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Victor S, Julius, Louisa

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Library of Parliament - Our Country, Our Parliament

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Politics plays a large role in Canadian life and identity. The country has been a functional democracy for nearly 150 years, and Canadians are proud of their history as a free people with a government that generally respects their wishes and protects their rights. Freedom also means that Canadians have the right to be unsatisfied, however, and Canadian politics will reliably reflect the deep divisions of such a large and diverse country.

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Politics plays a large role in Canadian life and identity. The country has been a functional democracy for nearly 150 years, and Canadians are proud of their history as a free people with a government that generally respects their wishes and protects their rights.

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Valdemar, Amalie, Asger

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Johan, Awa and Mathis

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Marie, Frida and Alma

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Noah, Ludvig, Villads

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Victor D., Holger and Nicolai

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Jens, Magnus, Frederik

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As the only French-speaking region of North America, Quebec is unlike anywhere else on the continent. The majority of the population consists of French-Canadians, the descendants of 17th century French settlers who have resisted centuries of pressure to assimilate into Anglo society. That tradition continues to this day, and modern Quebec is a vibrant, fascinating place whose residents remain determined as ever to preserve a distinctive culture and unique values.

As Canada's second-most populated province, the concerns of Quebec have played a large role shaping Canadian history, and continue to exert enormous influence on Canada's culture, politics, and economy. The relationship between Quebec and the Rest of Canada (or " ROC") has not always been easy. Tensions over language have raged for centuries, and over the last few decades the question of separatism - whether Quebec would be better off leaving Canada and becoming a separate country - has been one of Canada's most difficult debates.

Note: This chapter provides a broad overview on Quebec. For information on things to see and do in Quebec, see the Quebec tourism chapter.

Quebec Geography

Quebec is Canada's largest province in terms of landmass, but much of its territory is uninhabited - and uninhabitable. The province's extreme north is a barren arctic wasteland similar to that of Canada's three northern territories, inhabited by polar bears, caribou and arctic wolves, while the central region is filled with dense, boreal forest. As is in Ontario, early efforts to colonize the north were mostly unsuccessful due to the rocky soil and harsh climate that made farming impossible.

The vast majority of Quebecers have always lived around the vast St. Lawrence River that cuts into southeastern Quebec from the Atlantic ocean. This was the path the first European explorers used to enter North America, and both of Quebec's major cities, Montreal and Quebec City, originally arose as coastal settlements. This region's land is lush and fertile, with rolling hills, small lakes and arable soil that was ably tilled by early French-Canadian habitants, or sustenance farmers.

Quebec's long, snowy winters are an iconic symbol of the province, and the massive outdoor in Quebec City, featuring skating, dog-sledding, ice-sculpting, and tobogganing is one of the highlights of the year. While Quebec has far flatter terrain than the mountainous provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, the modest Laurentian Mountains in the province's south serve as the main mecca of eastern Canadian skiing.

Quebec Cities

About half of Quebec's eight million residents live in Montreal, the second-largest city in Canada after Toronto. A modern, stylish, cosmopolitan city, Montreal is home to many of the province's (and indeed, the country's) top cultural attractions including the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Just For Laughs stand-up comedy extravaganza. Historically, Montreal was known for being an oasis of English in an otherwise French-dominated province, due to its high population of wealthy Anglos - the descendants of British colonial settlers. For a variety of political and economic reasons many Anglos have chosen to leave in recent decades, however, and today only about 15% of Montrealers speak English as their first language. Their influence remains strong enough for nearly 60% of all residents to claim to be bilingual, however - the highest rate of any Canadian big city. While Montreal has always housed sizable Jewish, Italian, and Irish communities, new waves of immigration from outside Europe have helped reshape the city's demographics, cuisine, and culture.

Quebec City, which is confusingly often called simply Quebec by locals, is the province's second-largest city and the provincial capital. Unlike multicultural Montreal, Quebec City is vastly more uniformly French, with much lower rates of bilingualism, English-Canadians, and immigrants. An older city than Montreal, it retains a very pronounced European flavour through its shops, architecture, and festivals. There are still enough remnants of the city's history as an 18th century walled fortress to have earned it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 1985.

Most of Quebec's other residents either live in suburban cities close to Montreal, like Laval, Terrebonne, and Longueuil, suburbs close to Quebec City, like Lévis, or somewhere in the approximately 300 kilometre space between the two big cities, mostly the Eastern Townships area, which is located south of the St. Lawrence River and is home to the sizeable communities of Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières.

History of Quebec

As the early history chapter discusses in more detail, explorers from France were the first Europeans to actively settle the land that is now Canada, forming an impressive colony known as New France along the St. Lawrence River in 1603, before proceeding to expand westward. Masters of the fur trade, early French colonists earned a reputation as rugged outdoorsmen, navigating the continent's hostile terrain and forming productive alliances with aboriginal nations. Tensions between French and English interests eventually led to war between the two European powers in 1756 ( The Seven Years War, or French and Indian War), and the French were clobbered. New France was seized by the British, the French army was forced to abandon the continent, and all remaining French settlers were placed under English rule. This pivotal moment, dubbed simply " The Conquest " by modern Quebecers, forms the context for everything that came after.

Since the French settlers in North America greatly outnumbered the English, the victorious British quickly concluded that New France - soon renamed Quebec - could only be effectively governed as a British colony if its were permitted to retain their distinct cultural traditions. A British law known as the Quebec Act (1774) allowed residents to keep speaking French and worshipping in the Catholic Church, and generally maintain the same way of life they had under French rule. Political and economic power, however, was concentrated in the hands of a small, English-speaking elite. Under their rule, Quebec remained a largely rural, borderline feudal society well into the 20th century. For most of their history, the majority of Quebeckers lived mostly meagre lives as sustenance farmers, with Catholic clergy playing an enormous role in education and politics. Deeply conservative and traditional, even after joining Canada in 1867 French-speaking Quebec remained culturally and economically isolated from the rest of North America.

The two terms of the very right-wing Maurice Duplessis (1890-1959), who served as prime minister of Quebec from 1936-1939 and 1944-1959, are usually seen as the last gasp of this particular phase of Quebec life. The mid-20th century saw a gradual rise in a more educated and secular Quebec middle class, and Duplessis' death in 1959 allowed a more liberal government to take his place, ushering in a series of far-reaching social and economic reforms dubbed the Révolution tranquille or " Quiet Revolution." Among other things, Quebec women began to go to work, divorce, and use birth control, while men moved their families to the cities, took up white-collar jobs and formed large and powerful unions. The Church ceased to play an active role in politics and social services, and people gradually stopped going to mass. Within a generation, Quebec had done a complete flip; it had gone from being the most rural, religious, conservative part of the country to Canada's most urban, secular, and progressive province.

Quebec Culture

Quebecers' identity as a unique and special people is tied to their distinctive Francophone culture, often described as a blending of European traditions and North American attitudes. Though Quebec, like the rest of Canada, is becoming an increasingly multicultural place, particularly in its big cities, Quebecers have been very aggressive in trying to preserve their historic identity in the face of considerable social and technological change.

The vast majority of Quebeckers, around 94%, speak French. Most can speak at least some English as well, with the city of Montreal - the historic home of Quebec's powerful English-speaking minority - the most functionally bilingual place in Canada. Protecting and strengthening the use of the French language has historically been the central project of Quebec patriotism, and since the 1970s, the provincial government has passed a number of laws that limit the use of English in business, schools, and - most infamously - public signs and advertisements. The legal centrepiece of this is the Charter of the French Language, also known as Bill 101, whose strict rules have governed Quebec language policy for over 40 years.

Most Quebecers remain ethnic French-Canadians descendantfrom a fairly small group of 17th century colonial settler families, and many of the province's most famous cultural tropes harken back to that community's centuries-old shared rural past. Traditional French-Canadian meals remain hearty "peasant" dishes like pea soup, meat pie (tourtière), and cipaille, a kind of stew. The proud Canadian cliche of maple syrup originates from Quebec, where it was originally harvested by forest-dwelling farmers in cabanes à sucres (literally, "sugar shacks"). French-Canadian folk songs, such as or Les Raftsmen,are often about rural chores, exploring the wilderness, or farm life. Today, Quebeckers enjoy a host of French language TV channels and radio stations, and often have very different pop culture tastes than English Canadians in the other provinces.

Quebec Separatism

The idea that Quebec exists as a unique " nation" within North America is quite old, but taking things a step further and arguing Quebec should leave Canada altogether and form its own country is relatively newer. This ideology, known as separatism, really came into prominence during the 1960s, when a poorly-performing economy coupled with the post-Quiet Revolution culture of self-empowerment made previously unthinkable ideas suddenly more attractive. Just as colonized peoples in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East were abandoning their imperial masters, many Quebeckers began to dream of completing their long escape from English domination.

The argument in favor of separatism takes many forms, and there are right and left wing separatists, as well as separatist moderates and separatist extremists. Some separatists believe Quebec should be its own country for strictly patriotic reasons, and feel humiliated being part of Canada, which they see as this utterly foreign, English place. Others may believe Canada is simply a bad country to be a part of, and think Quebec could be richer and more successful without the Canadian government holding it back. Others may basically like Canada, but believe Quebec and Canada could arrange a better partnership between themselves as two separate countries.

A new provincial political party devoted to separatism known as the Parti Quebecois was founded in 1968 and elected in to power in 1976. In 1980, it organized a province-wide referendum on separatism, but Quebecers ultimately voted to stay. Despite the defeat, the French-Canadian separatist movement grew in power and size during the 1980s and 1990s. Several more separatist premiers were elected, the majority of Quebec's representatives in the Canadian House of Commons became separatists, and a second separatism referendum was held in 1995 - and only failed by a margin of less than one per cent. That loss was quite demoralizing, however, and since then the separatist movement has declined in popularity quite a bit, with many Quebecers now inclined to regard separation as a distraction from more immediate social and economic problems. Quebec's most recent separatist government only held office for a year and a half (September 2012 to April 2014) and in the 2011 and 2015 federal elections, most separatist candidates for parliament were defeated.

Quebec Politics

Despite its traditionalist past, modern Quebec is said to be one of the most left-wing places in North America. Unions are large and powerful, there's a generous cradle-to-grave welfare system, and public opinion remains almost universally supportive of controversial social causes like abortion, LGBT rights, and euthanasia. Politics in Quebec are thus not terribly ideological, and most politicians support broadly similar social-democratic agendas. The bigger source of polarization is the question of separatism.

Since the 1970s, Quebec has operated under a two-party system that pits the pro-separation Parti Quebecois against the anti-separation (or " federalist") Quebec Liberal Party. Both parties are essentially nationalist, yet Liberals believe Quebec's interests can be addressed by working within the existing Canadian system, while separatists believe only independent nationhood can give Quebecers the fair deal they deserve. In 2018, a new party, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (coalition for Quebec) was elected to power for the first time. It is a European-style conservative populist-nationalist party that has promised to not reopen the separatism debate.

As the country's second-biggest province, the politics of Quebec have large influence on the politics of Canada overall. Many of Canada's recent prime ministers have come from Quebec, as have many other leading figures in Canadian government. Because Quebec separatism is considered a serious existential crisis to Canada's survival as a country, the age-old question of "what does Quebec want?" is something that has been given a lot of attention by the Canadian political class over the years. Initiatives like enshrining French as an official language of Canada and providing subsidies for the Quebec welfare state represent significant efforts to quell separatist sentiment through conciliatory gestures, though they've also fostered resentment in other parts of the country, where Quebec outreach can be seen as simply "caving in" to French whining or extortion.

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As the only French-speaking region of North America, Quebec is unlike anywhere else on the continent. The majority of the population consists of French-Canadians, the descendants of 17th century French settlers who have resisted centuries of pressure to assimilate into Anglo society.

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Whether they're in it for the competition, teamwork, or fitness, sports have long been a favourite pastime of Canadians - whether watching or playing. Though hockey and football remain the country's most clichéd and famous, virtually every major organized sport has its share of Canadian fans, and the nation is home to a vast array of professional teams, leagues and players just waiting to be cheered or booed.
Hockey in Canada

Stereotypical though it may be, there's no escaping the fact that Canadians really love their hockey. Forged in the early 19th century but popularized and structured as a professional sport in the 1910s, hockey has held an outsized role in Canadian culture ever since. To many, particularly those in the eastern part of the country, hockey has a heavily romanticized image as a rough-and-tumble game Canadians have played for generations on frozen lakes in the long winter months, and a sport whose ancient rules, loyalties and traditions can be passed down to teach important lessons about community, sportsmanship, teamwork and athleticism.

Playing organized hockey as a young kid is a rite of passage in many Canadian communities, though rising costs of equipment, travel and league fees - not to mention time investment for early morning training sessions and back-and-forth rink commutes - have increasingly made it a mostly upper-middle class pursuit. Far more Canadians interact with the game solely at a professional level, as fans and attendees of games organized by the National Hockey League ( NHL).

