1914-1945: Overview / War Years / Interwar Years / World War II / Changing Attitudes

War Years

Many enemy aliens also faced internment. Canada interned some 8,000 to 9,000 immigrants, mostly German and Austrian, in twenty-four camps across Canada during the war. The largest camps were in Kapuskasing, Ontario and Vernon, British Columbia. By 1917, the government had released many of these interned immigrants to supply the demand for labour created by the war. About 2,500, however, lived in camps until the war's conclusion.

The government's internment program had roots in the belief that immigrants carried sympathies with their home nations, which were now at war with Canada. As the war progressed, continental Europeans also became associated with radical politics and

labour organizations that were leading strikes in the resource and munitions industries. The Union Government, which Robert Borden formed in 1917 in order to introduce conscription, passed the Wartime Elections Act. It disenfranchised all people from enemy countries, even those who had come to Canada as early as 1902, unless they had sons, grandsons, or brothers serving in the army. Deportation procedures also increased. Immigrants faced deportation on grounds of being public charges, "pro-German," "anti-war," or undermining the war effort by organizing labour. The government, and many Canadians, blamed wartime strikes on enemy-aliens and suspicious immigrants.

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