MONTREAL – Throughout the month of June, the Ukrainian-Canadian community marked the centenary of the end of Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920.
Quebec’s Ukrainian community was severely affected by the unjust internment policy. The largest internment camp in Quebec and the second largest in Canada, was established at Spirit Lake, near Amos, in the Abitibi region 600 kilometers north of Montreal. The Spirit Lake internment site was opened in January 1915 with over 1,200 interned. The majority of them were Ukrainians – many taken from Montreal and the surrounding area, including 60 families, men, women and children, from St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Parish.