Despite its name, the NHL consists of 31 teams in both Canada and the United States, though Canadian-born players have remain the league's largest demographic. Since 1893, the NHL's most coveted prize has been the Stanley Cup, a once-a-year trophy awarded after a lengthy league-wide tournament, and named after the Lord Stanley (1841-1908), a former Canadian governor general.

The Seven Canadian NHL Teams

Canadian Football

Next to hockey, football reigns supreme in the Canadian sports world. Similarly competitive, fast-paced and aggressive - and with playoff seasons that often dovetail conveniently - the two sports have considerable overlap in terms of appeal. It should be noted that when Canadians speak of "football," they are referring to the rugby-inspired game sometimes known as " American Football" and not the kicking-based game North Americans call soccer, discussed below.

Though Canadian football fans actively follow the National Football League (NFL) and its teams' quest for the league's ultimate prize, the Super Bowl, there are no Canadian teams in the NFL, making it the only major professional sport in which Canada and the United States are not integrated into a single league. This is due to the fact that the rules of so-called Canadian Football are slightly different than its American counterpart, meaning Canadian football teams have to compete in a different league all their own: the Canadian Football League ( CFL).

The distinctions between NFL and CFL football mainly have to do with the size of the field (Canada's is larger) and the amount of downs, or plays (America has more), though there are various other subtle differences as well. In practical terms, however, the differences aren't particularly difficult to grasp, and the CFL is often used as a training ground for American players who will one day migrate to the NFL.

As a purely Canadian league, the CFL is relatively small, with teams in just eight cities or provinces: the B.C. Lions, the Edmonton Eskimos, the Calgary Stampeders, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, the Hamilton Ti-Cats, the Toronto Argonauts, the Ottawa Redblacks, and the Montreal Alouettes. Once a year, two teams will duke it out for Canadian Football's highest prize, the Grey Cup, a gift of former governor-general Earl Grey (1851-1917) which has been awarded annually since 1909. Every year, the Grey Cup and Super Bowl finals are usually the single-most watched events on Canadian television.

Lacrosse

Originally an aboriginal game used to keep Indian warriors in fighting shape, the uniquely North American sport of lacrosse was appropriated by pious French settlers in the mid-1800s, who named it " La Crosse " in recognition of its vaguely crucifix-shaped playing sticks. Broadly similar to hockey or soccer, the sport is played by two teams of 10 who try to score on each other's net by pitching a small rubber ball across an indoor or outdoor field using scoop-like netted sticks. Like football or rugby, it's also a fairly rough-and-tumble game associated with body-checking and broken bones.

The first professional lacrosse association was founded in 1867, and its legacy continues today in the form of the National Lacrosse League ( NLL), which features nine pro teams, four of which are Canadian. In eastern Canada, the sport is also quite popular at the university level, and most of the region's biggest universities battle it out in their own league, the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association ( CUFLA). A similar, less violent version of the game known as intercross is popular with kids.

While undoubtedly rich in history, lacrosse has long struggled to achieve the sort of mainstream fame and fortune of other professional sports in Canada. Its fans are probably best described as a proud but small subculture, and NLL playoffs rarely capture the public's (or media's) attention the way NHL, CFL or NFL games do.

Baseball in Canada

The great American pastime has achieved only limited success in Canada, and baseball's popularity is mostly concentrated in Ontario, where the country's only Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays play. From 1969 to 2004 there was a second Canadian MLB team as well, the Montreal Expos, but in 2004 they were sold to Washington, D.C., where they now play as the Nationals.

In 1992 and again in 1993, Toronto became the first (and to date, only) Canadian team to ever win the MLB's World Series tournament, but fortunes declined shortly after due to a combination of trades, injuries and strikes, as well as perennial financial and management problems.

Outside of the professional league, however, baseball remains a popular amateur sport in many parts of Canada, particularly among young Canadians who often learn it in school. Softball, which is similar but not identical to baseball, enjoys comparable popularity among adults, and its common for many large companies to have an amateur softball team to foster team-building and camaraderie among employees.

Curling

Another sport of ancient tradition but only minor popularity, curling was first brought to Canada by Scottish immigrants in the late 18th century, and today thrives mostly on the Canadian prairies. Played indoors on a long, frozen rink, the game is a shuffleboard-esque exercise in which competing teams try to slide large, heavy rocks (known as stones) into the centre of a painted target, or house, using special ice-polishing brooms.

Professional curling has been around since the founding of various gentlemen's curling clubs in the late Victorian era, with nationwide curling tournaments now organized through Curling Canada (previously known as the Canadian Curling Association). Teams battle each other in a multitude of different provincial and national tournaments, with the highest being either the Tim Hortons® Brier for men or the Scotties® Tournament of Hearts for women. (Curling is fond of corporate sponsorships.) International contests are relatively limited, as the sport is quite obscure in most countries, and curling has only been a medal sport at the Winter Olympics since 1998.

The comparatively slow pace and strategic emphasis of curling has made it a popular sport with Canadians of all ages, and many amateur curling leagues continue to feature players into their 50s, 60s, or beyond. It's also one of the few Canadian sports in which men and women routinely play together in mixed teams. For these same reasons, however, curling has never exactly been a smash hit on television, and Canada's most passionate curling fans are generally curlers themselves.

Soccer in Canada

Soccer has never caught on in North America the way it has almost everywhere else in the world, and no one seems to know exactly why. Perhaps there's just too much competition from other sports. Regardless, soccer does have a modest following in Canada, and there are signs that interest has been steadily growing in recent years.

A lot of Canadian children grow up playing soccer at school or on amateur teams, but interest generally trails off during the teen years, as attention is transferred to more "adult" professional sports like hockey, football or baseball. To a considerable degree, those who remain interested are frequently Europhiles who are attracted to the sport's rich tradition in nations like England and France, or recent immigrants who maintain loyalties to their team back home. Since Canada has never had a particularly competitive team in the professional international soccer league - known as FIFA - and has only qualified for their World Cup tournament once (in 1986), the most passionate soccer fans in Canada are forced to look beyond their borders for a team to cheer.

That said, interest in North American soccer has steadily grown over the last two decades, with three Canadian teams - , the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the Montreal Impact joiningMajor League Soccer ( MLS), the leading American professional soccer league, between 2007 and 2014. As these teams rack up victories and become better-known in their cities Canadian interest in soccer is likely to rise.

Basketball in Canada

Basketball's Canadian fate has been broadly similar to that of baseball, in the sense of being a major American sport that has faced difficulty making inroads north of the border. The country's only team in the otherwise entirely American-dominated National Basketball Association ( NBA) is the Toronto Raptors, a not terribly successful expansion team perhaps best known for starting the career of future NBA All-Star Vince Carter (b. 1977). A short-lived Vancouver team, the Grizzlies (1995-2001), was even less successful, and was quickly relocated to Memphis, where they remain to this day. The relative unpopularity of basketball in Canada is sometimes attributed to the country's lack of a large African-American population, a demographic that has traditionally provided some of the sport's most ardent fans in the United States.

It's an ironic fate for a sport Canadians like to take credit for inventing. Dr. James Naismith (1861-1939), an Ontario-born physical education teacher and Presbyterian minister, helped establish basketball's modern rules in 1891 during the great "indoor sports" craze of the late Victorian era.

Other Sports in Canada

It's hard to find a sport that's not played at least somewhere in Canada, and almost all of them have their own uniquely Canadian heroes - though their profiles may be decidedly lower than some of the folks mentioned above.

Skating has long been both a casual pastime and competitive sport in Canada, and the two most decorated Canadian Olympians of all time, Clara Hughes (b. 1972) and Cindy Klassen (b. 1979), are both speed skaters.

Skiing, of both the cross-country and downhill variety, is one of Canada's major tourism industries, and every year thousands of foreign visitors join locals to participate in the long Canadian ski season, which usually lasts from November to April. The rocky mountain provinces of British Columbia and Alberta are home to some of the world's largest and most glamorous ski resorts, with a few smaller-scale ones in Quebec as well.

Other sports that enjoy some degree of mainstream popularity in modern Canada include golf, volleyball, tennis, rugby, boxing, swimming, wrestling, track and field, rowing, mountain climbing, cycling and bowling. Most large Canadian cities will have some manner of organized league for all of them.

Canada and the Olympics

Canada is a vastly uneven country when it comes to the Olympic Games, winning huge during the winter games but lagging quite far behind in the summer ones. This is a fairly predictable outcome for a nation which specializes so heavily in winter sports, and as a result the winter Olympics are generally a much more patriotic and exciting time for the country as a whole.

Three times in Olympic history have the games featured a Canadian host city: Montreal (summer, 1976), Calgary (winter, 1988) and Vancouver (winter, 2010). As is so often the case with the Olympics, all three cities experienced both glory and controversy during the course of their hosting duties, and all are still experiencing, in some form or another, in the consequences of both.

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Whether they're in it for the competition, teamwork, or fitness, sports have long been a favourite pastime of Canadians - whether watching or playing. Though hockey and football remain the country's most clichéd and famous, virtually every major organized sport has its share of Canadian fans, and the nation is home to a vast array of professional teams, leagues and players just waiting to be cheered or booed.

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Canada, as Canadian schoolchildren are proudly taught, is the second-biggest country on earth - only Russia occupies more territory. Yet when it comes to people, Canada trails behind many European countries one-thirtieth its size. This reality stems from Canada's unique geography, which is, all things considered, rather unfriendly to humans. Over 80 per cent of Canada's land is uninhabited, and most Canadians live clustered in a handful of large cities close to the U.S. border.
The Canadian Landmass

Canada occupies the top half of the North American continent, where it borders the United States - Canada's only neighboring nation - to its south (and north-east, via the isolated state of Alaska). Canada's national motto, A Mari usque ad Mare, or " From Sea to Sea," captures the vastness of the nation, as the country quite literally stretches from the Pacific Ocean on its western coast to the Atlantic Ocean on its east. Some have even suggested adding a third "to Sea" in the motto to reflect the fact the country reaches high enough north to touch the Arctic Ocean as well.

The story of Canadian geography unfolds in two directions: west to east and north to south. The more north you go, the colder, rockier, snowier, and overall less suitable for living the country gets, which explains why few people go through the hassle. From west to east unfolds the more livable portion, and a vast array of geographic diversity encompassing everything from lush green valleys to dry, sandy deserts.

The West Coast

The West Coast of Canada, known by geographers as the Cordilleraregion, and containing the province of British Columbia, is the most mountainous part of the country, defined by the Coastal Range mountains that stretch down from Alaska along Canada's border with the Pacific Ocean. Farther east lies the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains, which forms British Columbia's border with the province of Alberta. Both ranges are home to massive evergreen forests and a diverse assortment of wildlife that have historically formed the world's stereotypical image of Canadian nature.

Between the two Pacific mountain ranges lie rich, green valleys as well as a small, warm, dry region in the southern interior of British Columbia known as the Okanagan. Insulated by the mountains, this desert-like area has proven a hospitable climate for growing fruit and vegetables, making it a natural home for some of Canada's largest orchards and wineries.

The Canadian Prairies

Moving east from the Cordillera region, the land dramatically flattens and the mountains disappear. This vast territory, known as the Prairies, contains the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and houses some of the driest, least-forested parts of the country. Wide-open fields and flat, arable land make the region the base of Canadian agriculture. Southeastern Alberta is uniquely barren, and features a mostly arid, desert-like landscape known for its rocky soil and hoodoos - massive gravity-defying stone formations.

Though often overlooked, the landscape of the northern region of the Prairies is considerably more hilly and forested than the more famous plains of the south. The central part of the province of Manitoba is similarly dominated by three enormous lakes - Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Winnipeg - which are surrounded by lush vegetation and swamps, rivers, and bogs.

Central Canada

Central Canada, containing the country's two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, is part of a massive geographic land form known as the Canadian Shield that gives much of the country its distinctive shape. Scooped out by the giant Hudson Bay to the north and bordered by four of the five Great Lakes - Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario - to the south, Central Canada, also known as the Laurentian region, is a mostly green landscape of rolling hills, grassy fields, and deciduous forests topped by a barren and rocky north.

Both Ontario and Quebec are dotted with thousands of small lakes and rivers, many of which are surrounded by moist wetlands home to iconic Canadian animals such as the beaver and moose. Most human residents of the region live in what is known as the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands area, a stretch of low elevation and fertile farmland located around the coasts of Lake Ontario and the massive St. Lawrence River, both of which flow from the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Canada

Farthest east, we have the Appalachian region, encompassing the four Atlantic provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia, which are all either islands or peninsulas on the eastern coast of Canada that extend into the Atlantic Ocean.

A mix of rocky coasts and forested interiors, the landscape of Atlantic Canada, also known as the Maritimes, has been shaped by its proximity to the ocean, with steep cliffs, high tides, and long coastal fjords. Much of the interior is densely forested and low in elevation, though the Appalachian Mountain Range does extend into parts of northern New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

In contrast to other parts of Canada, the small Atlantic provinces are known for being densely populated, and only Newfoundland features large portions of entirely uninhabited land. Emptiest of all is the barren territory of Labrador, which although officially part of Newfoundland, is located on the rocky northeastern tip of Quebec, and is home to the Torngat Mountains, Canada's tallest range east of the Rockies.

