wrote that although off, radical labour activists were fired or ness to contain the Red Menace at home “[t]he pretext was the war; the real goal black listed and the media continued to was paralleled by a mounting frenzy to was to limit and control the effects of promote antiRed narratives. The madness collar if not wipe out communism abroad. the Russian Revolution. At the same Following WWI, Canada joined the US, time, fourteen political organisations soon spread as Mounties “from Victoria were banned, as were publications of to Montreal raided the homes and offices Britain, France, Greece, Italy, Japan and trade unions and socialist and anarchist of socialist and labour leaders.”30 That others, in a military invasion of Soviet organisations. On October 11, 1918, ex- summer, about 200 radicals were rounded Russia to turn back their revolution. actly one month before the armistice, up. “Many of those arrested,” reports his- In March 1919, France’s PM the government prohibited all strikes, torian Don Avery, “were moved to the in- Georges Clemenceau launched the Cold March 2016 (Issue # 68) Press for Conversion! 9 War’s “Containment Policy.” He called bers, mainly in mining, logging and rail- for an international cordon sanitaire to way construction camps. They gained encircle and quarantine Bolshevism, as strength by uniting thousands in strikes if it were a communicable disease. Brit- and walkouts to achieve better wages ain’s War Secretary, Winston Church- and safer work conditions in the camps. ill, shared this vicious pathology. His By the summer of 1913, thousands rhetoric used a graphic metaphor to de- of Ukrainians, many laid off from death- mand the deadly encirclement of an in- defying railway work where they were fant’s neck. Using the murderously psy- radicalised by the IWW, moved into chopathic trope of throttling a newborn, western Canadian cities. The police Churchill said Bolshevism was a baby used vagrancy laws to arrest them for that “must be strangled in its cradle.” loitering, and some were deported.40 So it was that in 1919 more than Speaking of indigent labourers in 150,000 troops—including 4,200 Ca- western Canada at that time, Ukrainian nadians—invaded the newborn Soviet Canadian academics, Bohdan Kordan state. “Canadian troops joined soldiers and Peter Melnycky, wrote that: from thirteen countries,” said historian “these people...were interned when ur- Benjamin Isitt, “in a multi-front strat- ban municipal councils, concerned egy of encirclement designed to isolate about this additional burden on the tax 34 rolls and unwilling or unable to provide and defeat the Bolshevik regime.” relief for them, insisted they were ‘a Despite this, the prevailing view threat to civil order.’ The policy of in- is that political profiling was not used ternment offered local authorities the to target aliens for internment. Even pro- means with which to deal with the thou- gressive political scientist Reg Whitak- ‘The Lord Provides’ by Jacob Burck sands of destitute who were milling 41 er said in 1986 that in WWI “many In May 1914, 2,000 unemployed, about the streets of urban centres.” (Emphasis added.) Ukrainians had been interned in Cana- mostly Ukrainians, rallied in Winnipeg But radicalised Ukrainians were not da, but not, it would seem, with any po- to demand “Work or Bread!” merely “milling about the streets,” they litical or ideological selectivity.”35 They were met by club-wielding police. were protesting in the streets. In May 4Rs: Recession, Radicalism, “navvies” were killed in job-related acci- 1914, 2,000 unemployed, mostly Ukraini- Rebellion and Repression dents, while 99,668 were injured. “A great ans, rallied in Winnipeg. Carrying shov- Between 1910 and 1914 alone, about many of these,” said University of Mani- els, they called for “work or bread!” When 70,000 Ukrainians—mostly single men — toba historian Orest Martynowych, “were police tried to arrest one of their speakers, migrated to Canada. Most were exploited Ukrainian immigrants.” He went on to say an officer was beaten. The crowd was driv- in low-salary jobs building railways and that in 1912, en back by 20 club-wielding constables. roads, or working in mines, mills or foun- “a foreign consul familiar with condi- Business leaders supported Cana- dries. Because they dominated some of the tions in Europe and South American da’s roundup of indigent aliens. In August stated that he knew of ‘no other coun- hardest-hit job sectors, Ukrainians were 1914, CPR president Sir Thomas Shaugh- try where the rights of workmen have nessy urged friends in government to cre- disproportionately affected by the major been so flagrantly abused as on railway recession that hit Canada between 1913 37 ate detention camps for laid-off Germans construction in Canada.’” 