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(1867)

• The British North
America Act recognized certain rights for religious groups and for linguistic groups, but nothing for equality of gender, race or colour.

• Slavery was legal and common practice in
Canada until the British Empire banned it in
1834.

• 17,000 Chinese workers came to Canada to build the
Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rockies to the
Pacific ocean, 1,500 of which died in the process.
• Chinese who wanted to immigrate to Canada were forced to pay a head tax of $50 in 1885 after the completion of the CPR. From 1886 to 1894, 12,197
Chinese people immigrated to Canada and paid the tax.
• In 1901, responding to public pressure about a continuing influx of Chinese, Ottawa doubled the head tax to $100.
• The head tax was then increased to $500 in 1903, which was approximately the same as two years wages.

• From 1886 to 1923, the Canadian government collected more than $22 million in head tax payments.
• Ethnocentric : a belief that one’s own race or culture is superior to others.

• September 8 th , 1907 – The Vancouver Trades and Labour Council formed the Asiatic Exclusion
League, which organized a giant antiimmigration rally at city hall to protest against giving jobs to Asian immigrants.
• After anti-Asian speeches about the "yellow peril," a riot took place where a mob of 7,000 people marched through the streets of downtown Vancouver, smashing windows and destroying signs on Oriental businesses.
• In Chinatown, they looted and burned thousands of dollars worth of Chinese property.

• The Canadian Federal government replaced the Chinese head tax with Chinese Immigration Act or Canadian
Chinese Exclusion Act , which had the effect of barring
Chinese immigrants from the country altogether.
• The Chinese Immigration Act wasn’t repealed until 1947, and it wasn't until 1967 that the final elements of the
Canadian Chinese Exclusion Act were completely eliminated.
> July 1, 1923, is known as "humiliation day" in the Chinese Canadian community.

• In 1908, the Canadian government imposed a "continuous passage rule" which forbid immigrants from making a direct journey to Canada. This measure was directly aimed at India immigrants, since there was no direct voyage from India at that time.
• In 1914, a group of 376 Sikh’s from India challenged this restriction, arriving in Vancouver on board the Komagatu Maru. After two months in the harbour and an unsuccessful court challenge, they were forced to return to India.
• The boat sailed back to Calcutta where it was met by police, and 20 people were killed as they disembarked while others were jailed.

• Canada ’ s record for accepting Jews fleeing the Holocaust was among the worst in the Western world.
• Canadian policy towards Jewish refugees was summed up in the words of one official: "None is too many."
• As Nazi-inspired hatred spread through Europe, many Jews tried to head to safety in North America.
However, Prime Minister MacKenzie
King and Immigration Director F.C.
Blair kept the number of Jewish refugees small.
> Between the years 1933 and
1945, less than 5,000 Jews were accepted into Canada.

• In May 1939, 907 German Jews left Hamburg aboard the SS St.
Louis with visas allowing them to enter Cuba. But when they arrived in Havana harbour, Cuba denied the refugees entrance. The St.
Louis was then turned away from Panama, Argentina, Colombia,
Chile and Paraguay.
• Canada was the last hope for the refugees aboard that ship, but the
Canadian government refused them entry. The St. Louis sailed back to Europe. Very few of the refugees survived the Holocaust.

The Japanese Canadian Internment (1942)

• During the Second World War, 22,000 Japanese
Canadians were expelled from within a hundred miles of the Pacific.
• Thousands were detained, and at the end of the war,
"repatriation" to Japan was encouraged.
• 4,000 people left, two thirds of them Canadian citizens.

Japanese internment camp in British Columbia during WWII

• Canada adopted a “merit system” in 1967 and removed all references to race and ethnicity, which had limited admission of people from
Asian, African and Caribbean countries.

• Change in immigrants because restrictive policies were lifted after 1960
• More open attitudes post war
• Immigrants chosen on point system based on education and job skills instead of ethnicity

• PM Trudeau introduced idea of multiculturalism as a good thing
• 1976- policy changed again to allow immigrant families to bring their families
• More refugee status allowed Eg. 7000 people flee Uganda after the dictator, Idi
Amim kicked them out

• 1980’s Canada becoming much more multicultural
• Immigrants moving to the cities more than the country as in the past
• Challenges: traditional Christian holidays
• How deal with the changing needs of immigration?

