PREJUDICE IN CANADA PREJUDICE RUNS THROUGH CANADA’S HISTORY BUT THIS SECTION DEALS WITH THE 20 TH CENTURY UP TO WORLD WAR 2 THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT AND OTHER GROUPS FOUGHT FOR WOMEN’S ISSUES – PREJUDICE IS FOUND IN FOUR OTHER AREAS AS WELL: –FIRST NATIONS ASSIMILATION WAS THE OFFICIAL POLICY & MANY PEOPLE WANTED INDIAN LANDS –RACISM A ‘WHITE MAN’S CANADA’ WAS SEEN AS IDEAL BY CANADA’S LEADERS –ANTI-SEMITISM PREJUDICE AGAINST JEWS HAD ITS WORST CONSEQUENCES IN THE YEARS BEFORE WORLD WAR 2 –EUGENICS PREVENTING SOME PEOPLE FROM HAVING CHILDREN WAS SEEN AS THE ‘SCIENTIFIC’ WAY TO IMPROVE CANADA’S POPULATION

FIRST NATIONS ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763 RECOGNIZED ABORIGINAL TITLE AND FORBADE SETTLEMENT IN INDIAN LANDS –THIS WAS IN LINE WITH BRITAIN’S INTEREST IN FUR AS WELL AS WITH LEGAL OPINION AT THAT TIME BRITISH COLUMBIA’S FIRST GOVERNOR JAMES DOUBLAS MADE TREATIES WITH FIRST NATIONS ON VANCOUVER ISLAND –MAINLAND FIRST NATIONS HAVE RESERVATIONS DRAWN UP BUT MONEY RUNS OUT BEFORE TREATIES CAN BE SIGNED –THESE TREATIES AND THE RESERVATIONS THEY MADE WERE REDUCED BY LATER GOVERNMENTS BRITISH COLUMBIA ENTERED CONFEDERATION IN 1871 WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT NO FURTHER TREATIES WILL BE SIGNED CANADA’S GOVERNOR GENERAL AT THE TIME RELAYED HIS CONCERN BACK TO BRITAIN’S COLONIAL SECRETARY JAMES DOUGLAS

FIRST NATIONS INDIAN ACT OF 1876 MADE ALL FIRST NATIONS ‘WARDS OF THE CROWN’ – EQUIVALENT TO CHILDREN FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE COULD NOT VOTE OR ENJOY OTHER COMMON LEGAL RIGHTS UNLESS THEY WENT THROUGH THE PROCESS OF ‘ENFRANCHISEMENT’ –ENFRANCHISEMENT MEANT THE LOSS OF ALL RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF INDIAN STATUS FROM 1870 TO THE 1980s THERE WAS A REINTERPRETATION OF NATIVE TREATIES, ENABLING GOVERNMENTS TO TAKE LAND AND NEGLECT OBLIGATIONS –FIRST NATIONS DEALT WITH GOVERNMENTS UNDER THE THREAT OF EXPROPRIATION – THEIR LAND COULD BE TAKEN WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT IN THE ‘PUBLIC INTEREST’ –THIS WAS RARELY USED BUT OFTEN THREATENED

FIRST NATIONS BRITISH COLUMBIA WON RIGHT TO ANY ‘SURPLUS’ NATIVE LAND AND SET ABOUT REDUCING RESERVES –LAND TAKEN FOR WORLD WAR 2 WAS NOT RETURNED –PAT BAY AIRPORT, IPPERWASH, JERICHO BEACH IN VANCOUVER FIRST NATIONS FOUGHT BACK, ESPECIALLY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA BUT GOVERNMENTS OPPOSED THEM –LEGISLATION WAS PASSED TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO RAISE FUNDS OR HIRE LAWYERS FOR LAND CLAIMS – (1929 – 1951) VICTORIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT SITS PARTIALLY ON FIRST NATIONS LAND OBTAINED DURING WORLD WAR 2