42 and 1915. For example, of the 54,000 rail- Even convicts doing railway work had bet- and “Austrians.” Later that month, the way workers who lost their jobs in that re- ter housing, and shorter hours, than Cana- War Measures Act was passed and intern- cession,36 a large percent were Ukrainian. da’s alien “navvies,” said an observer who ment stations opened in Montreal and After the Liberal government im- likened their conditions to “lesser forms Kingston. Six prison camps opened that 43 posed its severe “head-tax” on Asian im- of serfdom” and “peonage.”38 September, with five in western Canada. migrants in 1907, Chinese railway “coo- Despite being the backbone of Can- To solve the growing crisis, Bor- lies” were replaced largely by Italians and ada’s economy, mainstream unions turned den’s government considered conscripting Ukrainians. Most immigrant men entering a blind eye to the workers in these camps. foreigners into the military. Another idea Canada in the decade before WWI were Two main factors affected large unions’ was to encourage unemployed aliens to forced into brute manual labour. Many en- disinterest in organising them, said Erica leave Canada for the US. When Borden dured oppressive and dangerous conditions Martin, “the racism which beset early Ca- cabled Canada’s colonial masters in Brit- in remote, company-run work camps. Dur- nadian labour activism” and “the fact that ain for advice, he noted that the ing the early decades of the 20th century, “[s]ituation with regard to Germans and most manual workers on the frontier were Austrians, particularly Austrians [is] these bunkhouse camps were home and immigrants.” Only in the early 1920s did very difficult. From fifty to one hundred workplace to hundreds of thousands of im- big unions begin to take an interest in Can- thousand will be out of employment migrant men. These poorly-paid loggers, ada’s work camps because they “felt threat- during coming winter as employers are miners and railway workers did much of ened by ‘radical’ groups like the Interna- dismissing them everywhere under Canada’s most backbreaking work. tional Workers of the World (IWW) which compulsion of public opinion.”44 (Em- Railway workers were among the were attempting to organize camp men.”39 phasis added.) worst off. Official records conservatively By 1911, the anarcho-socialist It was essential, Borden said, to either “let show that between 1901 and 1918, 12,816 IWW had about 10,000 Canadian mem- them go, provide them with work or feed 10 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 68) March 2016 them, otherwise they will become desper- Opposing Capitalist, saw religion as a powerful form of captiv- ate and resort to crime.” The “crime” that Religious and Military Slavery ity. These activists, Martynowych said scared Canadian elites was not loitering, Why did Canadian power brokers see east “were free of the cultural fetters imposed it was insurrection. The colonial office in Europeans as such a threat to the estab- on the individual in traditional peasant so- London suggested that Canada enslave lished order? The anticapitalist, liberation cieties.” They “articulated a social and po- these troublesome, unemployed aliens. movements that swept through central and litical orientation based on anticlerical, so- Imperial authorities couched this in euphe- eastern Europe between 1905 and 1907, cialist and populist principles” because “the higher clergy in Galicia (Catholic) misms saying that if Canada provided en- captured the imagination of many Ukrai- emy aliens with food and shelter, “it would and in Bukovyna (Orthodox) acted as nians in Canada. This community was then the instrument of foreign ruling classes, be quite proper under war conditions to bolstered by politicised émigrés fleeing 45 while most members of the lower clergy make them labour at public works.” Czarist repression. (See pp.38-39.) By remained indifferent to the plight of the Even after the War Measures Act 1906, socialist Ukrainians were