In June 1940, as the dictator Benito Mussolini took Italy into war against the Allied Powers, the Canadian authorities launched a series of raids against Italian-Canadians from coast to coast. Suspected of being a danger to national security, several hundreds of them were arrested and interned without trial. Most of the Italian-Canadian population was declared 'enemy alien,' community centres were shut, and a multitude of families thrown into hardship and despair. The Canadian Duce narrates this little-known chapter of Canadian history through the experience of a Montreal Italian-Canadian family -- the Caruso's -- and through the coming of age of their teen-aged son Mario. This is the script of the CBC TV film Il duce canadese, which aired in 2005.