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History

A hundred years of immigration to Canada 1900 - 1999

A chronology focusing on refugees and discrimination

Part 1: 1900 - 1949

1900 41,681 immigrants were admitted to Canada.
1896-1905 Clifford Sifton held the position of Minister of Interior (with responsibilities for immigration). He energetically pursued his vision of peopling the prairies with agricultural immigrants. The immigrants he sought for the Canadian West were farmers (preferably from the U.S. or Britain, otherwise (northern) European). Immigrants to cities were to be discouraged (in fact, many of the immigrants quickly joined the industrial labour force). "I think that a stalwart peasant in a sheepskin coat, born to the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half dozen children, is good quality". Immigration of black Americans was actively discouraged, often on the grounds that they were unsuitable for the climate.
1900-1921 138,000 Jews immigrated to Canada, many of them refugees fleeing pogroms in Czarist Russia and Eastern Europe. There were also arrivals of Doukhobors from Russia, where they suffered persecution.
1900 The Head tax on Chinese immigrants was increased from $50 (set in 1885 in the first Chinese Exclusion Act) to $100.
1901 Census.(1) Of the 5,371,315 population in Canada, 684,671 (12.7%) were immigrants (i.e. born outside Canada). 57% of the immigrants were male. About a quarter of the immigrant population had arrived in the previous 5 years. 57% of immigrants were born in the British Isles, 19% in the U.S., 5% in Russia, 4% in Germany and 2.5% (17,043 people) in China. There were 4,674 people born in Japan, 1,222 people born in Syria, 357 people from Turkey, and 699 born in the West Indies. The only African country listed was South Africa (128 people). Of the 278,788 immigrants who were "foreign-born" (meaning born outside the British Empire), 55% were naturalized citizens. However, only 4% (668) of the Chinese-born were citizens. In terms of "origins", the census counted 17,437 "Negroes" in Canada. 42% of the population was of British origin, while 31% was of French origin. There were 16,131 Jews and 22,050 Chinese/Japanese (given as one category). 96% of the population was of European origin.
1903 Chinese head tax increased to $500. From 1901 to 1918, $18 million was collected from Chinese immigrants (compared to $10 million spent on promoting immigration from Europe).
1906 Immigration Act. According to Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, the purpose of the Act was "to enable the Department of Immigration to deal with undesirable immigrants" by providing a means of control. The Act enshrined and reinforced measures of restriction and enforcement. The categories of "prohibited" immigrants were expanded. The Act also gave the government legal authority to deport immigrants within two years of landing (later extended to three and then five years). Grounds for deportation included becoming a public charge, insanity, infirmity, disease, handicap, becoming an inmate of a jail or hospital and committing crimes of "moral turpitude". Such deportations had occurred prior to 1905 without the benefit of law, but after 1906, numbers increased dramatically.
1906-1907 c. 4,700 Indians, mainly Sikhs from the Punjab, arrived in Vancouver. Arrivals of Japanese and Chinese increased (more than 2,300 Japanese arrived in B.C. in 1907). Reaction by white British Columbians was described by the Minister of the Interior as "almost hysterical". An "Anti-Asiatic Parade" organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League ended in a riot, with extensive damage done to property in Chinatown and the Japanese quarter.
1907 A government delegation to Japan resulted in an agreement whereby the Japanese government would voluntarily limit emigration of Japanese to Canada to 400 a year.
1908 Order in council issued imposing a "continuous journey" rule, prohibiting immigrants who did not come by continuous journey from their country of origin. At the time steamships from India and Japan made a stop in Hawaii. The "landing money" required of Indians was also increased from $50 to $200.
1908 Amendments were made to Chinese Immigration Act expanding the list of prohibited persons and narrowing the classes of persons exempt from the head tax.
1908 A border inspection service was created on the U.S.-Canada border.
1910 Immigration Act. This Act gave the government enormous discretionary power to regulate immigration through Orders in Council. Section 38 allowed the government to prohibit landing of immigrants under the "continuous journey" rule, and of immigrants "belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada, or of immigrants of any specified class, occupation or character". The Act also extended the grounds on which immigrants could be deported to include immorality and political offenses (Section 41). The Act introduced the concept of "domicile" which was acquired after three years of residence in Canada (later five years).
1910 Black Oklahoman farmers developed an interest in moving to Canada to flee increased racism at home. A number of boards of trade and the Edmonton Municipal Council called on Ottawa to prevent black immigration. In 1911 an order in council was drafted prohibiting the landing of "any immigrant belonging to the Negro race, which race is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada". The order was never proclaimed, but the movement was nevertheless effectively stopped by agents hired by the Canadian government, who held public meetings in Oklahoma to discourage people, and by "strict interpretation" of medical and character examinations. Of more than 1 million Americans estimated to have immigrated to Canada between 1896 and 1911, fewer than 1,000 were African Americans.
1910-1911 First Caribbean Domestic Scheme: 100 Guadeloupian women came to Québec.
