Download SCC Empire Reader Canada

SCC Empire Reader Canada
Canada at first sight seems to spark the imagination much less than countries with a colourful history, such as
South Africa or India, or Australia, which has a ‘sun and fun’ appeal. There is a long tradition of portraying
Canadians as rather dull in American television shows and sitcoms and a Canadian writer famously complained
that Canada received less attention in the international press than Iceland did. A closer look at Canada shows
that Canada deserves more.

First of all, it is a G8 member, which means it belongs to the eight most powerful and influential countries
in the world, economically speaking. Its mineral resources and its export leave even other G8 countries
such as Great Britain or France far behind. Just a few decades ago Canada was the world leader in
mineral production and it is still among the top five in this area.
Next, Canada is the world’s second largest country; only Russia is larger. Its lakes contain 50% of the
world’s sweet water.
Canada is at the same time a constitutional monarchy, a federal state and a parliamentary democracy. It
is multicultural and officially bilingual (French and English).
Canada has participated in all UN peacekeeping efforts, yet boasts independent foreign relations despite
strong ties with Great Britain and a long border with the USA.



There are 18 million Canadians who use English as a first language (out of 32 million Canadians in total in 2012)
and 7 million who have French as their first language. Where has this huge minority of Acadians and Quebecers
(Québécois in French) come from?
The Seven Years' War between Britain and France was an extremely important event in the history of the British
Empire. On the one hand it led to the quarrel between Britain's thirteen American colonies, which were
subsequently lost to the mother country. On the other hand, it was also the first step towards British rule over
India, Australia and Canada. In India, the (small) French presence was removed without much fuss; in the case of
Australia the French were not even allowed to go any further than the exploration of the South Seas. In the case
of Canada, the struggle lasted longer and was fought with more bitterness.
th
This is strange, because the British had explored Canada in the 17 century, but left it lying for the French. It was
not a burning desire for even more colonies in America that drove the British to conquer Canada. Nor could they,
at the time, imagine the size and wealth of the country they were attempting to take over. It was simply the
outcome of a number of European power-games.
Native Canadians and European Discovery
Some 11,000 years ago the ancestors of the Native Canadians migrated to the North- American continent by
crossing the Bering Strait between what is now Russia and Alaska. For 1,000s of years they hunted, fished and
gathered wild vegetation. Despite treaties and proclamations from the European newcomers, the rights of the
Canadian Aboriginal people have not been respected. Language and customs were forbidden to children who
th
th
were forced into Government schools in the 19 and early 20 centuries. Since the 1980s changes have been
made to protect Native Canadians and to promote their contributions to the nation. Roughly 50% live in
reservations, the others mainly in urban settings.
Norse sagas written in the 13th century tell the story of Eric The Red, a Viking explorer who reached Greenland
in 985, and of his son who founded a short-lived settlement on the northern tip of Newfoundland. About 1,000
1
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
years ago Leif Ericsson sailed from Iceland to Greenland but was blown off course and subsequently landed on
what is now Canada’s East- Coast.
It was the Italian Giavonni Cabutto, called John Cabot by the English king Henry VII who sent him on voyages in
1497 and 1498 to look for things of value. Cabot found fish so thick on the Grand Banks that he said they slowed
his ship down --fish that had been known of in western fishing ports of England and France for years. The
European powers at the time were now interested and sent out fishing vessels to fish the West- Atlantic Ocean.
However beaver is what made the Europeans settle on land because beaver hats were all the rage in Europe at
the time and thus fostered a large market for beaver fur. To assist fur-traders and set traps the French started
small settlements to act as a base for their traders but these colonies were not permanent settlements. The
French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed up the St Lawrence River to an Indian village that is now known as
Montreal. Cartier started a tradition of peaceful trade with the natives and brought home furs as well as fish.
Canadian history thus began as a search--for food and for riches. Granted the explorers' bravery and curiosity,
granted in some cases true missionary zeal, still, the driving force for Cabot in 1497, Cartier in 1534, Samuel de
Champlain in 1603, and many others after them--to say nothing of the backers of all these expeditions--was
financial. The fur companies of New France, on whom early colonisation depended, fought for monopoly
privileges, made their money as rapidly as possible, and avoided--when they could--fulfilling conditions of
settlement laid down by the crown. Such early settlements as were founded--at Port Royal (1605) and at Quebec
(1608) by Champlain- -were entirely based on the fur trade. Towns remained small and there was so little
agriculture that the French had to buy provisions from the Indians all the time.
The staple of the fur trade was beaver, a fur popular in17th century because
a very fine type of felt could be made of it. The Indians were the essential
middlemen of the trade. Mostly, the French traders treated the Indians
better than did the English colonists in New England. But wars between the
various Indian tribes were made more serious by the arms provided them by
the Europeans and were further aggravated because the Indians now had
needs they had not had before: knives, axes, guns, iron pots, and worst of
all, brandy or rum.
Quebec was the first on many settlements and headed by Samuel De Champlain, a noted geographer and
explorer who later became the governor of what would become New France. New France was a large area in
th
North- East North America ruled by the French King Louis 13 . This French King gave away large portions of
land to French Nobles. They in turn rented land to commoners as sharecroppers. The English kept a close eye on
their adversaries from France and the English King Charles II had his own plan for North- America.
The Hudson Bay Company
Charles II wanted to establish a British presence in North America and therefore, in 1670, the Hudson Bay
Company was granted exclusive trading rights for fish and furs to all lands which rivers and streams
drained into Hudson Bay; a huge area encompassing 100,000s of square miles. The Hudson Bay Company
was an English trading company that for centuries dominated much of Canada.
The Hudson's Bay Company originally confined its trading activities to James Bay and the western shore of
Hudson Bay. London, the principal market for furs and the source of trade goods, could be reached by ships
sailing directly from Hudson Bay. The company thus enjoyed a shorter route to Europe than that, via Montreal,
used by the French fur traders.
To counter this intrusion the French, helped by their Native Americans allies, attacked English forts in the Hudson
th
Bay but were unable to defeat them. Throughout the 18 century skirmished occurred between the two archrivals of England and French and in 1756 this rivalry eventually led to the Seven Years’ War; a French- Anglo war
fought on three different continents: in Asia, in Europe and in North- America.
Towards a confrontation
The French colonists were Catholics. Missions were set up by Jesuit priests, whose policy was to respect the way
of life of the natives. But the French government pushed the sale of
alcohol because they saw this as a way of making alliances with the
Indians.
