Years in the making, No Free Man: Canada, the Great War, and the Enemy Alien Experience, Dr. Bohdan Kordan’s latest book was recently published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The work traces the evolution and consequences of Canadian government policy towards immigrants of enemy nationality during the Great War, when 8,579 were interned and tens of thousands were subjected to a mass surveillance system that monitored their movement and activities. The book examines the ways in which the political and legal status of enemy subjects configured the policy and practice of internment in Canada and how this process – magnified by the challenges of the war – affected the broader concerns of public order and national security.
On 27 October 2016, the book was formally launched at Saskatoon’s McNally Robinson Booksellers. The event is part of a national speaking tour funded by a grant from the Endowment Council of the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund. The tour will include a series of presentations in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Victoria, and Ottawa.
