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Vernon  

A historic injustice

Seven new grave markers will be placed in Pleasant Valley Cemetery for men who died while interned during the First World War.

A rededication ceremony was held over the weekend, with members of the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund in attendance.

More than 8,500 people of European descent (primarily from the Austro-Hungarian Empire) were interned in 24 camps across Canada as “Enemy Aliens.” 

Most of the interned were poor, unemployed single men, although 81 women and 156 children had no choice but to accompany their menfolk to two of the camps, in Spirit Lake, Que., and Vernon.

The Vernon camp opened Sept. 18, 1914, on what are now the grounds of W.L. Seaton Secondary School.

Prior to the camp’s existence, the location served as a jail site from 1902 to 1904 and as a hospital for the insane from 1904 to 1913.

Additional camps were located in the region, and men were shipped to these locations and forced to work on road construction. This included Highway 6 from Cherryville to Edgewood and the road from Sicamous to the Okanagan.

“We gathered ... to recall Canada’s first national internment operations, when thousands of men, women and children were rounded up and transported to 24 camps across our country, including one of the longest operating camps, that at Vernon, whose gates did not close until 1920," said Endowment Council chairman Ivan Grbesic.  

"We have also provided a voice to those who perished at the Vernon Internment Camp. This was a historic injustice and one that forms an integral part of the historical narrative of Canada."

During the camp's operation, 11 men lost their lives there. Seven of their graves have been located in Pleasant Valley Cemetery.

They died from tuberculosis, dysentery, pneumonia and influenza. One was killed after a conflict with a fellow prisoner.

“It’s a small gesture from the city,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham.

“They were used for free labour, their property was never returned to them, most were released with just their clothes on their back.”

The men who are buried in Pleasant Valley Cemetery are:

  • Mile Heimovi  (d. 1917)
  • Ivan Jugo (d. 1917)
  • Timoti Korejczuk (d. 1919)
  • Stipan Šapina (d. 1917)
  • Wasyl Shapka (d. 1918)
  • Jure Vukorepa (d. 1916)
  • Samuel Vulovi  (d. 1918)


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