By the mid-eighteenth century there were some 80,000 French
colonists in Canada and along the Mississippi River. In the English
colonies there were 1,000,000 settlers by that time. Still, the British felt
threatened by the French presence so close to their territories. French
adventurers had already navigated the Mississippi River from the
Great Lakes in the north to its mouth in present-day Louisiana in the
south. They built forts and trading posts along the river, and connected
2
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
their Canadian possessions with their Caribbean colonies. The British saw they were being encircled, cut off and
hampered in any westward expansion. They, in turn, made pacts with Indian tribes on the northern and western
borders of their colonies. These uneasy alliances are pictured in James Fennimore Cooper's novel The Last of
the Mohicans, the story is best-known through the movie with Daniel-Day Lewis these days.
The Iroquois League
Despite the numerical superiority of the British settlers, the balance of power in the region was held by the
League of Five Nations, also known as the Iroquois League.
The Iroquois League was a union of Iroquoian-speaking North American Indian peoples, originally composed of
the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk Indians. The Tuscarora became the sixth member of the
league in the early 18th century. The tribes occupied a territory comprising what is now New York's Mohawk
Valley and Finger Lakes region, bordered on the north by Lake Ontario and the Adirondacks and on the south by
the Catskills and what today approximates the New York-Pennsylvania state line.
Although the precise date of the league's founding is unknown, some historians suggest that the confederacy was
probably formed by the early 16th century. Historians of Indian culture view its formation as a defensive response
to warfare with neighbouring Huron and other Algonquian-speaking tribes. Hiawatha, a sixteenth-century leader
(immortalised in a poem by the American poet Longfellow) travelled among the five tribes and united them in what
proved to be a nearly invulnerable political alliance until its eventual collapse during the American Revolution.
In dealings with the British and French and, later, the British and the colonists, the league skilfully played off
opposing parties against one another and subjugated neighbouring tribes for both economic and territorial gains.
Before its collapse in the late 18th century, the Iroquois League dominated lands as far west as the Mississippi
River.
The league's Grand Council consisted of 50 life-appointed male sachems, or peace chiefs, who were nominated
by the headwoman of certain sachem-producing lineages in each clan. The Onondaga had 14 sachems, the
Cayuga 10, the Oneida and Mohawk 9 each, and the Seneca 8. Major decisions were reached through unanimity,
compensating for otherwise unequal tribal representation. Some historians claim that the highly democratic
political organization of the Iroquois League may have served as a model for the compilers of the United States
Constitution.
Because of the important Indian contribution to the struggle for power in North America, the series of conflicts that
th
broke out in the 18 century are sometimes called the 'French and Indian Wars.
The Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756-63) was a worldwide conflict that pitted Britain and Prussia against Austria, France,
Russia, Saxony, Sweden, and (after 1762) Spain. Serious clashes between the British and French had occurred
in North America from 1754, although the nations were not officially at war until 1756. The British used the pretext
of the European war to tackle the problem of French encirclement in North America. The biggest problem was to
get their armies to the French forts, which were hundreds of miles from the British bases. One British army
commander who distinguished himself was 23-year-old George Washington. The key to the river forts lay up
north. If the British could knock out the Canadian colonies, the French armies in the forts would no longer be
3
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
supplied, and they would eventually have to give up. The battles in Canada were fierce. The British commander
Wolfe had his 4,000 troops climb the steep cliffs of Quebec, then the capital of French Canada, in a surprise
attack. Wolfe was killed during the fight for Quebec and instantly became a national hero.
After the fall of Quebec, it was all over for the French, and British acquisition of New France was confirmed in the
Peace of Paris of 1763.
Approximately 70,000 French Canadians and 1,500 Acadians, the name for French settlers who had settled
along the Mississippi (in Louisiana they are still called 'Cajuns') now faced a North America that was British from
the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. Despite the British taking over a large portion of French territory the British did
not insist people of French descent to adopt British Customs. In 1774 the Quebec Act was passed which
recognized the Roman- Catholic church in North- America. This Act also established French Civil law. This law
was passed to create goodwill among those of French heritage. Consequently many citizens of Quebec kept ties
to French culture, something that lives on till this day. In fact, differences between those of French and English
ancestry have never been completely resolved.
The Seven Years' War had cost the British so much money that they decided to tax the American colonists, who,
after all, had gained safety and new lands from it. The Americans saw things differently and claimed they had
done most of the fighting anyway. The quarrel was fanned by politicians who envisaged a different kind of society,
and by 1773 the American Revolution was a fact. The French took revenge by sending an army under Lafayette.
Without this French aid, the American Revolution would have failed.
After the American Revolution, immigration to Canada rapidly increased as the United Empire Loyalists, gentry
and farmers who had supported the British during the revolt of their fellow-colonists, fled the new United States.
The arrival of these people posed formidable problems of adjustment between two quite different peoples and
their legal, religious, and social systems.
4
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
The Loyalists brought to Canada a belief
in representative government for they
had lived in areas (American Colonies)
with colonial legislatures. To keep the
loyalists happy and solve these
adjustment problems the British divided
the old province of Quebec into two parts
in 1791, Lower Canada (modern
Quebec) and Upper Canada (modern
Ontario), each with its own legislature,
elected by the people. These assemblies
had no real power however.
The province of Nova Scotia was also
divided: Prince Edward Island had been
established as a separate colony in 1769;
New Brunswick was created in 1784.
Newfoundland was still a fishing station
and was not given representative
government until 1832.
The War Of 1812
Canadians and Americans have almost always had friendly relations with each other. The exception is the War of
1812 when the English Navy stopped and then boarded US’ ships as American vessels made their way to France
and vice versa. American sailors were sometimes taken captive to serve on British ships. The US President
Madison objected to these indignities and persuaded the US- congress to declare war on Britain and thus on
Canada (a British Colony). The high-handed manner in which British warships confiscated French goods bought
by American merchants irritated the Americans. American trade and pride were both hurt. For the British the idea
of vengeance for the loss of the American colonies also played a part.
The British in Canada had begun to supply American Indians with guns as soon as the American War of
Independence ended. We cannot be sure if the British actually hoped to re-take the American colonies but it is
certain that warfare between American troops and Indians gradually developed into a secret war between the
Americans and British Canadians. The Americans were moving westward and southward at the time and had
clashed with one of those rare Indian leaders who managed to make some of his people forget their quarrels and
untie against the white men, Tecumseh. Tecumseh wanted to drive the white man out 'on a trail of blood' but his
army was beaten and he had to flee to Canada. There he found protection.