printing peasantry.”52 was enacted and internment had begun, anticapitalist tracts and building radical, In 1911, Ukrainian socialists in Win- protests by unemployed foreigners contin- multi-ethnic organisations like the Indus- nipeg held a “Free School” with talks on ued to grow. In April 1915, 5,000 “unem- trial Workers of the World and the Social- “female emancipation, the Inquisition, the ployed non-unionized ‘foreigners’” hit ist Party of Canada (SPC). relation of churches to the institution of Winnipeg’s streets demanding “bread and The SPC’s largely Anglo-Saxon slavery, [and] the theories of Darwin....”53 work.” Police met them with clubs. An- leadership rigidly rejected all efforts to These Ukrainians were no doubt other Winnipeg protest of 15,000, took gradually reform capitalism. Instead, they inspired by Marxist metaphors that decried place three days later. In mid-May, hun- had an “impossibilist” ideology that de- religion as “the opium of the people,” as dreds of aliens, many Ukrainian, left Win- manded total and immediate revolution. well as by slavery tropes in the Commu- nipeg. In search of work, they walked to Underlying this struggle, the SPC saw “one nist Manifesto of 1848, which infamously the US border. Once there, 200 were ar- issue...as the basis for all political organi- said that “proletarians have nothing to lose 46 rested and sent to internment camps. zation,” namely, the “abolition of the but their chains.” Marx and Engels also The government and its friends in present system of wage slavery.”48 mixed metaphors and similes about work- business, shared a growing fear that radi- Slavery tropes were also central to ers, soldiers and slaves, saying cal immigrants, ravished by poverty and the rhetoric of Ukrainian socialists. In “Masses of labourers, crowded into the with nothing to lose, posed a threat to what 1907, the first issue of Chevron Prapor factory, are organised like soldiers.... Not only are they slaves of the bour- the War Measures Act called the “peace, (“The Red Flag”)—a Winnipeg-based geois class, and of the bourgeois State; order and welfare of Canada.” Destitute newspaper for Ukrainians within the east Europeans, roused by hunger and so- they are daily and hourly enslaved by SPC—described its purpose as leading a the machine.”54 cialist ideals, were menacing. With the eco- struggle against “injustice, exploitation and Ukrainian Canadian radicals took nomic crisis at home and war abroad, au- 49 slavery.” By 1914, Ukrainian socialists these tropes to heart. In 1917, Robotchyi thorities had a convenient excuse to round in Winnipeg, although by then freed from Narod asked: “Do you realize that Ukrain- up and thus contain those unemployed al- the confining ideology of the SPC, were ian workers occupy the lowest position in iens who were seen as radicals prone to still bound by antislavery rhetoric, saying this capitalist prison?”55 While “prison” disruptive street protests and labour unrest. “only he who works for the emancipation captures the idea of a structure for inmates, Meanwhile, the official story was 50 of the enslaved masses is a true patriot.” it also encloses, metaphorically, the idea that indigent aliens were interned for their Socialist Ukrainians saw their eth- of “wage slaves” trapped by class struc- own good. In 1918, then-Minister of Jus- nic group as an enslaved segment of Cana- tures. The Czar’s empire was also de- tice, Charles Doherty, an army veteran of da’s working class, held in place by the scribed in terms of captivity. After the the 1885 Northwest Rebellion, told Par- inherently exploitative capitalist system. events of February 1917, Ukrainian social- liament that poor aliens were interned out As Martynowych has noted, by 1913 radi- ists held a mass meeting at the Winnipeg of Anglo-Canadian kind-heartedness. Be- cal Ukrainian socialists were saying that Opera House and sent their “fraternal cause “thousands of these aliens were “Ukrainian immigrant labourers, espe- greetings” to “Russian worker-revolution- starving,” he said, they were interned “un- cially those who worked on railway aries” to celebrate “world victory... over der the inspiration of the sentiment of com- construction, in the forests and in the autocratic tsarism and the break-up of the passion.” Justifying the mass layoffs of mines, were little more than ‘free white prison-house of nations.”56 nonAnglos, he