There were 40 known prisoner-of-war camps across Canada during World War II. The camps were identified by letters at first, then by numbers. The prisoners were given various tasks; many worked in the forests as logging crews. In addition to the main camps there were branch camps and labour camps.
The largest number of prisoners of war was recorded as 33,798. (One source claims that at its peak, Canada interned 35,046 prisoners of war and Japanese-Canadians.) There were an additional 6,437 civil internees, members of the merchant marine and refugees.
There are claims that conditions in the Canadian camps tended to be better than average, and many times better than the conditions of the barracks that Canadian troops were kept in. It is believed by some that this treatment foiled many escape attempts before they even started. Notably, it is told that group of German prisoners returned to Ozada camp after escaping because of encountering a grizzly bear.
| Camp | Place | Province | Location | Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Chatham | Ontario | 260 km southwest of Toronto | 1944 1945-1946 |
| 10 | Fingal | Ontario | 40 km south of London | 1945-1946 |
| 20 (C) | Gravenhurst | Ontario | 170 km north of Toronto | 1940-1946 |
| 21 (F) | Espanola | Ontario | 330 km NNW of Toronto | 1940-1943 |
| 22 (M) | Mimico | Ontario | 15 km west of Toronto | 1940-1944 |
| 23 (Q) | Monteith (near Iroquois Falls) | Ontario | 700 km north of Toronto | 1940-1946 |
| 30 | Bowmanville | Ontario | 65 km ENE of Toronto | 1941-1945 |
| 31 (F) | Kingston | Ontario | 145 km SSW of Ottawa | 1940-1943 |
| 32 (H) | Hull | Quebec | 10 km north of Ottawa | 1941-(?) |
| 33 (F) | Petawawa | Ontario | 130 km WNW of Ottawa | 1942-1946 |
| 40 (A) | Farnham | Quebec | 50 km ESE of Montreal | 1940-1941 1942-1943 1944-1946 |
| 42 (N) | Newington (Sherbrooke) | Quebec | 130 km east of Montreal | 1942-1946 |
| 44 | Feller College / Grande Ligne | Quebec | 275 km northeast of Montreal | 1943-1946 |
| 45 | Sorel | Quebec | 65 km NNE of Montreal | 1945-1946 |
| 70 (B) | Fredericton (Ripples) | New Brunswick | 20 km east of Fredericton | 1941-1945 |
| 100 (W) | Neys | Ontario | 1100 km northwest of Toronto | 1944-1943 1944-1946 |
| 101 | Angler | Ontario | 800 km northwest of Toronto | 1941-1946 |
| 130 | Seebe | Alberta | 100 km west of Calgary | 1939-1946 |
| 132 | Medicine Hat | Alberta | 260 km ESE of Calgary | 1943-1945 |
| 133 | Ozada | Alberta | 130 km west of Calgary | 1942 |
| 133 | Lethbridge | Alberta | 160 km southeast of Calgary | 1942-1946 |
| 135 | Wainwright | Alberta | 190 km ESE of Edmonton | 1945-1946 |
| (R) | Red Rock | Ontario | Lake Superior | 1940-1941 |
| N/A | Wainfleet | Ontario | Close to Port Colborne | 1943-1945 |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, world, war and/or canada:
“My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The extent to which a parent is able to see a child’s world through that child’s eyes depends very much on the parent’s ability to appreciate the differences between herself and her child and to respect those differences. Your own children need you to accept them for who they are, not who you would like them to be.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It’s a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“I see Canada as a country torn between a very northern, rather extraordinary, mystical spirit which it fears and its desire to present itself to the world as a Scotch banker.”
—Robertson Davies (b. 1913)