BC NDP

VICTORIA – The internment of Ukrainian Canadians during the first World War is an historic wrong that should never be repeated, MLA Katrine Conroy told the legislature Monday.

Conroy, the New Democrat MLA for Kootenay West, used her two-minute member’s statement Monday to highlight the injustice that led to the internment of Ukrainian immigrants near Edgewood and at 23 other sites in Canada.

Last week, Conroy attended a plaque-unveiling ceremony at the entrance to the former site in Edgewood to mark this little-known chapter of Interior British Columbia history.

The event, Conroy said, “was about recognition and celebration and that this wrong should be righted and these people's contribution to our history remembered.

“While no survivors of these camps remain alive today, the unveiling of the plaque was a symbolic restitution of an act that should never again be repeated in this country.”

Conroy thanked Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association local coordinator, Andrea Malysh, and the other UCCLA members, the Edgewood Community Internet Society, as well as the Edgewood Royal Canadian Legion branch No. 203 for their work putting together a successful and memorable commemoration ceremony.