said “the labour market was slaves’ and ‘white niggers’...in the capi- 51 But Ukrainian Canadian socialists glutted and there was a natural disposition talist system.” These references to “free white were not content to merely use rhetorical to give the preference in the matter of em- slaves” and “white niggers” are from Ro- devices about prisons and slavery as an ployment to our own people.”47 botchyi Narod (Working People), the escape valve to express liberating, anti- AngloProtestant authorities were Ukrainian Social Democratic Party’s pa- capitalist ideas. They took action by push- certainly concerned about poverty among per in Winnipeg. So, even before east Eu- ing for specific changes to Canadian gov- unemployed “aliens.” However, their con- ropeans were literally enslaved in Cana- ernment policies. For instance, radical cern was not for the poor’s welfare. Their dian internment camps, radical Ukrainians Ukrainian leftists called for such enlight- goal was to protect capitalism from a were using metaphoric links that tied cor- ened goals as an eight-hour work day, a feared socialist upheaval led by radical- porate-run work camps to slavery. minimum daily wage, voting rights for all ised foreign workers. Slave labour camps Many socialist Ukrainian Canadi- men and women over 21, social insurance also helped shelter corporations from the ans, swayed by Ukraine’s Radical Party, for seniors and the disabled, and the abo- economic hardships of Canada’s recession. March 2016 (Issue # 68) Press for Conversion! 11 Alberta-bound Ukrainians lition of child labour.57 These Alberta-bound Ukrainians “A stalwart peasant in a sheep-skincoat, demands were shocking to born on the soil, whose forefathers Canada’s capitalist elites, who have been farmers for ten genera- framed such socialist ideals as tions, with a stout wife and a half- unthinkably dangerous, if not dozen children, is good quality.” criminally insane. Sir Clifford Sifton, Liberal Ahead of their time, Interior Minister (1896-1905) Ukrainian social democrats strove for a more equitable so- “The Galician [Ukrainian] on the ciety. They wanted a world land is a good citizen, and his where manufacturing would children will grow up good Cana- meet everyone’s needs, not dians; the Galician in the city is a just amass huge profits for the dangerous element ... [and] many privileged few. It was, and ... become a menace to our country.” still is, a revolutionary ideal. (at Canada’s Missionary Congress, 1909) But, as Martynowych points Rev. Charles Gordon (aka Ralph Connor) out, although “their ultimate Quebec City 1897 Missionary, Imperialist, Novelist, Social Gospeller goal...was revolutionary, their methods were moderate.” The reforms that Caged by the Fear of Captivity will grow up good Canadians; the Galician they demanded were meant to further “the While Canada’s elite used mass internment in the city is a dangerous element.”63 evolution of capitalism” and create “pre- to extract cheap labour and to contain the After warning that “many of the set- conditions for a smooth and orderly tran- spread of radicalism, whole communities tlers who drift into the cities become a men- sition to socialism.”58 They pursued were effectively held in place by fear. ace to our country,” Gordon asked, “What gradual social change through education, During WWI, Canada had 88,000 are we as Christian Canadians and as Chris- peaceful protest, labour actions and elec- registered “enemy aliens,” mostly Ukrai- tian Churches to do?”64 The problem, he toral politics, not by any kind of violent nians. If caught without their official, iden- said, was that overthrow of the Canadian government. tity papers, they could be interned imme- “we need them for our work. They do During WWI, Ukrainian radicals diately. “Police conducted regular round- work for us that Canadians will not do joined other socialists in opposing the ups in immigrant neighbourhoods,” said ...and were it not for the Galicians and... [other] foreign peoples...we could not forced labour that was imposed by mili- Ian Angus, founder of Canada’s Socialist push our enterprises in railroad build- tary conscription. They did not do this to History Project, “arresting every man who ing and in lumbering and manufactur- support the imperial Austro-Hungarian re- could not produce a registration card.”60 ing to a finish.”65 gime that controlled Ukraine. They op- But, not all “enemy aliens” had to Historian Adam Crerar noted that posed the draft because WWI—which was register with authorities. There were more the “threat of internment—and the sense being pushed by governments, churches than 393,000 Germans and at least 129,000 of rejection by Canadian society...