In June 1940, at the outbreak of World War II, Italy declared war on Great Britain. At the time, Canada was part of the British Empire, and this meant that Italy was now also at war with Canada. As a result, in the days that followed the declaration of war, more than 600 Italian Canadians were detained under the War Measures Act and the Defence of Canada Regulations – measures that suspended habeas corpus and allowed the federal government to revoke fundamental civil liberties. The crackdown resulted in arrests, property seizures, and the detention of individuals deemed a threat to national security, despite the absence of evidence.
At the time, Canada was home to approximately 112,000 residents of Italian origin. Many were Canadian citizens. Of this number, 31,000 were designated “enemy aliens” – nearly 30 percent of all Italians living in Canada. Of the 600 individuals arrested, 60 percent were from Quebec, 30 percent from Ontario, and the remaining 10 percent from elsewhere in the country. Virtually all were men; they were sent to the Petawawa internment camp north of Ottawa.
The history of the internment of Italian Canadians over the last few decades has focused almost entirely on men, with little attention to the women who were stranded, often with small children, after their men were taken away. But the fact is that several Italian-Canadian women were also arrested during the sweeps by the RCMP. Due to their relatively small number, however, the authorities did not send them to a camp but decided to hold them instead in the Internment Quarters of the Kingston Penitentiary for Women.
The stories of these women remain largely overlooked. Artist Faustina Billotta drew attention to this gap in public memory with “Forgotten Apologies,” featured in the Montréal à l’italienne exhibit at Montreal’s Pointe-à-Callière Museum in 2021. Her installation listed the names of interned Italian Canadians; at the very bottom, in small type, appeared the names of thirteen women who were detained. In actual fact, only four women were sent to the Kingston Penitentiary’s Internment Quarters. They were: Maria Egidia Fontanella of Toronto, Luisa Guagneli of Niagara Falls, Verna Lo Bosco of Welland, and Maria Pressello of Windsor.
Two of these women – Fontanella and Lo Bosco – were single. Three had male relatives who were also interned, and three were active participants in their local Fascio Femminile – overseas branches of Italy’s Fascist Party that promoted Italian nationalism through social and educational activities.
The women of the Fascio Femminile played an active role, both in Italy and across the Italian diaspora, including Canada. Their work ranged from teaching Italian language and culture, assisting children, the poor, the elderly, and the sick, but also raising funds, disseminating propaganda, and promoting Fascist ideology. In Montreal, six Fascio Femminile lodges were in operation. Italian-Canadian women also participated in the Dopolavoro – an afterwork leisure and recreational organization for adults – and the Order of the Sons of Italy. In Toronto, more than 200 women were involved in the Dopolavoro Femminile, offering support to pregnant women, assisting in schools, and fundraising for the Casa d’Italia.
The Canadian government originally signaled that only leaders within the Fascio Femminile would face internment. By 1939, the RCMP further clarified that no woman would be arrested solely for her affiliation with the Order of the Sons of Italy or other community associations unless she was also a member of the Fascio.
In Montreal, several women were deeply engaged in Fascio activities. Antonietta Mancuso and Rosa Spinelli, for example, were particularly active; Spinelli served as a trustee for the Fascio of Lachine. Carmela Frascarelli held leadership roles in both the Fascio Femminile and the Order of the Sons of Italy, and was known as an ardent supporter of the regime. Dr. Laura D’Anna, a founding member of Montreal’s Fascio Femminile in 1934, later agreed to serve as an RCMP informant in an effort to secure her husband’s release. Despite this high level of involvement, most prominent Fascio women were never interned.
In addition to the four women mentioned above who were interned, ten other Italian-Canadian women were detained, questioned by the RCMP, and released with a warning. They were: Francesca Olivieri (Hamilton); Etelvina Frediani, Filomena Riccio, and Maria Spaziani (Toronto); Rosa Spinelli (Lachine); Dr Laura D’Anna – who later served as an RCMP informant; and Giuseppina Di Ioia, Carmela Frascarelli, Fosca Guibilei, and Antonietta Mancuso (Montreal).
Nationwide, 21 women were ultimately interned: 12 Germans, one Austrian, three Belgians, four Italians, and one Canadian. Of the four Italian women detained, one was born in Canada; two were “landed immigrants” or what we term today as permanent residents, and one had no clearly defined citizenship status.
Perhaps because of their small number, the experiences of these women is an understudied aspect of wartime internment in Canada, but it is one that continues to surface gradually through research, archival work, and artistic efforts.
