Ukrainian Canadians fight to save a forgotten cemetery in Quebec's Abitibi region

Beyond the crops, tucked deep in a boggy forest on a farmer's land in the Abitibi region of Quebec, you'll find the remnants of a cemetery, a few crosses still visible between the trees.

More than 100 years ago, at least 16 detainees from the nearby Spirit Lake internment camp were buried here.

But there's no commemorative plaque or historical protection for the land that is slowly being swallowed up by forest.

"This is a sacred space, hallowed ground," said Lubomyr Luciuk, a professor of military geography at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont., and a member of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

After the internment camp closed, the federal government sold the land to Quebec in 1936. In 1988, the parcel of land where the cemetery sits was acquired by a private farmer.

The cemetery is no more than 30 square metres in size and located in the backwoods of the property. It has no agricultural value, but Luciuk says attempts to restore and reconsecrate the cemetery have been unsuccessful.

Without the intervention of the federal government, he's afraid it will be forgotten.

"To me, I don't like it when I see the final resting places of people allowed to disappear," said Luciuk. "If we can do something, we should."

The Spirit Lake internment camp was one of 24 camps established by the federal government during the First World War to hold so-called enemy aliens, mostly Ukrainians and other Europeans, who were considered a threat to national security.

Located near the town of Amos, about 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal, Spirit Lake was one of the largest camps and operated between January 1915 and January 1917.

Nearly 1,200 men, women and children were plucked from their homes and transported to Abitibi by train. The men were forced to do hard labour.

Of those who perished at the camp, records show tuberculosis was a common cause of death. Several children died and, in one case, a man was shot to death as he tried to escape.

In 2008, the Canadian government established the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF) to help finance commemorative or educational projects related to these operations.

One of the largest grants was given to the Spirit Lake Camp Corporation to start an interpretive centre, which opened in 2011. The fund's endowment council also hoped to restore the internee cemetery.