The Italian-Canadian Internment: The Case of the Mascioli Brothers of Timmins, Ontario

Abstract

On June 10, 1940-in the small mining town of Timmins, Ontario-Leo and Tony Mascioli were arrested under the Defence of Canada Regulations, which allowed the Canadian government to suspend habeas corpus and intern suspected "enemy aliens." The Mascioli brothers were two of six hundred Italians sent to an internment camp in Petawawa, Ontario, during WWII. Before their arrest, the brothers were pioneers in the mining communities of Northeastern Ontario and their business empire included a chain of hotels, movie theatres, a garage, and a construction company. Leo Mascioli started his successful career in northern Canada as a labor agent for the mining companies, and both Leo and Tony became de facto leaders of the large Italian population in the region (Abel; Di Giacomo). The internment of Italian-Canadians has largely been forgotten with only a handful of academic works on the topic that contain only passing mentions of the experiences of individual internees (Ramirez; Iacovetta et al.