Paradise by the River

David E. Kemp, former drama professor at Queen’s University, is the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

On September 3, 1939, the Canadian government issued the Defence of
Canada Regulation. This document empowered the Minister of Justice to
arraign, arrest, and question any individual suspected of subversion.
Thus a new class of citizen was created—the enemy alien. Six thousand
men of Italian origin were arrested when Canada declared war on Italy
following Mussolini’s siding with Germany on June 10, 1940. This is
the background of Paradise by the River. Its chief protagonist is
Romano, a recent immigrant who is arrested without charge and held,
along with hundreds of men of Italian descent, at a prisoner-of-war camp
in Petawawa, Ontario. Never officially charged with any crime, these
individuals were essentially victims of a government bent on
“protecting” its citizens.

A sense of documentary realism pervades Rossi’s play, which features
warmth and humor, authentic dialogue, an ambitious canvas, and
characters we come to care about. Rossi, a Montreal-born actor and
award-winning playwright, is to be congratulated for illuminating this
shameful episode in Canada’s past.