Interview with Vladimira Dalle Vedove Tontini
Vladimira Dalle Vedove Tontini's father was born in Friuli, Italy and her mother was born in Pesaro, Italy. Her parents met in Sudbury, Ontario, and moved to Montreal to settle where they had their only child, Vladimira. Her father, Angelo Delle Vedove, was arrested on her 10th birthday, June 10, 1940. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) would not allow him to stay for her birthday cake when her mother made the request. Vladimira, along with her mother and grandmother, visited her father Angelo at Camp Petawawa about a year after he was interned. Vladimira describes the experience of seeing her father in the camp and also talks about the other interned men in the camp. Her mother, grandmother, and step-grandfather were all classified as enemy aliens and forced to report monthly, despite the fact that they all had their citizenship papers. Her father’s internment was especially difficult for her mother, as the family had started to build a house and only the excavation had been complete. Her mother was forced to work three jobs in order to pay the rent at their current home while completing the basic construction of their new home. Vladmira explains that she did not face too much discrimination herself, but that she noticed subtle things at school. She explain that her grandmother faced discrimination in some French-Canadian shops; however she would stand up for her while speaking French or English.
