Italian-Canadian Parliamentarians welcome ‘overdue’ apology for internment as ‘closure,’ ‘learning moment’

In June 1940, when Canada declared war on Italy, some 31,000 Italian Canadians were labelled ‘enemy aliens’ overnight, and about 600 men were sent to internment camps, some for years.

Parliamentarians of Italian origin welcomed the apology and reflected on the harm it caused their community for decades. From left, House Speaker Anthony Rota, Liberal MP Angelo Iacono, Independent Senator Tony Loffreda, and Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli. The Hill Times photographs by Andrew Meade, Sam Garcia, courtesy of Tony Baldinelli

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BY SAMANTHA WRIGHT ALLEN

May 27, 2021

When House Speaker Anthony Rota rose after Thursday’s apology for the government’s internment of Canadians of Italian descent during the Second World War, he joked about looking into the Standing Orders and the rules around “making the Speaker cry or choking him...

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