In the war of 1812 the British were stronger. They repulsed an American attack on Canada (Montreal was burned
down) and retaliated by burning New Orleans. The Americans were ill prepared for war, they had let their militias
run down. Only the navy was in good shape but it consisted of 16 ships….When the war ended in December
1814 neither side kept any land it had won (Britain had held Maine as far south as Penobscot Bay) and relations
th
between Canadians and Americans have been relatively friendly ever since. For much of the 19 century, though,
Canada became a haven for escaped slaves from the United States. The British abolished slavery throughout
their empire in 1833 and thousands of slaves, using the so-called ‘Underground Railroad’ fled to and settled in
Canada.
The Hudson's Bay Company expands
In Southern Africa, a private company (the VOC)could take over a colony the size of France, and in the Dutch
East Indies and in India (the East India Company) private companies decided all aspects of public life (and
sometimes even part of one's private life). In Canada the Hudson's Bay Company was influential to a lesser
th
degree, but nonetheless played a major role in the development of Canada in the 19 century.
During the 18th century English traders explored beyond the Hudson Bay; but it was not until the Hudson's Bay
Company was faced with stiff competition from the Montreal-based North West Company that it began building
trading posts in the Canadian interior. During the early 19th century the trade war between the two fur companies,
in which both made free use of alcohol as an article of trade with the Indians, resulted in their dotting the
Canadian northwest with trading posts, from the Columbia River to the Arctic and from Lake Superior to the
Pacific.
Pathfinders
In opening the West these great fur-trading companies were helped by the native people who were their
indispensable allies: bold explorers and map makers who ventured from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean and
5
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
long-sought-for Pacific. Samuel Hearne, an explorer and fur- trader working for the Hudson’s Bay Company in
1766 was chosen to search for a western passage, by river and sea, across the Barren Lands. His first 2 attempts
ended ingloriously as he was robbed and deserted by his Native guides. However, in 1772 he was successful
when he was led on a monumental trek by tough Dene chief Matonabbee. From December 1770 till the end of
January 1772 they walked across trackless wastes, cold, wet and hungry, patiently following the seasonal
migrations of the caribou. The exhausted Hearne suffered from the extreme cold, losing his toenails to frostbite
but in the end became the first European to make an overland excursion across northern Canada to the Arctic
Ocean. In 1774, Hearne built Cumberland House for the Hudson’s Bay Company, its first interior trading post.
The Scottish explorer, fur trader, and businessman Sir Alexander Mackenzie (ca. 1764-1820) was the first to
travel overland to the Pacific Coast. It was Mackenzie's passion to reach the Pacific Ocean overland. With his
second expedition (the first had led him to the Arctic Ocean just like Samuel Hearne) he succeeded. In May 9,
1793, with six voyageurs, he began his quest for the Pacific again; which was a tremendous feat as it meant
crossing the Rocky Mountains. In July he reached his goal and became the first to cross the continent north of the
Spanish possessions.
David Thompson was a map-maker and geographer who started in the employment of the Hudson’s Bay
Company as a clerk and later as a fur trader. He left for the competition, the North West Company for whom he
started mapping the interior of Canada. Her is seen as one of the greatest cartographers ever, and he was the
first European to navigate the full length of the Columbia River.
(map by Thompson, 1814)
In the battle between the two trading companies the Hudson's
Bay Company won in the end, partly because of its greater
financial resources and partly because of the economic
advantage of its bay route to Europe. The deciding issue was the
establishment of the Red River Settlement on lands obtained
from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1811. The trade war showed
the animosity between the British (Hudson's Bay Company) and
those who saw themselves as 'Canadians' (North West
Company). Violence erupted and in 1816 the massacre of settlers
at Seven Oaks by men of the North West Company provoked the
Hudson's Bay Company to seize Fort William, the western
headquarters of the North West Company. The costly court
proceedings virtually bankrupted both Hudson's Bay frontman Lord Selkirk and the Nor' Westers and eventually
forced the Canadians to merge with the older English company in 1821.
The opening of the west by the fur companies in the 19th century
had certain political overtones. In 1846 the Oregon Question was
finally settled when the Oregon Territory was ceded by the
Hudson's Bay Company to the United States. Both the U.S. and
Canada were expanding west at the time, and for a while it looked
like the U.S. would take the North-western provinces from the
British just like it had annexed great parts from Mexico in the
Southwest. Following the U.S. purchase of Alaska from the
Russians in 1867, the Canadian federal government arranged
(1869) to buy the company's territories for the sum of 300,000
pounds. The extinction of the company's political jurisdiction did
not mean the end of its commercial activities. The fur trade lost
some of its importance, but after 1870 the company expanded into
real estate, into the retail trade in various parts of Canada, and
later into oil and gas production.
On May 29,1970, the Hudson's Bay Company received a
Canadian charter, following the decision to transfer the company's
headquarters from Britain to Canada. Now a Canadian body, it
remains the oldest chartered company in the world.
Compromises in government
The British had taken over a French colony and of course there
were differences between the French-speaking and the Englishspeaking settlers. We have seen the colonies were divided into
Upper Canada (where many Scottish and German immigrants
settled and which had a 'pioneer' or wild west feel to it) with its
capitol Toronto and Lower Canada (where the bulk of the
6
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
population, some 600,000 people lived). The British were forced to admit Catholics into government jobs and to
allow certain rights to the Catholic Church. In Britain itself the Catholic emancipation still had to take place (this
meant that in Britain itself Catholics could not hold public office, for instance), so the concessions done showed
the British wanted cooperation. Canada was ruled by a British governor and its justice system became a mixture
of French and British law.
Trouble in Upper Canada started through immigration. In the first decades of the nineteenth century the
population of Upper Canada grew from 80,000 to 320,000. Most newcomers were farmers who had been
promised a small piece of land to settle on. In practice, much land was bought by British people who had become
rich through the fur trade. In Lower Canada a French elite (landowners) saw its political power shift to a new
(British) class of merchants and lawyers. There was a large French opposition which skilfully used its newspapers
to create anti-British sentiments.
The following directions are of importance to the Emigrant arriving in Canada, and are addressed to him in the simplest
language:
Previous to disembarkation arrange your baggage in a small compass, the fewer packages the better, but have them well
secured--old dirty clothing, large boxes, and other useless articles, are not worth the carriage. If you have any provisions left,
such as oatmeal, potatoes, &c. You can sell them at Quebec at a profit, and avoid the expense of transport, and you can
purchase baker's bread, butter, tea, sugar, and other necessaries more suited for your journey. All sorts of provisions, may be
bought cheaper, and generally of a better quality, in Montreal and Upper Canada, than at Quebec. Dress yourself in light clean
clothing. Females frequently bring on sickness by being too warmly clothed. Cut your hair short, and wash daily and thoroughly.
