30th Anniversary of the Castle Mountain Internment monument marked

UCCLF.

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation (UCCLF) organized the 30th anniversary of the installation of the commemorative statue and plaque at Castle Mountain in Banff National Park, on August 9, 2025. More than 50 people, from the Calgary and Banff area, attended the event.

The statue and plaque recalled Canada’s First World War internment operations of 1914 to 1920, specifically the two government-installed internment camps in Banff National Park: The Castle Mountain and the Cave & Basin sites.
In 24 such camps across the country, more than 8,000 men, women, and children, primarily Ukrainians invited by the Dominion government to settle the West, were unjustly interned as enemy aliens over the four years of the First World War and for two years following, under the War Measures Act. Their possessions were taken, and not all returned.

A further 80,000 others were forced to register semi-regularly with authorities. They suffered, not because of anything they had done, but because of where they had come from. Many remained “in fear of the barbed wire fence” long after their release.
UCCLF worked collaboratively with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Calgary and Bow Valley branches), and Parks Canada, to organize the commemoration.

“There cannot be reconciliation without education,” said UCCLF’s Borys Sydoruk. “For three decades, this monument has done what it was created to do: enlighten Park visitors and spark discussions on what happened in Canada more than a century ago to minorities like Ukrainians and others, when the government overreached, implementing laws based on fear and hysteria directed at specific ethnic groups.

Borys Sydoruk, Chair, UCCLF, speaks at the 30th anniversary of Castle Mountain Internment Monument

Mitch Cheladyn, a resident of Edmonton, spoke of his great uncle, Stefan Cheladyn – an internee at both Banff camps. Cheladyn said his great uncle managed to escape twice and captured twice whiled incarcerated. Mr. Cheladyn said being interned affected his relative for the remainder of his life, leaving him distrustful of the Canadian Government.

The affected communities included Ukrainians, Austrians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Italians, Jews, Poles, Romanians, Serbians, Slovaks, Slovenes, and others, of which most were civilians.

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