Photograph of Tiezzi family, 1949 - solo in inglese

Photograph of Tiezzi family, 1949, standing in front of the family store. Front centre is Ada Tiezzi Brandonio. From the left: Italo Tiezzi, Silvio Tiezzi, Rosa Tiezzi and Gino Tiezzi.

At the Italian declaration of war, Gino Tiezzi was arrested and interned as a threat to the Canadian state.

After his release, Tiezzi could not return to his former job at the Ottawa Light Heat & Power Company Ltd. The Tiezzis then bought a small store using money Rosa Tiezzi had saved up. Tiezzi Provision Store and Post Office, purchased in 1945, soon served as a social service centre for post war immigrants as Tiezzi Provisions Store.

A year after this picture was taken, the family suffered a horrific tragedy with the loss of the eldest son Silvio in a car-train accident.

For Italo Tiezzi, the most troubling outcome of his father's internment is the three years his brother Silvio’s was forcibly separated from his father.