OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a formal apology on Thursday to Italian Canadians who were interned in this country during the Second World War, recognizing in the House of Commons address the wrongs done to these citizens by the federal government.
After Italy allied with Germany in 1940, 600 men were interned in camps in this country, four women were detained and sent to jail, while approximately 31,000 other Italian-Canadians were declared “enemy aliens,” prompting mistreatment and discrimination including fingerprinting and having to regularly report to local registrars.
An apology from Trudeau means nothing.
The harm done by Justin Trudeau’s apology to Italian-Canadians might require an apology of its own
Canada interned hundreds of Italian-Canadians during the Second World War “for the simple reason that they were of Italian heritage,” Liberal MP Angelo Iacono told the House of Commons on April 14, paving the way for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to announce that Canada would formally apologize for doing so in May.
Mr. Iacono’s claim is remarkable. It suggests that Canada perpetrated a massive violation of human rights among members of that ethnic community. But if they really were interned simply because of their heritage, surely tens of thousands must have been thrown into camps – far more than the 12,000 Japanese-Canadians pulled from their homes on the West Coast and interned during the war (in addition to the thousands more forced to work on farms). There were, after all, more than 100,000 Italian-Canadians in 1940.
(Go Incognito)