The history of Italian-Canadian women during this period reflects a complicated legacy of cultural loyalty, community engagement, and State suspicion. Although many women contributed meaningfully to social services and cultural preservation within their neighbourhoods, they nevertheless faced stigma and, in some cases, detention under policies that cast an indiscriminately wide net. For decades, Italian-Canadian organizations have sought formal recognition and compensation for these injustices – a struggle that remains unresolved.
In 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney issued an apology to the Italian-Canadian community for the internment of its members, though the apology was pronounced in a public space and not in Parliament. By contrast, in 1988 the Japanese-Canadian community received a formal apology and more than 300 million dollars in individual and collective reparations for the wartime internment of 22,000 of Japanese Canadians – nearly 90 percent of the total Japanese population of Canada.
In 2008, the government led by Prime Minister Steven Harper launched the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), which allocated funds to support projects that would bring to light how different ethno-cultural communities in Canada were affected by wartime measures. Several projects within the Italian-Canadian community received federal funding under the program.
Two notable publications, Beyond Barbed Wire and Behind Barbed Wire (2012) intended to raise public awareness about the treatment of Italian Canadians during the war. However, these works were largely silent on the ways in which women were affected by the internment.
Many writers and scholars have examined and documented the internment of Italian Canadians during the Second World War. While a substantial body of literature exists on this topic, most of it reflects a predominantly male perspective or focuses primarily on male experiences. Women, when mentioned, appear as secondary figures.
Mario Duliani’s La Ville sans femmes, originally appearing in French in 1945, is the first-person account of an internee, and offers a rare and significant acknowledgment of women’s presence through their absence. Duliani speaks of “l’omniprésence des femmes malgré leur absence” – the omnipresence of women despite their absence. This notion was further elaborated by Antonino Mazza in his 1994 translation of Duliani’s book as “our collective temperament is dictated by the loss of our women.” Through this formulation, Duliani suggests that the emotional and psychological climate of internment was profoundly shaped by the absence of wives, companions, and loved ones.
Arguably, Mario Duliani gave women a central symbolic importance – sufficient to title his work La Ville sans femmes and to dedicate an entire chapter to “l’ennui des épouses et des amoureuses” – the boredom and longing for wives and lovers left behind.
For many families, wartime internment fractured households and destabilized community life. In response, Italian-Canadian women assumed critical responsibilities, maintaining family units, sustaining social networks, and taking on leadership roles during a period of profound uncertainty. That is why our community and history must not forget them.
In June 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons for the internment of Italian Canadians during the Second World War. “Today,” he said, “Canada is home to approximately 1.6 million people of Italian origin – one of the world’s largest Italian diasporas.”
On June 4, 2025, a new installation on the internment of Italian Canadians was unveiled at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Notably absent, however, were the stories of the women who endured this chapter of our history – whether as detainees or as family members, advocates, and caregivers affected by surveillance, discrimination, and the broader consequences of internment. Their omission underscores the continued struggle to fully acknowledge the gendered dimensions of this episode in Canadian history.
For further reading:
- McBride, Michelle. From Indifference to Internment: An Examination of RCMP Responses to Nazism and Fascism in Canada from 1934 to 1941. Master’s thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1997.
- Iacovetta Franca, Roberto Perrin, and Angelo Principe, eds. Enemies Within: Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
- McBride, Michelle. “The Curious Case of Female Internees.” In Enemies Within: Italian and Other Internees in Canada and Abroad, edited by Franca Iacovetta et al., 148–170. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
- Memories of WWII Italian Canadians as Enemy Aliens, Female Internees. [Specific author and publication details not provided.]
- Morsella, Margherita. The Women of the Internment: Victims of Deletion or women of Il Fascio? Corriere Italiano, May 4th 2021.
- Beyond Barbed Wire: Essays on the Internment of Italian Canadians, edited by Licia Canton, Domenic Cusmano, Michael Mirolla, Jim Zucchero, Guernica Editions, 2012.
- Behind Barbed Wire: creative works on the internment of Italian Canadians, edited by Licia Canton, Domenic Cusmano, Michael Mirolla, Jim Zucchero, Guernica Editions, 2012.
- Duliani Mario, La Ville Sans Femmes, Montréal, Pascal, 1945. Translated in Italian by the author, La Città Senza Donne in 1946 and into English, The City without Women in 1994 by Antonino Mazza.
Margherita M. Morsella, is a Montreal lawyer, activist, and author.