1911 Census. The population of Canada was 7,206,643, of which 22% was composed of immigrants (i.e. born outside Canada). Only 39% of those born outside Canada were female (2% of those born in China, representing 646 women). 49% of immigrants were born in the British Isles, 19% in the U.S., and 6% in Russia. 223 were identified as being born in Africa (outside South Africa), 211 in the West Indies. Of the 752,732 immigrants who were "foreign-born" (meaning born outside the British Empire), 47% were naturalized citizens. 9.5% (2,578) of the Chinese-born and 22.5% (1,898) of the Japanese-born were citizens. In terms of "origins", the census counted only 16,877 "Negroes", 560 fewer than in 1901. 54% of the population was of British origin (up from 47% in 1901), while 29% was of French origin. There were now 75,681 Jews, 27,774 of Chinese origin, 9,021 of Japanese origin and 2,342 were classified as "Hindu". 5% of the population had German origins and 1.8% Austro-Hungarian. 97% of the population was of European origin.
1912-1914 Dominion Iron and Steel Company sent two Barbadian steelworkers to Barbados to recruit steelworkers.
1913 Immigration reached a record level of 400,810 new arrivals (the highest level in the century). Taken as a proportion of the population at the time, it was equivalent to present-day Canada receiving about one and half million immigrants in a year.
June 1914 An MP in the House of Commons: "How can we go on encouraging trade between Canada and Asia and then hope to prevent Asiatics from coming into our country?"
1914 The Komagatu Maru arrived in Vancouver, having sailed from China with 376 Indians aboard, who were refused admittance to Canada. After two months in the harbour, and following an unsuccessful appeal to the BC Supreme Court, the boat sailed back to India. Between 1914 and 1920 only one Indian was admitted to Canada as an immigrant.
1914 The War Measures Act was passed, giving the government wide powers to arrest, detain and deport. "Enemy aliens" were forced to register themselves and subjected to many restrictions. In the course of the war, 8,000-9,000 "enemy aliens" were interned. Many were subsequently released in response to labour shortages.
1915-19 Very limited immigration during the war.
1917 The Wartime Elections Act disenfranchised all persons from "enemy alien" countries who had been naturalized since 1902.
1917 The Office of Immigration and Colonization was created by order in council.
1917 About 4,000 Hutterites immigrated to Alberta from South Dakota, where they were suffering prejudice because they were German-speaking and unwilling to sustain the military efforts. Their entry to Canada was permitted under an 1899 order in council originally intended for Doukhobors.
1918 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, known as the "Wobblies") and 13 other socialist or anarchist groups were declared illegal. Another order in council banned publications using Finnish, Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and German. The Wobblies had been for several years a primary target of government anti-agitator activities, as a result of fears of enemy alien subversion and the "Bolshevik menace", and pressure from industrialists interested in suppressing labour activism. Immigration officials used whatever measures they could find to deport IWW members. For example, one man was deported because he had "created an agitation and a disturbance by openly advocating the views of the IWW" while on a train. The legal basis for deporting him was that he had created or attempted to create a riot or public disorder in Canada (Section 41 of the Act).
1918-19 At the end of war, immigrants were dismissed from some jobs in order to offer work to returning soldiers.
1919 A Women's Division was created within the Immigration Department. Systems for the "care" of single women immigrants (mostly British in the 1920s) were developed, including meeting by women officers, escorts to final destination and long-term follow up. The government was concerned to save the women from being "ruined". Immigrant women who engaged in sexual relationships outside marriage were liable to be deported (sometimes on the grounds of prostitution, or if they had an illegitimate child, on the grounds that they had become a public charge, since they would generally be forced out of their job).
1919 Amendments to the Immigration Act were made, adding new grounds for denying entry and deportation (e.g. constitutional psychopathic inferiority, chronic alcoholism and illiteracy). Section 38 allowed Cabinet to prohibit any race, nationality or class of immigrants by reason of "economic, industrial, or other condition temporarily existing in Canada" (unemployment was then high), because of their unsuitability, or because of their "peculiar habits, modes of life and methods of holding property". In a last minute extra amendment, in response to the Winnipeg General Strike, among whose leaders were British-born activists, the British-born were made subject to deportation on political grounds. This particular amendment was repealed in 1928, after five previous efforts at repeal failed, many blocked in the Senate.
June 1919 Under the authority of Section 38 of the Immigration Act, an Order in Council was issued prohibiting the entry of Doukhobors, Mennonitesand Hutterites, because of their "peculiar habits, modes of life and methods of holding property".
1919 Amendment to the Naturalization Act. Citizenship could be revoked if anyone were found to be "disaffected" or "disloyal" or if the person "was not of good character at the date of the grant of the certificate".
1920 Immigration official: "At the present moment, we are casting about for some more effective method than we have in operation to prevent the arrival here of many of the nondescript of Europe, whose coming here is regarded more in the light of a catastrophe than anything else".
