Perspective: Race Restrictions

The department's freedom to deny certificates even previously approved by judges and the ability of immigration agents to apply the immigration act's entry requirements more stringently to Asian and Black applicants dropped immigration totals of these groups to unprecedented lows. By 1928, the Japanese-Canadian "Gentleman's Agreement" was revised so that only 150 Japanese people could immigrate annually. Between 1930 and 1935, when still more severe immigration restrictions were implemented during the Great Depression, only three

Chinese people successfully immigrated into Canada.

Potential Jewish immigrants also faced intolerance. Despite the oppression they experienced in Russia and the Ukraine immediately following the First World War, relatively few Jewish refugees-even if they were orphans-gained entrance into Canada. The government applied the restriction despite the widespread knowledge that Jews were being persecuted in Europe.

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