EUGENICS THEORY OF EVOLUTION ESTABLISHED IN THE LATE 1800s LED TO A LESS RESPECTABLE MOVEMENT CALL ‘SOCIAL DARWINISM’ –PEOPLE BELIEVED THAT SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST SHOULD APPLY TO HUMANS AS WELL POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EUGENICS –POSITIVE - PROMOTE REPRODUCTION OF THE FIT –NEGATIVE - PREVENT REPRODUCTION OF THE UNFIT BY 1915 EUGENICS HAD LOST THE APPROVAL OF SCIENTISTS –LEGISLATION WAS PASSED TO MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO RAISE FUNDS OR HIRE LAWYERS FOR LAND CLAIMS – (1929 – 1951) BETWEEN THE WARS EUGENICS MOVEMENTS THRIVE IN SCANDINAVIA, GERMANY, THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA –CCF LEADERS WOODSWORTH AND DOUGLAS WERE SUPPORTERS IN B.C. AND ALBERTA LAWS WERE PASSED ALLOWING THE STATE TO STERILIZE MENTAL PATIENTS AND WARDS OF THE STATE –MOST STERILIZATIONS ARE DONE ON IMMIGRANTS AND THE VAST MAJORITY ON WOMEN

RACISM WHEN EUROPEANS ARE ON THE ‘FRONTIER’ RACISM AND OTHER FORMS OF PREJUDICE ARE MUCH LESS COMMON –AT 1900 LEADERS BELIEVED IN THE HEIRARCHY OF THE RACES –IN EAST RACISM IS DIRECTED AGAINST AFRICAN-CANADIANS, EASTERN EUROPEANS AND SOUTHERN EUROPEANS AND JEWS –IN B.C. RACISM IS DIRECTEDAGAINST ASIANS & NATIVES CHINESE FIRST COME TO B.C.FOR GOLD RUSH, LATER TOWORK ON RAILROADS –FROM THE FIRST B.C. HAD LOBBIED FOR EXCLUSION OFALL ASIAN IMMIGRATION –HEAD TAX IMPOSED ONCHINESE –COMPLETE EXCLUSION IN1921 SIKHS FIRST ARRIVED AS LABOURERS AND FOUND B.C.’S CLIMATE SIMILAR TO THAT OF THE PUNJAB –B.C. PRESSURES OTTAWA AND A LAW IS PASSED PREVENTING IMMIGRATION UNLESS IT IS BY ‘CONTINUOUS PASSAGE’, IMPOSSIBLE TO OBTAIN FROM INDIA TO CANADA MANZO NAGANO FIRST JAPANESE SETTLER

RACISM A GROUP OF SIKHS TESTED THE LAW OF CONTINUOUS PASSAGE BY CHARTERING A SHIP TO SAIL DIRECTLY TO B.C. –OFFICIALS IN B.C. WOULD NOT LET THEM LEAVE THEIR SHIP –EVENTUALLY THE ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY ESCORTS THEM OUT OF HARBOUR JAPANESE COME TO B.C. TO OPERATE BUSINESSES AND WORK IN THE FISHING FLEET ASIATIC EXCLUSION LEAGUE AGITATES AGAINST BUT JAPAN IS AN ALLY OF BRITAIN AFTER RIOTS IN VANCOUVER AN AGREEMENT IS MADE WITH JAPAN TO LIMIT IMMIGRATION SIKHS WAIT ABOARD TO KOMOGATA MARU

ANTI-SEMITISM LARGEST JEWISH GROUP HAD ALWAYS BEEN IN MONTREAL BUT JEWS ALSO CAME TO TORONTO, VANCOUVER, VICTORIA AND SOME STARTED FARMS IN THE PRAIRIES IN MONTREAL JEWS WERE EXCLUDED AND MANAGED AS A SIDE ISSUE TO THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ANGLOPHONES AND FRANCOPHONES –MANY FRENCH CANADIAN NATIONALISTS WERE ANTI-SEMITIC BUT HENRI BOURASSA CAME TO THEIR DEFENCE SOCIAL CREDIT PARTY OF WILLIAM ABERHART IN ALBERTA WAS OPENLY ANTI-SEMITIC AND MANY WESTERN CANADIAN SHARED THESE VIEWS THOUGH THEY HAD PROBABLY NEVER MET A JEW IN THE YEARS LEADING UP TO WW 2 CANADA WAS EXTREMELY RELUCTANT TO ADMIT ANY JEWS –SENIOR BUREAUCRATS IN IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT FELT NO JEWS SHOULD BE ADMITTED –MANY JEWS THAT WERE REFUSED ENTRY DIED IN THE HOLOCAUST SIKHS WAIT ABOARD TO KOMOGATA MARU