Northern Canada

The Canadian " north " is a somewhat vaguely-defined region All the provinces, save the Maritimes, contain dry, largely barren and mostly uninhabited northern areas prone to long, cold winters, heavy snow, and perpetually frozen soil.

In a more specific sense, however, the capital-n usually means the vast, northwestern half of Canada that contains the country's three northern territories: Yukon, Nunavut, and the less creatively-named Northwest Territories. Though Yukon possesses a more forested, Cordillera-style environment in contrast to Nunavut and the NWT, all three most mostly rocky, barren terrain with only sparse vegetation.

The extreme north of Canada, where virtually no humans live at all, is an archipelago of massive islands covered by snowy tundra, vast, frozen glaciers, and towering mountains. Home to polar bears, seals, and narwhals - but no plant life and almost no human beings - this unique and exotic region forms an important part of Canada's image, even if it's an area few will ever visit in person.

Weather in Canada

Weather is a controversial topic with Canadians, born from a mix of frustration and defensiveness. On one hand, Canada is, undeniably, one of the coldest countries in the world, with temperatures in many cities dipping below -20°(C) in the winter (December-March), complete with heavy snowfalls, icy winds, and slippery, frozen streets. On the other hand, winter is only one of the country's four seasons, and most inhabited parts of Canada also enjoy relatively mild autumns (September-December), pleasant springs (March-June), and warm summers (June-September). The common assumption of foreigners that Canada suffers through harsh cold all year round is a stereotype Canadians find irritating.

Canadians who live near the Atlantic or Pacific coasts usually experience minimal snow, but long, heavy periods of rainfall in the fall and winter, and a generally moist, grey climate. In the sunny Prairie region, rain is considerably rarer, but the dry air can occasionally prompt fierce thunderstorms and tornadoes - sometimes called Alberta Clippers. Central Canada has infamously cold, snowy winters, but these usually give way to wet springs and very hot, humid summers. Northern Canada tends to have the most extreme weather polarization of all, with as much as 24 straight hours of continuous sunlight in the summer, and near-perpetual darkness in the fall. Even in the North, however, there are still periods of relative warmth and green - at least in the areas where humans live.

Canada's Natural Resources

Canada's status as one of the earth's richest nations is hardly a mystery. There exist very few valuable minerals, chemicals, or elements that can't be found in at least some part of Canada, giving the country a huge abundance of precious natural resources to sell.

Most famously, the Prairie province of Alberta is home to some of the largest deposits of oil and natural gas on the American continent, a fact which has allowed Canada to emerge as one of the 21st century's major energy-producing superpowers. The province also contains the world's largest proven oil sands (or bitumen) reserves, a fact which, if added alongside the country's traditional petroleum reserves, puts Canada in a firm second-place behind Saudi Arabia as the world's most oil-rich nation.

All provinces and territories (save tiny Prince Edward Island) have ample mineral mines, though what's harvested varies from province to province. Canada is one of the world's leading producers of zinc, which is found in most parts of the country, as well as uranium and potash, which are mined mainly in Saskatchewan. Large amounts of nickel and copper are found in Northern Ontario and Manitoba, while iron and coal have been traditional staples of the Atlantic region. Gold has historically been found just about everywhere, while diamonds are becoming big business in Canada's North. Controversially, Canada has also remained one of the world's most active producers of the dangerous insulator known as asbestos, which is mainly mined in Quebec and sold to poor countries with lax public safety laws.

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Canada, as Canadian schoolchildren are proudly taught, is the second-biggest country on earth - only Russia occupies more territory. Yet when it comes to people, Canada trails behind many European countries one-thirtieth its size. This reality stems from Canada's unique geography, which is, all things considered, rather unfriendly to humans.

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Donovan Bailey Wins Gold in Men's 100 Metres at Atlanta 1996

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Canada's national parks, national marine conservation areas, and national historic sites are the ultimate awe-inspiring experience.

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Tuesday June 11th: Second half of class - 3 Groups
Thursday June 13th: 5 Groups
Randomly chosen.

1. Sport in Canada
2. Indigenous
3. Tourism and Landscape

4. Multiculturalism
5. Government
6. Flag
7. British Columbia and the West
8. Arctic

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French Canadian Nationalism | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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The National Flag of Canada ( French: Drapeau national du Canada), often simply referred to as the Canadian flag or, unofficially, as the maple leaf flag or (French: [l‿ynifɔlje]; lit.  ' the one-leafed '), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of 1∶2∶1, in which is featured a stylized, red, 11-pointed maple leaf charged in the centre. It is the first flag to have been adopted by both houses of Parliament and officially proclaimed by the Canadian monarch as the country's official national flag. The flag has become the predominant and most recognizable national symbol of Canada.

In 1964, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson formed a committee to resolve the ongoing issue of the lack of an official Canadian flag, sparking a serious debate about a flag change to replace the Union Flag. Out of three choices, the maple leaf design by George Stanley, based on the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada, was selected. The flag made its first official appearance on February 15, 1965; the date is now celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day.

The Canadian Red Ensign was in unofficial use since the 1860s and officially approved by a 1945 Order in Council for use "wherever place or occasion may make it desirable to fly a distinctive Canadian flag". Also, the Royal Union Flag remains an official flag in Canada, to symbolize Canada's allegiance to the monarch and membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. There is no law dictating how the national flag is to be treated, but there are conventions and protocols to guide how it is to be displayed and its place in the order of precedence of flags, which gives it primacy over the aforementioned and most other flags.

Many different flags created for use by Canadian officials, government bodies, and military forces contain the maple leaf motif in some fashion, either by having the Canadian flag charged in the canton or by including maple leaves in the design. The Canadian flag also appears on the government's wordmark.

Construction sheet for the national flag of Canada

The flag is horizontally symmetric and therefore the obverse and reverse sides appear identical. The width of the Maple Leaf flag is twice the height. The white field is a Canadian pale (a central band occupying half the width of a vertical triband flag, rather than a third of the width, named for its use in this flag); each bordering red field is exactly half its size and it bears a stylized red maple leaf at its centre. In heraldic terminology, the flag's blazon as outlined on the original royal proclamation is " gules on a Canadian pale argent a maple leaf of the first".

The maple leaf has been used as a Canadian emblem since the 18th century. It was first used as a national symbol in 1868 when it appeared on the coat of arms of both Ontario and Quebec. In 1867, Alexander Muir composed the patriotic song " The Maple Leaf Forever", which became an unofficial anthem in English-speaking Canada. The maple leaf was later added to the Canadian coat of arms in 1921. From 1876 until 1901, the leaf appeared on all Canadian coins and remained on the penny after 1901. The use of the maple leaf by the Royal Canadian Regiment as a regimental symbol extended back to 1860. During the First and Second World Wars, badges of the Canadian forces were often based on a maple leaf design. The maple leaf would eventually adorn the tombstones of Canadian military graves.

By proclaiming the Royal Arms of Canada, King George V in 1921 made red and white the official colours of Canada; the former came from Saint George's Cross and the latter from the French royal emblem since King Charles VII. These colours became "entrenched" as the national colours of Canada upon the proclamation of the Royal Standard of Canada (the Canadian monarch's personal flag) in 1962. The Department of Canadian Heritage has listed the various colour shades for printing ink that should be used when reproducing the Canadian flag; these include:

FIP red: General Printing Ink, No. 0-712;

Inmont Canada Ltd., No. 4T51577;

Monarch Inks, No. 62539/0

Rieger Inks, No. 25564

Sinclair and Valentine, No. RL163929/0.

The number of points on the leaf has no special significance; the number and arrangement of the points were chosen after wind tunnel tests showed the current design to be the least blurry of the various designs when tested under high-wind conditions.

The image of the maple leaf used on the flag was designed by Jacques Saint-Cyr; Jack Cook claims that this stylized eleven-point maple leaf was lifted from a copyrighted design owned by a Canadian craft shop in Ottawa. The colours 0/100/100/0 in the CMYK process, PMS 032 (flag red 100%), or PMS 485 (used for screens) in the Pantone colour specifier can be used when reproducing the flag. For the Federal Identity Program, the red tone of the standard flag has an RGB value of 255-0-0 (web hexadecimal #FF0000). In 1984, the National Flag of Canada Manufacturing Standards Act was passed to unify the manufacturing standards for flags used in both indoor and outdoor conditions.

The Flag of Canada is represented as the Unicode emoji sequence 🇨 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER C, 🇦 REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER A.

Depiction of Jacques Cartier meeting with Iroquoians at Stadacona. Another member of Cartier's party is holding the royal banner of France.

The Saint George's Cross was carried by John Cabot when he reached Newfoundland in 1497. In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross in Gaspé bearing the French royal coat of arms with the fleurs-de-lis. The Royal Banner of France or "Bourbon Flag" held a position of some prominence in New France, with the evolving variations of French military flags being used over time.

As the British national flag, the Union Flag (commonly known as the "Union Jack") was used similarly in Canada from the time of British settlement in Nova Scotia after 1621. Its use continued after Canada's legislative independence from the United Kingdom in 1931 until the adoption of the current flag in 1965.

Shortly after Canadian Confederation in 1867, the need for distinctive Canadian flags emerged. The first Canadian flag was that then used as the flag of the governor general of Canada, a Union Flag with a shield in the centre bearing the quartered arms of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, surrounded by a wreath of maple leaves. In 1870, the Red Ensign, with the addition of the Canadian composite shield in the fly, began to be used unofficially on land and sea and was known as the Canadian Red Ensign. As new provinces joined the Confederation, their arms were added to the shield. In 1892, the British admiralty approved the use of the Red Ensign for Canadian use at sea.

A Canadian postcard marking the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911, depicting a Canadian Red Ensign with a crowned composite shield of Canada in the fly, and the Union Flag below it

The composite shield was replaced with the coat of arms of Canada upon its grant in 1921 and, in 1924, an Order in Council approved its use for Canadian government buildings abroad. In 1925, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King established a committee to design a flag to be used at home, but it was dissolved before the final report could be delivered. Despite the failure of the committee to solve the issue, public sentiment in the 1920s was in favour of fixing the flag problem for Canada. New designs were proposed in 1927, 1931, and 1939.

By the Second World War, the Red Ensign was viewed as Canada's de facto national flag. A joint committee of the Senate and House of Commons was appointed on November 8, 1945, to recommend a national flag to officially adopt. It received 2,409 designs from the public and was addressed by the director of the Historical Section of the Canadian Army, Archer Fortescue Duguid, who pointed out that red and white were Canada's official colours and there was already an emblem representing the country: three joined maple leaves seen on the escutcheon of the Canadian coat of arms. By May 9 the following year, the committee reported back with a recommendation "that the national flag of Canada should be the Canadian red ensign with a maple leaf in autumn golden colours in a bordered background of white". The Legislative Assembly of Quebec had urged the committee to not include any of what it deemed as "foreign symbols", including the Union Flag, and Mackenzie King, then still prime minister, declined to act on the report; fearing it may lead to political instability. As a result, the Union Flag was kept as a national flag, and the order to fly the Canadian Red Ensign at government buildings was maintained.

By the 1960s, the debate for an official Canadian flag intensified and became a subject of controversy, culminating in the Great Flag Debate of 1964. In 1963, the minority Liberal government of Lester B. Pearson gained power and decided to adopt an official Canadian flag through parliamentary debate. The principal political proponent of the change was Pearson. He had been a significant broker during the Suez Crisis of 1956, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During the crisis, Pearson was disturbed when the Egyptian government objected to Canadian peacekeeping forces on the grounds that the Canadian flag (the Red Ensign) contained the same symbol (the Union Flag) also used as a flag by the United Kingdom, one of the belligerents. Pearson's goal was for the Canadian flag to be distinctive and unmistakably Canadian. The main opponent to changing the flag was the leader of the opposition and former prime minister, John Diefenbaker, who eventually made the subject a personal crusade.

A flag design created by Alan Beddoe, and dubbed the Pearson Pennant, being Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's favoured design

In 1961, Leader of the Opposition Lester Pearson asked John Ross Matheson to begin researching what it would take for Canada to have a new flag. By April 1963, Pearson was prime minister in a minority government and risked losing power over the issue. He formed a 15-member multi-party parliamentary committee in 1963 to select a new design, despite opposition leader Diefenbaker's demands for a referendum on the issue. On May 27, 1964, Pearson's cabinet introduced a motion to parliament for the adoption of his favourite design, presented to him by artist and heraldic advisor Alan Beddoe, of a "sea to sea" (Canada's motto) flag with blue borders and three conjoined red maple leaves on a white field. This motion led to weeks of acrimonious debate in the House of Commons and the design came to be known as the "Pearson Pennant", derided by the media and viewed as a "concession to Québec".

