Eighty Thousand Voices - Lethbridge Exhibition Park 2013

Eighty Thousand Voices
one of the songs presented at the Calgary/Banff unveiling
June/September 2013
amk

Between September 30, 1914 and November 7, 1916, hundreds of civilian internees cycled through the Lethbridge Internment Camp, one of 24 such sites in Canada first National Internment Operations. The camp operations treated men, women and children who arrived in Canada carrying Austro Hungarian Empire documents as enemy aliens.  In hindsight it has been revealed that most of them were ethnic Ukrainians, immigrants to Canada, whose homeland was caught in the borderland territorial land grabs by empires surrounding Ukraine.

The impact of this type of war measure's act upon newly minted (or almost minted) Canadians, was huge. In this 99th anniversary year of commencement of the First World War, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Lethbridge city officials are unveiling a permanent memorial plaque to these civil internees on Tuesday, October 29th at 1:30 PM at the Lethbridge Exhibition Park, 3401 Parkside Drive South.

The ceremony will take place outside the South entrance of Heritage Hall, pending weather. With significant construction under-way in the area, traffic flow issues may cause guests concern. Therefore Calgary's Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association is planning to arrange for transportation for interested guests to the site at Lethbridge Exhibition Park.

For more information contact UKRAINIAN CANADIAN PROFESSIONAL & BUSINESS ASSOCIATION OF CALGARY at 403-670-5477 or e-mail: admin@ucpbacalgary.org or www.ucpbacalgary.ca.  To make a donation, please contact Roman at  media@uccla.ca.