—was and other captive civil-society organisa- Austro-Hungarians in Canada.61 This was felt by all who were at risk.”66 This was tions—was killing working class people six times more than all of those who were recognised in a 1916 BC police report on around the world. Seeing that competing forced to register, which included Turks, the reduced labour militancy among min- imperialist powers were using workers as Bulgarians and others. When registration ers. “From a police point of view, there has pawns in a “Great Game” to profit elites, centres were set up under RCMP supervi- been less trouble amongst them since the Ukrainian socialists rejected conscription. sion in Canada’s largest cities, only those beginning of the war than previously,” said They paid sorely for such views. enemy aliens living within 20 miles had to a chief constable. “[T]he fact that several Even after internees were released on pa- register. After all, the state only wanted to of them were sent to internment camps at role from prison camps, they could be ar- control urban “aliens,” especially single, the beginning of the war seemed to have a rested again just for attending events to talk jobless, working-class Ukrainian men. good effect on the remainder.”67 about military conscription. For example, Even before WWI, it was a well- Despite its targeted approach, in- in June 1917, when the Ukrainian branch established myth that urban Ukrainians ternment had a chilling effect on whole of the Social Democratic Party in Toronto were a grave threat to Christian Canadian communities. The registry of “enemy al- met to discuss the draft, police stormed in values. This meme in the paranoid folk- iens” was also a turning point in Canada’s and arrested 80 of them for violating their lore of Protestant elites was, for instance, surveillance of radicals. Once registered, parole conditions. Just a week earlier, an spread at the five-day “National Mission- aliens had to report to authorities at least angry mob of several hundred WWI vet- ary Congress” which drew 4,000 to Toron- once a month. As Arthur Meighen, Minis- erans had attacked a similar event, beat- to’s Massey Hall in 1909.62 Addressing ter of the Interior and Superintendent of ing organisers and then marching off in the threat of nonAnglo-Saxon “foreigners,” Indian Affairs, reported in March 1919, the military formation. Toronto police stood that he said “really constitute our problem,” government’s Dominion-wide register by and did nothing to stop the violence.59 was militant Social Gospeller Rev. Charles “increased in completeness...until This was typical. Canadian authorities ex- Gordon, Canada’s most popular novelist. we...had practically a record of all the erted control not only by rendering dissi- Referring to Ukrainians as Galicians (for alien enemies in the country. A close dents captive in forced labour camps, but Galicia was held captive by Austria-Hun- watch was kept, and is kept, of their oc- cupations, and activities, and they are by turning a blind eye when vigilante thugs gary), he said that while “the Galician on all pretty well followed.”68 assaulted peaceful, antiwar activists. the land is a good citizen, and his children 12 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 68) March 2016 Within two weeks of this chilling at home and abroad. Domestically, intern- 1918. Cited by Donald Avery, “European statement, Toronto police rounded up three ment was used to contain supposed en- Immigrant Workers and Labour Protest in socialists—two Germans and a Russian— emies of Canada, largely from eastern Eu- Peace and War, 1896-1919,” in Bar- rington who authorities publicly claimed were “the rope. On the foreign front, Canada joined Walker, The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada, 2008, p.132. nucleus of a Communist Party” in Canada. the 1919-1921 war to stop the Russian books.google.ca/books?id=W1YQ73A_if8C After holding them incommunicado for a revolution, contain its spread and threaten 21. Hansard, March 24, 1919, p.757. whole month, one was sent to an intern- similar uprisings