A new all-party committee was formed in September 1964, comprising seven Liberals, five Conservatives, one New Democrat, one Social Crediter, and one Socreter, with Herman Batten as chairman, while John Matheson acted as Pearson's right-hand man. Among those who gave their opinions to the group was Duguid, expressing the same views as he had in 1945, insisting on a design using three maple leaves; Arthur R. M. Lower, stressing the need for a distinctly Canadian emblem; Marcel Trudel, arguing for symbols of Canada's founding nations, which did not include the maple leaf (a thought shared by Diefenbaker); and A. Y. Jackson, providing his own suggested designs. A steering committee also considered about 2,000 suggestions from the public, in addition to 3,900 others that included, according to Library and Archives Canada, "those that had accumulated in the Department of the Secretary of State and those from a parliamentary flag committee of 1945-1946". Through a six-week period of study with political manoeuvring, the committee took a vote on the two finalists: the Pearson Pennant (Beddoe's design) and the current design. Believing the Liberal members would vote for the Prime Minister's preference, the Conservatives voted for the single leaf design. The Liberals, though, all voted for the same, giving a unanimous, 15 to 0 vote for the option created by George Stanley and inspired by the flag of the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario.

There, near the parade square, in March 1964, while viewing the college flag atop the Mackenzie Building, Stanley, then RMC's Dean of Arts, first suggested to Matheson, then Member of Parliament for Leeds, that the RMC flag should form the basis of the national flag. The suggestion was followed by Stanley's memorandum of March 23, 1964, on the history of Canada's emblems, in which he warned that any new flag "must avoid the use of national or racial symbols that are of a divisive nature" and that it would be "clearly inadvisable" to create a flag that carried the Union Flag or a fleur-de-lis. According to Matheson, Pearson's one "paramount and desperate objective" in introducing the new flag was to keep Quebec in the Canadian union. It was Stanley's idea that the new flag should be red and white and that it should feature the single maple leaf; his memorandum included the first sketch of what would become the flag of Canada. Stanley and Matheson collaborated on a design that was, after six months of debate and 308 speeches, passed by a majority vote in the House of Commons on December 15, 1964. Just after this, at 2:00 am, Matheson wrote to Stanley: "Your proposed flag has just now been approved by the Commons 163 to 78. Congratulations. I believe it is an excellent flag that will serve Canada well." The Senate added its approval two days later.

After the resolutions proposing a new national flag for Canada were passed by the two houses of parliament, a proclamation was drawn up for signature by the Queen of Canada. This was created in the form of an illuminated document on vellum, with calligraphy by Yvonne Diceman and heraldic illustrations. The text was rendered in black ink, using a quill, while the heraldic elements were painted in gouache with gilt highlights. The Great Seal of Canada was embossed and secured by a silk ribbon.

Royal proclamation of the national flag of Canada

This parchment was signed discreetly by the calligrapher but was made official by the signatures of Queen Elizabeth II (given on January 28, 1965), Prime Minister Lester Pearson, and Attorney General Guy Favreau. In order to obtain these signatures, the document was flown to the United Kingdom (for the Queen's royal sign-manual) and to the Caribbean (for the signature of Favreau, who was on vacation). This transport to different climates, combined with the quality of the materials with which the proclamation was created, and the subsequent storage and repair methods (including the use of Scotch Tape) contributed to the deterioration of the document: The gouache was flaking off, leaving gaps in the heraldic designs, most conspicuously on the red maple leaf of the flag design in the centre of the sheet, and the adhesive from the tape had left stains. A desire to have the proclamation as part of a display at the Canadian Museum of Civilization marking the flag's 25th anniversary led to its restoration in 1989. The proclamation is today stored in a temperature and humidity controlled, plexiglass case, so as to prevent the vellum from changing dimensionally.

The new national flag was inaugurated on February 15 of the same year at an official ceremony held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in the presence of Governor General Major-General Georges Vanier, the Prime Minister, other members of the Cabinet, and Canadian parliamentarians. The Red Ensign was lowered at the stroke of noon and the new maple leaf flag was raised. The crowd sang " O Canada" followed by " God Save the Queen". Of the flag, Vanier said "[it] will symbolize to each of us-and to the world-the unity of purpose and high resolve to which destiny beckons us". Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate, said: "The flag is the symbol of the nation's unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief, or opinion." Yet there was still opposition to the change, and Stanley's life was even threatened for having "assassinated the flag". In spite of this, Stanley attended the flag-raising ceremony.

At the time of the 50th anniversary of the flag, the government-held by the Conservative Party-was criticized for the lack of an official ceremony dedicated to the date; accusations of partisanship were levelled. Minister of Canadian Heritage Shelly Glover denied the charges and others, including Liberal Members of Parliament, pointed to community events taking place around the country. Governor General David Johnston did, though, preside at an official ceremony at Confederation Park in Ottawa, integrated with Winterlude. He said "[t]he National Flag of Canada is so embedded in our national life and so emblematic of our national purpose that we simply cannot imagine our country without it." Queen Elizabeth II stated: "On this, the 50th anniversary of the National Flag of Canada, I am pleased to join with all Canadians in the celebration of this unique and cherished symbol of our country and identity." A commemorative stamp and coin were issued by Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mint, respectively.

As a symbol of the nation's membership in the Commonwealth of Nations and allegiance to the Crown, the Royal Union Flag is an official Canadian flag and is flown on certain occasions. Regulations require federal installations to fly the Royal Union Flag beside the national flag when physically possible, using a second flagpole, on the following days: Commonwealth Day (the second Monday in March), Victoria Day (the same date as the Canadian sovereign's official birthday), and the anniversary of the Statute of Westminster (December 11). The Royal Union Flag can also be flown at the National War Memorial or at other locations during ceremonies that honour Canadian involvement with forces of other Commonwealth nations during times of war. The national flag always precedes the Royal Union Flag, with the former occupying the place of honour.

Royal Standard of Canada (used by Charles III, King of Canada)

The Royal Union Flag is also part of the provincial flags of Ontario and Manitoba, forming the canton of these flags; a stylized version is used on the flag of British Columbia and the flag of Newfoundland and Labrador. Several of the provincial lieutenant governors formerly used a modified union flag as their personal standard, but the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia is the only one who retains this design.

The Royal Standard of Canada (banner of arms) is an official flag introduced May 6, 2023, and first flown at Government House, Halifax, that day.

The Red Ensign is occasionally still used as well, including official use at some ceremonies. It was flown at the commemorations of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 2007. This decision elicited criticism from those who believed it should not have been given equal status to the Canadian flag and received praise from people who believed that it was important to retain the ties to Canada's past. The Royal Union Flag and Red Ensign are still flown in Canada by veterans' groups and others who continue to stress the importance of Canada's British heritage and the Commonwealth connection.

In Quebec, the provincial flag (a white cross on a field of blue with four fleurs-de-lis) can be considered a national flag along with the Maple Leaf flag, as is the Acadian flag in the Acadian regions of the Maritime provinces. Public display of Canadian flags is rare in Quebec, with most Quebecois preferring to fly the flag of Quebec instead. Display of the flag is also contentious, with the Quebecois provincial government ordering that the Quebecois flag be given seniority over the Canadian one in the province, and many Quebecois government facilities, such as the Quebec City Hall, the headquarters of the Sûreté du Québec and SAAQ, and the Quebecois Parliament, refusing to fly the Canadian flag at all.

No law dictates the proper use of the Canadian flag. Canadian Heritage has released guidelines on how to correctly display the flag alone and with other flags. The guidelines deal with the order of precedence in which the Canadian flag is placed, where the flag can be used, how it is used, and what people should do to honour the flag. The suggestions, titled Flag Etiquette in Canada, were published by Canadian Heritage in a book and online formats and last updated in August 2011. Canadian Forces also have a special protocol for folding the Canadian flag for presentations, such as during a funeral ceremony; CF does not recommend this method for everyday use.

The flag itself can be displayed on any day at buildings operated by the Government of Canada, airports, military bases, and diplomatic offices, as well as by citizens, during any time of the day. When flying the flag, it should be flown using its own pole and should not be inferior to other flags, save for, in descending order, the King's standard, the governor general's standard, any of the personal standards of members of the Canadian Royal Family, or flags of the lieutenant governors. The Canadian flag is flown at half-mast in Canada to indicate a period of mourning.

Since the adoption of the Canadian flag in 1965, the Canadian government has sponsored programs to promote it. Examples include the Canadian Parliamentary Flag Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage and the flag program run by the Department of Public Works. These programs increased the exposure of the flag and the concept that it was part of the national identity. To increase awareness of the new flag, the Parliamentary Flag Program was set up in December 1972, by the Cabinet and, beginning in 1973, allowed members of the House of Commons to distribute flags and lapel pins in the shape of the Canadian flag to their constituents. Full-size flags that have been flown on Peace Tower and four other locations on Parliament Hill are packaged by the Department of Public Works and offered to the public free of charge. As of March 2019, the program has a waiting list of over 100 years for both Peace Tower flags, which are 2.3 by 4.6 metres (7.5 by 15 ft) in size, and for flags from the other four locations (one on each side of Centre Block and one each over East and West Blocks), which are 1.4 by 2.7 metres (4.5 by 9 ft).

A sample of items from the Parliamentary Flag Program

Since 1996, February 15 has been commemorated as National Flag of Canada Day. In 1996, Minister of Canadian Heritage Sheila Copps instituted the One in a Million National Flag Challenge. Canadian Heritage put the expenses at $15.5 million, with approximately a seventh of the cost offset by donations.

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The National Flag of Canada ( French: Drapeau national du Canada), often simply referred to as the Canadian flag or, unofficially, as the maple leaf flag or (French: [l‿ynifɔlje]; lit.  ' the one-leafed '), consists of a red field with a white square at its centre in the ratio of 1∶2∶1, in which is featured a stylized, red, 11-pointed maple leaf charged in the centre.

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Welcome to Canada: 150 years of immigration

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Emblems of Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Multicultural mural at Bramblewood Elementary School (British Columbia). Designed by Tammy Pilon and painted with the help of elementary school children.

Background

The initial idea behind multiculturalism was brought to popular attention by John Murray Gibbon's 1938 book Canadian Mosaic: The Making of a Northern Nation, which challenged the US-born idea of cultural assimilation, known as the "melting pot." However, it was not until the 1960s that multiculturalism emerged as an object of national conversation about Canadian identity.
The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism
The origins of Canada's multiculturalism policy can be found in the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism (1963-69).

The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism was appointed to investigate the state of bilingualism and biculturalism in Canada. The commission was a response to the growing unrest among French Canadians in Quebec, who called for the protection of their language and culture, and opportunities to participate fully in political and economic decision making (see Quiet Revolution). The commission's findings led to changes in French education across the country, the creation of the federal ministry of multiculturalism and theOfficial Languages Act (1969).

Two years later, in 1971, Canada's multiculturalism policy was adopted. The policy acknowledged that Canadians come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, and that all cultures have intrinsic value. In a speech in the House of Commons in April of 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced it as "a policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework," a policy that would complement the Official Languages Act by facilitating the integration of new Canadians into one or both of the official language communities. "Although there are two official languages, there is no official culture," said Trudeau.

Multiculturalism was not welcomed by everyone. Opposition to the federal multiculturalism policy was strongest in the province of Quebec.

Evolution of Multicultural Policy in Canada

Federal multicultural policies and programs have evolved considerably since they were first introduced in 1971.
Ethnicity Multiculturalism (1970s)
The initial approach taken by the government might be described as "ethnicity multiculturalism." During the early 1970s, financial assistance was extended to certain ethno-cultural organizations for the promotion of cultural heritage. Modest support was provided for folkloric and artistic ethno-cultural expression.

Early opponents of federal multiculturalism argued the program discouraged social integration. Some charged that the real purpose of the funding was to secure political support from ethnic minority populations. Despite such criticisms, multiculturalism remained popular with Canadians, though to a lesser extent in Quebec.
Equity or Rights-Based Multiculturalism (1980s)
Prior to 1970, much of Canada's immigration was from European countries. However, the Immigration Act of 1976 lifted some restrictions on immigration from non-European countries ( see Immigration Policy in Canada). The ensuing shift in demographics prompted calls to rethink multicultural policies with a focus on the need to combat discrimination. There were also calls to move away from supporting the cultural and/or folkloric expression of ethnic groups. As a result, equity or rights-based multiculturalism increasingly defined the policies and programs of the 1980s.

The 1982 patriation of the Canadian Constitution added a Charter of Rights. Section 27 stipulated that the Charter "shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians." While the section created a basis for how other sections might be applied, it did not provide a legislative framework for multicultural policy and therefore did not prescribe what government had to do to implement and advance multiculturalism. But many Canadians began to associate multiculturalism with other basic and rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter, such as freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

However, the Quebec government did not sign the 1982 Constitution. And so, in 1987, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Conservative government sought the agreement of all provinces to amend the constitution with an offer of recognition for Quebec's distinct character ("distinct society"). Known as the Meech Lake Accord, the proposed constitutional amendment also called for the recognition of official language minorities, including the "recognition that the existence of French-speaking Canadians...constitutes a fundamental characteristic of Canada." Meech Lake did not affect any of the provisions of the constitution that relate to Indigenous peoples in Canada or section 27 of the Charter, which related to multiculturalism ( see also Meech Lake Accord: Document).

