Blood and Salt

The people who experienced the Castle Mountain Internment Camp near Banff, Alberta are part of Canada's history. So many peoples lives were affected by the experience! Loss of finances, loss of freedom, loss of a sense of belonging, loss of a sense of Canada's welcome, all these and more. Throughout the experience however, the internees were essentially pawns in a grand story of war, and political alliances. They were interned, not for anything they had control over. They were "enemy aliens", not quite Canadian citizens yet, and paper-tied to the Austrian empire that would enter Europe in a blood bath once called The Great War.

Some of them continued to dream.  

A new work of fiction, grounded in the real-life of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp in the Canadian Rockies is about those choices - asking questions about life, life and ethnicity.

Barbara Sapergia's new novel, Blood and Salt, is being featured at its Edmonton launch on Friday, February 8, 2013 at 8 PM. The Ukrainian Pioneers Association of Alberta, Alberta Society for the Advancement of Ukrainian Studies, and venue host St. John's Institute are pleased to welcome guests to this free book reading, book signing, to meet the author and stay for the reception. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
http://www.barbarasapergia.com/

Friday, February 8, 2013 at 8PM
St. John's Institute First Floor Gallery/Classroom
11024-82 Avenue, Edmonton

For more information and/or a special event parking pass for the area, please contact info@stjohnsinstitute.com. or www.stjohnsinstitute.com
780-439-2320 or 780-809-3771 or 780-952-1311

Thanks to Suzanna Brytan, Executive Director of St. John's Institute for the update information.
suzannab@stjohnsinstitute.com

Castle Mountain

amk2013- At the base of Castle Mountain, January 3, 2013

     In 1912, Calgary Stampede Champion organizer, Guy Weadick arranged for the Canadian Pacific railway company to transport interested Stampede visitors from across the prairies for a reduced return fare. It was a coup of marketing that ensured many visitors to the Stampede, among them the thousands of new Ukrainian speaking Canadian settlers. Then, in 1912, they gathered in Calgary as a community, and consecrated the first Ukrainian church in Calgary.

The same railway company, just a couple of years later, participated in something less festive and savory. Starting in 1914 and through 1917 the railway served as a delivery system to move "enemy aliens", those who held Austrian papers, therefore "technically" enemies of the Canadian state during World War 1, from freedom to enjoy Canada's economic opportunities, to forced labour and prison in Canada's First World War Internment Camps.

We recently hiked to the waterfalls in Johnson Canyon, located in Canada's Rocky Mountains, west of Calgary. Other hardy visitors also enjoyed the walk, on a cold winter day, made beautiful by the sparkling snow and icy rivers. The water gushing from under the ice and snow, rushing into the frigid river that steamed before it froze was a sight to behold.

Then we decided to check on the Castle Mountain Internment Camp.

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     Castle Mountain Internment Camp was an ideal place to confine "enemy aliens" and "suspected enemy sympathizers" during Canada's World War 1 efforts.  In true fact, these people were among the thousands who craved the kind of freedom Canada could provide - and many of their fellow immigrants would prove this point by joining the war effort in Canada's military service to defend these freedoms. 

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Located at the foot of Castle Mountain, prisoners called the tent camps home for the duration of the war.  Grim, totally isolated, confinement really wasn't much necessary for most because of the exhausting forced labour and severe Rocky Mountain terrain and climate.  Today valued tourists and visitors to Banff National Park have scant clue that much of the infrastructure of Banff National Park took shaped during those forced labour years.   

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To get there take the Castle Mountain turnoff from highway 1, that's Highway 93.  You make a right and then a left onto 1A.  Continue west towards Lake Louise. The memorial is on the right, and the Internment Camp is somewhere on the left, but there are no markings, probably because this is a historical site that should be preserved.

The memorial was placed in the summer of 1995.  PLAST Ukrainian Scouts had a summer camp out there, (my husband as a helper), and searched to find the actual site of the Internment Camp.  They found traces in a bit of a clearing,  because the trees cut down in those internment camp years hadn't grown back yet.  The PLAST Ukrainian Scouts group found barbed wire still laying on the ground and there were other signs that people had been there, deep in the mountain wilderness.  Mounds of earth caused the young people to become somber in the erroneous belief that they might have been graves.  

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The site is not far from the railway line, which runs parallel with the river.  It is important to note that general wisdom has it, the internment camp is situated somewhere between the river and the highway, on the opposite side from the actual monument. Clearly Parks Canada doesn't want any persons interfering in the natural processes of history. Now there is a convenient parking spot close to the monument which can be used by guests visiting the general area.  

amk2013 - The crystal clear blue waters of the Bow, that flows through the city of Calgary - in front of Castle Mountain near the Internment Camp.  

http://myrockymountainwindow.com/category/national-mountain-parks/banff-national-park/castle-mountain/

Edmonton's Ukrainian Male Chorus in BANFF



This is great news for Banff! 
The Ukrainian Male Chorus of Edmonton is presenting a concert of
Ukrainian Male Choral Music

on Saturday, June 23, 2012 at 4 p.m. at St Paul's Presbyterian Church

(corner of Banff Ave & Wolf St).

The hour-long concert will feature Ukrainian sacred and secular choral works, as well as several songs sung in English.

Admission is free and open to all ages.


The Marker at Castle Mountain Internment Camp

I hope you take the opportunity to see the choir there!!