Trudeau apologizes to Italian-Canadians put in internment camps during WWII

TRENTON, Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a formal apology on Thursday for the internment of Italian Canadians during World War !!.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Trudeau included in his apology the families of prisoners and the Italian Canadian community for pain and hardship caused by rounding up about 600 men and putting them in internment camps after Italy became an ally of Germany in 1940.

“Canadians of Italian heritage have helped shape Canada, and they continue to be an invaluable part of the diversity that makes us strong,” Trudeau said in his speech to Parliament. “Today, as we acknowledge and address historical wrongs against the Italian Canadian community, we also show our respect for their great contributions to our country.”

The Canadian government also jailed four women and declared 31,000 other Italian-Canadians “enemy aliens.” They were forced to regularly report to designated officials and had to be fingerprinted.

“To the men and women who were taken to prisoner of war camps or jail without charge, people who are no longer with us to hear this apology … to the children and grandchildren who have carried a past generation’s shame and hurt, and to their community, a community that has given so much to our country, we are sorry,” said the prime minister.

He said Canada had no right to “scape-goat” law-abiding Italian Canadians.

“They were business owners, workers, and doctors,” he said. “They were fathers, daughters, and friends. They were taken away to Petawawa [in Ontario] or to Fredericton [New Brunswick], to Kananaskis [Alberta] or to Kingston [Ontario]. Once they arrived at a camp, there was no length of sentence. Sometimes, the internment lasted a few months. Sometimes, it lasted years. But the impacts, those lasted a lifetime.”

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police apologized in 2018 for their role in the rounding up of Italian Canadians during the war.

According to the Canadian census of 2016, there are about 1.6 million Canadians of Italian heritage, one of the largest such populations in the world.