around the world. parl.canadiana.ca/view/oop.debates_HOC 1302_01/769 ment camp, and another was held in jail. In spreading their antiRed paranoia, 22. Breti, Op cit. Both were later deported to the US. In dis- Canadian elites built upon existing social 23. Hansard, March 24, 2005. cussing this case with the Toronto Times, narratives of racist superiority and cultural www.parl.gc.ca the city’s Inspector of Detectives, George narcissism that had long captured the pre- 24.Internment of Ukrainians in Canada www.ucc.ca/positions/internment/ Guthrie, stated that police had obtained vailing Eurocentric mindset of the Peace- 25. R.Martin and S.Adam (eds.), Sourcebook “a list of possibly 1000 men and able Kingdom. As a result, mainstream so- of Canadian Media Law, 1994, p.187. women, the majority...of foreign birth, ciety remained entranced by a mass delu- books.google.ca/books?id=VO_0AwAAQBAJ who were actively participating in this sion that perceived Canada’s imperial 26. Michael Martin, The Red Patch: Political Bolshevist agitation. We know also their Imprisonment in Hull, Quebec during World brand of warmongering xenophobia as if names and where they are employed. War II, 2007, p.15. At any moment they can be picked up, it were a liberating effort to promote pro- www.socialisthistory.ca and from now on they will be closely gressive Christian values. 27. Labour’s Revolt: Winnipeg General Strike 69 www.civilization.ca watched.” References/Notes Publicising this blacklist’s exist- 28. Douglas Francis, National Dreams: Myth, 1. Liberal governments followed the British Memory and Canadian History, 1997, p.44. ence, with the threat of arrest, sent a “Red Empire into the Boer War (1899), and WWI 29. M.DuPuis, Winnipeg’s General Strike: Re- Chill” through activist communities. The (1914). (See “Empire & Sons,” p.6). ports from the Front Lines, 2014, p.112. fear of being listed must have scared ac- 2. Bill C-51, June 18, 2015. books.google.ca/books?id=hC7wAwAAQBAJ tivists and nonactivists away from radicals, 3. War Measures Act, August 22, 1914. 30. Benjamin Isitt, “Mutiny from Victoria to their literature and events. Knowing that 4. Ibid. Vladivostok, Dec. 1918,” Canadian His- police had data on jobs, worsened the in- 5. Lee-Anne Goodman, “Harper marks 100th torical Review, June 2006, p.260. anniversary of WWI,” Aug. 4, 2014. www.isitt.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/ timidation. Livelihoods could be taken www.vicnews.com/national/269839631.html mutiny-from-victoria-to-vladivostok-december- away, not just freedoms of movement, as- 6. Hansard, October 23, 2014. 1918.pdf sociation, assembly and expression. www.parl.gc.ca/content/hoc/House/412/ 31. Donald Avery, “European Immigrant Work- Debates/130/HAN130-E.PDF ers and Labour Protest in Peace and War, The biggest threat hanging over 7. Cited by Louise Elliott, “Ottawa shooting: 1896-1919,” Walker Op. cit., p.136. people’s heads was that they could be Harper government wants to make terror ar- books.google.ca/books?id=W1YQ73A_if8C “picked up” “at any moment” and caged rests easier,” CBC, Oct. 24, 2014. 32. Sir Hugh served in the military to suppress at a remote slave labour camp. By wield- 8. “Ukrainian Community Honours Veterans Louis Riel’s 1870 Red River Rebellion and ing this blunt instrument of terror, the gov- on Remembrance Day,” Nov.11, 2010. the 1885 Northwest Rebellion. ernment created fear not only among radi- www.ucc.ca/2010/11/11/ukrainian-community - 33. Cited by Lubomyr Luciuk, A Time for honours-veterans-on-remembrance-day/ Atonement: Canada’s First National Intern- cal foreign activists, and their political 9. William Otter, Internment Operations, ment Operations and the Ukrainian Cana- groups, but throughout their ethnic com- 1914-20, Sept. 30, 1920. In Lubomyr dians 1914-1920, 1988. munities. As one RCMP constable of Luciuk, In Fear of the Barbed Wire Fence, www.infoukes.com/history/internment/ Ukrainian origins informed his Ottawa 2001, Appendix A, p.128. 34. Benjamin Isitt, From Victoria to uccla.ca/In_Fear_of_the_Barbed_Wire_ Vladivostok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, bosses in 1941, the community had long Fence.pdf 70 1917-19, 2010, p.4. lived “in fear of the barbed wire fence.” 