Petition to save WWI-era Ukrainian internee cemetery in Quebec

Between 1914 and 1920, Canada interned 8,579 men, women and children as “enemy aliens.” Most of these internees were from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and primarily ethnic Ukrainians.

One such internment camp was Spirit Lake, near Amos in northern Quebec — more than five hours north of Montreal. There are at least 16 bodies interred in the internment cemetery that measures only 35 by 25 metres. Most were men and a few were children. Because of its deteriorating condition, the cemetery is close to being lost to the surrounding forest.

Ukrainians imprisoned at the Spirit Lake internment camp, Abitibi, Quebec as a consequence of the Ukrainian Canadian internment of 1914–1920. Source: Library and Archives Canada, PA-170620.

Last week, Lubomyr Luciuk, an author and professor at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, launched a petition on the House of Commons website to convince the Government of Canada to assume responsibility for the restoration of the Spirit Lake internee cemetery.

This is not the first time, help has been sought to restore the cemetery. In February 2016, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association requested the intervention of  Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly to protect it.

An Appeal was produced for Minister of Canadian Heritage Mélanie Joly in 2016. Source: Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation, http://ucclf.ca.

There is an organization that protects internee cemeteries, but it seems to have failed the one in Spirit Lake.

The Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund was established in 2008 to secure and restore internee cemeteries, and it has successfully done so in Kapuskasing, Ontario and Fernie, British Columbia.

The council has not, however, been able to acquire, repair, or re-consecrate the Spirit Lake internee cemetery, despite having made repeated inquiries over several years, during which time the internee cemetery has further deteriorated.

According to a February 2016 article The McGill Daily, “The land on which the cemetery is located was acquired in 1988 by a farming couple. Efforts made by the Spirit Lake Camp Corporation to incorporate the internee cemetery, or at least restore and secure limited rights of access, have been rebuffed by the owners.”

Petition to the Government of Canada
This following is the text in the petition, E-1643 (Canadian Heritage), as stated on the House of Commons website and initiated by Mr. Luciuk on April 17, 2018

Whereas:

• The Government of Canada needlessly categorized many Ukrainians and other Europeans as “enemy aliens” during Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920;
• An internment camp was set up at Spirit Lake, Quebec, one of 24 across Canada;
• At least 16 internee burials took place at the Spirit Lake cemetery;
• The Department of Agriculture sold these lands to Quebec in 1936 and the province sold them to a farmer in 1988;
• Attempts to restore and re-consecrate the Spirit Lake internee cemetery have been rejected by the property owner and the cemetery is all but lost to the boreal forest;
• Federal officials, repeatedly informed about the deterioration of the cemetery, claim this is Quebec’s problem, abrogating all legal and moral responsibility for a cemetery established under federal authority and for the remains of the unfortunates buried there.

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to use whatever measures necessary to provide for the archaeological examination, restoration, re-consecration and limited ongoing site visits for commemorative and religious services to the Spirit Lake internee cemetery, working in collaboration with the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Ukrainian Canadian Congress, so hallowing the victims of Canada’s first national internment operations

The petition is sponsored by James Bezan, Conservative Member of Parliament for Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, Manitoba.

To sign the petition, visit the House of Commons website. The petition closes August 15, 2018, at 4:57 p.m. (EDT).

History
Learn more about the history of Spirit Lake Camp and Cemetery in the eight-page online pamphlet, An Appeal: The Internee Cemetery at Spirit Lake (La Ferme), Quebec. published by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association in 2016.