#REVIEW That Never Happened
THAT NEVER HAPPENED: Canada’s First National Internment Operations (2017) directed by Ryan Boyko, is a poignant and deeply moving documentary that chronicles, and explores Canada’s internment of Ukrainian-Canadians during the First World War, just one of many groups at that time who were denied their fundamental rights and to suffer mistreatment.
Boyko juxtaposes the narrative of Canada’s official policy against new Canadians deemed enemy aliens during the First World War against the personal stories of the descendants which shines a light on Canada’s shameful past, efforts to obliterate the past and deny it ever happened.
That never happened documents the extraordinary efforts of Ukrainian-Canadian organizations, community leaders, politicians, and descendants to give voice to the forgotten and create a legacy of remembrance, and the lasting psychological wounds internment inflicted not only on the survivors but their descendants.
Boyko weaves together many visual elements which include archival film and video footage, narration, first-person interviews, Super 8 home movies, and archival photography stills to create an insightful documentary. Close-ups and medium angles shots are interspersed with wide-angle shots, and aerial shots and the film incorporates both interior and exterior footage shot over an extended period of time at various locations which add complexity to the documentary. Some of the most powerful images in the film are the juxtaposition of Canada’s majestic landscape with barbed wire. By juxtaposing the narrative of Canada’s misdeeds against the backstory of the descendants and the search for justice and restitution, Boyko creates dramatic tension that moves the documentary.
The film includes interviews with a distinguished group of community leaders who were instrumental in seeking redress, and many professionals including an archaeologist, a politician, a funeral director, a retired park warden, an academic, a sculptor and a muralist to name some who weigh-in and present a multiplicity of viewpoints. Boyko frames the documentary in a broader social context and is a painful reminder of man’s inhumanity to man.
THAT NEVER HAPPENED is a powerful documentary which gives voice not only to those who suffered injustices at the hands of the Canadian government during the First World War because of who they were or where they were born but it is also a moving story of justice and restitution and creating a legacy of remembrance. It is a deeply meditative film that explores Canada’s past, the legacy of Canada’s misdeeds, and the importance of remembering and documenting the past for future generations to come.
The documentary has tremendous educational appeal and can serve as a vehicle to promote positive social change and understanding. It’s the story about a community of newcomers who were welcomed with open arms and given free land to settle and open up Canada’s west only to suffer mistreatment, and for some, internment and exploitation. It is also a provocative documentary and left me wondering about the other groups of new Canadians including Croats, Slovaks, Ottoman Turks, Armenians, and Bulgarians to name a few who were unjustly treated by Canada during the First World War. Where’s there justice? And what about the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways whose land was confiscated and became the site of one of the many concentration camps across Canada. When will they see justice?
Boyko has created a moving documentary about a community of Canadians who nevertheless have persevered and triumphed over evil. It is a well-made film, and deserving of your attention.
[Review by Stefan Chiarantano]
Sadly the film missed the key role my grandmother played in the redress of this with the federal government. The group of community leaders you talk about would never have been successful with this being redressed without my grandmother. She was hugely instrumental in working with Dr L Luicik, the UCC and other agencies. I have the pictures of her in Ottawa the day it was redressed in the House of Commons. I have the pictures of her with members of the Mulroney government. She deserves a film of her own. The journey she and my aunts took to face the past was hard and heart wrenching. That’s history.
There is no doubt that the way in which Mary Manko Haskett expressed herself, asking not for compensation or any apology, but instead insisting the Ukrainian Canadian community’s campaign should be about “memory, not money,” was intrumental, indeed key, to our efforts over many years, which she (and Fran, your aunt) were very supportive of. You definitely should be proud of her dedication to this just cause and, truly, without her, much would not have been accomplished. I do not know why her story is not in the film. I have only seen it once and do not recall the details of what was included but, most certainly, Mary is remembered on the websites of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association (www.uccla.ca) and the UCCLF (www.ucclf.ca) – and that photograph of her in Ottawa with John Gregorovich and me is included in the Enemy Aliens exhibit of the Canadian War Museum (travelling the country now) and permanently at the museum dedicated to telling the story of Canada’s first national internment operations, at Cave & Basin, in Banff National Park. I will never forget her, God bless her,
Professor Lubomyr Luciuk