1921 Census. The population of Canada was 8,787,949, of which 22% was composed of immigrants (i.e. born outside Canada). 44% of the immigrant population was female (but only 3% of the Chinese and 32% of the Italians). 82% of immigrants had been in Canada for 10 years or more. 52% of immigrants were born in the British Isles, 19% in the U.S. and 5% in Russia. 1,760 immigrants were born in South Africa; Africa is not otherwise listed as a place of birth. Of the 890,282 immigrants who were "foreign-born" (born outside the British Empire), 58% were naturalized citizens. The number of naturalized Chinese-born had decreased from 2,578 in 1911 to 1,766 (representing 4% of the Chinese-born). The number of German-born naturalized citizens had also decreased (from 23,283 in 1911 - before the war - to 21,630). 33% (3,902) of the Japanese-born were citizens. 44% of the immigrant population was rural (but only 40% of female immigrants). In terms of the "origins" of the total population, the census counted 18,291 "Negroes" in Canada, 126,196 "Hebrews", 39,587 people of Chinese origin and 23,342 of Japanese origin. 55% of the population had origins in the British Isles, while 33% was of French origin. 97.5% of the population was of European origin.
1922 Empire Settlement Act passed in the British Parliament. It provided assisted passage and training opportunities for married couples, single agricultural labourers, domestics and juveniles aged 14 - 17. 130,000 immigrants to Canada were assisted under the Act. An "Aftercare Agreement" provided for selection, supervision and assistance of female domestic workers. Between Jan. 1926 and 31 March 1931, 689 women who arrived under this agreement (4.6% of arrivals) were deported, on grounds such as "illegitimacy", "immorality", "medical", "marriage", "bad conduct" and "criminal conviction" (these were the department's reasons though not necessarily the legal bases for the deportations).
June 1922 Revocation of Order in Council "modes of living and methods of holding property" as it applied to Mennonites and Hutterites, opening the door to Russian Mennonites facing persecution in communist Russia. 20,000 settled in Canada between 1923 and 1929. Doukhobors remained prohibited.
June 1922 An amendment to the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act provided for the deportation of "domiciled aliens" (i.e. immigrants who had been in Canada 5 years or more) with drug-related convictions. This measure was particularly directed against the Chinese. In 1923-4, 35% of deportations by the Pacific Division were under these provisions.
Jan. 1923 Order in Council issued excluding "any immigrant of any Asiatic race" except agriculturalists, farm labourers, female domestic servants, and wife and children of a person legally in Canada. ("Asia" was conceived broadly, going as far west as Turkey and Syria).
1923 Immigration official: "There are continual attempts by undesirables of alien and impoverished nationalities to enter Canada, but these attempts will be checked as much as possible at their source".
1923 After a period of post-war economic gloom and low immigration, there was a cautious encouragement of immigration. The door opened to British subjects, Americans and citizens of "preferred countries" (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and France). Only agriculturalists, farm labourers, domestics and sponsored family members could be admitted from "non-preferred" countries: Austria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Southern Europe was not even mentioned.
June 1923 Chinese Immigration Act. This Act prohibited all Chinese immigrants except diplomats, students, children of Canadians and an investor class. Aside from protests from the Chinese community in Canada, there were virtually no voices of opposition. The day on which this Act came into force - July 1 - became known to Chinese Canadians as "Humiliation Day".
1923-24 The suicides of three home children led to a study by a British parliamentary delegation into this program which sent children from Britain into indentured labour in Canada. Some were orphans, but most left parents behind. About 100,000 children immigrated to Canada through the program, which lasted from 1868 until the 1930s. In 1925, following the delegation's report, the Canadian government put a stop to immigration of children under 14 years of age unaccompanied by parents.
1925 The Railway Agreement was signed by the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railways and the government, providing for the railways to recruit immigrants, including from the "non-preferred" countries of Northern and Central Europe. More than 185,000 Central Europeans entered Canada under the agreement (1925-1929).
1929 The Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization desperately sought admission for 1,000 Mennonite families facing deportation to Siberia. The Saskatchewan government refused them outright, as in turn did other prairie provinces. Eventually 1,300 Mennonites were able to enter, mostly settling in Ontario.
1930 As the depression took hold, the number of deportations on the grounds of "becoming a public charge" rose. From 1930 to 1934, 16,765 immigrants were deported on this ground (more than 6 times as many as in the previous 5 year period). The numbers of deportations on the grounds of medical causes and criminality also increased.
Sept. 1930 Order in Council (P.C. 2115) issued prohibiting the landing of "any immigrant of any Asiatic race", except wives and minor children of Canadian citizens (and few Asians could get citizenship).
1931 Order in Council requiring Chinese and Japanese to renounce their former citizenship before being naturalized. This effectively barred Japanese from becoming citizens since Japanese law did not provide for revocation of citizenship. In any case since 1923 very few Asians applying for naturalization were approved in what was a highly discretionary process.
1931 Census. The population of Canada was 10,376,786, of whom 22% were immigrants (i.e. born outside Canada). 44% of immigrants were female (but only 14% of Asian immigrants), 67% had been in Canada more than 10 years and 40% lived in rural localities. 49% of immigrants were born in the British Isles, 15% in the U.S., 14% in Central Europe and less than 3% in Asia. Africa only appears as a place of birth in South Africa. 1,296 people were listed as born in South America. 55% of the foreign-born population were naturalized citizens. In terms of "racial origins", 52% of the total population had origins in the British Isles, 28% in France. There were 156,726 Jews, 84,548 people of "Asiatic" origin and 19,456 "Negroes". 97.7% of the population was of European origin.
