Kingston Symposium — WWI Internment

I was at the most amazing conference this past weekend. Several of my books focus on the unjust internment of Ukrainians in WWI by the Canadian government. After many years of many governments making excuses and shoving the incident under the carpet, the Harper government did the right thing and acknowledged the injustice. An endowment was established to ensure that Canadians are never again imprisoned because of their ethnicity.

This symposium brought together researchers and archivists, librarians, professors, creative artists and descendants of internees. The one thing we all had in common is the issue of WWI internment. Not all internees were Ukrainian, and so there were people from other affected groups — Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, German, Turkish. The synergy was amazing.

I especially savoured meeting the other artists who have been creating works about the internment.

To read more about the issue and the conference, go here.

The photo is by Sandra Semchuk.

Author: Marsha

I write historical fiction, mostly from the perspective of young people who are thrust in the midst of war. View all posts by Marsha