The Italian Question (2012)

During the Second World War, as Canada was embroiled in violent conflict with the Axis Powers, nearly 25,000 Canadians of German, Italian and Japanese origin were arrested and interned as "enemy aliens". Internment, the indefinite imprisonment or confinement of a group of people in a time of crisis, was the Canadian government's reaction to a perceived threat posed by individuals of questionable loyalty. The Canadian government and public feared that if Italian, German and Japanese Canadians were disloyal, then they could commit sabotage and other subversive acts that would endanger lives and threaten the Canadian war effort. As the theory went, isolating disloyal citizens from the rest of the Canadian population contained the threat. Mass internment, especially of Japanese-Canadians, is undoubtedly a dark chapter in Canadian history. Over 20,000 Japanese-Canadians were subject to deprivation and displacement which was far out of proportion with the threat posed to Canada by that community. Historians and Japanese redress campaigners have rightfully labeled this a "War on Ethnicity". But what about the internment of Italian Canadians? Thousands of Italian Canadians were arrested in the wake of Fascist Italy's declaration of war on the United Kingdom and its allies in June 1940. The arrest and internment of Italian Canadians also had clear-cut repercussions for that community, some of which linger to the present day. The controversy and debate surrounding this issue is what historians and filmmakers refer to as "The Italian Question".