1931 Deportations of immigrants who had organized or participated in strikes or other organized labour activities. Winnipeg Mayor Ralph Webb campaigned to deport and prevent the admission of communists and agitators. He urged the "deportation of all undesirables".
March 1931 In the context of the depression, an Order in Council was adopted (P.C. 695) restricting admission to American citizens, British subjects and agriculturalists with economic means.
August 1931 The Communist Party was made illegal under the Criminal Code. Even naturalized immigrants who were members of the Party could have their citizenship revoked and be deported.
Fall 1931 Political deportation became federal policy. The Minister of Justice hosted a special meeting attended by the Minister of National Defence, the Commissioner of Immigration, the military chief of staff and the RCMP Commissioner. The exact number of people deported on political grounds is unknown, because they may technically have been deported on other grounds, e.g. criminal conviction, vagrancy or being on the public charge.
Early 1930s Widespread deportation of the unemployed (28,097 people were deported 1930-1935). Following an outcry, the department changed its policy at least so far as to suspend deportations against those who had found work by the time the deportation orders were ready.
May 1932 In a "red raid" left-wing leaders from across Canada were arrested and sent to Halifax for hearings and deportations. One of them was a Canadian citizen by birth. He sued the government for false arrest, but despite criticisms from the Manitoba Court of Appeal of the Department's failure to follow due process, he lost in a 3-2 decision. The others, known as the "Halifax Ten", lost their appeal before the Nova Scotia Supreme Court (although the Court agreed that the department had not acted in complete conformity with the law). Despite extensive protests, they were deported.
1934 94% of applications for naturalization were refused. Confidential RCMP assessments led to refusals on the basis of political or labour activism or perceived "bad character".
1936 Immigration became part of the Department of Mines and Resources.
1937 Annual report, Immigration: "There is at present a great pressure at our doors for the admission of many thousands of distressed peoples of Europe".
1938 A number of individuals and groups, including the Anglican Church, the United Church, the YMCA, local service clubs and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), as well as Jewish community groups, called on the government to admit Jewish refugees. They were opposed by such groups as the Native Sons of Canada, Leadership League and Canadian Corps. Voices of anti-Semitism were particularly strong in Quebec.
March 1938 F.C. Blair, Director of Immigration Branch (an anti-Semite, who personally ensured that virtually no Jews were admitted to Canada during this period): "Ever since the war, efforts have been made by groups and individuals to get refugees into Canada but we have fought all along to protect ourselves against the admission of such stateless persons without passports, for the reason that coming out of the maelstrom of war, some of them are liable to go on the rocks and when they become public charges, we have to keep them for the balance of their lives".
July 1938 Canada participated (reluctantly) at the Evian Conference on refugees. Canadian representatives were under instructions from Prime Minister Mackenzie King not to support the creation of a permanent structure to handle refugee matters or any initiatives to commit countries to quotas of refugees.
Oct. 1938 At a meeting of the League of Nations Society of Canada the Canadian National Committee on Refugees and Victims of Persecution was formed. Since the government blamed its unwillingness to admit refugees on lack of public support, the committee focused on public education, setting up branches, organizing public meetings and producing a pamphlet "Should Canada admit refugees?" Unsuccessful in effecting any policy change, the committee intervened in individual cases, sometimes with positive results. Among the refugees admitted were the Czech industrialist Thomas Bata and 82 of his workers.
1938 Memo to Mackenzie King by Departments of External Affairs and Mines and Resources: "We do not want to take too many Jews, but in the circumstances, we do not want to say so. We do not want to legitimise the Aryan mythology by introducing any formal distinction for immigration purposes between Jews and non-Jews. The practical distinction, however, has to be made and should be drawn with discretion and sympathy by the competent department, without the need to lay down a formal minute of policy".
Nov. 1938 Britain asked Canada to take some Sudeten German refugees who had fled the Nazis to Prague. The railroad companies were sent to investigate potential immigration of farmers and glassworkers. Canada agreed to take 1,200 but insisted on Britain paying $1,500 per family for transportation and resettlement costs (Britain had offered $1,000). While negotiations were going on, Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia, preventing the resettlement of most of the refugees. 303 families and 72 single men who had previously managed to get to Britain were resettled in B.C. and Saskatchewan. They had little or no farming experience, but were not allowed to settle in the cities.
Dec. 1938 Responding to the refugee crisis, the government simply restated its general policy: refugees who met the categories for admissible immigrants according to the regulation in force (P.C. 695) could come to Canada.
1939 The St Louis sailed from Germany with 930 Jewish refugees on board. No country in the Americas would allow them to land. 44 prominent Torontonians sent a telegram to the Prime Minister of Canada urging that sanctuary be given to the refugees, to no avail. The ship was forced to return to Europe where many of the refugees died at the hands of the Nazis.
