Working with the PCUH, Shaw Cable has produced a documentary vignette on the WWI Eaton Internment Camp. The short film created by Simon Hiatt is part of Shaw Cable’s “Spotlight Series,” which showcases events, people and places with a view to increasing local awareness as a way for “communities to stay connected.” The Eaton internment campsite is located seven kilometres west of Saskatoon at the site of today’s Saskatchewan Railway Museum.
The WWI internment facility was created at the Eaton railway siding in February 1919 to accommodate immigrants of ‘enemy’ birth designated as civilian prisoners of war. Under military guard, the prisoners were forced to work on the railway repairing track. Difficulties with securing the camp in the open range would lead to its closure March 1919.
Of the twenty-four WWI internment camps created across Canada, the Eaton camp was the only one of its kind in Saskatchewan, marking it as an important provincial historic site.
In 2005, the PCUH in partnership with the Ukrainian-Canadian community organized and erected a commemorative monument to honour the memory of those interned at this site.
For the film, click or insert the URL into your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbaggN2yOts&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR15txdcyaEwqwblOsurGGuQTHlS1INeIkFzCpNIyJrQCSB0-ro_zQiKqZc