Fascism and Internment Immigration

by Adriana Albi Davies, Ph.D.

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Fanella mentions that, in Calgary, Tony Valerio's application to become a pilot and navigator in the Royal Canadian Air Force was rejected because of his status as the son of an immigrant. She quotes Audrey Forzani (nee De Negri), Hudson's Bay Company employee as follows:

War breaks out, Jean Santopinto, Mary Bussi, Dora Buccini and me were pulled into the office of Mr. Trimble, he was the superintendent of The Bay. No he says, 'War's been declared and Mussolini's gone with Hitler.' We were all wondering what he's talking about because we were all born in Calgary, and he says, 'You know, girls, if you keep your mouths shut and don't give your opinion about anything, we will keep you on. But the minute you cause a little bit of trouble, or if there's a ripple around that you say something derogatory against the war, we will have to let you go.' [We wondered] What's he talking about? For Pete's sake! We were warned not to say anything or give our opinion. I don't remember having an opinion. War was over there, we felt sorry for the people, but we never discussed the war.¹

She notes that Antonio Rebaudengo, the honorary consul, was interned and spent three years in Kananaskis, Camp Petawawa and Gagetown Camps, only being released in 1943. His son, Mario, served in the Canadian army and she quotes him as follows: "We were called 'dago,' 'Mussolini,' 'Fascist.' We tried to ignore it. We were the minority. We were the aliens. War was not on our side." ²

Toni Ross writes in Oh! The Coal Branch that the mines were militant about enforcing enemy alien provisions. She notes: 

A meeting of residents in this district met at Sterco on Sunday afternoon, June 2nd, 1940 when 55 British subjects were in attendance to discuss the employment of enemy aliens to fill the positions left open by men joining the C.A.S.F., and it was moved that a petition be sent to the management as follows:

1. No enemy aliens or any naturalized since 1939 be employed for the duration of the war;
2. Preference be given to British subjects as foremen;
3. Positions vacated by men enlisting in the C.A.S.F. be filled by British subjects.

The motion was carried unanimously.

Methods of combating fifth column activities were discussed and it was decided to report all anti-allied activities. ³

While few were interned, the shadow of the "enemy alien" designation fell on all Albertans of Italian descent. This divided the community into "them" and "us" and reinforced the position of power of the elites, largely immigrants from Great Britain. For many Italians who had emigrated near the turn of the century, that their loyalty should be questioned was hurtful and that their livelihood should be at stake was patently unfair. Ross goes on to note that local places of business were not as militant and, of course, Italians owned key businesses, for example D. Giovinazzo owned the Palm Café and Confectionery as well as the Luscar Meat Market.⁷ Many young men of Italian descent did enlist and served in the war effort as is recognized, for example, in the Honour Roll of enlisted men in the Canmore community history, which can be found  in the Rockies, Nordegg and Coal Branch regional profile.

This unhappy episode in the community's history served to put the assimilation process into over-drive and, by the early 1950s, when a "third wave" of emigration from Italy began, all of those aspects of Italian culture and traditions that had survived for nearly 50 years disappeared. Many claimed not to speak Italian and there were no traces of the fraternal societies and the social clubs that had existed. It is as if the perceived "shame" of being branded as "enemy aliens" had driven the remnants of Italian culture from the souls and lives of the survivors. It would take the rise of multiculturalism in the 1970s to re-ignite a sense of pride in roots and customs from the homeland. 

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