Salvatore Vistarchi of Montreal spent 33 months in an internment camp in Petawawa, Ont., during the Second World War without knowing why after the federal government labelled Italian-Canadians 'enemy aliens.'
Posted: May 27, 2021 7:01 AM ET | Last Updated: May 27
Girolamo Barbaro (left) and Leopoldo Masioli (right) were two of approximately 600 Italian-Canadians taken from their homes, without due process, and sent to internment camps during the Second World War. On Thursday, the federal government will offer their families an official apology.(Submitted by: Ron Cirotto and Joan McKinnon)
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After decades of digging through archival material and talking with the relatives of people of Italian origin detained in Canada during the Second World War, Montreal historian Joyce Pillarella says Canada’s long-awaited apology gives her family and others the moral justice they have been waiting for.
Pillarella started learning more than 20 years ago about the struggles of the more than 600 people who were interned when she found a postcard sent from her grandfather who was confined at a camp near Fredericton, N.B.
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Canadians of Italian origin find justice in apology for internment during WW2
by Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
Posted May 24, 2021 7:05 am EDT
Last Updated May 24, 2021 at 7:14 am EDT
OTTAWA After decades of digging through archival material and talking with the relatives of people of Italian origin detained in Canada during the Second World War, Montreal historian Joyce Pillarella says Canada’s long-awaited apology gives her family and others the moral justice they have been waiting for.
Pillarella started learning more than 20 years ago about the struggles of the more than 600 people who were interned when she found a postcard sent from her grandfather who was confined at a camp near Fredericton, N.B.
Maan Alhmidi
Joyce Pillarella is pictured at her home in Montreal on Friday, May 21, 2021. After decades of digging in archival material and talking with the families of Italian Canadians who were interned during the Second World War, Montreal historian Joyce Pillarella says Canada s long-awaited apology for the internment gives her family and other families the moral justice they have been waiting for. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson May 24, 2021 - 4:05 AM
OTTAWA - After decades of digging through archival material and talking with the relatives of people of Italian origin detained in Canada during the Second World War, Montreal historian Joyce Pillarella says Canada s long-awaited apology gives her family and others the moral justice they have been waiting for.