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Ray will launch his new book in March 2012. The title is INJUSTICE SERVED, the story of BC's Italian Enemy Aliens during WW II(2010)
This proposed new publication will introduce the reader to an episode from the annals of Canada's war-time history that is little known to the average Canadian. Moreover, the event itself which threatened to divide Vancouver's Italian community into two opposing camps has been much derided by a few and clearly misunderstood by the majority. It is the story of Italians and Italian-Canadians living in BC who were classified as Enemy Aliens during WWII. They so designated by RCMP primarily because the immigrants among them had arrived in Canada during Mussolini's tenure as dictator of Italy circa 1922-1940. Within this group were those who by choice or circumstance remained Italian citizens while permanently residing in this Province. When Canada found itself at war with belligerent Fascist Italy on June 10, 1940, the loyalty factor of many of these resident Italian nationals was held suspect by federal authorities. As a result they were identified and characterized as Italian enemy aliens.
A relatively few of these Italians actually were arrested and incarcerated but the stigma attached to the event lingers unsettled until this day. In total 44 men of the 632 Italians interned throughout Canada were from British Columbia. The BC internees initially spent time at the Kananaskis, AB internment camp. Later most were transferred to the camp at Petawawa, ON serving an average total of 15 ½ months behind barbed wire.
The remaining enemy aliens – an estimated 900 men and women - were required to report monthly to the RCMP. They comprised two main categories or groups. The men in the first group primarily resident in Vancouver were ordered by the RCMP to remove themselves from British Columbia's coastal area. Most left their families behind as they sought employment in the interior of the Province or elsewhere in Canada. This situation prevailed until Fascist Italy capitulated in 1943. The second group comprised hundreds of men and women all of whom were compelled to report monthly to the RCMP. Following an initial interview, each was finger printed and given instructions regarding monthly report date and time. Those on the enemy alien list also were cautioned about associating with individuals of questionable loyalty to Canada. If they were to do so, and were found out, the connection could adversely affect their status and possibly lead to internment. Among those who checked in regularly with the RCMP were Canadian-born women married to Italian nationals.
The proposed coffee-table publication is being funded by the Canada Citizenship and Immigration Department via the Canadian Historic Recognition Program (CHRP). The book will be available at the Italian Cultural Centre in March 2012.
Britannia Remembers 100 Years of Achievement is a commemorative piece released as a souvenir publication in May 2008
The 234-page hardcover book, co-authored by Clive Cocking (Class of ’57) and Ray Culos - student council president in 1954, is a brilliantly prepared historical review of the school’s one hundred year history. Thirty-six ex-Brit students, introduced as "stars", are profiled. Britannia Remembers makes a remarkable contribution to the history of Vancouver and Canada.
Hundreds of ex-Brit students and friends attended the Britannia Centennial Reunion Celebration, May 16/17. One of the highlights was the social dance and entertainment scheduled for Saturday evening at the PNE Agrodome. Register on-line using the Britannia Centennial Reunion Society website or e-mail the school at info(at)britanniacentennial.com
The publication is available at Britannia Secondary School for $20 per copy.
Vancouver's Shoeshine Boys Released in June, 2009
At a Prior Street Reunion luncheon – to which over 190 guests attended – on Saturday, June 13th at the Famee Furlane Hall, 2605 East Pender Street, Vancouver, Ray Culos introduced his latest non-fiction book, Vancouver’s Shoeshine Boys. It is the social history story of Italian immigrants and their offspring sons who pioneered Vancouver’s shoe shine parlour industry circa 1906 – 1986. >>>>click to view
The Vancouver Courier, Friday, November 6, 2009
Many Italian immigrants shined shoes - Italian community shines in Culos’s Boys
By Lisa Smedman
“Start to research any of the immigrant groups that came to Vancouver, and you’ll quickly notice something immigrants from a particular region of the globe tend to wind up in the same trade or profession.
The Chinese of the 1800s were known for their laundries and produce stands. The Sikhs of the early 1900s worked in lumber mills. The Portuguese, who began arriving in the 1950s, were labourers in the construction industry. Many Italians also worked as labourers, helping to build the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railways. Once these were complete, they settled in cities like Vancouver.
Here, they needed work that would accommodate their limited education and English. Work that allowed them to sustain themselves as independent businessmen during the hard times of the Depression.
The answer was right at their feet. Shinning shoes.
Local author Raymond Culos uses the shoeshine trade as his entry point to his latest history of Vancouver’s Italian community. Vancouver’s Shoeshine Boys – A Shinning Social History follows on the heels (pun intended) of his previous three-volume work, Vancouver’s Society of Italians, the definitive history of the local Italian immigrant community.
Shoeshine Boys is chock full of the wonderful first-person anecdotes Culos is so apt at collecting, as well as historic photos of shoeshine stands and other Italian businesses, predominantly on the city’s East Side. The sagas begin in the first decades of the 1900s, winds their way the Depression, the Second World War and the discrimination Italians faced as “enemy aliens”, and the 1950s. (The book’s cover includes a couple of wonderful colour photos by Fred Herzog that set the scene for Vancouver of that decade.) It wraps up in the 1970s. Along the way, it takes a look at some of the other hallmarks of Vancouver’s Italian community: boxing, barbershops, music, language classes and church.
An entertaining read, Shoeshine Boys is a great way to learn more about Vancouver’s Italian immigrant community.”