10. Ibid., p.129. books.google.ca/books?id=9PF_lwOL5f4C But the threat of captivity went far 11. Diana Breti, Canada’s Concentration 35. Reg Whitaker, “Official Repression of beyond the boundaries of ethnicity. Peo- Camps - The War Measures Act, The Law Communism during World War II,” Labour, ple across Canada got the message that Connection, 1998. Spring 1986, p.156. alethonews.wordpress.com/tag/war-measures-act journals.hil.unb.ca authorities would not tolerate those who 12. Otter, Op. cit., p.129. 36. Canada Yearbook 1921, 1922, p.629. In dared to entertain radical socialist ideas. 13. Ibid., p.131. Orest Martynowych, Village radicals and Internment was therefore part of a cost- 14. Cited in Luciuk, Op. cit., p.85. peasant immigrants, 1978, p.75. (MA the- effective social-control program to render 15. Ibid., p.139. sis, Grad. Studies, Univ. of Manitoba.) 16. Watson Kirkconnell, Kapuskasing, an his- www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ Canadians captive by fear. Threatened the ftp04/MQ36804.pdf loss of jobs, civil rights and/or physical torical sketch, 1921, p.6. 37. Ibid., p.73 openlibrary.org freedoms was an effective weapon for scar- 38. Ibid. 17. Colonel Anderson-Wilson, May 4, 1973. 39. Erica Martin, “Action and Advocacy: Al- ing people away from even exploring ideas Cited by Bohdan Kordan and Peter Mel- fred Fitzpatrick and the Early History of that elites considered a potential threat to nycky, Introduction, In the Shadow of the “peace, order and welfare” of Canada. Frontier College,” MA, OISE, 2000, p.44. Rockies: Diary of the Castle Mountain In- tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/ Crazed by the fear of a threat to the ternment Camp, 1915-1917, 1991, p.18. 14424/1/MQ53317.pdf status quo and the loss of their privileged books.google.ca/books?id=0H-PMNunqCwC 40. Orest Martynowych, Nadia Kazymyra, 18. Letter, Accountant for Internment Opera- position within the established order, Cana- “Political Activity in Western Canada, 1896- tions, July 25, 1929, and Otter 1920. Cited da’s political, economic and religious lead- 1923,” in Manoly R. Lupul (ed.), A Herit- in Luciuk, Op. cit., pp.22, 124. age in Transition: Essays in the History of ers developed a phobic response to radi- 19. S.Gintzburger, Report of Complaints, Sept. Ukrainians in Canada, 1982, p.87. cal socialism. They reacted by using WWI 7, 1917. In Luciuk, Op. cit., p.27. umanitoba.ca as a pretext for wars of containment both 20. Mark Workman to Robert Borden, Dec. 19, 41. Kordan and Melnycky, Op.cit., p.15. March 2016 (Issue # 68) Press for Conversion! 13 42. Orest Martynowych, Ukrainians in 55. Robotchyi Narod, April 6, 1917. Cited by 57. Orest Martynowych, Ukrainian Section of Canada: The Formative Years, 1891-1924, Martynowych, 1978, Op. cit., p.260. the Socialist Party of Canada / Social Demo- 1991, p.325. 56. Hromadskyi holos, April 5, 1917. Cited by cratic Party of Canada, p.2. books.google.ca/books?id=71Wnflm9lYgC Peter Krawchuk, Our History: The Ukrain- umanitoba.ca 43. Otter, Op. cit., p.126. ian Labour-Farmer Movement in Canada, 58. Ibid. 44. Cited by Martynowych 1991, Op. cit., 1907-1991, 1996. 59. Ian Angus, Canadian Bolsheviks: The pp.325-326. www.socialisthistory.ca Early Years of the Communist Party of 45. Ibid., p.326. Canada, 1981, p.13. “Look at the mass of foreign 46. Orest Martynowych, “The Ukrainian So- books.google.ca/books?id=CVgGlHp9sO0C cialist Movement in Canada, 1900-1918,” ignorance and vice which has flooded 60. Ibid. Journal of Ukrainian (Graduate) Studies, that country [the US] with communism, 61. Internment Exhibit: The Barbed Wire So- Fall 1976, p.33. socialism, atheism and all other isms.” lution, p.2. diasporiana.org.ua www.ucrdc.org/Exhibits-Internment-p2.html 47. Hansard, April 22, 1918, p.1018. 62. Canada’s Missionary Congress, March 31- parl.canadiana.ca April 1, 1909, p.vi. 48. Western Clarion, September 11, 1903. archive.org/stream/canadasmission00unknuoft Cited in J.M.Milne, “History of the Social- 63. Ibid., pp.105, 106. ist Party of Canada,” 1973. 64. Ibid., p.103. www.worldsocialism.org/canada/historym.htm 65. Ibid., p.106. 49. Chevron Prapor. In Jaroslav Petryshyn and 66. Adam Crerar, “Ontario and the Great War,” Luba Dzubak, Peasants in the Promised in David MacKenzie (ed.), Canada and the Land: Canada and the Ukrainians, 1891- First World War, 2005. 1914, 1985, p.164. books.google.ca/books?id=iqtjsLl292oC books.google.ca/books?id=XfKkhhHa1tgC 67. BC Provincial Police file, January 26, 1916. 