The Italian-Canadian internment began on June 10, 1940, immediately following Italy’s declaration of war against Great Britain and her allies during World War II. In response, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King invoked the War Measures Act, officially declaring approximately 31,000 Italian-Canadians as “enemy aliens.” This designation applied not only to Italian citizens living in Canada but also to naturalized British subjects of Italian heritage and even some Canadian-born individuals. Under this sweeping legislation, civil liberties were suspended, and thousands were stripped of their rights, fingerprinted, and forced to report monthly to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
During the internment period, which spanned from 1940 to 1943, the RCMP actively arrested between 600 and 700 Italian-Canadian men who were deemed potential national security threats due to alleged fascist sympathies. These men—often the primary breadwinners of their households—were taken from their families without warning and shipped to isolated military internment camps in Petawawa (Ontario), Minto (New Brunswick), and Kananaskis (Alberta). Because the Canadian authorities lacked local translators and proper investigative resources, many detentions were arbitrary, relying on ethnic background and public paranoia rather than hard evidence. While detained, the men were subjected to prison-like conditions, forced labor, and strict censorship, leaving their families behind to face immense social ostracization, poverty, and financial ruin as the government seized their homes, businesses, and bank accounts.
The internment concluded gradually as the geopolitical tide turned, officially drawing to a close following the Allied invasion of Italy and the overthrow of Benito Mussolini’s fascist government in 1943, though a few detainees were held as late as 1945. Not a single internee was ever formally charged with a crime in a court of law, and they were quietly released under conditional terms to rebuild their shattered lives. The deep-seated trauma and stigma within the community persisted for decades until formal political redress was achieved. The dark chapter finally reached official closure when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney issued an initial apology in 1990, followed by a formal, historic apology delivered by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons on May 27, 2021, which formally acknowledged the profound injustices inflicted upon Italian-Canadians.
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An Other Perspective