The Accord failed to secure the required consent of all provinces. Nevertheless, in 1988 the federal government passed the Multiculturalism Act (Bill C-93). It was aimed at promoting "the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in the continuing evolution and shaping of all aspects of Canadian society."

In the late 1980s, concerns resurfaced about Canadian unity. Some opponents of multiculturalism believed that ethnic minority attachments to the cultures of their countries of origin were the main threat to Canadian identity. In their view, multiculturalism encouraged divisive dual and multiple identities and, in so doing, prevented citizens from simply describing themselves as Canadians.
Anti-Racism/Anti-Discrimination Multiculturalism (1990s)
During the 1990s, federal multiculturalism policies and programs placed greater emphasis on eliminating barriers to economic and social participation of immigrants and designated minority groups. In 1995, the federal government passed employment equity legislation that, among other things, required that information be gathered in order to determine the degree of the underrepresentation of persons in designated groups, notably the country's visible minorities. Since 1996, the census has collected information about visible minorities in Canada and multiculturalism aimed at eliminating racism and discrimination, assisting institutions to become more responsive to Canada's diversity.

Public Discourse on Canadian Multiculturalism

There are many examples of critics and champions of multiculturalism in Canada. Here are two:
Neil Bissoondath
With his 1994 publication Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada, author Neil Bissoondath emerged as one of Canada's most outspoken public critics of multiculturalism. He argued that the policy undermined Canada's bicultural nature and thereby undermined Canadian identity ( see Canadian Identity and Language). He insisted that the encouragement of ethnic differences led immigrants to adopt a "psychology of separation" which created distinct communities and prevented newcomers from becoming fully part of the mainstream culture. He suggested that this threatened Canadian unity and cohesion.
Will Kymlicka
With his 1995 book Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, philosopher Will Kymlicka emerged as one of the leading proponents of multiculturalism. He articulated a typology of minority rights, which includes self-government rights (for Quebec), special representation rights (for Indigenous peoples) and polyethnic rights (which he defines as legal and financial support for the protection of specific cultural practices). In a later publication, Finding Our Way: Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (1998), Kymlicka presented evidence that multiculturalism did not decrease the rate of immigrant integration. Using data on naturalization rates for immigrants, levels of political participation among ethnocultural groups, and rates at which new Canadians can speak an official language and rates of intermarriage, Kymlicka argued that the multiculturalism policy has worked, and that there is no evidence that it has promoted ethnic separateness.

Multiculturalism in Quebec
Initial Rejection of Multiculturalism in Quebec
As mentioned earlier, multiculturalism was not welcomed by everyone in Canada. Opposition to the federal multiculturalism policy was strongest in Quebec, the only province in which French is the majority language. For example, premier Robert Bourassa insisted that the federal policy was founded on a questionable dissociation of culture from language. He argued that the policy of multiculturalism was not suited to the majority-French province. Claude Ryan, then-publisher of the Quebec French-language newspaper Le Devoir, warned that federal multicultural policy challenged the recognition of Canada's two founding peoples (the English and the French). Many Quebecers expressed concerns that multiculturalism seemed to place French culture on an equal footing with all other ethno-cultural groups.
Charter of the French Language (1977)
In 1977, the government of Quebec introduced the Charter of the French language (Bill 101) which made French the province's official language. In contrast with the federal model of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework, Bill 101 was described as unilingual and culturally pluralist. In an article titled "Ethnic Minorities in the New Québec" published in 1978, Camille Laurin, Bill 101's chief architect, explained that in order to live together in the same nation, different ethnic groups must be able to speak and understand each other using French as the common language. "Hence," he added, "a national language and common culture are useful, although they do not preclude the continued use of ethnic languages and maintaining of individual cultures."

Bill 101 addressed a widely held concern among many francophones that without language legislation, newcomers would inevitably integrate into the English-speaking community while selectively retaining their ethnic identities. In 1978, under the Cullen/Couture agreement, the government of Canada transferred responsibility to the Quebec government for the selection of economic immigrants and the province thus assumed increased authority for programs in the area of newcomer integration and cultural retention ( see Quebec Immigration Policy.)

Lévesque founded the Parti Québécois.
"Many Ways of Being a Quebecer" (1981)
Under Premier René Lévesque, in 1981 the Parti Québécois formally rejected federal multiculturalism. In its place, the government of Quebec proposed a policy of "cultural convergence." The policy was entitled "Many ways of being a Quebecer." Its principal objective was to "ensure the maintenance and development of cultural communities and their specificities, make French-speaking Quebecers aware of the contribution of cultural communities to our common heritage and finally promote the integration of cultural communities in Quebec society and especially in sectors where they are particularly underrepresented."

Some critics suggested that the Quebec government's policies and programs regarding the province's ethno-cultural communities looked somewhat like multiculturalism in the French language, and thus resembled what the federal government had introduced in the previous decade.
The Bouchard-Taylor Commission on Reasonable Accommodation (2007-08)
In Quebec, the public discussion over the accommodation of religious diversity has been especially vocal. In 2007 Liberal Premier Jean Charest announced the creation of a provincial Commission to investigate the issue of accommodating cultural and religious differences. Over several months, Commission co-chairs Gérard Bouchard and Charles Taylor heard public testimony from Quebec francophones denouncing multiculturalism.

In their report, the Commissioners noted that "multiculturalism is presented as though it solely takes into account recognition and affirmation of difference with no regard for integrating elements such as the teaching of national languages and intercultural exchange programs. It is this truncated version of multiculturalism that often prevails in Quebec, as though this model had not evolved in Canada since its adoption nearly 40 years ago."

The Commissioners concluded that the Canadian multiculturalism model was not well adapted to conditions in Quebec. They proposed that Quebec opt for a model of interculturalism with the stated intention of "reconcil[ing] ethnocultural diversity with the continuity of the French-speaking core." Through the institution of French as the "common public language" of Quebec and promoting cross-cultural interaction, an intercultural model was said to "afford security to Quebecers of French-Canadian origin and to ethno-cultural minorities and protects the rights of all, in keeping with the liberal tradition." They also pointed to the need to clearly define the lines of separation of religion from government. The Commissioners recommended a ban on persons wearing religious symbols in what were referred to as positions of authority, notably judges, Crown prosecutors, prison guards and police officers. Nine years after the Report was issued, co-chair Charles Taylor revisited his stand and argued that such a ban was no longer required.

Multiculturalism in the Early 21st Century

Most Canadians think of multiculturalism as a demographic reality that acknowledges the diverse ethnic makeup of the Canadian population. However, there is ongoing debate over the message that multicultural policy conveys to Canadians, particularly to immigrants.

Over its first 30 years, the principal challenges confronting multiculturalism involved reconciling support for ethnic diversity, the preservation of the French language and the promotion of Canadian identity. While such debates have persisted into the 21st century, they've largely given way to the view that the message of multiculturalism promotes excessive accommodation of cultural and religious diversity at the expense of promoting social cohesion and common values. Others see the multicultural message as discouraging newcomers from adopting Canadian values. This, in turn, makes them less likely to participate in the mainstream culture and society and encourages the creation of ethnic ghettos.

In recent years, there has been a greater acknowledgement and acceptance of mixed and multiple identities in Canada. While most Canadians appear favourable to the ideal of multiculturalism, research suggests that support for the accommodation of religious diversity is more divided.

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Multicultural mural at Bramblewood Elementary School (British Columbia). Designed by Tammy Pilon and painted with the help of elementary school children. The initial idea behind multiculturalism was brought to popular attention by John Murray Gibbon's 1938 book Canadian Mosaic: The Making of a Northern Nation, which challenged the US-born idea of cultural assimilation, known as the "melting pot."

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Ice hockey, referred to as simply "hockey", is Canada's most prevalent winter sport, its most popular spectator sport, and its most successful sport in international competition. Lacrosse, a sport with Indigenous origins, is Canada's oldest sport. Canadian football is Canada's second most popular spectator sport, being the most popular in the prairie provinces.

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With your randomly chosen topic about Canada create a presentation.

Presentation can be in anyformat  (e.g. PowerPoint, Prezi, etc.)

Should demonstrate good research.

Consider Who, What, Where, When, Why.

Important events, dates, people, and importance of topic.

Demonstrate effort and enthusiasm in your presentation.

Good grammar and spelling to your best ability.

If you need help please ask, I am happy to read over somethings and give suggestions!

Be creative, use photos, maps, video clips, etc.

Make it interesting for your audience!

Speak to the audience, do not read to the audience.

Practice with your trio.

Try to use headlines rather than paragraphs in your presentation.

Should be 10 Minutes (+/- 1 Minute)

Sources!

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Tourism Vancouver - official source of tourist information, things to do, restaurants for Vancouver BC Canada

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Vancouver hotels, restaurants, things to do, events - Tourism Vancouver is the official source of tourist information for Vancouver BC Canada

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Wayne Gretzky all time leader in goals, points

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British Ties

At the time of Confederation, Canada's Constitution consisted of several acts of the British Parliament in London, England. The most important of these was theBritish North America Act (now called the Constitution Act, 1867). Also included were a series of British constitutional conventions (widely accepted, unwritten rules). Only the British Parliament had the authority to amend (change) the BNA Act.

With the Statute of Westminsterin 1931, Britain was willing to grant full autonomy to the self-governing parts of its empire, including Canada. ( See also Commonwealth.) But Canadians were left with a dilemma: If Canada accepted the transfer of constitutional power from Britain, and was free to amend its own Constitution, how would this be done? Should the federal government be allowed to amend the Constitution unilaterally, or was provincial consent required? Did all the provinces need to agree to an amendment, or just a majority? Should all provinces be counted equally, or should larger provinces have more say than smaller ones? And should Quebec have a veto that would allow it to protect the interests of Canada's French Canadian minority? Until Canadians could settle these questions, the British Parliament retained the authority to amend Canada's Constitution.

Pierre Trudeau and the Premiers

Generations of Canadian politicians had grappled unsuccessfully with the problem of constitutional change. Since the 1930s, a series of federal-provincial conferences had ended in failure when the prime minister and premiers could not agree on how the Constitution should be amended. ( See also Federal-Provincial Relations.)

The turning point came with the Quebec referendum on sovereignty-association in May 1980. During the campaign, the federal government under Pierre Trudeau promised Quebecers that Ottawa would re-open constitutional negotiations. After the separatists were defeated in the referendum, Trudeau immediately began a process to create a charter of rights and an amending formula (the criteria that would have to be met to make future changes) for the Constitution.

However, Trudeau faced opposition from eight of the ten provincial governments - all but Ontario and New Brunswick. ( See Gang of Eight.) So, he announced that he would proceed alone. He would ask the British to amend the BNA Act according to a resolution from the Parliament in Ottawa. However, Opposition leader Joe Clark held up the resolution in the House of Commons, and the provincial premiers took Trudeau's government to court on the matter. In September 1981, the Supreme Court issued a confused ruling. ( See Patriation Reference.) Legally, Trudeau could proceed with a resolution of the Senate and the House of Commons. But a constitutional convention required Ottawa to seek substantial provincial support before asking Britain for amendments.

Trudeau returned to the bargaining table one last time. In November 1981, the federal government and nine of the 10 provincial governments (all but Quebec) agreed on a proposal to send to Britain. The new "repatriated" Constitution would now include a formula for future amendments. It would also include aCharter of Rights and Freedoms. Despite being enshrined in the Constitution, the Charter contained clauses that could be overridden for short periods by the federal Parliament or the provincial legislatures. ( See Notwithstanding Clause.) Britain approved the deal, which was signed by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 April 1982. ( See Patriation of the Constitution.)

What the Act Says: Parts 1-4

The first part of the Constitution Act, 1982 is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It prevents the federal, provincial and territorial governments from infringing on Canadian rights and freedoms. Under the notwithstanding clause, the federal or provincial governments can exempt any law from certain Charter provisions. ( See also Constitution Act, 1982 Document.)

The second part of the Act guarantees the existing rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada. These rights, however, are left undefined.

The third part recognizes the federal government's practice since the 1950s of providing equalization payments to poorer provinces. These payments reduce disparities in services from one province to another.

The fourth part called for the prime minister and premiers to hold a constitutional conference before 17 April 1983 to discuss the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Part 5: The Amending Formula

The fifth part of the Constitution Act, 1982 contains the procedure for amending (changing) the Constitution. Most sections of the Constitution can be changed with approval from the Senate, the House of Commons and the legislatures of at least two-thirds (seven) of the provinces, so long as those provinces contain at least 50 per cent of Canada's population. This is known as the 7/50 rule.

