African-Americans:

Prejudice against those with black skin was deeply rooted in Europe. Blacks were
brought to America from Africa as slaves. Most were taken to the southern United
States. There were about 1100 Black slaves in New France in 1759. The loyalists
brought about 2000 slaves with them from the U.S. Slavery was finally abolished in
Canada in 1834, though it still existed in the U.S. As a result, many escaped slaves
fled to Canada via a secret route called the Underground Railroad. Nevertheless,
Blacks were regarded as backward and only the most menial jobs were open to
them. Most lived in areas isolated from whites. They were refused admittance to
white churches, hotels, restaurants, theatres, and swimming pools. They received
poor education, often in segregated schools.

Europeans and Aboriginal Peoples:

Forced Assimilation: The process by which one culture is forced to adopt the
practices and cultural characteristics of another. This presumes a loss of cultural
characteristics that distinguish them from the dominant cultural group.
The early European settlers held strong prejudices about the Aboriginal people.
Europeans considered those who did not share their Christian beliefs or their
technical advances to be inferior to them. They even denied that the Aboriginal
people had religious beliefs, and tried to "save" them by converting them to
Christianity. Europeans man wanted the Aboriginal people's land and pushed them
aside. Canadians believed that the only hope for the remaining Aboriginal people
was to teach them to act and think like themselves. In the 1876, the government
instated the Indians Act, a policy of confining Indians to small pieces of land, called
reserves. Indian affairs were settled by the government without consulting the
Indians. On the reserves, Indian children were sometimes removed from their
families to go to far-off residential schools. Traditional customs were discouraged,
even forbidden.

Jews:
Prejudice against the Jews is called "anti-semitism." In 1914 Jews in Montreal
were the victims of strong anti-Semitism. Jews were depicted as exploiters, as
threats to Christian morality and civilization, and as symbols of the evils of
internationalism, Liberalism, bolshevism, materialism and urban life. Much of this
hatred of Jews spread to Canada's political leaders. Prime Minister Mackenzie King
believed that the Jews would "pollute" Canada's bloodstream. Jews were restricted
from entering many industries, the law, teaching, clubs, resorts, and beaches. As a

result of this prejudice, Canada provided safety for only a few Jewish refugees
fleeing Nazi Germany before the outbreak of World War II.

Asians:
The most widespread discrimination took place against Asians in British
Columbia. They were regarded as alien, inferior, and unassimilable. Labour groups
claimed that Asians lowered standards because they were willing to work for less
money. Asians were excluded from most unions. Employers always paid Asians less.
In B.C., Chinese, Japanese, and South Asians could not vote, practice law or
pharmacy, be elected, serve on juries, or work in the public service or in education.
Mobs expressed their contempt in anti-Asian riots, the most serious of which
occurred in Vancouver. After 1885, Chinese immigration was curbed by a head
tax and was stopped altogether by the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923. The law
was not repealed until 1947.

South Asians:
Immigrants from India, Pakistan, and Ceylon probably began to arrive about 1903.
They were seen by whites to represent the same racial threat as the Chinese and
Japanese. They were also denied the vote and restricted to the poorest jobs. A
restriction on further immigration from South Asia was declared in 1908. In 1914, a
ship named the Komagata Maru, sailed into Vancouver harbour to challenge the
restriction. On board were 376 South Asians. The authorities isolated the ship for
two months, preventing the hopeful immigrants from coming ashore. It was finally
forced to return to Asia. The restrictions on South Asians living in Canada were not
lifted until 1947. In 1951 the restriction on immigration was eased, and a quota of
only a few hundred a year was set. It was not removed until the 1960s.

The KKK:
Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Native Sons of Canada and the
Orange Order criticized the new immigrants as a threat to Canada's "Anglo-Saxon"
character. Several of the organizations, particularly the KKK, also opposed Catholic
immigrants.
The Klan began organizing in Montral, Ontario, BC and Manitoba in the early
1920s. Its membership in Saskatchewan in the late 1920s reached 20,000. The
Klan organized boycotts of Catholic businessmen, intimidated politicians who

seemed sympathetic to French or Catholic interests, opposed federal immigration

policy, opposed Catholic schools, and tried to prevent interracial and CatholicProtestant marriages. The Klan was sufficiently powerful in Saskatchewan to
contribute to the defeat of the Liberals in the 1929 provincial election.

Japanese:
The Japanese began to arrive in Canada in the 1880s and 1890s. As a result
of racist feelings, in 1907 Canada persuaded Japan to limit the number of Japanese
immigrants to only 400 males per year. In 1928 Canada restricted Japanese
immigration to 150 per year. It was stopped altogether in 1940. Restricted
immigrations was allowed after 1950, but unrestricted immigration of Japanese was
not resumed until 1967.
During World War II, the Japanese suffered one of the worst acts of discrimination in
Canadian history. When the Japanese navy attacked the American naval base at
Pearl Harbor, it released the hatred long felt against the Japanese in Canada. In
February 1942, the federal government ordered all Japanese to evacuate the Pacific
coast area. About 22 000 Japanese were relocated to camps in interior B.C. and to
other provinces. The government sold their property and tried to deport them after
the war.

Aftermath of War:
After six years of terrible war, in which millions of people were killed, there were
strong movements towards promoting understanding among the people of the
world. In 1945 Canada signed the United Nations Charter and in 1948 the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. As Canadians gradually became more tolerant, Asians
were finally given the vote (South Asians and Chinese in 1947 and Japanese in
1949). The bans on Chinese and South Asians were repealed. In the 1950s and
1960s a new tolerance was shown in the passage of human-rights bills in the
provinces and the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960.
The reasons for this increase in tolerance are as complex as the reasons for why it
existed in the first place. New immigration laws in 1962 and 1967 allowed large
numbers of non-whites to enter Canada from Hong Kong, India, and the West Indies.
Again this immigration caused some Canadians to vent hostility, especially towards
South Asians, and in particular, Sikhs. In 1988, The Canadian Multicultural Act was
established, and the Canadian government apologized and paid reparations to the
Japanese Canadians for their unfair treatment during World War II. In 2006, the

Canadian Government offered an apology for the Chinese Head Tax and paid
reparations.

Aboriginals after the war:

The post-World War II period also led to new developments in relations between
whites and Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people gradually became more educated
and better organized. Their spokesmen began to challenge their second-class
status. In 1960 the government ended the discrimination that kept Indians from
voting in federal elections. Instead of trying to assimilate the Aboriginal people, the
government encouraged programs to retain their languages and culture.
Aboriginal people, like many non-British and non-French groups, still encounter
prejudice and discrimination, but it is diminished. The effects of the long-standing
treatment of these people as second-class citizens may take longer to pass.