Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a formal apology on Thursday to Italian Canadians who were interned in this country during the Second World War, recognizing in the House of Commons address the wrongs done to these citizens by the federal government.
Long overdue.
After Italy allied with Germany in 1940, 600 men were interned in camps in this country, four women were detained and sent to jail, while approximately 31,000 other Italian-Canadians were declared “enemy aliens,” prompting mistreatment and discrimination including fingerprinting and having to regularly report to local registrars.This saw parents taken from their homes, leaving families without income and children without fathers, and it’s a decision taken by the Canadian government that no one was held responsible for.
“To the men and women who were taken to prisoner of war camps or jail without charge, people who are no longer with us to hear this apology… to the children and grandchildren who have carried a past generation’s shame and hurt, and to their community, a community that has given so much to our country, we are sorry,” said the prime minister.
In his apology, the prime minister said that while it was right that Canada stood up to the Italian regime that sided with Nazi Germany, to “scapegoat law-abiding Italian-Canadians” was wrong.
“They were business owners, workers, and doctors. They were fathers, daughters, and friends,” Trudeau said. “They were taken away to Petawawa or to Fredericton, to Kananaskis or to Kingston. Once they arrived at a camp, there was no length of sentence. Sometimes, the internment lasted a few months. Sometimes, it lasted years. But the impacts, those lasted a lifetime.”
According to the government, the justice minister was given powers in 1939 to intern, seize property and limit the activities of Canadian residents who were born in countries that were at war with Canada, but no criminal charges were ever laid.
In giving the apology, the prime minister told the story of one man, Giuseppe Visocchi, who was arrested in the summer of 1940 at a wedding in Montreal. Police told his family that he’d be right back.
He instead was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Petawawa, forced to wear a uniform with a number on the back marking him as an internee. It was two years before he was returned to his family and from there, worked to build a better life.
“This is not the story of just one man, or just one family,” said the prime minister, thanking these families for not turning their backs on Canada, rather putting “their backs into building it.”
“Internees and their families showed the way: integrity, solidarity, faith, and loyalty to Canada. For this, our country is grateful,” said Trudeau.