Unanimous approval from the Senate, the House of Commons and all 10 provincial legislatures is required to amend provisions that deal with: the composition of the Supreme Court; the use of the French and English languages; the right of a province to have at least as many members of Parliament as senators; and the offices of the Queen, the governor general, or the lieutenant-governors.

The amending formula does not specifically mention abolition of the Senate. In 2014, the federal government asked the Supreme Court about limiting the terms of senators to nine years. The court ruled that changing the makeup of the Senate would require an amendment under the 7/50 rule. The court also said that abolishing the Senate would require the consent of Parliament and all 10 provinces.

Amendments that deal with some but not all provinces (e.g., changing the boundary between two provinces) may be made by the Senate, the House of Commons and the relevant provinces. An amendment can proceed without Senate approval if the House of Commons approves the amendment and then does so again at least 180 days later.

Parts 6 and 7

The sixth part of the Constitution Act, 1982 amends the BNA Act, 1867 to specify that the provincial governments have exclusive jurisdiction over non-renewable natural resources. ( See also Distribution of Powers.) The seventh part contains several minor, miscellaneous provisions.

Aftermath

The Quebec government under Premier René Lévesque protested bitterly that Ottawa and nine of the provinces had proceeded without Quebec. Nationalists in the province spoke of "the night of the long knives." They believed that Quebec had been betrayed by Trudeau and the other premiers. ( See Patriation of the Constitution.)

Brian Mulroney became prime minister in 1984. He was determined to amend the Constitution to make it acceptable to the government of Quebec. That province was led after 1985 by a federalist Liberal, Robert Bourassa. In 1987, Mulroney and all the premiers settled on a series of amendments in the Meech Lake Accord. However, that agreement collapsed three years later when the legislatures of Manitoba and Newfoundland failed to ratify it. ( See also: Editorial: The Death of the Meech Lake Accord; Maclean's Article: Meech Lake Ten Years After.)

Another agreement, the Charlottetown Accord of 1992, also failed. ( See also Charlottetown Accord: Document.) It was defeated in a national referendum. Quebec nationalists again claimed that their province had been humiliated. This sentiment fuelled the growth of the Bloc Québécois, a new separatist party in Parliament.

Resentment over the events of 1981-82 still lingers among some Quebec nationalists. However, Quebec's place in the Constitution is no longer at the forefront of Canadian public debate. Public opinion surveys show widespread support for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in every province, including Quebec.

See also: Constitution Act, 1982 Document; Constitutional History; Constitutional Law; Constitutional Monarchy; Peace, Order and Good Government;Constitution Act, 1867; Constitution Act, 1867 Document; Constitution Act, 1982;Constitution Act, 1982 Document; Editorial: The Canadian Constitution Comes Home; Editorial: Newfoundland's Contribution to the Patriation of Canada's Constitution.

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At the time of Confederation, Canada's Constitution consisted of several acts of the British Parliament in London, England. The most important of these was theBritish North America Act (now called the Constitution Act, 1867 ). Also included were a series of British constitutional conventions (widely accepted, unwritten rules).

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Heritage Minutes: "Boat People" Refugees

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collection

Indigenous Peoples are the original inhabitants of the land that is now Canada. Inuit and First Nations history extends well before the arrival of Europeans in Canada, while Métis emerged as a distinct culture after intermarriage between European settlers and First Nations people. Indigenous people were essential to the development of early Canada, but suffered massive population declines due to the arrival of European disease. In addition, though they were often military allies, they faced persecution at the hands of colonial governments in the form of displacement, starvation, land seizure and cultural genocide through residential schools and destructive legislation. Indigenous people live throughout Canada and continue to strive to reinvigorate traditional culture and ways of life.

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collection Indigenous Peoples are the original inhabitants of the land that is now Canada. Inuit and First Nations history extends well before the arrival of Europeans in Canada, while Métis emerged as a distinct culture after intermarriage between European settlers and First Nations people.

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Louis Riel, circa 1873.
(courtesy Provincial Archives of Manitoba/N-5733)

Definitions and Terminology
Editorial Note: In the interest of promoting a better understanding of the complex issue of Métis identity and how it is defined, The Canadian Encyclopedia has commissioned two opinion pieces exploring different perspectives on the topic. Métis Are a People, Not a Historical Process explores Métis identity from the perspective of Métis with ancestral ties to the Red River Settlement. The "Other" Métis explores Métis identity from the perspective of Métis who do not have ancestral ties to the Red River Settlement.
The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) has been critical of this definition of Métis, asserting that it excludes "many people who have legitimate claims to Métis identity." Despite CAP's stance, the MNC's position is the one that has generally been adopted by federal and provincial governments and the courts. For example, Métis Aboriginal rights defined in the decision and section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 have only been applied to Métis communities west of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. While several lawsuits claiming section 35 Métis rights have been brought before the courts by other communities, none have been successful. For example, R. v. Vatour in 2010 ruled against the notion of a Métis community in the Maritimes. Further, the implementation of these rights defined by the Powley decision and by various provincial governments all fall within the MNC's definition of the "Métis Homeland, " which includes the Prairie provinces, and parts of Ontario, BC and the NWT.

Typically, when written with a small-m, métis refers to any community of European-Indigenous ancestry, including those in Ontario and Québec and non-status settlements near First Nations reserves. It is often used to describe mixed-descent families and communities during the 18th and early 19th century Great Lakes fur trade, although some scholars now avoid using the term.

Contemporary usage of Métis is also different from its historical meaning. At Red River in the 19th century there were two prominent communities of mixed-descent people. In addition to a sizeable French-speaking and nominally Catholic Métis population, there was a large group of English-speaking "Half-breeds" who were mainly Anglican agriculturists. While these interrelated communities can be considered to be distinct constituencies - even though the boundaries between them were quite porous - the derogatory nature of the term "Half-breed" has caused it to fall largely into disuse. Thus, the contemporary meaning of "Métis" typically includes people of both French- and English-speaking heritage.

There are also Canadian legal definitions that further complicate Métis terminology. Section 35(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes " Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples" as Aboriginal peoples under Canadian law, yet despite several Supreme Court of Canada decisions, Métis Aboriginal rights - and who may possess these rights - remain, for the most part, undefined. However, in 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Daniels case that the federal government has jurisdiction over Métis people, and that both members of the Métis Nation and Non-Status Indians are "Indians" as defined by the Constitution Act. The Court stopped short of clarifying the legal definition of Métis, but removed one barrier governments used for generations to avoid dealing with outstanding Métis issues.

Métis Communities in Canada

There are people of mixed ancestry throughout Canada. The earliest mixed Indigenous-European marriages can be traced to the earliest days of contact, yet whether these marriages resulted in distinct Métis communities has long been the subject of scholarly debate. Some academics have argued that any mixed-descent person should be considered Métis. However, other scholars, along with the MNC, suggest that only those who were part of distinct Métis communities and used the term "Métis" in a self-referential way, should be called Métis. "Labrador Métis" for example, have dropped Métis for this reason and instead prefer a term their ancestors used to define themselves: NunatuKavut. Scholars who defend the Red River definition of "Métis" argue that Métis identity is not simply the result of a dual heritage, but rather a matter of possessing a singular cultural heritage of dual origins; someone of Cree and French Canadian descent would be considered Métis not solely by virtue of their mixed-descent, but whether they have Métis heritage that can be traced back to the Red River community.

Others have argued that such a narrow definition offers a limited understanding of Métis history. Communities in Ontario and Eastern Canada that have sought official recognition as Métis, for example, have expressed frustration at the popular notion that a traceable ancestry to the Red River settlement is a necessary requirement to "authentically" identifying as Métis. They argue that mixed-descent families and communities have existed since the 18th and early 19th century Great Lakes fur trade, before the establishment of the Red River Settlement. However, for many Red River Métis, the term is an important part of their specific history, heritage and identity, as enshrined by Canadian law. This remains an issue of heated debate among many métis people in Canada. ( See The "Other " Métis; Métis Are a People, Not a Historical Process).

Great Lakes Communities

The first small-m métis communities emerged during the Great Lakes fur trade in the 18th century. Great Lakes Indigenous diplomatic and economic protocols encouraged French fur traders to establish family connections through marriage and ceremonial adoption with prominent Indigenous families in the region. Such unions with Indigenous women - referred to as marriages à la façon du pays, "according to the custom of the country" - usually involved mutual commitments with local Indigenous kin and communities. French traders often lived out their lives with these families, whether formally employed at the forts or subsisting as gens libres (French and Métis freemen who supplied the posts or served intermittently as guides, interpreters or voyageurs). Game, fish, wild rice and maple sugar furnished sustenance, supplemented by small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture. Over time small groups of mixed families situated themselves in specific economic niches, with many rising to economic and social prominence throughout the Great Lakes region.

Scholarship has suggested that the application of the term "métis" to the Great Lakes region at this time is problematic since these mixed communities favoured terms like Saulteurs, bois brûlés (literally "burnt wood"), or chicots. While the term "métis" appears occasionally in contemporary writing, it was used predominantly by outsiders to make sense of a complex set of relationships between Indigenous communities and their relatives, not necessarily by the Great Lakes "métis" themselves. Likewise, the term "Métis" did not make its way into common language at Red River until the early 19th century, several years after the decline of the Great Lakes fur trade and the mixed communities it supported. Despite this distinction in terminology, the Métis of Red River and the métis of the Great Lakes were often connected through marriage and kinship practices.

The Western Métis

The success of the fur trade in the region that the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) called Rupert's Land also relied on intermarriage. While the Company initially attempted to suppress these "country marriages," the effectiveness of these unions in establishing trade networks, along with the successful use of intermarriage by the rival North West Company (NWC), convinced the HBC to modify its policy. Initially, the children of these marriages lacked the distinct community and economic base upon which to build a separate identity. While some HBC officers' mixed children were educated in England, Scotland or in the Canadas ( see Upper and Lower Canada, later the Province of Canada), and other families were left in the care of other HBC employees when senior officers returned to Europe, not all mixed-descent children faced difficult prospects. Many of these mixed-descent children remained in the North-West, living near one another and developing a sense of themselves as a unique cultural and social community. This sense of self would eventually evolve into a sense of political commonality.

Nor'Wester William McGillivray admitted in a letter of 14 March 1818 that the Métis were linked to the NWC by occupation and kinship. "Yet," he emphasized, "they one and all look upon themselves as members of an independent tribe of natives, entitled to a property in the soil, to a flag of their own, and to protection from the British government." Further, it was well proved "that the half-breeds under the denominations of bois-brûlés and métifs have formed a separate and distinct tribe of Indians for a considerable time back."

The early Red River Colony did not allay these fears, but rather antagonized the Métis and the NWC. Decrees from the governor of the colony forbade the export and sale of pemmican to anyone but local HBC forts, and later banned hunting buffalo from horseback ( see Pemmican Proclamation). These were direct economic sanctions against Métis families who provisioned the NWC with pemmican made from buffalo meat (which had been hunted on horseback). After escalating raids on rival fur trade forts by HBC and NWC officers, many prominent Métis grew hostile to the Selkirk settlement's leaders and, under the leadership of Cuthbert Grant, in 1815 decided to evict the settlers from the region. In 1816, after Selkirk himself had decided to evict the Nor'Westers, the governor of the settlement, Robert Semple, confronted a group of Métis soldiers at Seven Oaks. A battle broke out and the Métis soldiers killed Semple and several colonists. The event was memorialized in Pierre Falcon's "La Chanson de la Grenouillère." ( See also: Music of the Métis.)

The Battle of Seven Oaks resulted in an agreement between Cuthbert Grant and the Selkirk settlement's interim leader, Peter Fidler. By 1821, any inter-company conflicts were ended with the merger of the HBC and NWC. After the merger a number of traders were deemed redundant and many took up residence at the Red River Colony, which thus gained an increasing Métis presence. Company employees with Métis families lobbied for the founding of a community where they could retire and have lands, livelihoods, schools, churches and other amenities. The HBC itself hoped to reduce costs by relocating dependent populations to a place where they could become self-supporting under the Company's governance.

From 1821 to 1870, Red River's overwhelmingly mixed-descent population continued to reflect its dual origins: Montréal, the Great Lakes and Prairies, and the NWC; and Britain, the Scottish Orkney Islands (a major HBC recruiting ground) and Rupert's Land. Some argue that these groups expressed mutual solidarity on the basis of their numerous intermarriages, business ties, shared involvements in the buffalo hunt, the HBC transport brigades and provisional government of 1869-70. A contrary view emphasizes the split between Roman Catholic francophones and Protestant anglophones. Whatever their internal ties and tensions, the rapidly growing population in the Northwest was, by the 1830s, increasingly seen as a racial aggregate, as racially based interpretations of human behaviour reigned in the 19th century. As such, Métis were often limited in their advancement through Company ranks.

