''Jajo's Secret'' is a 2009 made for TV documentary film about the internment of Ukrainians by the government of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

during the First World War. It was produced and directed by

James Motluk James Motluk born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, is a filmmaker of Ukrainian descent. After studying philosophy at Trent University he travelled to Toronto and worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as an assistant director on a televisi ...

(credited as James E Motluk) and broadcast on

OMNI TV Omni Television (stylized as OMNI Television) is a Canadian television system and specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media, a subsidiary of Rogers Communications. It currently consists of all six of Canada's conventional multicultural t ...

Subject matter

The movie begins with the discovery by filmmaker Motluk of a parole certificate issued to his late grandfather, Elias, in 1918. Trying to uncover the truth about why the certificate was issued, he begins a journey that is chronicled in the film, first to

Sault Ste. Marie Sault Ste. Marie is a cross-border region of Canada and the United States located on St. Marys River, which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron. Founded as a single settlement in 1668, Sault Ste. Marie was divided in 1817 by the establishment of ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and then to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. What he discovers is that the Canadian government created legislation known as The

War Measures Act The ''War Measures Act'' (french: Loi sur les mesures de guerre; 5 George V, Chap. 2) was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could t ...

to arrest and intern thousands of Ukrainians whom they perceived as enemy aliens during the war. After the war, these prisoners were paroled and made to work as forced labour in many private Canadian companies on the railroad, in the mines and even building the national park system. Motluk traces his own grandfather to a camp located in the northern Ontario town of

Kapuskasing Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...

. Until recently, the Canadian government tried to hide what had happened. During the production of the film, the government finally apologized to the Ukrainian community and agreed to pay restitution. The title refers to Motluk's grandfather whom he would call Jajo, a child's version of Tato which is Ukrainian for father.

Critical reception

The film has received a lot of praise since its debut on OMNI TV in June 2009. In 2011 it was invited to screen at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York and later at the

Ukrainian Museum The Ukrainian Museum in New York City is the largest museum of its kind outside of Ukraine and is dedicated to the enjoyment, understanding, and preservation of the artistic and cultural heritage of Ukraine. For centuries Ukraine has been an ep ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

2009 television films 2009 films Canadian documentary television films 2000s Canadian films {{documentary-tv-film-stub