• In 1988, Act passed in Parliament to provide a legal framework for multicultural policies across
Canada
– Purpose was to reinforce racial and cultural equality with legal authority

Arguments for
• Plays a positive role in our identity and development
• National unity
• Makes people feel welcome
• Awareness of other cultures
• Promotes values such as tolerance, equality and support of diversity
Arguments against
• Promoting differences diminishes national unity
• No financial support should be given
• Better to have
“melting pot” like the
USA
• Take on Canadian ideals and values if choose to move here.

• The Constitution Act of 1982 included the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms that guaranteed fundamental freedoms of conscience, thought, speech and peaceful assembly, official language rights and equality rights without discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnic origins, religion, sex, age or disability and official language rights.

• On September 22 nd, 1988, Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney made a speech in the House of Commons to acknowledge the past injustices suffered by Canadians of Japanese ancestry.
• A $21,000 per person settlement was reached with the
National Association of Japanese Canadians for the internments and abuses of World War Two.

• Prime Minister Harper made a full apology to the Chinese-Canadian community in
2006 for the head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants who came to Canada between
1885 and 1923.

• In June 2008, Prime Minister Harper made an official apology at the
House of Commons for the governments treatment of children in
Indian residential schools, stating "Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country."
• The federal government agreed to pay $1.86 billion to surviving residential students, and to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to document the experiences of children who attended the schools.

• Prime Minister Harper apologized in September 2008 for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident while speaking to a crowd of about 8,000 people in Surrey, B.C.
• But members of Sikh community and an organization of the descendants of victims of the 1914 tragedy rejected the apology, demanding that the Prime Minister do the same in the House of Commons.

Demonstrate knowledge of the challenges faced by
Aboriginal people in Canada during the 20 th century and their responses, with reference to: residential schools, reserves, self-government and treaty negotiations

The First Nations lost their land and rights to
Europeans over the last few hundred years.

Section 12 of the Indian Act (1880).
 The Indian Act - was a series of racist social control laws enacted by the Federal government of
Canada to place Aboriginal Peoples of Canada in the position of a colonized people.

• Assimilation – the process through which a person or group of a minority culture is absorbed into the majority culture, losing the distinct features of the minority people.
– Examples: The Canadian government assimilated First Nations people by putting them on reservations, which were often too small for traditional hunting. The government also put the kids into residential schools.
• The Indian Act regulated and controlled virtually every aspect of
Aboriginal people’s life, including Sundance and Potlatch gatherings, which were the major social, economic and political institutions of the First Nations tribes.
• It wasn’t until 1951 that Parliament repealed the laws prohibiting potlatch.

• It wasn’t until 1960 that First Nations people got the right to vote in Canadian federal elections.
• This was the first time that the government acknowledged citizenship for Aboriginal
Peoples without the condition of the assimilation into the Canadian white society.

• Attendance at residential schools was made mandatory by the government in 1920 for Native Canadian children between the ages of 7 and 16.
• The "aggressive assimilation" program was dedicated to eradicating the languages, traditions and cultural practices of native Canadians.
• Children were forced to leave their parents and were harshly punished for speaking their own languages or practicing their religions.
• The Canadian government forced about 150,000 First
Nations children into government-financed residential schools where many suffered physical and sexual abuse.
• The residential schools have been linked to the widespread incidence of alcoholism, suicide and family violence in many First Nations communities.

• Cut-off Lands – Even thought the Federal government had set aside reservations for First Nations to live on, the government had taken reserve land without the consent of the Aboriginal bands.
• 1906 – Chief Joe Capilano presented an unsuccessful land claim to British King Edward VII in London,
England
• 1927 – Andrew Paull & Peter Kelly petitioned the House of Commons & Senate for the government to begin land treaty negotiations with the First Nations
– The Federal Government disagreed, and changed the
Indian Act so that it became illegal for First Nations to pursue land claims

• National Indian Brotherhood (1968)
– First Nations organized pressure group to lobby on behalf of Aboriginal people living on reserves

