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1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom
Laurier Boom
Clifford Sifton
Economic Takeoff
Demography
Frank Oliver
The Acts revealed some of the rising currents of nativism within the country. Nativists attempted to preserve what many long-resident Canadians believed were core British values supporting their society-an Anglo-Canadian identity and the "purity" of the British race within Canada. Government policy, in fact, could now support nativism more easily because the government could make decisions by order in council, rather than as a result of parliamentary debate or court decisions. Deportation questions and new regulations applying to specific groups of immigrants fell within the discretion of the minister of the interior or of individual agents posted at immigration offices. Numerous minority groups attempting to enter the country experienced the impact of such discriminatory powers. For instance, immigration agents rejected Black farmers at the Saskatchewan border following the passage of the 1910 legislation. When medical testing could not fail them on health grounds, and the same farmers proved to be carrying sufficient money to meet entrance requirements, immigration agents had wide discriminatory powers, especially during the war years, to reject potential settlers on the basis of their "race deemed unsuited to the climate" of Canada. 17
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National Archives of Canada (C-037966). |
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John Ware and Family, ca. 1896. Under the Immigration Act of 1910, prospective immigrants who were deemed unsuited to the climate and conditions of the Canadian West were often denied entry. Blacks coming from the United States were among the groups adversely affected by this policy. The Wares had immigrated to Canada in a period before immigration law had become highly selective and, indeed, ethnocentric. |
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