Until this past weekend, I had no idea that Canada had internment camps DURING WORLD WAR I!
That's right, during WWI in the 19-teens, Canadians incarcerated thousands of Ukrainians. From Wikipaedia,
During the First World War, a growing sentiment against "enemy aliens" had manifested itself amongst Canadians. The British government urged Canada not to act indiscriminately against subject nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were in fact friendly to the British Empire.[2] However, Ottawa took a hard line. These enemy-born citizens were treated as social pariahs, and many lost their employment. Under the 1914 War Measures Act, "aliens of enemy nationality" were compelled to register with authorities. About 70,000 Ukrainians from Austria-Hungary fell under this description. 8,579 males and some women and children were interned by the Canadian Government, including 5,954 Austro-Hungarians, most of whom were probably ethnic Ukrainians.[3]
The additionally maddening fact is that Canada behaved a bit like communist East Germany at the time:
Most of the 8,600 people interned were young men apprehended while trying to cross the border into the U.S. to look for jobs; attempting to leave Canada was illegal.[4]
Apparently the internees were not completely treated as slaves, but the entire episode is pretty disheartening for those of us who know about it today.
I wouldn't have known about it except that on Sunday, I was at a writers' get together where people read things they had written. The lead reader was Dan Ebbs who read from a play he had written about the internments.