Arrested at a wedding, on Dante Street

On June 10, 1940, Canada declared war on Mussolini's Italy. About 31,000 Italian Canadians were then designated "enemy aliens" and had to report regularly to the authorities. Just over 600 men were arrested and sent to internment camps, notably at Petawawa, Fredericton and Kananaskis, and four women were imprisoned. No formal charges were laid against them; they had no opportunity to defend themselves at trial. Many others lost their jobs or saw their businesses boycotted.

On May 27, 2021, the prime minister offered an official apology in the House of Commons. His speech opened with the story of Giuseppe Visocchi, arrested in the summer of 1940 during a wedding on Dante Street in Montreal. The officers told his family they only wanted to talk to him; he was interned at Petawawa, far from his wife and seven children, who had to survive without income.

This apology was not the first. In 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had already offered one. In 2018, the RCMP Commissioner had expressed official regret. In 2021, the words were spoken on behalf of the country in the House of Commons, the very place where war had been declared in 1940. What remains is to pass this story on, so that no group is ever again treated as an enemy because of its origins.