Prince George, B.C.- It is a four panel mural, and it depicts one of the darkest periods in Canadian history.

 

Entitled “Shadows of the Past” the mural unveiled Wednesday afternoon at the College of New Caledonia, tells the story of thousands of  Canadian men, women and children of Ukrainian and East European descent, were sent to internment camps during the   First World War.   While most Canadians are aware of this type of treatment  being forced upon Japanese Canadians during World War II, the fact it had been experienced by those of East European descent   from 1914 to 1918, and two years beyond the end of the war to 1920 is largely unknown.

 

“There is a reason for that” says Andrew Hladyshevsky, of the Canadian First World WarInternment Recognition Fund, “In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s the Canadian government was cleaning up records and destroyed all of the documentation on these internees and their families. It is only through the research involving survivors, their families and descendents of guards that we have the information we have.”

 

Hladyshevsky says many internees were used to develop Canada’s National Parks , that there was such a camp across the lake from where the Jasper Park Lodge now sits, and that internees were used to build at least part of the golf course at Banff . “They were promised $1.25 a day, but the Government charged them 75 cents a day for room and board, and many never did get the rest of the money they were owed.”

 

In 2008, the Federal Government officially recognized the injustice that had been done, and established the creation of a $10 million dollar endowment fund to support commemorative, educational scholarly and cultural projects intended to teach and remind Canadians about this episode in the country’s history.  The Government has never officially apologized, “There is still a great deal of work to do to make that happen, but we are hopeful it will come one day” says Hladyshevsky.

 

College of New Caledonia Fine Arts instructor Betty Kovacic submitted an application to create the piece and was awarded $19,500 to create the mural. Nearly 900 hours of work over two years has lead to the unveiling today.

 

“I am emotionally connected to this” says Kovacic “My mother is a holocaust survivor, so I think I understand some of  what these people must have felt. They came to Canada where they were told the streets were paved with gold, only to be betrayed.” Yet,   in the fourth panel, her mural depicts a family , a symbol of renewal.

 

The mural, which is 6’ by 16’  is on the wall across from the cafeteria at CNC, where it will be viewed by many and Kovacic hopes it will spark discussion and curiosity into its roots.

 

Hladyshevsky  says he recalls reading a diary entry of a man who was dying of tuberculosis in one of the camps in northern Quebec, “This man was dying, in a camp in the bush, behind barbed wire, and he wrote ‘Will anyone ever remember me?”   

 

Kovacic’s mural has the answer to that question, and it is a resounding “Yes”.