While the HBC claimed to govern the population of Red River through the Company-appointed Council of Assiniboia, it governed more through influence than command. Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Métis challenged the HBC trade and administrative monopoly in Red River. In 1849 Métis disrupted the trial of free trader Pierre-Guillaume Sayer, effectively ending the HBC fur monopoly and ushering in an era of free trade. In the mid-1850s, Métis petitioned the Imperial Government in London through Red River-born lawyer Alexander Kennedy Isbister to limit the Council of Assiniboia's power. On the ground, the Council rarely commanded enough of a constabulary to compel Métis to follow its laws, so the Council was often forced to compromise with the community to ensure the enforcement of its laws.

The Red River Provisional Government, 1869-70

Councillors of the Provisional Government of the Métis Nation, 1870.

The consequent efforts of government surveyors to map Red River without regard for local residents' holdings resulted in the establishment of the Métis National Committee, and a provisional government in late 1869. These events established Louis Riel as the leader of the Métis resistance ( see also: Louis Riel Timeline). After consolidating their alliance with the "Half-breed" population and the old British settler population, the three constituencies formed the Provisional Government of Assiniboia's Legislative Assembly in March 1870, and sent a delegation to Ottawa to negotiate Red River's entrance into Confederation. The outcome was theManitoba Act, which established Manitoba as a new province in Confederation as well as several other commitments to protect Métis landholdings (including a 1.4 million acre land reserve), language and local political control over the new province.

However, the agreement recorded by the Provisional Government's chief negotiator varies in important ways from the Manitoba Act, and Métis leaders have argued since the 19th century that the original agreement has never been properly implemented. The promised land reserve was never properly allotted; and when it was, it was granted piecemeal to individual families, taking well over a decade to be allocated. The settlers and troops who arrived in the new province after 1870 were generally hostile to the Métis, many of whom were "beaten and outraged by a small but noisy section" of the newcomers, according to a report by the new governor, Adams Archibald. Métis landholders were harassed, while new laws and amendments to the Manitoba Act undermined Métis power to fend off speculators and new settlers.

Of the approximately 10,000 persons of mixed descent in Manitoba in 1870, two-thirds or more are estimated to have departed in the following few years. While some went north and some went south to the United States, most headed west to the existing Métis settlements around Fort Edmonton (Lac Ste Anne, St Albert and Lac La Biche) and to the South Saskatchewan River, where they joined many Métis families already living at St Laurent, Batoche and Duck Lake.

The North-West Resistance

Louis Riel, circa 1873.

As Saskatchewan Métis communities grew due to the Manitoba exodus, several sought to clarify their land titles with the Canadian government. The government ignored Métis concerns while negotiating major Indigenous treaties and pre-empting land for railways. In deep frustration, the Saskatchewan Métis took up arms under Riel and Gabriel Dumont in the North-West Resistance of 1885.

The Métis defeat at Batoche and the execution of Riel for treason set off a second dispersal, particularly to Alberta, and a renewed weakening of political influence and cohesiveness ( see also: Battle of Batoche). Sir John A. Macdonald in 1885 articulated a view that would begin the process of denying Métis identity for the next century: "If they are Indians, they go with the tribe; if they are half-breeds they are whites." Where Métis individuals did receive land allowances (or financial equivalents), they usually were granted them in paper scrip - transferable certificates which unscrupulous speculators often pressured them to sell cheaply on the spot. The "scrip hunters" followed the Treaty No. 8 Half-Breed Commission in 1900 as it made its awards to Métis in the Dene settlements, and bought up many $240 scrip certificates for cash amounts of $70 to $130.

From 1885 to the mid-1900s, poverty, demoralization and racism commonly connected to being identified as a "half-breed" led many Métis to deny or suppress that part of their heritage if they could. In 1896 Father Albert Lacombe, concerned for Métis interests, founded St-Paul-des-Métis northeast of Edmonton on land furnished by the government. For financial and other reasons, the colony failed as a formal entity by 1908, and settlers from Québec began to dominate the area. The multiple dispersals of Métis families across the west has led to the existence of Métis communities across the Prairies, and into British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, as well as the northern United States and northwestern Ontario.

20th Century Métis Activism

Despite the struggles of the 19th century, some developments after 1900 were more positive. In 1909, the Union nationale métisse St-Joseph de Manitoba, founded by former associates of Riel and others, began to retrieve (from Métis documents and memories) their own history of the events of 1869-70 and 1885, resulting in A.H. de Trémaudan's classic work, Hold High Your Heads: History of the Métis Nation in Western Canada (1936). The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of new leaders - notably James Patrick (Jim) Brady and Malcolm Norris - who, as Prairie socialist activists, built a new political and organizational base to defend their people's interests. Many Métis and non-Status Indigenous peoples had been considered "squatters" (although they asserted title of their own to these lands) on Crown lands in Alberta. Threatened by a federal plan to place these lands under provincial jurisdiction, Joseph Dion and others organized petitions and delegations to the Alberta government to seek land title for the Indigenous peoples living there.

After Brady and Norris joined the movement in 1932, the first of several provincial organizations was founded - the Métis Association of Alberta, open to all persons of Indigenous ancestry. Its efforts led to the appointment of the Ewing Commission in 1934-36 to "make enquiry into the condition of the Half-breed population of Alberta." The association eventually secured land for Métis settlements alongside the passage of the Métis Population Betterment Act in 1938. That same year, the Saskatchewan Métis Society (later the Association of Métis and Non-Status Indians of Saskatchewan) was founded and began to organize for the recognition and protection of Métis rights.

Métis Organizing and the Constitutional Era

In the late 1960s, Métis political activity intensified with the founding of numerous other organizations, such as the Manitoba Métis Federation, the Ontario Métis and Non-Status Indian Association, and the Louis Riel Métis Association of BC. These organizations confronted such issues as the federal government's White Paper of 1969, and the on-going exclusion of Métis and Non-Status Indians from federal policy considerations.

In the 1970s, alongside their Non-Status Indian counterparts, Métis organizations were successful in developing programming that provided social, economic and educational supports for Indigenous peoples. However, due to the federal policy that limited federal funding to Métis and Non-Status Indians, these groups dealt mostly with individual provinces, which in turn considered them to be a federal concern. Nonetheless, Métis and Non-Status Indian organizations developed meaningful partnerships with provincial governments, which have, over the long term, produced an impressive array of social services still in existence today.

During the 1970s, Métis organizations were primarily concerned with social programming for Métis and Non-Status Indians, but during the lead-up to Canadian constitutional patriation, Métis organizations, like their Indian and Inuit counterparts, were increasingly concerned about constitutional protection of their rights and title. During the patriation process, Métis successfully lobbied for inclusion in what became Section 35 of the Constitution Act of 1982, protecting "the existing aboriginal and treaty rights" of Indigenous peoples, who were defined as "Indian, Inuit and Métis." While Métis (and other Aboriginal) rights and title remained undefined in constitutional practice, Métis did gain a constitutional protection from unjustifiable Canadian infringement on their rights.

Before the constitutional recognition of Métis Aboriginal rights, Métis and Non-Status Indians had worked together out of common interest and necessity. With the Métis recognized as a distinct group in 1982, the alliance began to dissolve. From 1970 to 1983 the Native Council of Canada (NCC, now the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples) represented Métis interests on the national level. However, for the 1983 First Ministers Conference, the Métis National Council was formed to secure Métis representation as a distinct people independent of Non-Status Indians. The First Ministers Conferences of the 1980s, meant to define Section 35 Aboriginal rights, were widely regarded as a failure, and the Métis/Non-Status split became more permanent. Métis organizations began to develop membership codes that reflected Métis-specific membership, excluding many previous Non-Status Indian members. For example, to become a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation, a person must trace their genealogy back to the original Red River Settlement, typically using scrip, parish or census records.

The Courts: Métis Aboriginal Rights

As the recognized Métis "rights and title" of Section 35 were never defined during the First Ministers Conferences, the Métis initiated a series of lawsuits in order for the courts to determine what these rights protected. Since Métis rights were constitutionalized in 1982, three major court decisions have started the long process of defining Métis Aboriginal rights in the Canadian constitutional system, and have highlighted the complexities involved in defining Métis identity.

A transformative movement in Métis rights jurisprudence came in in 2003. Two Métis hunters, Steve and Roddy Powley shot and killed a moose outside of Sault Ste Marie and were charged with hunting without a licence and unlawful possession of game hunted in contravention of Ontario's Game and Fish Act. In defence, they claimed that their rights as Métis allowed them to hunt in a manner consistent with their Aboriginal rights, which predated Canadian assertion of sovereignty over their community. As a result, the Supreme Court established the three-part "Powley test" for determining who may claim Métis Aboriginal rights under section 35 of the constitution. A person must: a) self-identify as Métis; b) have an ancestral connection to a historic Métis community; and c) be accepted by a contemporary community that exists in continuity with a historic rights-bearing community.

In 2013, the Supreme Court determined in MMF v. Canada that the government failed in its obligation to properly distribute and safeguard the 1.4 million acres set aside for the Métis in the Manitoba Act. Since this victory, the Manitoba Métis Federation has been lobbying the federal government to enter into a land claims negotiation to compensate the Métis people for lost lands and resources, with the ultimate goal of securing a legally recognized land base for Métis in Manitoba. On 15 November 2016, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett and president of the Manitoba Métis Federation David Chartrand signed an agreement to bring an end to this 146-year land dispute. Parties must still negotiate the financial settlement for the land as well as some other issues, but this is a step forward in settling the land claim.

Most recently, Daniels v. Canada offered transformative potential for Métis-Canada relations, ending the "jurisdictional wasteland" that stymied relations for generations. In 2016, following a 17-year court battle launched by the late Métis leader Harry Daniels, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Métis and Non-Status Indians are considered "Indians" under federal jurisdiction as per Section 91(24) of the . This means that jurisdiction for Métis relations falls to the federal government, rather than the provinces, as has been the common practice for decades. The decision could transform how Métis organizations function, where their funding comes from, the kind of services they are able to offer, and their ability to demand consultation and compensation from the federal government.

Contemporary Life

The blending of European and Indigenous traditions has created a unique and rich Métis culture. In traditional music and dance, Métis fiddling and jigging combine European and Indigenous influences ( see Music of the Métis). Métis fiddle music is generally up-tempo and is accompanied by the fast footwork of jiggers. Though there are many fiddle tunes and dances, the most well-known is the Red River Jig, which emerged in the early to mid-1700s. Today, the Métis people still perform traditional music and dances at local and national competitions, community gatherings, powwows and conferences.

Métis art also reflects their unique heritage. Adopting Indigenous beading practices and popular European floral designs, the Métis created an art form all their own. Famous for their floral beadwork, the Métis are often referred to as the "Flower Beadwork People." Perhaps one of the most famous mainstream beadwork artists is Christi Belcourt, who has been awarded with many national and provincial honours for her work, including the Governor General's Innovation Award (2016), the Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award (2014) and Influential Women of Northern Ontario, Aboriginal Leadership Award (2014). The Métis are also well-known for their finger-woven, colourful sashes that have historical, practical and sentimental value.

Like Métis music and art, their language, Michif, is rooted in a mixture of Cree and/or Saulteaux ( Ojibwe) verbs and French nouns. Historically, the Métis could speak various Indigenous languages and were often literate in French or English. Today, many Métis communities speak and teach Michif as a means of keeping the language alive.

According to the 2021 Census completed by Statistics Canada, there are 624,220 people who self-identify as Métis in Canada. This represents a 6.3% increase in the Métis population between 2016 and 2021. Of the 624,220 people who self-identify as Métis, 224,655 claim membership in a Métis organization or settlement.

Landmark Agreements on Métis Rights and Self-Government

On 27 June 2019, the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA), Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO), and Métis Nation-Saskatchewan (MN-S) signed historic self-government agreements with the Government of Canada. The "Métis-Ottawa Accords" represent a landmark in Métis history, the first self-government agreements between the Métis Nation and the federal government. The historic signing took place in Ottawa between Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, MNA president Audrey Poitras, MNO president Margaret Froh, and MN-S president Glen McCallum.

The agreements are the result of decades of struggle by the Métis people to gain recognition and self-government rights from the federal government. The 2019 accords represent the greatest steps forward for Métis rights since the important hunting, recognition and self-identity rights gained in 2003 ( see Powley Case) and 2016 ( see Daniels Case). The 2019 accords will be followed by future negotiations that will give the Métis Nation control over its own affairs in areas such as childcare, leadership selection, government operations, and citizenship. Most importantly, the accords give the Métis control over the creation of future constitutions for their various nations.

Carolyn Bennett, speaking on behalf of the federal government, considers the accords the beginning of a new and better relationship between Canada and the three Métis nations involved: "What we're signing today is a true acknowledgement of the Métis Nation and the relationship we will have going forward - government to government. We're here to sign not one, not two, but three historic self-government agreements and to recognize that you, the Métis, have control over your own governance."

Métis Nation of Alberta president Audrey Poitras believes that the accords are a "dramatic shift in attitude for Canada" towards her people and a truly historic moment for the Métis: "It's not an exaggeration to say the agreements signed today are something we've been fighting for for close to a century. Finally, Canada has recognized our right to self-government."

