Thousands of people are interned by force and deprived of their civil freedoms during the two world wars
Ottawa, is, July 17th. 2025 / CNW/ – Canada Posts has today unveiled a new stamp that explores the history of civil internment to Canada.
During the two world wars, the government organized large -scale civilian internment operations, during which thousands of people are unjustly interned in camps across the country. Tens of thousands of others see their freedoms limited in the name of national security. Some of these measures are maintained in peacetime.
Post Canada hopes that this stamp, which reminds us of our responsibility to learn from the past, will sensitize the population of this part of the history and the resilience of people and communities whose life has been deeply shaken by this displacement and forced sequestration, and this suffering.
First World War
During the first month of the First World War, the federal government adopted the War Measures Actwhich gives the cabinet of enormous powers, including that of suspending civil liberties, such as the right to a fair trial before detention.
More than 8,500 men are held in internment camps and reception centers throughout Canada During this period. They come in particular:
- of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including more than 5,000 Ukrainians, but also Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks and Slovenes;
- of the Ottoman Empire, including Armenians and Turks;
- of the German Empire;
- Bulgaria.
Also, more than 200 women and children voluntarily join the men of their family who are involved. People homeless or unemployed, people invoking their conscientious objection and members of proscribed political groups (mainly socialists) are also detained in camps.
These civilians and civilians live in austere conditions, sometimes very hard, and they are sometimes put in forced work. More than 100 die, illnesses, injuries and suicide being involved, while others are slaughtered while trying to escape. Several of these people are buried in anonymous tombs.
In addition, 80,000 people, mainly Ukrainian, but also Canadian and Canadian whose parents come from a country at war against Canadaare required to register as “subjects from an enemy country”. As such, they must present themselves regularly to the authorities and many of their rights are limited.
Second World War
The War Measures Act is again invoked a week before the start of the Second World War. It gives the government the power to have any person deemed as constituting a threat to the public or the state.
Up to 24,000 people, including German, Italian and Japanese Canadians, are interned in camps across the country, which sometimes house enemy soldiers. Jewish refugee people from Germany and Austria, socialists, people invoking their conscientious objection and other subversive are also detained.
As during the First World War, many civilians and civilians must register with the government. More than 20,000 people of Japanese origin, who mostly hold Canadian citizenship, are forced to leave their homes on the west coast. Their property is confiscated and later sold by the government.
Well that War Measures Act remains in force until December 31, 1945, the legal restrictions imposed on these Canadian people of Japanese origin were not lifted until April 1949.
About the stamp
The stamp has a vertical bilingual text, in red on a gray background, crossed by barbed wire. The idea is to evoke the darkness and the fear which reigned in the internment camps in the Canada. The thumbnail was designed by Underline Studio and printed by Color Innovations. The program includes a six permanent stamp notebookMC and an official first day fold. The place of obliteration is PETAWAWAin Ontariowhere an internment camp is established during the two world wars.
The stamp and collection items are on sale on the postcanada.ca site and in certain postal counters in the country.
To access resources, including stamp images and other products:
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MC Trademark of the Canadian Post Society. |
Source Posts Canada
Information: Media relations, 613-734-8888, [email protected]