1940 In a comparative study of deportation in Britain, Northern Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, C.F. Fraser found Canadian practices the most arbitrary and the Canadian judiciary apathetic: "the most notable feature of deportation cases in Canada is the apparent desire to get agitators of any sort out of the country at all costs... [T]he executive branch of the government, in its haste to carry out this policy ... displayed a marked disregard for the niceties of procedure".
1940 2,500 male "potentially dangerous enemy aliens" interned by Britain were brought to Canada. They were housed in high security camps. In fact many of them were Jews. In 1945 they were reclassified as "interned refugees (Friendly Aliens)". 972 accepted an offer to become Canadian citizens. Many went on to prominent careers in academia or the arts.
1941 Census. The population of Canada was 11,506,655, of which 17.5% was composed of immigrants (i.e. born outside Canada). 45% of the immigrant population was female. Only in the case of immigrants from the U.S. were there more women than men. 90% of immigrants had been in Canada for 10 years or more (33% for more than 30 years). 44% of immigrants were born in the British Isles, 14% in the U.S., 7% in Poland and 5% in Russia. There were 29,095 immigrants from China (of whom only 1,426 were women), 9,462 from Japan and 5,886 other "Asians" (includes "Arabian, Armenian, Hindu, Syrian, Turkish..."). No African countries are listed. While 47% of the total population was rural, only 39.5% of immigrants were. However, more than half of some immigrant groups were rural: Austrians, Belgians, Czechs, Danes, Finns, Germans, Icelanders, Dutch, Norwegians and Swedes. Women immigrants were less likely to be rural than men: 37% versus 42%. Only 32% of British immigrants were rural. In terms of "racial origin", 49.7% of the population had origins in the British Isles, 30% in France, 4% were German and 2.7% were Ukrainian. There were 170,241 Jews, 34,627 Chinese and 22,174 "Negroes". 71.5% of the foreign-born were naturalized citizens (8% of the Chinese-born, 35% of the Japanese-born). 97.7% of the population was of European origin.
1942 Immigration reached its lowest level of the century: 7,576.
Feb. 1942 22,000 Japanese Canadians were expelled from within 100 miles of the Pacific. Many went to detention camps in the interior of B.C., others further east. Detention continued to the end of the war, when the Canadian government encouraged many to "repatriate" to Japan. 4,000 left, more than half Canadian-born and two-thirds Canadian citizens.
1945-1947 In the immediate post-war period, immigration controls remained tight, while pressure mounted for a more open immigration policy and a humanitarian response to the displaced persons in Europe.
May 1946 Order in Council issued allowing Canadian citizens to sponsor brothers and sisters, parents and orphaned nephews and nieces.
May 1946 Canadian officials were directed to accept identity documents and travel documents in lieu of passports from displaced persons.
July 1946 The government decided to admit 3,000 Polish veterans. They were obliged to work on a farm for one year after their arrival in Canada.
1946 Canadian Citizenship Act adopted, creating a separate Canadian citizenship, distinct from British (Canada was the first Commonwealth country to do so).
Nov. 1946 The Prime Minister announced emergency measures to aid the resettlement of European refugees. It was some months before anything was done concretely, and the door did not open for refugees without relatives in Canada until mid-1947. Selection of refugees was guided by economic considerations (the Department of Labour was involved), ethnic prejudices (Jews were routinely rejected) and political bias (those with left-wing or Communist sympathies were labelled "undesirables"). Refugees also had to be in good health. An External Affairs officer claimed that Canada selected refugees "like good beef cattle".
Jan. 1947 Italians were removed from the category of "enemy aliens" leading to a period of significant Italian immigration.
April 1947 Beginning of the Displaced Person (DP) movement. 186,154 displaced persons came to Canada between 1947 and 1952.
1 May 1947 Prime Minister Mackenzie King made a statement in the House outlining Canada's immigration policy. "The policy of the government is to foster the growth of the population of Canada by the encouragement of immigration. The government will seek by legislation, regulation, and vigorous administration, to ensure the careful selection and permanent settlement of such numbers of immigrants as can advantageously be absorbed in our national economy." Regarding discrimination, he made it clear that Canada is "perfectly within her rights in selecting the persons whom we regard as desirable future citizens". Still, he allowed that it might be as well to remove "objectionable discrimination". On the other hand, "the people of Canada do not wish, as a result of mass immigration, to make a fundamental alteration in the character of our population. Large-scale immigration from the orient would change the fundamental composition of the Canadian population".
1 May 1947 Order in Council issued allowing legal residents (and not just citizens) to sponsor fiancé(e)s, spouses and unmarried children.
May 1947 Chinese Immigration Act repealed, following pressure, e.g. by the Committee for the Repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act, formed by church and labour groups. Chinese immigration was henceforth regulated by the 1930 rules for "Asiatics" which allowed only the sponsorship of wife and children by Canadian citizens.
August 1948 The first of a total of 9 boats carrying 987 Estonian refugees arrived on the east coast of Canada. They sailed from Sweden, where they were living under threat of forced repatriation to the Soviet Union. They had been trying to resettle to Canada but had been frustrated by the long delays and barriers in Canadian immigration processing. They were detained on arrival and processed through an ad hoc arrangement. All but 12 were accepted (the 12 were deported).

