Historic Diversity

Multiculturalism was officially recognized in 1988 with the Multiculturalism Act.

All of the Canadian Inuit speak one language, Inuktitut or Eskimo-Aleut, though there are 6 different dialects. However, because of improved travel opportunities and the development of Inuit-language radio and TV programming, language differences are diminishing. Traditionally, there was no written language, but after contact with missionaries, writing systems were widely adopted. Since 1920 the adult literacy rate has been almost 100%.

The first Chinese settlers in North America came in 1848 for the California gold rush. Ten years later Chinese immigrants migrated to Canada, settling first in Victoria, British Columbia. Their historical arrival marked the establishment of a continuous and vibrant Chinese presence in Canada.

1940 Over 700 males of Italian origin interned at Camp Petawawa. Italian Canadians discovered that loyalty to two nations left them in a precarious position when war developed. Hundreds of males of Italian origin were rounded up as "enemy aliens" and interned at Camp Petawawa by Canadian authorities. Those arrested were denied their rights to habeas corpus.

Between 1951 and 1961, Canada's Italian population increased fourfold from 150,000 to 450,000. Older Italian settlements were quickly overwhelmed by the new arrivals. Throughout the 1950s, over 20,000 Italian immigrants entered Canada annually.

The Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia between 1783 and 1785, as a result of the American Revolution. They were the largest group of people of African birth and of African descent to come to Nova Scotia at any one time.

During the 17th century settlers came from different parts of France to a region of the New World they called l'Acadie. As time went on the Acadians developed a unique way of life which found expression in their own language, customs and beliefs.

Scots came from all regions of Scotland, and for many reasons. Those emigrating from the Lowlands of Scotland, such as Dumfries and the border areas were seeking adventure and better opportunities in the new colony. They settled in many areas of mainland Nova Scotia

First Nations hunters migrated from Asia to North America across Beringia, a land bridge that connected Alaska and Siberia during the Pleistocene epoch (10,000-50,000 BC). They subsequently settled every part of what is now called Canada.

Samuel de Champlain established a fortified trading post at Québec on July 3, 1608. Québec was the perfect location to foster the fur trade and to serve as the base for its founder's idea of colonizing the remote country with French settlers.

Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939... 7 days after Britain and France. The first Canadian troops left for England in December. Although "obliged to go to war at Britain's side," King's delay of a week was a symbolic gesture of independence.

In 1942, the federal government announced that all people of Japanese origin living in the coastal regions of British Columbia would be relocated to the BC interior or inland farming areas. Over 20,000 men, women and children were removed from their homes, and shipped to detention camps in the interior of BC or to sugar beet farms in Alberta and Manitoba. The federal government sold off all Japanese-Canadian-owned property

The 1986 census identified 114, 415 persons of African origin in Canada. If the presence of Blacks is accounted for from the very beginning of Canadian history, through slavery and migratory flows from the USA, it was not until the founding of the Commonwealth in 1931 and the development of diplomatic relations by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Canadian International Development Agency that economic and political ties emerged between Canada and Black Africa. Although Brother Basile had published,a work on African music, Au rythme des tambours, as early as 1949, the promotion of cultural exchanges became a reality only in 1968, with the establishment of the Francophonie network which set up the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique. In August 1974, in Quebec City, the Agence organized a Superfrancofête bringing together 25 countries, where Canadians and especially those living in Quebec discovered in this vast francophone forum, the power of African music and culture. Tambourine players from Rwanda, Senegalese griot-players, and dancers from Burundi mingled to the rhythm of gigues and to the refrains of popular singers.

Russia, the largest of the 15 Union Republics that until 1991 made up the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Some of the other groups of the former USSR are well-represented in Canada, and some, because of their distinct individuality or because their homelands did not form part of the Soviet Union at the time of emigration, are treated separately in EMC, in the entries for Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Three religious groups, many of whose followers have come from either Tsarist Russia or the Soviet Union - the Doukhobors, the Jews, and the Mennonites - also have separate entries. The present article will deal essentially with the Russian component in the Canadian mosaic and also with cultural relations and exchanges between Canada and the former Soviet Union as a whole.

Chinese were first employed in Canada in 1862, as road labourers on the Cariboo Road.

More than 90,000 immigrants, mainly Irish, arrived in Canada in 1847. Many were suffering from typhus and cholera, which spread to the major towns in Canada.

On March 13, 1885, BC passed the Chinese Restriction Act, refusing entry to Chinese immigrants; it was disallowed by the federal government on March 31. The Canadian government disallowed the Act restricting Chinese immigration on January 20, 1904.

Ivan Pylypiw and Wasyl Eleniak found a destination in the Edna-Star area for the first Ukrainian immigrants. They initiated the first Ukrainian immigration to Canada; between 1891 and 1914, 170,000 arrived.

H. N. Ronning, a Lutheran minister, founded a Norwegian settlement in the Peace River District of Alberta in 1912.

The number of immigrants to Canada reached an all-time record of 400,870 in 1913.

On May 21, 1914, the ship Komagata Maru arrived at Vancouver, with 376 Sikh immigrants aboard. They were not allowed to land and the ship was forced out of Vancouver on July 23.

In 1720, three ships left France with the first 300 European settlers for Ile Saint-Jean, later called Prince Edward Island.

Almost 1,500 German settlers arrived at Lunenburg, NS on June 17, 1753. They built a palisade for defence on the present site of the academy, drew lots and planted some crops.