Walk Through History: Legalized Racism in Canada

and Resistance to Racism

Created by Jennifer Janzen-Ball; original idea by Rusa Jeremic; with material from Historical Overview of

Prejudice and Racism in Canada, by Dorothy Wills; Timeline, by Wenh-In Ng, in That All May Be One: A

Resource for Educating Toward Racial Justice (Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 2004), and from

Legalized Racism from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, http://www.crr.ca/diversfiles/

en/pub/faSh/ePubFaShLegRac.pdf, accessed 23 October 2009

Additional information & graphics added by Stephen Fetter and Julie Graham.

Sources noted on the appropriate slides.

Our goals:

-Review together key momentsof the history of legalized racism in

Canada and the United Church.-Learn about and honour resistance to

racism..

How it works:

You’ll be given an historical fact. Try to guess the year (or decade!) in

which this event or reality took place. The slide after the fact will give you the

answer.

Right of White colonists in Canada

to own and sell

people as slaves.

Photo: archives of Ontario

1600's – 1833In 1628 the first recorded slave in Canada was brought by a

British convoy to New France. Olivier le Jeune was the name given to this boy, who was from Madagascar.

By 1688 slavery was prohibited in France, but it was permitted in its colonies as a means of providing the massive labour force needed to clear land, construct buildings and work sugar plantations.

As White Loyalists fled the new American Republic, they took with them about 2000 enslaved Blacks: 1200 to the Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), 300 to Lower Canada (Quebec), and 500 to Upper Canada (Ontario).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Canada

Black and White United Empire

Loyalists flee to the Maritimes; land grants based on skin colour.

A Black Wood Cutter at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, © Library and Archives Canada / 1970-188-109

1780'sBritain had promised freedom and land to Blacks who

supported the British cause in America, and 3,550 former slaves had taken them up on the offer. The land grants were slow in coming, however, and proved to be small, poor and isolated. Many of the Black Loyalists starved while waiting.

When Black settlers offered labour to White settlers, violence erupted among White competitors looking for work. Some desperate Blacks sold themselves into indentureship virtual ─slavery.

In the 1780s, Birchtown, Nova Scotia was home to the largest concentration of free Black settlers anywhere in British North America.

Source: Parks Canada

http://www.pc.gc.ca/culture/mhn-bhm/page2.aspx

Boys from the Williams Lake residential school in Williams Lake, British Columbia, date unknown. Library and Archives Canada/PA-210715

Successive Indian Acts to “civilize” andChristianize Aboriginal peoples

“Our Indian legislation generally rests on the principle that the Aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the state... It is clearly our wisdom and our duty, through education and other means, to prepare him for a higher civilization by encouraging him to assume the privileges and responsibilities of full citizenship.”

Annual Report of the Department of the Interior

Aboriginal children in Residential school, 1894. Photographer: Unknown, National Archives of Canada, Neg no.C26448.

• In 1884, the potlatch ceremony, central to the cultures of west coast Aboriginal nations, was outlawed. In 1885, the sun dance, central to the cultures of prairie Aboriginal nations, was outlawed. Participation was a criminal offence.

* In 1885, the Department of Indian Affairs instituted a pass system. No outsider could come onto a reserve to do business with an Aboriginal resident without permission from the Indian agent. In many places, this was interpreted to mean that no Aboriginal person could leave the reserve without permission from the Indian agent.

Indian Acts of 1876, 1880, 1884 and later.

In this year, a Head Tax was imposed on every

Chinese person seeking to enter Canada.

Head Tax certificate(Chinese Canadian National Council)http://www.ccnc.ca/toronto/history/info/content.html

1885

Head tax imposed on every Chinese person

seeking to enter Canada. Set at $50; increased to $100 in

1900

and $500 in 1903. An example of a Chinese head tax certificate, which must bepresented in order to be receive compensation.http://www.torontoobserver.ca/2007/12/16/waiting-a-lifetime-for-sorry/

In this year, Canadian authorities attempt to limit Black enlistment and participation in

the Armed Forces.

1914-1918

Black people were rejected at enlistment

offices until 1916, when Canada's only

Black unit was formed.

It was segregated..in July 1916 Photo: Pictou, N.S., 1916: The

band of No. 2 Construction Battalion, CEF.© National Defence

In this year, the federal government completely barred the Chinese from entering Canada.

Chinese people already in Canada were not allowed to sponsor family members.

A political cartoon showing a Chinese man being barred entry to the "Golden Gate of Liberty". The caption reads, "We must draw the line somewhere, you know."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

This piece of legislation, also known as the Exclusion Act, was the last of a series of tactics used by the Government of Canada to limit immigration to British Columbia from China.

This Act barred all Chinese people from entering Canada, except for diplomats, university students and merchants.

July 1, 1923 Chinese Immigration Act, repealed in 1947

Library & Archives Canadahttp://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/immigrants/021017-2412.02-e.html

Jews excluded from employment, elite social clubs, beaches, holiday resorts, and

universities.

