Twenty-four known prisoner-of-war camps existed across Canada during the First World War.
The ethnic groups arrested and detained in internment camps were Austro-Hungarians (mostly Ukrainians) and Germans.
Austro-Hungarian Prisoners were mainly residents of Canada from Ukraine, part of Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia.
Since Ukraine, part of Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were then provinces of the empire of Austria-Hungary, many still had Austro-Hungarian citizenship and were considered to be resident enemy aliens.
William Dostock, for example, who immigrated to Canada in 1910 from Austria-Hungary and was not yet naturalized was interned from 1915–1920 as an enemy alien.