Jajo's Secret

In 1914 Canada was at war. The public was gripped with a fear that terrorists might be lurking among the recent wave of mostly Ukrainian immigrants. To deal with this perceived threat the government introduced the War Measures Act and rounded up thousands of Ukrainians, sending them to 24 concentration camps located across the country. Eventually a number of prisoners were paroled and forced to work as free labour for some of Canada's most profitable companies. In the years that followed, the Canadian government tried to forget what happened.This riveting documentary tells the story of how filmmaker James Motluk discovers that his Jajo (grandfather) was one of these parolees and traces what happened during these years.