Jews excluded from employment in major institutions, such as banks and the police force, and barred from elite social clubs,

beaches, and holiday resorts in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Universities set

limits on Jewish enrolment.Abella, Irving and Troper, Harold.

None Is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, 1982

.

1911 - 1939

In this year, a United Church candidate for ministry is prevented from being

ordained because he is Black.

Wilbur Howard completed his theology degree in 1941, but no United Church congregation would accept him for settlement. Eventually a

position was created for him on the national staff. From 1941 to 1949 Howard worked for the Boys Work Board of Toronto and from 1949 to 1953 he worked for the Boys Work Board of Manitoba. In 1954 he

became the editor for Sunday School Publications in Toronto.

He didn’t find a congregation until he was hired to join the pastoral team at Dominion Chalmers United Church in Ottawa in 1963, more than 20 years after he was ordained. His first sole pastorate began in

1971.

1941Rt. Rev. Wilbur

Howard

In these years, Canada had the worst record of any Western country for providing

sanctuary to Jews

fleeing Hitler’s Europe.

\\

1933 - 1948Here we see the M.S. St. Louis in

Havana, Cuba in June 1939.

The St. Louis carried 930 Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to

Cuba, where all but 22 were denied landing.

After being refused refuge in the U.S. and Canada, the ship returned to Europe where the refugees were

scattered in Great Britain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Canada was the only western country to completely close its doors to Jewish people fleeing Nazi persecution.

In this year, over 22,000 Japanese-born or Japanese-Canadians were stripped of their

rights and property. They were forcibly

re-located to internment camps in BC's interior or

sugar beet farms in Alberta.

After the war, they were not allowed to return to the west coast , but had to re-locate east

of the Rockies or return to Japan, a

country unknown to those born in Canada.

Their property was never returned.

1942 Japanese internment

BC Conference voted against a motion which would have protested this government decision.

In this year, Aboriginal women retain can their treaty status even if they

marry a non-Aboriginal man.

1986

Aboriginal women are allowed to retain their treaty status even if they marry a non-Aboriginal man. It

took years of resistance and protest to win this basic right under the Indian Act.

Aboriginal men had always had the right to marry non-Aboriginal women and retain their “Indian

status”.

In this year, a government report recommends:

Recognition of an Aboriginal order of government. Creation of an Aboriginal parliament. Expansion of the Aboriginal land and resource base. Recognition of Métis self-government, provision of a

land base, and recognition of Métis rights to hunt and fish on Crown land

1996The Royal Commission on Aboriginal

Peoples reportThe RCAP report pointed Canada to a new relationship with First Peoples and told us how to go about it. The process involved consultations with hundreds of communities and groups.

None of the recommendations highlighted in the previous slide have been implemented.

In the summer of this year, almost 600 Chinese citizens from Fujian province arrive by boat on the West Coast; the

public backlash that arose contributed to their imprisonment.

Summer of 1999

Almost 600 Chinese citizens from Fujian province arrive at Haida Gwaii by boat. Huge media attention and public backlash contributed to their detention as illegal migrants for periods between a few months and two years.

Yet, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board, at least 100 people arrive in Canada daily with falsified ID or none at all.

Out of 577 refugee claims made in this case, 444 were rejected.

(www.canada.com: 10 years after: B.C.'s Chinese boat migrants)

In these years, the Toronto Star publishes a series of stories claiming that Black people are still being stopped by police without clear reason, and are

accused of certain crimes far more frequently than White people are.

2002-present: Racial profiling

In 2002 the Toronto Star published an analysis of statistics collected by the police. It noted that Blacks in Toronto were over-represented by population in "out-of-sight" traffic violations, such as driving without a licence. The analysis also suggested that Black suspects were more likely to be held in custody for a bail hearing, while White suspects facing similar charges were more likely to be released at the scene.

“In July 2013, carding in Toronto dropped by 75 per cent compared to that time a year earlier... Though fewer citizens were stopped and documented, or “carded,” the complexion of the contact card database became, proportionally, blacker and slightly more brown.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/07/26/carding_drops_but_proportion_of_blacks_stopped_by_toronto_police_rises.html

Deliberate underfunding of

schools on reserves.

(Clue: The date you want takes place after the

2008 apology for Indian residential

schools, and the issue is currently in front of the Canadian Human

Rights Tribunal.)

Photo: Report from the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada

www.fncaringsociety.com

Ongoing todayFirst Nations children going to school on reserve are underfunded

$2,000 to $3,000 per child, per year. (FNCFCS, 2013; AFN, 2010)

And, unlike provincial schools, the federal government provides:

$0 for libraries $0 for computers, software and teacher training

$0 for extracurricular activities

$0 for 2nd and 3rd level services (including core funding for special education, school boards, governance and education research)

$0 for endangered languages

$0 for principals, directors, pedagogical support, and the development of culturally appropriate curricula.

(AFN, 2010; First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, 2013)