Avoid drinking ardent spirits of any kind, and when heated do not drink cold water. Eat moderately of light food. Avoid night
dews. By attending to the preceding directions sickness will be prevented, with other serious inconveniences. When every thing
is ready for disembarkation, and, if the ship is lying at anchor in the river--take care in passing from the ship to the boat; avoid all
haste, and see that your baggage is in the same conveyance with yourself, or left under the charge of some friend, with your
name on it. If the ship hauls to the wharf to disembark, do not be in a hurry, but await the proper time of tide when the ship's
deck will be on a line with the quay or wharf. Passengers are entitled by law to the privilege of remaining on board ship 48 hours
after arrival; and it is unlawful for the Captain to deprive his Passengers of any of their usual accommodations for cooking or
otherwise: you may therefore avoid the expense of lodgings, and make all your arrangements for prosecuting your journey,
previous to disembarkation. Should sickness overtake you, proceed immediately, or be removed to the Emigrant Hospital, in St.
John's Suburbs, where you will be well taken care of, and provided with every thing needful until restored to health. Medicine
and medical advice can also be had at the Dispensary attached to the Quebec Charitable Emigrant Society. This Society will
grant relief to all destitute Emigrants. In Montreal there is a similar institution for the relief of Emigrants. It is particularly
recommended to Emigrants not to loiter their valuable time at the port of landing; but to proceed to obtain settlement or
employment. Many regretted too late that they did not pursue this course, and take advantage of the frequent opportunities that
presented themselves for settlement in convenient situations [sic] in Upper or Lower Canada, instead of squandering their
means and valuable time to looking after an imaginary Paradise in the aguish swamps of Illinois and Missouri, or other distant
regions of the Western States. There is no portion of the American continent more congenial to the constitution or habits of
Emigrants from the United Kingdom, or that offer a wider field, or surer reward for industry and good conduct, than the fertile
districts of Upper Canada or Lower Canada. Many Emigrants will din employment in the city of Quebec and its vicinity, as also in
and about Montreal. Single men in particular are advised to embrace the offer; but Emigrants with large families had better
proceed without delay, to Upper Canada, as hereafter directed--or, to situations in Lower Canada, particularly the Eastern
Townships--and if they have sons and daughters grown up, they will find a sure demand for their services. Artificers, and
Mechanics of all denominations, and farming Labourers, if sober and industrious, may be sure of doing well. Blacksmiths,
particularly those acquainted with steam engine work, also good Mill-wrights, Masons and Sawyers, by machinery, are much
wanted in the Canadas.
By 1830, the struggle for democratic government in the colonies of British North America had reached fever pitch.
As the colonies grew in wealth and population, a generation of charismatic reformers -- Joseph Howe in Nova
Scotia, Louis-Joseph Papineau in Lower Canada and William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada - confronted the
appointed governors and their local favourites with one demand: let the citizens' elected representatives run their
own affairs. In the Canadas, the struggle led to bloody rebellion and disastrous defeat for the rebels. Yet within 10
years, the prize of self-government was won, thanks in part to an unexpected alliance between the French and
English-speaking forces of reform.
In May 1838 there arrived in Canada a liberal, but strong- minded and able English aristocrat, the Earl of
Durham, commissioned by the British government to inquire into the Canadian troubles and recommend
changes. Durham recommended that the French Canadians be assimilated with the English, and to further this,
urged that the colonies of Lower Canada and Upper Canada be joined. This was done in 1840 with the creation of
the new Province of Canada. It will be clear that the French settlers resented this enforced unification, the felt
that the bonds with a Crown they had never wished were being tightened.
Durham also recommended that the ministerial government be made responsible to the elected assembly rather
than to the crown- appointed governor. The Conservative government in London believed that this system of
responsible government would be impossible to implement. From 1840 tot 1848 radical parties in Canada worked
towards this form of self-government, which was finally granted them (when the Liberals had taken government in
Britain) by the new governor Lord Elgin in 1848
Railroads And Political Union
7
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
Railroads changed all of British North America during the 1850s. The building of the Grand Trunk Railway from
Montreal to Toronto (and eventually from Portland, Maine, through Montreal and Toronto to Chicago) and other
railroads produced permanent changes in Canadian society. The railroads made possible the development of
cities; by breaking down isolation, and thus changing the countryside, they made possible the concepts that led to
the union movement of the 1860s. Although the French settlers opposed the union of Canada, other forces
pushed it towards further political integration. The American Civil War caused a climate of tension between the
United States and British North America. The British were neutral, but it was well-known that in important circles
(trade) there was much sympathy for the Southern rebels fighting the US government. Great Britain itself was
going through a phase of profound disillusionment with its colonies, think of the Indian Mutiny (1857) and the
refusal of the South African Boers to be ruled by the British. These conditions made radical political changes
justifiable to some and essential to others in British North America.
Internally, the driving force for change came from
Canada West (the former Upper Canada).
Increasingly dissatisfied with the union of 1840, this
section wanted the political power its numbers
warranted. It now had half again as large a
population as Canada East (Lower Canada), yet by
the union of 1840 it had equal representation. By
1864 it was clear that no government could long
survive unless some changes were made. In June
1864 a strong coalition government was formed by
Conservatives and the Reform party; with the
affirmed goal of achieving a British North American
federation.
The Atlantic colonies were separated from the
Province of Canada by miles of forest, the hills of the
Appalachian range, and the huge salient of Maine, a
US state. Each colony had its own history and
orientation, and Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland were both distant from mainland concerns. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, however, wanted a
union with Prince Edward Island, and a conference was called on the subject at Charlottetown, Prince Edward
Island, on Sept.1, 1864. Representatives from the Province of Canada were invited, and their proposal for a union
of all British North America swept everything else aside.
The proposal for British North American union, "Confederation" as it was called, was elaborated more formally
in a conference at Quebec in October 1864. It was accepted enthusiastically by the British government. The
threat of annexation of the Canadian 'west' by the Americans was the decisive push: the British North America
Act, uniting the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, was passed by the British Parliament
early in 1867, to go into effect on July 1, 1867. The name of the new union was the Dominion of Canada.
The union was federal and created four provinces out of the old three by splitting the Province of Canada into two-Ontario and Quebec. It provided for the future admission of Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, the Hudson's
Bay Company territory in the west, and the Pacific colony of British Columbia. The federal union was strongly
weighted at the centre; the federal government was given the right of veto over provincial legislation, and an
aggrieved religious minority in any province could, in special circumstances, appeal educational rights to the
federal government. The British system of cabinet government, responsible to an elected legislature, prevailed
everywhere.