50. Robotchyi Narod, February 18, 1914, in Cited by Avery, Op. cit., p.131. Martynowych 1978, Op. cit., p.254. books.google.ca/books?id=W1YQ73A_if8C 51. Robotchyi Narod, October 18, 1913. Cited 68. Hansard, March 24, 1919, p.757. by Martynowych, Ibid., p.252. parl.canadiana.ca 52. Ibid., p.5 69. Angus, Op. cit., p.39. 53. Martynowych 1976, Op. cit., p.44. 70. RCMP, “Report re: 8th National Conven- 54. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto tion of Ukrainian National Federation of of the Communist Party, 1888. Sir John A. MacDonald, quoted in the Law- Canada and Affiliated Societies,” Aug. 25- www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61.html rence [Kansas] Daily Journal, Oct. 23, 1890. 31, 1941. Cited by Luciuk 2001, Op. cit. From Frying Pan to Prairie Fire: One Captivation after Another By Richard Sanders than anything they have known in the Old Winnipeg’s 1919 General Strike on vio- aptivated by the hype of ads Country,” and “see no great difference be- lent “reds” and “irresponsible, lawless, an- churned out by Canada’s govern- tween platforms of the two parties [Lib- archistic agitators”6 who were riling up C ment and profit-seeking shipping eral and Conservative].”3 Canada’s “undesirable” east Europeans. firms, many Ukrainians left the political In December 1917, a former Mani- After fleeing the tyrannies of east- and economic confines of their homeland, toba Liberal MP, Robert L.Richardson— ern Europe, many radicalised newcomers only to have their dreams of freedom while campaigning for the Conservative’s to Canada were thrown headlong into chal- dashed on the prairies. As historian Orest Unionist Party—called for the outright en- lenging new struggles for freedom, and— Martynowych noted, Ukrainians were slavement of “enemy aliens.” “[W]e won’t in thousands of cases—they were thrown “economically exploited, socially op- need many guards,” he said. “It will be easy straight into Canada’s slave labour camps. pressed, culturally neglected, colonized enough when a few foreigners are shot; the References people, preyed upon by foreign land- others will work eagerly.”4 Ukrainian so- 1. Orest Martynowych, Village radicals and owners, bureaucrats and merchants, and cialists replied to this by writing that the peasant immigrants: The social roots of frequently patronized and humiliated “Ukrainian immigrant did not flee from factionalism among Ukrainian immigrants by...privileged members of their own the Kaiser’s knout [whip] in order to fall 1 in Canada, 1896-1918, 1978, p.3. (MA the- nationality.” under another knout in Canada. He sis, Graduate Studies, Manitoba.) But, “for many of these Ukrainian refuses to tolerate Kaiserism regardless www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ peasants, immigration to Canada did not of who tries to impose it.” ftp04/MQ36804.pdf prove to be a liberating experience.” In In postCzarist Ukraine, they asserted, “lib- 2. Ibid., p.286. 3. Wasyl Swystun, “Political Organization & fact, “isolated from modern sectors of Ca- erty and democracy are held in higher es- Activities,” in J.S.Woodsworth, Ukrainian 5 nadian society and left without basic so- teem than here in Canada.” Rural Communities, January 25, 1917, cial services,” said Martynowych, “life Despite, or likely aided by, his p.117-118. J.S.Woodsworth fonds: H-2278, continued to be no less hazardous and in- hyped-up xenophobia, Richardson—the Vol.11 #38 secure than...in the Old World.”2 novelist, journalist and owner/editor of the heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel _ h2278/175?r=0&s=4 Likewise, Canada’s political system Winnipeg Tribune—was easily re-elected 4. Robotchyi Narod, December 12, 1917, was anything but liberating. As Ukrainian to Parliament in 1917. Like “many other cited by Martynowych, Op. cit., p.261. researcher Wasyl Swystun wrote in businessmen,” he was “swept up in the hys- 5. Ibid. J.S.Woodsworth’s government report, teria of the ‘Red Scare.’” In 1919, Rich- 6. M.G.Dupuis, The Response of the Toronto Ukrainian Rural Communities (1917): ardson warned Borden that a “‘Bolshevik’ Daily Press to the Winnipeg General Strike, “Ukrainians in Canada...are disgusted with uprising” was brewing in Manitoba. Later, 1973. (MA thesis, History, Ottawa) ruor.uottawa.ca/bitstream/10393/22600/1/ the political corruption, which is worse his paper’s hate-filled, phobic rants blamed EC55684.PDF 14 Press for Conversion! (Issue # 68) March 2016