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1945-1967: Introduction / Post-war Years / 1952 Immigration Act / Policy Practise
Policy Practise: Refugees
Applicants
Refugees
Canada's refugee assistance was influenced by the beginnings of the Cold War between 1947 and 1953, and continuing suspicions towards the Soviet Union thereafter. Defence concerns prompted Canada's to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and the North American Air Defence Agreement (NORAD) in 1957. Canadians, too, responded to victims of Soviet oppression or communist governments, although its policies discriminated against suspected communists. Thus, the nation opened its doors to Hungarian refugees after 1956 and Czechoslovakians fleeing the 1948 communist regime and later the 1968 Russian invasion. In the Hungarian case, ethnic societies within Canada mounted an extensive publicity campaign to rally support for the refugees. Humanitarianism could play as important a role as anti-Communism. Canadians welcomed some 7,000 Asian Ugandans expelled from Idi Amin's regime in 1972 and almost 70,000 Vietnamese "boat people" who arrived in the late 1970s.
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National Archives of Canada (1985-198-81, cartoon by Rusins Kaufmanis). |
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"Amin," 1 March 1977. Canada accepted several thousand Asian Ugandans expelled from Idi Amin’s cruel regime in 1972. After having some 50,000 Asians expelled and 300,000 Ugandans murdered, Amin eventually fell from power in 1979. |
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© Chinook Multimedia Inc., 2000. |
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