e-1643 (Canadian heritage)
- Keywords
- 8545-421-88-07 Government Response to petitions concerning Canadian heritage
- Cemeteries
- First World War
- Spirit Lake internment camp
- Ukrainian Canadians
Original language of petition: English
Petition to the Government of Canada
- The Government of Canada needlessly categorized many Ukrainians and other Europeans as “enemy aliens” during Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914-1920;
- An internment camp was set up at Spirit Lake, Quebec, one of 24 across Canada;
- At least 16 internee burials took place at the Spirit Lake cemetery;
- The Department of Agriculture sold these lands to Quebec in 1936 and the province sold them to a farmer in 1988;
- Attempts to restore and re-consecrate the Spirit Lake internee cemetery have been rejected by the property owner and the cemetery is all but lost to the boreal forest;
- Federal officials, repeatedly informed about the deterioration of the cemetery, claim this is Quebec’s problem, abrogating all legal and moral responsibility for a cemetery established under federal authority and for the remains of the unfortunates buried there.
- Open for signature
- April 17, 2018, at 4:57 p.m. (EDT)
- Closed for signature
- August 15, 2018, at 4:57 p.m. (EDT)
- Presented to the House of Commons
-
James Bezan
(Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman)
September 18, 2018 (Petition No. 421-02588) - Government response tabled
- October 25, 2018