.... Next (part 2, 1950-2000)

(1) The figures from the census need to be viewed with caution, since there are numerous distorting factors. Groups discriminated against tend in particular to be underrepresented. The ways in which the census-takers categorized the population are in themselves revealing.

 

Issues
Discrimination/oppression
History
Format
Backgrounder/Booklet

Brief history of Canada’s responses to refugees

40th anniversary of the Refugee ConventionOn 4 June 1969, Canada belatedly signed the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 18 years after it was adopted by the United Nations, and 15 years after it entered into force.

In the 40 years since Canada became a party to the Refugee Convention, it has gained the enviable reputation of being a world leader in protecting refugees.

In fact, there has been good and bad in Canadian responses to refugees, both before and after signing the Refugee Convention.

 

Before confederation Loyalists and pacifists (including Mennonites and Quakers) fled to Canada during the American Revolution. Escaped slaves and free blacks fled the US in search of greater rights.
1869 Canada’s first Immigration Act was adopted.  It contained no specific provisions relating to refugees.
Late 19th century, early 20th century Refugees from Russia, especially Jews, Mennonites and Doukhobors, settled in Canada.
1920s Following World War I, hundreds of thousands were displaced in Europe.  Canada opposed the admission of refugees on the grounds that once admitted stateless refugees could not be deported.
1922 The League of Nations convened an intergovernmental conference, under the leadership of Fridtjof Nansen, leading to the development of a travel document for refugees, “the Nansen passport”.   Canada refused to accept the Nansen passport because it did not allow for the return of refugees.
1923 The government adopted an Order in Council excluding immigrants “of any Asiatic race”.  The definition of “Asiatic” included Armenians seeking refuge from persecution in Turkey. Only 1,300 Armenians were admitted to Canada between the two world wars.
1923-1930 The Canadian government cooperated with efforts of the Mennonite community to admit 20,000 Mennonite refugees between 1923 and 1930.
Doukhobor women breaking the prairie sod by pulling a plough themselves, Thunder Hill Colony, Manitoba. c 1899. Library and Archives Canada,C-000681.

 

 

MP Samuel Jacobs spoke in favour of “those who are obliged to leave their own countries in Europe by reason of religious and social persecution.  Now, this country, it seems to me, should be the haven of rest for people of that kind, and we ought to have our doors wide open for all those who flee from persecution, social or otherwise, in European countries.” 30 March 1921, House of Commons
 

 

Early 1930s In the context of the depression and fears of communism, there were many deportations of the unemployed, labour activists and suspected Communists.  Risk of persecution was not a barrier to deportation, despite concerns raised by the Canadian Labour Defence League about the dangers of return to fascist countries.  Hans Kist, one of the radical leaders deported in 1932, reportedly died of torture in a German concentration camp.
1930s With the rise of Hitler in Germany, efforts were made by the Jewish community and some non-Jewish groups to persuade the government to admit refugees.  They were unsuccessful.  Anti-semitism was dominant within the immigration department and in the Canadian public.
1938 The St Louis sailed from Hamburg with 907 Jewish refugees on board.  After being turned away by Cuba, their original destination, the ship sought a haven elsewhere in the Americas.  Canada, like all other countries, refused them admittance.  The ship returned to Europe where most of the passengers died in the Holocaust.
1938 US President Roosevelt convened a conference in Évian to discuss solutions to the refugee crisis.  Canada participated reluctantly and with the firm intention of making no commitments to admit any refugees.
1933-1945 During the 12-year period of Nazi rule in Germany, Canada admitted fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees, one of the worst records of any democracies. In 1945, asked how many Jews Canada would admit after the war, a Canadian official answered “None is too many”.
The St. Louis, surrounded by smaller vessels in the port of Havana, 1938. Herbert Karliner. Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Photograph #88358

