Immigrant children to the Canadian West initially were
taught English alongside their mother tongue in an attempt
to ease the assimilation process. As this page from
a child's lesson book shows, the story of "The
Spider" was written in both English and Ukrainian.
By the outbreak of the First World War, such accommodation
was quickly abandoned as enemy languages were banned,
enemy aliens interned, and legislation passed prohibiting
any language other than English (and sometimes French)
to be taught in the schools.
With the outbreak of the First World War in August
1914, the Canadian government reacted swiftly to the
influx of new immigrants from what were suddenly enemy
countries. The government used the War Measures
Act to control the movement of enemy aliens (that
is, all immigrants from enemy countries) who were
now suspect because of their place of origin. The
War Measures Act allowed the federal government
to pass an order-in-council requiring enemy aliens
to register, carry a special identity card at all
times, and report to the police at regular intervals.
Those who disobeyed or those who were allegedly German
or Austrian sympathizers could be interned in camps.
In fact, 8,500 persons were interned by the end of
the war. In 1918, a further order-in-council forbade
the printing, publishing, or possession of any publication
in an enemy language without a license from the Secretary
of State.
Not surprisingly, the experience of many immigrants
in the West during the First World War was negative.
Most of the German-speaking population lived in Saskatchewan,
where the 1911 census showed that almost one-quarter
of the province (or 110,000 people) were of German
background. There were also large numbers of German
immigrants in Manitoba and Alberta, and a smaller
group of 20,000 German-speaking immigrants in British
Columbia. Over 83,000 Germans and Austro-Hungarians
were forced to register and report their whereabouts
at specified intervals, while many others were interned
and some deported. Romanians, Slovaks, Czechs, Hungarians,
Poles, and Ukrainians were also among those interned
in 26 camps across the country, many of them in western
Canada. Immigrant farmers from enemy countries were
not interned but had to register, be fingerprinted,
surrender their firearms, and then lost the right
to vote. Others were refused employment and many were
fired. For self-preservation, some German-Canadians
and Ukrainian-Canadians changed their names to more
Anglicized forms. In the hysteria of war, anything
German was condemned, be it German Shepherds, German
sausage, hamburgers, or Wagner. Some towns and villages
in the West even changed their names; for example,
Dusseldorf, Alberta was changed to "Freedom,"
in an anxious display of patriotism.
By 1917, the wartime manpower shortage superseded
nativist fears and many of the internees were released
and turned over to the railroad and mining companies
to work as navvies. All but three of the internment
camps were closed by 1917 and all but 2,000 of the
men released. No compensation has ever been awarded
to these Canadians who were forced into confinement
for two to three years.
Yet the federal government was not alone in its reaction
to enemy aliens. Provincial governments in the West
also used the First World War to impose restrictive
education legislation. In Manitoba in 1916, the bilingual
French-English school system was abolished, and in
1918 the Saskatchewan government abolished the teaching
of any language other than French or English
in the schools. For many more-established western
Canadians during the war, loyalty and patriotism were
inextricably linked with the English language and
British-Canadian culture. Moreover, the schools were
seen as the greatest assimilating force in Canadian
society. As one commentator wrote during the First
World War, "the public school is the mill that
gathers all into its hopper and turns them out with
the stamp of the King and the maple leaf."