The first prime minister of the new Canada was Sir John A. Macdonald. Except for the years 1873-78, he was to
remain in power until he died in 1891. By 1873 he had put together the rest of the dominion. Manitoba and the
Northwest Territories were included in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, and Prince Edward Island in 1873.
The problems of governing the vast new western territories were formidable, and the Canadian government had
as yet very little experience or understanding.
When British Columbia joined in 1871, the Macdonald government rashly committed itself to start a railroad to
the Pacific within 2 years and finish it by 1881. The task was impossible; routes and surveys were needed over
difficult terrain of some 4,800 km. Private interests were involved that wanted to build such a railroad, but only in
1880 was a private group found that was strong enough to undertake the enormous task. The Canadian Pacific
Railway Company then went to work, and within 5 years the last spike was hammered in place.
The Mounties
The Canada that was being created between 1848 and 1880 was a wild country. Like the American Wild west, it
housed native tribes that refused to leave their land, trappers, prospectors for gold and other adventurers who
made their own laws and, of course, wild animals. In addition, much of the new territory was cold, mountainous
and densely wooded. In order to police this area, a remarkable force was created, the North-West Mounted Police
8
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
or 'Mounties' as they came to be known. Through selection
and training, a corps of fearless policemen was created, who
handled most difficult cases without using violence. They
were respected, even by criminals, and word had it they were
absolutely incorruptible.
The North-West Mounted Police had done a remarkable job of
policing the west from 1873 onward, but it could not handle
the political problems that caused a rebellion of Indian and
Metis (French-Indian half-breeds) that erupted when the
Hudson's Bay Company's lands were added to Canada. The
rebels, led by Louis Riel, feared that their land would be
taken from them. The new railway was used to send in
Canadian troops, which put down the rebellion. The execution of Riel (for high treason) created much
controversy, even more in the east than in the west. He is still seen by many as a hero, as a defender of Metis
rights.
The Klondike Gold-rush
The Klondike is a sparsely populated area in west central Yukon Territory
in Canada, near the Alaskan border. It was the site of a great gold rush in
the 1890s. The Klondike, which encompasses an area of about 2,070 sq
km (800 sq mi), takes its name from the Klondike River.
Gold was discovered in 1896, and a great gold rush began in 1897. More
than 30,000 people streamed into the area. Dawson, still the major town
of the Klondike, served the needs of the prospectors. By 1910, when the
great gold strike was over, more than $100,000,000 worth of gold had
been taken from the Klondike. Stories of the dangers the prospectors had
to face (the extreme cold, Indians and robbers) were published by the
American writer Jack London, who was one of the 30,000 adventurers.
His Tales of the Northwest is among your optional reading. The history
of Dawson is sketched below, as taken from ‘Canada, a personal history’:
By spring 1898, 20,000 men were camped at the head of the Yukon River waiting for ice to melt so they could continue on to
gold fields, still 500 miles away. When gold-seekers finally arrived at the Klondike, they got the bad news. The richest riverbeds
had already been staked out.
While few prospectors made it rich during the gold frenzy, a small outpost near the mouth of the Klondike entered its heyday.
Almost overnight the population of Dawson City exploded to 30,000 making it the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg.
Dawson turned into an American-style frontier town with dance halls, theatres, and saloons. Local entertainers included
Montreal Marie, Snake Hips Lilly and Klondike Kate, who slowly unravelled 200 yards of tightly wrapped red chiffon.
Men outnumbered women 25 to one. Prostitution was tolerated and one miner said, "even an angel couldn’t keep good in
Dawson."
The reporter Tappen Adney described the crush of people.
"It is a motley throng -- every degree of person gathered from every corner of the earth ... Australians with upturned sleeves and
a swagger; young Englishmen in golf stockings and tweeds; would-be miners in macanaws and rubber boots ... and women too,
everywhere! It is a vast herd; they crowd the boats and fill the streets."
But Dawson’s boom ended as quickly as it started. By the summer of 1899, there were rumours about another gold rush in
Nome, Alaska. Within a week, half of Dawson emptied. The Klondike Gold Rush had run its course.
The Klondike adventure and life at the turn of the century were both described by Canada’s narrative poet Robert
Service. His poems are often more like complete short stories in rhyme. They were (and are) very popular; his
famous gold-rush poem ‘The Shooting of Dan Mc Grew’ netted him $50,0000 in all, an unheard-of sum of
money for a poem, especially in those days. In this poem he describes scenes such as found in rough-and tumble
Dawson:
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute
saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time
tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan
McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's
known as Lou.
9
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the
din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty,
and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely
the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for
drinks for the house.
Revised 2013
There was none could place the stranger's face, though
we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was
Dangerous Dan McGrew.
There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold
them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who
had lived in hell;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose
day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops
fell one by one.
Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what
he'd do,
And I turned my head -- and there watching him was the
lady that's known as Lou.
His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed
in a kind of daze,
Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering
gaze.
The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one
else on the stool,
So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down
there like a fool.
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I
saw him sway;
Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands -- my God!
but that man could play.
Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was
awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you
most could "hear";
With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there
in the cold,
A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the
muck called gold;
While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North
Lights swept in bars? --
Then you've a haunch what the music meant. . . hunger
and night and the stars.
And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with
bacon and beans,
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all
that it means;
For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a
roof above;
But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a
woman's love -A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is
true -(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, -- the lady
that's known as Lou).
Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you
scarce could hear;
But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it
once held dear;
That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her
love was a devil's lie;
That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to
crawl away and die.
'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair, and it thrilled
you through and through -"I guess I'll make it a spread misere", said Dangerous Dan
McGrew.
The music almost died away. . .then it burst like a pent-up
flood;
And it seemed to say, "Repay, repay", and my eyes were
blind with blood.
The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung
like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill. . . then the music stopped
with a crash,
And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a
most peculiar way;
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I
saw him sway;
Then his lips went in in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and
his voice was calm,
And "Boys," says he, "you don't know me, and none of you
care a damn;
But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I'll bet
my poke they're true,
That one of you is a hound of hell. . .and that one is Dan
McGrew."
Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two
guns blazed in the dark,
And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two
men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was
Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of
the lady that's known as Lou.
These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought
to know.
They say the stranger was crazed with "hooch", and I'm
not denying it's so.
I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us
two -The woman that kissed him and -- pinched his poke -- was
the lady that's known as Lou.