 

“Ever since the war, efforts have been made by groups and individuals to get refugees into Canada but we have fought all along to protect ourselves against the admission of such stateless persons without passports, for the reason that coming out of the maelstrom of war, some of them are liable to go on the rocks and when they become public charges, we have to keep them for the balance of their lives” (F.C. Blair, Director, Immigration Branch, 1938)
“as human beings we should do our best to provide as much sanctuary as we can for those people who can get away. I say we should do that because these people are human and deserve that consideration, and because we are human and ought to act in that way.” Stanley Knowles, MP, House of Commons, 9 July 1943

 

1945-1947 In the immediate post-war period, immigration controls remained tight, while pressure mounted for a more open immigration policy and a humanitarian response to the displaced persons in Europe.
1946 The Canadian National Committee for Refugees advised a parliamentary committee that Canadian law should be changed to exempt refugees from ordinary restrictions on immigration and subject them only “to whatever special restrictions on immigration considered by Parliament to be necessary and justifiable in face of the moral claim of the refugees to the right of sanctuary.”
1948 The first of a total of 10 boats carrying 1,593 Baltic refugees (mostly Estonian) arrived on the east coast of Canada. They sailed from Sweden, where they were living under threat of forced repatriation to the Soviet Union. They had been trying to resettle to Canada but had been frustrated by the long delays and barriers in Canadian immigration processing. They were detained on arrival and processed through an ad hoc arrangement. 12 were deported but all the others were accepted.
1946-1962 Canada admitted nearly a quarter of a million refugees.  They came as sponsored relatives, under contract labour schemes, or sponsored by government or church groups.  Selection criteria were guided by considerations of economic self-interest, racial prejudice and political bias.  According to John Holmes, an External Affairs officer, Canada selected refugees “like good beef cattle”.
1950 A United Nations committee was struck to draft a refugee convention.  The Canadian delegate, Leslie Chance, was the chair.
1951 The government implemented the Assisted Passage Loan Scheme to help immigrants from Europe who could not pay their own transportation.  Loans were to be repaid over the two years following landing.  A version of this loan scheme continues to this day and is used by resettled refugees.
1951 The Canadian Cabinet decided not to sign the text of the Refugee Convention, finalized on 28 July 1951.  Ministers were concerned that the Convention would impede Canada’s ability to deport persons they considered a security risk, especially Communists.  More generally, they worried that the Convention would confer rights, including “the right to be represented in the hearing of his appeal against deportation.”

 

The Canadian delegate and chair of the committee drafting the refugee convention was put in a very uncomfortable position by the last-minute withdrawal of support by his government.  He tried to explain the consequences to the External Affairs Minister: “Any turning back on our part now might create very unhappy situation. We have been regarded throughout as taking forward attitude, somewhat in contrast to that of the United States, concerning whose signature there has always been doubt and in consequence some little under­current of feeling among other delegations. It would in addition, in my opinion, weaken seriously the job of the High Commissioner for Refugees with whom I hope to have some discussion tomorrow.”  Telegram, Permanent Representative to European Office of United Nations to Secretary of State for External Affairs, July 3rd, 1951

For more information about Cabinet concerns, see CABINET DOCUMENT NO. 178-51, Ottawa, June 14th, 1951
Leslie Chance (left) of Canada at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons, Geneva, July 1951. Mr Chance, on behalf of Canada, chaired the committee that drafted the conventions under discussion. Credit: UNHCR

 

