A dark chapter in Canadian history will be the focus of a conference in Vernon.

The newly appointed endowment council for the Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund will hold its inaugural meeting at the Best Western Vernon Lodge Saturday.

“The few internees who were alive when we began our campaign for symbolic redress always told us that what was important to them was that other Canadians should learn about how they had been branded enemy aliens, interned, forced to do heavy labour for the profit of their jailers, disenfranchised and subjected to other state-sanctioned indignities - even though they were innocent of any wrongdoing,” said Lubomyr Luciuk, Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association chairman.

The recognition fund provides grants to individuals and groups to research and commemorate what happened to Ukrainians and other Europeans during Canada’s internment operations between 1914 and 1920.

The $10 million endowment was established in 2008, and the interest earned on the principal will be distributed annually by the endowment council.

Among the internment camps were Vernon — at the current site of W.L. Seaton Secondary — and Mara.

Also on Saturday, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation will unveil a plaque in the Arrow Lakes community of Edgewood recalling the confinement of Ukrainians there.

“The plaque being unveiled in Edgewood is one of a series that have been placed across Canada, starting in 1994, each marker located at or near the site of a Canadian internment camp,” said Andrea Malysh, an association member and Vernon resident.

“By recalling this unfortunate episode in Canadian history, we hope to ensure that no other ethnic, religious or racial minority ever suffers state-sanctioned indignities of the kind that Ukrainians and others did during the First World War period.”