Immigration
Early mass immigration took place at the same time the United States were fighting their
massive and traumatic Civil War. Many people who had previously gone to America were
now lured to Canada: wealthy farmers, agricultural labourers, female domestics and
professionals. The idea was (as it was in the United States) to settle the West. As stated
above, the emerging railroad network helped to bring new immigrants to where they were
wanted. But the railroads did more than just that; the Canadian Pacific was designated to
build the national railway and be the main instrument of immigration and settlement. The
Canadian Pacific was given enormous tracts of land as part of their subsidy for building a
national railway. To enhance the value of the railway's land it needed ‘neighbours’,
people who had farms and would use the railroads to transport their produce (and
themselves). The CPR formed its own department of colonization and immigration, and
10
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
engaged in massive propaganda efforts to attract immigrants in Europe and the United States and even offered
special mortgage plans for CPR built ready made farms.
In 1885 the government passed an act to restrict and regulate Chinese immigration. Canadians had pressured
the government to act because they feared the large number of Chinese who were arriving to build the railway.
This act became the first of many anti-Asian regulations.
In the 1870s through to the 1890s emigration remained ahead of immigration. French Canadians to emigrated to
New England, partly because they feared they would be swamped by non-French, non-Catholic new comers.
English Canadian emigration led to demands for large-scale British immigration to Canada to ensure the
British character of Canada.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century a world-wide depression slowed down immigration, just when
immigrants were needed most to settle in the prairies and work in Canada's expanding industries.
In 1895, the Government tried to attract new groups of settlers to Canada through extensive advertising in Europe
and the United States. The advertising was effective because of what was happening in Europe. Ethnic and
religious tensions, persecution, industrial upheaval and the collapse of peasant farming systems pushed potential
emigrants to seek a new life in Canada. Immigrants were pulled to Canada by recruitment campaigns, improved
transport and the relatively high wages which were offered.
Anti-Asian tensions rose in the recession year of 1907, following the formation of the Asiatic Exclusion league.
Anti-oriental riots broke out in Vancouver, and the following year the federal government restricted immigration to
those who arrived directly from their country of origin. This shut off immigration from the India subcontinent
th
because there was no direct steamship line. In the first decades of the 20 century immigrants were increasingly
seen as strike breakers by trade unionists. In addition there was a view of immigrants as foreign radical agitators,
stemming from the fear of revolutionaries in the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the gathering force of World War
One. Anyone deported from an allied country as a radical could be barred entry to Canada. During the first few
years after the war, immigrants that were allowed in had to be farmers or of British origin with sufficient means to
support themselves. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 halted immigration from China.
Immigration doors were closed in Canada as they were in the US during the interwar years. The world-wide crisis
had led to large-scale unemployment, so immigrants were not wanted and not needed. In the same period
millions of people who had been displaced by the First World War and the redrawing of national boundaries,
which followed it, and by the growing totalitarian and oppressive movements in Europe became refugees. Jewish
refugees found almost all doors closed to them.
During World War Two immigration to Canada almost stopped completely, while within the country anti-Asian
sentiment became increasingly ugly. At the war's end there was strong external pressure to open the door to
immigrants. At this time there were hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in camps under international
supervision and awaiting relocation. Canada, the United States and Australia were the only countries outside of
Europe which had the capacity to absorb large numbers of refugees. There were also large numbers of
immigrants in Europe who wanted the leave the beaten up continent. A sense of economic optimism in Canada
helped create an agreement among Canadians that an expansive future required a more expansive immigration
policy. However, anti-Asian sentiment remained present, and so large-scale immigration from the Orient would
not be permitted.
After the booming years in the 1950s and early 1960s immigration changed again. By 1970, fifty per cent of new
immigrants came from new regions like Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Indochina, West Indies, Guyana and
Haiti.
st
At the beginning of the 21 century, Canada’s immigration policy resembles that of the United States and
Australia. Highly educated and highly skilled people are welcome but there are limits. In some sectors (IT
workers) there are shortages and some cities, for instance Toronto, actually urge the government to double
immigration. On the other hand barriers are erected to keep out unwanted refugees.
Canada and World War 1.
There was hardly any question about Canada joining in when the First World War started. On August 4,1914,
Canada declared war on Germany. Within three weeks, 45,000 Canadians had rushed to join up. In all, 600,000
soldiers served, and between 50,000 and 60,000 died. Many more were wounded. Numerous Canadian ladies
served as nurses. Due to its geographical position, Canada provided men mainly for the so-called Western Front,
in Northern France and Flanders.
Timothy Findley’s 1970s novel The Wars gives an account of a Canadian soldier in France. One of the most
famous popular poems to come out of the war was written by a Canadian. "In Flanders Fields" was first
published in England's "Punch" magazine in December, 1915. Within months, this poem came to symbolize the
11
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
sacrifices of all who were fighting in the First World War. Today, the poem continues to be a part of
Remembrance Day ceremonies in Canada and other countries.
The poem was written by John McCrae, a doctor and teacher, who served in both the South African War and the
First World War.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
An important contribution to the war effort was the Canadian Flying Corps. In the course of the war, the
aeroplane, a new invention, became an important machine of war. There were bombers and spy planes, but most
actions were between fighters from both sides. The aeroplane was not yet well-developed enough to decide the
outcome of the war, as it did in World War Two, but it certainly boosted morale. In the static trench war, where
armies fought rather senselessly for years over a limited area of land, and in which, through machine guns and
artillery bombardments the war had become depersonalised, the flyers represented something like the knights of
old. Fighter-plane flyers were flamboyant types, engaged in duels more or less face-to- face. Canada supplied
many fighter pilots, one of whom became the war’s third ‘ace’, meaning he shot down a large number of enemy
planes. Another Canadian downed the famous Baron von Richthofen, who was Germany’s premier ‘ace’.
The war also made itself felt on the Atlantic, where Canadian ships were torpedoed by U-boats, and with the
civilian population who supported the men in many ways.
A little-known episode is the Halifax disaster. In 1917, ships carrying soldiers, munitions and supplies headed for
Europe while the wounded returned to Canada from the frontlines. Two ships collided, one was laden with 3,000
tonnes of munitions and explosives. Fire broke out, and when the flames met the munitions an explosion much
larger than that which destroyed part of the Dutch city of Enschede a few years back devastated Halifax. A
description: “ Windows were broken 75 kilometres away and the shock waves felt more than 300 kilometres away.
The shaft of the ship's anchor, weighing a half-tonne, was recovered three kilometres away. Shards of iron, wood
and steel flew in all directions. People standing close to the shore were propelled through the air, sucked up in a
strange whirlwind and dropped ten metres away. Some people were vapourized by the force of the explosion.
Others lost eyes when windows shattered.”