1954 The UN adopted the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons.  Canada has still not signed this Convention.
1956-1957 The crushing of the Hungarian uprising led to over 200,000 Hungarians fleeing to Austria. In response to public pressure, the Canadian government implemented a special program, offering the Hungarian refugees free transport, instead of loans. Thousands of Hungarians arrived in the early months of 1957 on over 200 chartered flights. More than 37,000 Hungarians were admitted in less than a year.
1959 World Refugee Year. Canada admitted 325 tubercular refugees and their families (the first time that Canada had waived its health requirements for refugees). External Affairs raised again the question of Canada signing the Convention, but the Department of Citizenship and Immigration opposed it.
1960 Prime Minister John Diefenbaker introduced the Bill of Rights.
1967 Interest began to be charged on loans under the Assisted Passage Loan Scheme.
1968 Canada changed its rules to allow deserters from foreign armies to received landed immigrant status.  This opened the door to status for US citizens opposed to participating in the Vietnam War.  Over the following years, tens of thousands of war resisters are estimated to have fled to Canada (no exact figures are available as they were not accepted under any specific program).
1968 Warsaw Pact troops enter Czechoslovakia. 10,975 Czechs entered Canada between August 20, 1968 and March 1, 1969. According to the departmental annual report, “[m]any Canadian organizations, universities and provincial and municipal agencies assisted in the settlement of the refugees. Without this surge of public and private cooperation, the task would have been immeasurably more difficult”.
4 June 1969 Canada acceded to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. The occasion was barely noticed and went unreported in the media.
1970 Canada welcomed a group of Tibetan refugees, among the first non-European refugees resettled to Canada.
1970 The government issued a “Guideline for Determination of Eligibility for Refugee Status” for use by immigration officers selecting refugees overseas.

 

One of several organizations helping Hungarian refugees resettle to third countries. 1956. © UN 56817

 

“By the 1970’s it was widely held that Canada was then and always had been a haven for the oppressed. In retrospect the public imagination turned a select series of economically beneficial refugee resettlement programs into a massive and longstanding Canadian humanitarian resolve on behalf of refugees.” Harold Troper

 

1972 The Ugandan president announced that Ugandan Asians would be expelled. Canada responded swiftly, setting up an office in Kampala.  At first the government insisted that the applicants meet the usual immigration criteria, but later requirements were somewhat relaxed. By the end of 1973, more than 7,000 Ugandan Asians had arrived, of whom 4,420 came in specially chartered flights.
1973 The Immigration Appeal Board Act was amended, abolishing the universal right of appeal from a deportation order.  Among those allowed to appeal were “bona fide refugees”.
1973 Allende’s government in Chile was overthrown. Groups in Canada, particularly the churches, urged the government to offer protection to those being persecuted, but the Canadian response was slow and reluctant (long delays in security screenings were a particular problem). Critics charged that the lukewarm Canadian response was ideologically driven. By February 1975, 1,188 refugees from Chile had arrived in Canada.
1976 The new Immigration Act was tabled.  This was the first Canadian immigration legislation to recognize refugees as a special class of immigrants.  Among its objectives, the Act was to “fulfil Canada’s international legal obligations with respect to refugees and to uphold its humanitarian tradition with respect to the displaced and the persecuted.”  The Act entrenched the definition of a Convention refugee, created a refugee determination system (decisions made by the Refugee Status Advisory Committee – RSAC), provided for admission on humanitarian grounds of designated classes and enabled the private sponsorship of refugees.  The Act came into force April 1978.
1978 The Canadian Council for Refugees was formed, under its original name, Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned for Refugees.
1979-1981 By mid-1979, nearly 1.5 million refugees had fled their homes in South-East Asia.  In June, the Canadian government announced that 50,000 South-East Asian refugees would be resettled by the end of 1980.  Thousands of Canadians came forward to welcome refugees, giving a dramatic launch to the new Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. Popular pressure forced the government to adjust upwards its initial commitment to resettling the refugees. For the years 1978-81, refugees made up 25% of all immigrants to Canada.
4 April 1985 The Supreme Court of Canada rendered the Singh decision, in which it recognized that refugee claimants are entitled to fundamental justice under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court ruled that this would normally require an oral hearing in the refugee status determination process.
1986 The people of Canada were awarded the Nansen medal by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in “recognition of their major and sustained contribution to the cause of refugees”.

 
A Vietnamese refugee working in a supermarket in Montreal. 1979. Photo credit: UNHCR/9090/H. Gloaguen/VIVA

 

1987 A group of Sikhs arrived by boat in Nova Scotia and claimed refugee status. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney issued an emergency recall of Parliament for the tabling of Bill C-84, the Refugee Deterrents and Detention Bill. Despite the so-called emergency, the draconian bill was not passed for a full year.
1987 Canada ratified the Convention Against Torture.
1989 Changes to the Immigration Act came into effect, creating a new refugee determination system and the Immigration and Refugee Board.
1993 The Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board issued Guidelines on Women Refugee Claimants fearing Gender-related Persecution. Canada was the first country in the world to issue such guidelines.  Non-governmental organizations including the Canadian Council for Refugees were active in drawing attention to the need for gender sensitivity.
1999 The flight of thousands of Kosovars led the UNHCR to request countries to offer them “safe haven”.  Canada responded enthusiastically, taking in over 5,000.
2002 The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act came into force – for the first time in Canadian history, the immigration legislation recognized refugees in its title.  However, the articles of the law giving refugees the right to an appeal were not implemented.
December 2004 The Safe Third Country Agreement between the US and Canada came into effect.
4 June 2009 40th anniversary of Canada signing the Refugee Convention

 

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