In their press release<\/a> announcing the new stamp, Canada Post says thousands of people were interned in camps across Canada under the guise of national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cCanada Post hopes today\u2019s stamp issue will raise awareness about this history and the resilience of the people and communities whose lives were profoundly affected by this forced displacement, confinement and hardship,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stamp has vertical, bilingual text in red behind barbed wires, creating the visual of a fence, which Canada Post states \u201ccaptures the gloom and fear of Canada\u2019s internment camps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recounting camps during the wars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The War Measures Act was invoked for the first time during the First World War on Aug. 22, 1914, ending on Jan. 10, 1920, according to the national encyclopedia states. This act empowered the federal cabinet to suspend any civil liberties and impose laws without the approval of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the news release, more than 8,500 men \u2013 including more than 5,000 Ukrainians, people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, people from the Ottoman Empire, including Armenians and Turks, the German Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, were held at these internment camps during this time. More than 200 women and children chose to voluntarily join their male relatives in internment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An additional 80,000 people, the majority of whom were from Ukraine, were made to register as \u201cenemy aliens,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople experiencing homelessness and unemployment, conscientious objectors and members of outlawed political groups, especially socialists, were also interned,\u201d the release said, adding that detainees were put to work on labour-intensive projects in harsh conditions, which made them vulnerable to disease, injuries and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 100 people died during this time and many were buried in unmarked graves, the news release recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The War Measures Act was invoked a second time shortly before the beginning of the Second World War, on Aug. 25, 1939, and later replaced by similar legislation on Dec. 31, 1945, the online publication reads. More than 40 internment camps held over 20,000 people, out of which around 26 camps were in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and New Brunswick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People targeted during the Second World War included Germans, Italians, Jews, Japanese, members of the outlawed organizations in Canada and labour leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The War Measures Act was repealed in 1988 and replaced by the Emergencies Act, which does not allow the cabinet to act on its own during a national emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt also reminds us of our responsibility to learn from the past,\u201d Canada Post said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[This history of internment camps ignores the fact that patriotic pro-fascists like John Ross Taylor, Adrien Arcand and others were interned simply for their non-violent political views. As well, even the Mayor of Montreal Camelien Houde was interned for opposing conscription.] Canada Post Unveils New Stamp by Aarjavee RaajOpens \u2013 July 18, 2025 Friday https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/canada\/article\/new-stamp-draws-attention-to-history-of-civilian-internment-in-canada\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3011,3010,3007,3009,3008],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4264,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4260\/revisions\/4264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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