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Vernon  

Vernon had First World War interment camp in the 1920s

Internment camp education

It is a dark spot on the history of Vernon.

An internment camp once stood in McDonald Park, next to where W.L. Seaton Secondary School is located today.

It was one of several First World War internment operations across Canada that housed "enemy aliens" in Canada. Most were of Austro-Hungarian and German descent.

They were stripped of their rights and deprived of their freedom, some of them even remaining imprisoned for several months after the Armistice.

The Vernon camp opened on Sept. 18, 1914, and some 1,100 men, women and children, passed through the front gate before it closed in February 1920.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has launched an internment education campaign on various media platforms with an emphasis on mobile devices and social media.

The campaign will promote awareness of First World War internment operations using a series of videos and images that will be featured on social media and with BellMedia.



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