Mr. Speaker, the Italian-Canadian community is without a doubt a part of Canada's social fabric.
However, during World War II, the government labelled 31,000 Italian Canadians as enemy aliens and sent over 600 men to internment camps. The lives of these men and their families were permanently damaged and businesses closed. No charges were ever laid.
On September 18, in the presence of a number of family members of internees, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police held a tree-planting ceremony to express regret for its role in the internment.
I want to thank the RCMP and Commissioner Brenda Lucki for this historic gesture; and especially James Malizia, assistant commissioner, federal policing, and oral historian, Joyce Pillarella, both grandchildren of internees, for their organizational efforts.
Most of all, I wish to thank the families of the internees for their resilience, their courage and their shining embodiment of civic virtue.