Six square kilometres of Halifax was simply wiped out. The explosion killed 2,000 people, and wounded another
9,000. The search for the missing continued for months; bodies were still being recovered the following spring.
The Halifax explosion was the most devastating disaster on Canadian soil. It was the largest manmade explosion
the world had known (it would be 28 years before a larger one was seen at Hiroshima.)
Between the wars
At the end of the First World War, soldiers in many countries didn't return home to find the better world that they
had hoped for. In Germany this led to revolution, and even in Britain there was unrest in the early 1920s. In
Canada tensions increased. War factories were shutting down, which caused unemployment. Even people who
had jobs could not keep up with inflation. The cost of living rose by 64 per cent over 1913. People also
remembered the huge profits some manufacturers made during the war, seen to be at the expense of workers
and soldiers. Canadians were angry. Some wanted better wages and working conditions. Others just wanted jobs.
Again a description from ‘Canada, a people’s history’:
On May 1, 1919, Winnipeg's building and metal workers went on strike for higher wages.
12
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
Two weeks later, the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council appealed for a general strike in support of the metal
workers. The response was overwhelming. The first to walk out were the "Hello Girls," Winnipeg’s telephone
operators. By 11 a.m., 30,000 union and non-union workers had walked off the job.
"In Germany, I fed on grass and rats. I would prefer going back to eating grass than give up the freedom for which
I fought so hard and suffered so much," a war veteran wrote in the striking workers’ newspaper.
A strike committee was formed and for six weeks, it virtually ran Winnipeg. Elevators shut down, trams stopped,
postal and telephone communications came to a halt, and nothing moved without approval from the strike
committee. Sympathy strikes were breaking out across the country.
Of course, so soon after the Russian Revolution, with a civil war still raging in Russia, the Government and
employers were quick to brand the strike as ‘communist’ and they tried to outlaw it. If you worked for the
Government you were ordered back to work, or else faced dismissal. It was easy to blame the unrest on
immigrants, too. So immigrant laws were tightened as well. Police officers who had been on strike were fired and
replaced by ‘police’ recruited by businessmen. The Mounties and these so-called specials started fighting the
strikers, which in early June 1919 led to increasing violence in the streets. After the Mounties had charged into a
strike, firing their pistols, killing two and wounding 34 strikers, the workers decided to call off their next strike and
to return to work. The greatest strike in Canadian had lasted 40 days, and had almost turned into a rebellion.
The post-war economic crisis hit hard everywhere in Canada. By 1933, three in ten Canadians were out of work.
With few government assistance programs, thousands of men criss-crossed the country, looking for work (which
wasn’t there), food and shelter, which was increasingly scarce. Those with jobs were desperate to keep them.
Textile mills took advantage cheap labour, and adult workers were replaced by girls as young as 15, who would
do the job for about half of what the men earned. Meanwhile, on the Canadian, an unprecedented decade of
drought set in on parts of the prairies in 1929. The once-lush fields dried up and the crops burned in the sun.
In 1937, the world economy began to straighten out even though the international markets were less active. In
1938-1939, industrial countries resumed their economic development but Canada remained behind the others. It
would take Canada two more years to pull of the Great Depression. And this was at a high cost. By 1940, Canada
transformed from an economy in crisis to an economy of war.
World War Two
On September 10, 1939, Canada joined Britain and France in the war against Germany. But questions remained.
What role would the Canada play and what price was it willing to pay? This time Canada was less willing than in
1914. It wanted to play only a limited role in the war. More than half of Canada's citizens had no ties to Britain and
Canada was reassessing its colonial obligations.
A limited war seemed possible in the autumn and winter of 1939/1940. It was a period called the "Phony War"
because the fighting had come to a temporary halt. But after May 1940, when The Netherlands, Belgium and
France had had to surrender (and Norway and Denmark before them) Britain itself was threathened and British
pleas to both the US and Canada for support and supplies became increasingly desperate. The pleas were heard:
by the end of 1940, two hundred thousand Canadians had volunteered to fight in Europe. The Prime Minister
commanded factories to begin twenty-four hour a day, seven-day a week production of war supplies
Canadians fought on many fronts in this war, it was a much more ‘mobile’ war than World War 1.
The greatest disaster for Canadians was the Raid on Dieppe, their finest hour probably the liberation of the
Netherlands, for which they were largely responsible.
13
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
On August 19,1942, the attack on Dieppe, codenamed Jubilee, was supposed to be a quick in-and-out raid. Five
thousand Canadians soldiers made up the bulk of the assault force. Many had been training in England since the
start of the war.
Part of the landing force encountered a small German convoy that alerted the German defences. As the ships
approached the Dieppe beach at 5:20 a.m., it was clear that they had lost the element of surprise. The troops
walked into a hail of fire. Of the 5,000 Canadians who landed at Dieppe, 907 were dead, 586 wounded.
One of Canada’s biggest contributions to the war effort remained shrouded in secrecy in early 1940s. And the
secret would devastate the northern Canadian natives who were hired to mine uranium. In the race to build an
atomic bomb during the Second World War. The American military needed a ready supply of uranium, a deadly
radioactive element crucial to the construction of nuclear weapons. The Americans contacted their Canadian
allies to fulfil the needs. From Canada, a Personal History’:
The ore was mined by the Dene, a semi-nomadic people who followed the migratory caribou herds. The miners
were paid three dollars a day to haul forty-five kilogram sacks of ore out to barges on the Mackenzie River for the
long trip to the United States. The Dene called the grey stone the "money rock."
By the end of 1943, the mine was operating at full capacity, producing the 60 tonnes of uranium oxide requested
by the Americans. Paul Baton worked for three months in clouds of the radioactive dust.
"I was coated like flour in radium dust as it leaked from the heavy bags on my back. It gets into your clothes, hair,
mouth and hands. During the long barge trips across the lake and down the Bear and Mackenzie we would sleep
and sit on the sacks."
In Ottawa, mining officials were warned that exposure to radium dust was harmful. (Radium is a radioactive metal
found in uranium.) The information was kept secret.
Local children also played with the ore and waste from the mine was dumped into Great Bear Lake. Dene women
used the discarded sacks as shelters.
"Our canvas tents were all worn out and could not keep the rain out very well. Because the men worked as
labourers for the mine, they kept ripped ore bags and brought these back for us to use. I made three tents from
these bags. "
After the war, the Dene town on the shores of Great Bear Lake would become known as the village of widows,
because so many of the men die of cancer.
At Los Alamos, New Mexico, the uranium was used to develop the first atomic bomb in a feverish race that
brought together dozens of scientists. Howe offered Alberta’s wide-open spaces as a test site for the new weapon
but the Americans preferred the New Mexico desert.