• Government document proposed by Pierre Trudeau’s
Liberal Government, and his Minister of Indian Affairs
Jean Chretien.
• Trudeau wanted to end the protective attitude by the
Federal government towards First Nations people, essentially which would cancel the Indian Act
– Cree leader Harold Cardinal and the National Indian
Brotherhood led the attack on the White Paper, demanding self-government to control their own affairs
• They presented their own paper called Citizens Plus (Red Paper), and Chretien decided to cancel the White Paper

• The National Indian
Brotherhood changed their name to the
Assembly of First
Nations in 1980
• The Assembly of
First Nations is still lobbying the government today

• Inuit, Metis and the Dene of the Yukon and
Northwest Territories successfully lobbied government to halt construction of the
Mackenzie Valley oil and natural gas pipeline
– The pipeline would deliver energy from Alaska and the Arctic to Alberta
• The Berger Commission was created to hear the First Nations environmental concerns. In
1977, Judge Berger’s recommended stopping the Mackenzie Pipeline for 10 years until environmental surveys could be done

• Cree residents halted construction of two new phases of the James Bay Hydro
Project
– The project threatened to flood part of their ancestral lands

• Oka Town Council wanted to expand a golf course into land that Mohawks at the
Kanesatake Reserve considered sacred (holy)
• Mohawk Warrior Society decided to stop the project by blocking the land
• Oka Town Council called the police, and gunfire broke out between the police and Mohawk warriors, and one policeman was killed in the fighting
• The Police blockaded Kanesatake, and the
Mohawks blocked a bridge to Montreal that went through their reservation

• Aboriginals across
Canada demonstrated
(protested) in support of the Mohawk
• Railways, bridges, and highways that went through reservations were blocked (civil disobedience)

• Premier Bourassa called in the Canadian Army
• Eventually the tense stand-off ended after the
Federal Government bought the disputed land and gave it to the Kanesatake Reserve
• The Oka Standoff proved that the First Nations could stand up to the government (and win!)

• 1982 – First Nations rights were entrenched in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms
• 1985 – Bill C-31 gave Aboriginal band councils the power to decide who had the right to live on Aboriginal reserves.
– This power used to belong to the Federal
Government’s Department of Indian Affairs

• What other powers should be transferred from the federal government to the band councils?
• Councils wanted to have their own control over their education, culture, and justice system.
• Should they run their nation(s) as a town government or join together and run like a province?

• Specific Land Claims – Treaties between
Aboriginal peoples and the Federal
Government have been signed, but the terms were not kept (Ex. Cut-off Lands)
• Comprehensive Land Claims – The land was never surrendered in a treaty, which makes it harder to prove in a land claim case in court (Ex. Oka Standoff)

• 1763 – Royal Proclamation stated that
“any lands whatever, which have not been ceded to or purchased by us… are reserved to the…Indians”
– But Western and Northern Canada were not known to the British at this time, so many government people believe the Royal
Proclamation is not valid there

• 1887 – The Nisga’a began claiming their land
• 1912 – The Nisga became the first group to make a land claim against the Canadian government (even though it was illegal under the Indian
Act)
• 1993 – Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged that Aboriginal Title
(the right to land) in a comprehensive land claim case could exist
• 1996 – The Federal government and British Columbia provincial government signed the Nisga’a Treaty (8% of original land claim, $190 million over 15 years, fishing, forestry and hydro rights, self-government)
– In exchange, the Nisga’s have agreed to give up their rights under the Indian
Act and become regular tax paying citizens (Trudeau’s dream)
– The Nisga’a finally got their self-government and land after 130 years, and many other Aboriginal groups now want a similar deal from government involving their land claims

• The Supreme Court of Canada officially defined Aboriginal Title:
• “Aboriginal groups could claim ownership of land if they can prove that they occupied the land before the Canadian government claimed sovereignty, and that they occupied it continuously and exclusively.”
• This decision has really worried land owners in disputed land areas, as
Aboriginals in BC have already claimed
110% of British Columbia land

• The territory of Nunavut was created in 1999, giving the Inuit people of Northern Canada the right to selfgovernment. It is Canada’s largest territory (1.6 million square kilometres)