14
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
After World War Two, Canada finally took on its present size and shape as Newfoundland joined the federation.
Newfoundland had actually been an independent nation for a while, but the Depression of the 1930s had hit it so
hard that it went back to being a British colony. After the war, Britain tried to get rid of its colonial obligations. In
Newfoundland, many wanted independence, but the truth was a Newfoundlander earned about a third of what a
Canadian got. Realism won in the end. On March 31, 1949, Newfoundland entered Canada as the tenth province
after a long debate and a referendum.
The Flag
In 1963, a referendum was held on a new flag for Canada. After almost 100 years, many Canadians still clung to
the Union Jack. A controversy arose over the proposed design (one maple leaf or maybe three maple leaves).
The debate in parliament soon showed there were those who wanted to retain the Union Jack in some form or the
other, there were some who wanted a Canadian symbol only and there were those (the Quebecois) who were
completely indifferent. Finally, on December 15,1964 a majority agreed on the present design of one maple leaf.
Canada's flag was officially hoisted at the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill on February 15, 1965.
The Royal Arms of Canada feature the three-leaf design as well as
the Union Jack and the French Fleur-de-Lys.
The present design of the coat of arms no longer represents all the
states in the federation, as the design had become ‘too crowded’.
The national anthem, O, Canada, is surprisingly short:
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Greenpeace
The world-wide environmental organisation Greenpeace started in Canada in the early 1970s. Protest started
against US nuclear testing in Alaska. The site had been badly chosen by any standards. It featured endangered
wildlife and it lay in the middle of an earthquake area. Fears were the nuclear blast would set of an earthquake or
a big tidal wave. Early, traditional protests did not lead to results. Then somebody proposed to sail a boat to the
area so that the nuclear device could not be exploded. Volunteers signed on to be part of the boat’s crew. The
small craft (a fishing-boat) was called The Greenpeace. The strategy seemed to work as the bomb was not
exploded. But supplies ran out and when the boat had to sail back after some weeks, the test took place after all.
But the protest group had managed to garner world-wide media attention for its actions. Shortly afterwards, the
Canadian government voted to condemn nuclear tests. The action spurred members to found something more
permanent and Greenpeace was born.
Greenpeace became the first organization that linked the survival of the human race with the survival of the
environment. Today, Greenpeace is the most visible environmental movement in the world, headquartered in
Amsterdam with offices in dozens of countries. The organization opposes nuclear weapons, pollution and has
launched successful campaigns against the commercial seal hunt and whaling.
The Quebec question
Our interest in this course is the English-speaking peoples of the Commonwealth countries in which there is a
large, English-speaking majority. Still, any discussion of Canada would be incomplete without some attention to
Quebec, the Canadian state with a French-speaking majority. Quebec’s size (three times the size of France) and
15
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013
population (7 million, of which 6 million French speakers) make it a relative heavyweight among the ten states of
Canada. Its political importance as the home of a sizeable separatist movement makes it a large influence on
Canadian politics.
As we have seen in the first part of this reader on Canada the Canadian Constitution Act of 1791 established two
provinces: Upper Canada (primarily English-speaking Ontario), and Lower Canada (primarily French-speaking
Québec) with Québec City as its capital. A number of rebellions were put down. By 1830, Montréal had become
Canada's major industrial centre. Still, people in Quebec felt they were held back and discriminated against in an
English-speaking nation. Nationalism tended to be Catholic and often conservative. In the 1960s, however,
Quebec witnessed what is now called the Quiet Revolution, a period of rapid modernization of Québec society
and the Québec economy.
In the 1970s tensions boiled over when people of French descent wanted the province of Quebec to secede from
the rest of Canada. At the same time, a radical group calling itself ‘Front for the Liberation’ started using acts of
terror to bring about separation from Canada In bombing campaigns from 1963 to 170 they used more than 80
bombs to make their views felt. Then, in 1970, British trade commissioner James Cross was kidnapped in his
Westmount home by members of the Front de Liberation du Quebec.
Some days later Pierre Laporte, a famed Quebec reporter and minister of
immigration and labour in the Quebec government, was kidnapped by a different
FLQ cell on the lawn of his suburban home.
The federal government, led by Pierre Trudeau did not hesitate to summon armed
troops to guard potential targets in Ottawa and Montreal. A few days later the War
Measures Act was invoked which in effect meant that a State of Emergency was
declared and traditional Canadian civil liberties were suspended. Anyone belonging
to the FLQ, or to any cultural or political association suspected of being linked to
the FLQ, could be rounded up in the dead of night without a search warrant and
incarcerated without the right of habeas corpus. Under the sweeping authority of
the act, 465 Canadians were so rounded up.
War Measures hysteria meant that all separatist movements had become suspect
to the English-speaking Canadians and moderate Quebecois. This had the effect
on many that they started seeing democratic separatism as an option they could
live with.
By the time the crisis had ended, Quebecers and Canadians had for the first time seen a federal government
willing to take extreme measures to fight - and fight very hard indeed - for federalism in Canada. In 1976 a party
advocating sovereignty, the Parti Québécois, took power. This party started working towards a referendum that
would legally separate Quebec from Canada. So far, it has failed twice, in 1980 and in 1995. In 1995, however,
the difference between those in favour of separatism and those who wanted to stay with Canada was just a little
over 1%!
Recent global effects of terrorism seem to have had a marked effect: support for separatism in Quebec has fallen
since the events of September 11, 2001. 72 per cent of Quebeckers polled said they fell more secure as a part of
Canada, while only 14 per cent still support sovereignty. Still, since 1976, French has been the official language of
Quebec making Canada legally bilingual.
Today
Present-day Canada is an important partner in the North American Free Trade Agreement (with the US and
Mexico). It is a regular contributor to peace-keeping missions all over the world. Since the late 1980s it even has
its own space programme.
st
Canada in the early 21 century is once again a popular country for immigration. Now it has become tougher to
enter and stay in the United States, immigration to Canada and Australia has once more become a preferred
option. Skilled workers are much in demand outside the great cities, so a different type of immigrant from those of
recent years enters now.
The Government of Canada, in consultation with the provinces, the territories and key stakeholders, establishes
an annual range for the number of immigrants who will be admitted into Canada
Traditionally, most new immigrants to Canada come from the following countries: China, India, Pakistan,
Philippines, South Korea, USA, Iran, Romania, UK and Colombia. Each year, approximately 160,000 people
become Canadian citizens.
16
SCC Empire- Reader Canada
Revised 2013