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Métis are people of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, and one of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The use of the term Métis is complex...

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Who are Indigenous Peoples in Canada?

There are three categories of Indigenous peoples in Canada: Inuit, Métis and First Nations. The Inuit primarily inhabit the northern regions of Canada. Their homeland, known as Inuit Nunangat, includes much of the land, water and ice contained in the Arctic region. Métis peoples are of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, and live mostly in the Prairie provinces and Ontario, but also in other parts of the country. First Nations peoples were the original inhabitants of the land that is now Canada, often occupying territories south of the Arctic.

The - the principal statute through which the federal government manages a variety of issues concerning Indigenous affairs - further divides Indigenous peoples into two categories: Status Indians and Non-Status Indians. ( See also Indian Status.) Status Indians are individuals who are listed in the Indian Register and are issued identification cards (known as status cards) that contain information about their identity, band and registration number. Non-Status Indians are Indigenous peoples who are not registered with the federal government ( See also Indian).

All Indigenous peoples in Canada are protected by section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, which enshrines Indigenous rights. The federal government departments responsible for the affairs of Indigenous peoples are Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and Indigenous Services.

Many Indigenous nations have signed treaties with the Crown. These agreements have allowed for the use of Indigenous lands in exchange for annual payments and/or other benefits. Treaties form the constitutional and moral basis of alliance between Indigenous peoples and Canada.

History

Indigenous peoples have been in Canada since time immemorial. They formed complex social, political, economic and cultural systems before Europeans came to North America.

With colonization and white settlement, traditional Indigenous ways of life were forever altered. Colonial practices and policies, such as the , pass system, reserves and residential schools, sought to control and assimilate Indigenous peoples. These have had historic and ongoing impacts on generations of Indigenous peoples.

Such practices and polices, when combined with racism, acts of segregation, loss of land, and declining or unequal access to food resources and public services, have had devastating consequences on the health and socio-economic well-being of Indigenous peoples. ( See also Social Conditions of Indigenous Peoples and Economic Conditions of Indigenous Peoples.)

The final reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women speak to ongoing work of reconciliation.

Demographics

In the 2021 census, 1,807,250 people in Canada identified as Indigenous, making up 5 per cent of the national population. The First Nations population numbered 1,048,405, the Métis population was 624,220, and the Inuit population reached 70,545.

The Indigenous population in Canada is growing steadily; between 2006 and 2016, it has grown by 42.5 per cent, more than four times the growth rate of the non-Indigenous population. From 2016 to 2021, the Indigenous population grew 9.4 per cent. This indicates the Indigenous population was growing at nearly twice the rate of the non-Indigenous population. Statistics Canada projected, in 2016, that in the next 20 years, the Indigenous population will likely grow to more than 2.5 million people. The changes in population reflect increased life expectancy, high birth rates, and more people identifying as Indigenous in the 2016 census.

The 2016 census showed population growth in First Nations communities both on and off reserve; from 2006 to 2016, the on-reserve population grew 12.8 percent while the off-reserve population grew 49.1 per cent. Statistics Canada also reported that the Métis are the most likely Indigenous group to live in an urban community; nearly two-thirds of the population lived in a city in 2016. For the Inuit, nearly 75 per cent of the population inhabit Inuit Nunangat, a stretch of traditional territory covering the land, water and ice contained in the Arctic.

Did you know?
In the 2016 Census, 11,620 people in Canada claimed Cherokee ancestry. The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribal nation in the United States.

Regional and Cultural Diversity

Indigenous peoples, both historical and contemporary, in North America can be divided into 10 cultural areas. Only the first six areas are found within the borders of Canada:

Contemporary political borders in North America do not reflect (and often overlap) traditional lands. For example, the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne straddles both provincial ( Québec and Ontario) and international (New York State) borders, as its existence predates the establishment of the international border in 1783 ( See also Indigenous Territory).

These areas are based on linguistic divisions first defined by the ethnologist and linguist Edward Sapir in 1910, while he was head of the Anthropology Division at the Geological Survey of Canada, which later became the Canadian Museum of History ( See also Indigenous Languages in Canada). Sapir's geographical framework was adopted by the Smithsonian Institution's Handbook of North American Indians, the first volumes of which were published in 1978, and continues to be used widely in scholarship.

The Handbook states that these categories are "used in organizing and referring to information about contiguous groups that are or were similar in culture and history," but it is important to note that these delineations are not concrete, and neighbouring peoples always share some similarities and some differences. Rather than representing 10 distinct cultures, these areas reflect geographic and cultural groupings that are fluid and often intermixed. In addition, contemporary Indigenous peoples may live far from their ancestral homelands, and indeed may form new communities rooted in urban centres rather than traditional lands.

These cultural areas are massive and generalized; what is true of a part is not always true of the whole. For example, some sources further divide the Eastern Woodlands into the Southeast and Northeast regions, while others combine these regions into simply Woodlands, and as such one must not assume that all peoples in a cultural area shared the same experiences.

Research overviews of the six cultural areas in Canada provide only some specific anthropological information. The peoples included in these areas are in some ways similar and in other ways different. What is true for the Wendat may not have been true for the Mi'kmaq, and indeed there existed variations among bands within a group. When considering contemporary situations, it is impossible to assume that one issue, set of beliefs, or cultural reference can relate to all Indigenous people in Canada, though in contemporary politics, large-scale political movements like Idle No More have gained wide acceptance and mobilization.

The ethnologists, archaeologists and anthropologists who have written about these cultural regions were often not Indigenous themselves. Though much of this research was done through interviews and fieldwork, it inevitably operated within a settler-colonial framework - a worldview that privileges property acquisition, European-style government and economic growth - regardless of the positive intentions of the researcher. Nevertheless, this research remains valuable both as historical and historiographical tools.

List of Indigenous Peoples in Canada

In 2016, more than 1.6 million people identified as Indigenous in Canada. Below is a list of separate entries on various Indigenous nations in Canada. This is not a comprehensive list, but it provides insight into the history, society, culture, politics and contemporary life of various First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities in Canada.

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In Canada, the term Indigenous peoples (or Aboriginal peoples) refers to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. These are the original inhabitants of the land...

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Early First Nations: The Six Main Geographical Groups

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Introduction

First Nations in Canada is an educational resource designed for use by young Canadians; high school educators and students; Aboriginal communities; and anyone interested in First Nations history. Its aim is to help readers understand the significant developments affecting First Nations communities from the pre-Contact era (before the arrival of Europeans) up to the present day.

The first part of this text -"Early First Nations" - presents a brief overview of the distinctive cultures of the six main geographic groups of early First Nations in Canada. This section looks at the principal differences in the six groups' respective social organization, food resources, homes, modes of transportation, clothing, and spiritual beliefs and ceremonies.

Parts two through six of this text trace the relationship between First Nations and newcomers to Canada from the very first encounter up to the government's historic apology in June 2008 to all former students of Indian Residential Schools. In this apology, the Government of Canada expressed deep regret for the suffering individual students and their families experienced because of these schools. The government also acknowledged the harm that residential schools and assimilation policies had done to Aboriginal people's cultures, languages and heritage.

Today the Government of Canada is working in partnership with First Nations in this new era of reconciliation to build stronger First Nations communities. All across the country, this crucial collaborative work is taking place in areas as diverse as First Nations economies, education, governance, social services, human rights, culture and the resolution of outstanding land claims.

Part 1 - Early First Nations: The Six Main Geographical Groups

Before the arrival of Europeans, First Nations in what is now Canada were able to satisfy all of their material and spiritual needs through the resources of the natural world around them. For the purposes of studying traditional First Nations cultures, historians have therefore tended to group First Nations in Canada according to the six main geographic areas of the country as it exists today. Within each of these six areas, First Nations had very similar cultures, largely shaped by a common environment.

The six groups were: Woodland First Nations, who lived in dense boreal forest in the eastern part of the country; Iroquoian First Nations, who inhabited the southernmost area, a fertile land suitable for planting corn, beans and squash; Plains First Nations, who lived on the grasslands of the Prairies; Plateau First Nations, whose geography ranged from semi-desert conditions in the south to high mountains and dense forest in the north; Pacific Coast First Nations, who had access to abundant salmon and shellfish and the gigantic red cedar for building huge houses; and the First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins, whose harsh environment consisted of dark forests, barren lands and the swampy terrain known as muskeg.

The following section highlights some of the wide variations in the six groups' social organization, food resources, and homes, modes of transportation and clothing -- as well as spiritual beliefs widely shared by all Early First Nations.

Social Organization

Most Woodland First Nations were made up of many independent groups, each with its own hunting territory. These groups usually had fewer than 400 people. A leader generally won his position because he possessed great courage or skill in hunting. Woodland First Nations hunters and trappers had an intimate knowledge of the habitats and seasonal migrations of animals that they depended on for survival.

Unlike Woodland First Nations, Iroquoian First Nations did not migrate in search of food. Excellent farmers, these southern peoples harvested annual food crops of corn, beans and squash that more than met their needs. An abundance of food supplies made it possible for the Iroquoian First Nations (now known as the Haudenosaunee, or People of the Longhouse) to found permanent communities and gave them the leisure time to develop complex systems of government based on democratic principles.

The Huron-Wendat, for example, had a three-tier political system, consisting of village councils, tribal councils and the confederacy council. All councils made decisions on a consensus basis, with discussions often going late into the night until everyone reached agreement.

On the Plains, the individual migratory groups, each with their own chief, assembled during the summer months for spiritual ceremonies, dances, feasts and communal hunts. Even though each group was fiercely independent, Plains First Nations had military societies that carried out functions such as policing, regulating life in camp and on the march, and organizing defences.

The social organization of several Plains First Nations was influenced by their neighbours and trading partners-the First Nations of the Pacific Coast. As a result, the Dakelh-ne (Carrier), Tahltan and Ts'ilh'got'in (Chilcotin) adopted the stratified social systems of the Pacific Coast Nations, which included nobles, commoners and slaves.

In addition to these three distinct social orders, Pacific Coast First Nations had a well-defined aristocratic class that was regarded as superior by birth. The basic social unit for all First Nations in this part of the country was the extended family (lineage) whose members claimed descent from a common ancestor. Most lineages had their own crests, featuring representations of animal or supernatural beings that were believed to be their founders. The most famous method of crest display was the totem pole consisting of all the ancestral symbols that belonged to a lineage.

The people of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins lived in a vast homeland where game animals were very scarce and the winters were long and severe. As was true of most First Nations across the country, those of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins were primarily occupied with day-to-day survival. As such, First Nations were divided into several independent groups made up of different family units who worked together. Each group hunted a separate territory, with individual boundaries defined by tradition and use. A group leader was selected according to the group's needs at a particular time. On a caribou hunt, for example, the most proficient hunter would be chosen leader.

Food Resources

All First Nations across the country hunted and gathered plants for both food and medicinal purposes. The actual percentage of meat, fish and plants in any First Nation's diet depended on what was available in the local environment.

The Woodland First Nations (and all First Nations in the northern regions) hunted game animals with spears and bows and arrows. These First Nations also used traps and snares-a type of noose that caught the animal by the neck or leg. Northern hunters, such as the Gwich'in, built elaborate routing fences with stakes and brush. The Gwich'in used these fences to stampede animals into the area where snares had been set to trap them. To provide for times of hardship, the people dried large stores of meat, fish and berries during the summer. During the winter, to keep frozen meat safe from animals such as the wolverine, some First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins stored their food high in a tree with its trunk peeled of bark.

Even though the Haudenosaunee had plenty of meat, fish and fowl available to them in the wild, they lived mainly on their own crops-corn, beans and squash, which were called "The Three Sisters." The men cleared the land for planting, chopping down trees and cutting the brush, while the women planted, tended and harvested the crops. After about 10 years, when the land became exhausted, the people would relocate and clear new fertile fields.

Because the buffalo was the main object of their hunt, Plains First Nations had a hunting culture that was highly developed over thousands of years. Communal hunts took place in June, July and August when the buffalo were fat, their meat prime and their hides easily dressed.

A single buffalo provided a lot of meat, with bulls averaging about 700 kilograms. Eaten fresh, the meat was roasted on a spit or boiled in a skin bag with hot stones, a process that produced a rich, nutritious soup. Just as common was the dried buffalo meat known as jerky, which could be stored for a long time in rawhide bags. Women also prepared high-protein pemmican-dried meat pounded into a powder, which was then mixed with hot, melted buffalo fat and berries. A hunter could easily carry this valuable food stuff in a small leather bag. Pemmican later became a staple in the diet of fur traders and voyageurs.

Salmon was the primary food source for the First Nations of the Plateau. Even the Tahltan hunters of the north assembled each spring at the fishing places to await the arrival of the first salmon. People used dip nets and built weirs in the shallows of swift waters to trap schools of fish. Of the thousands of salmon caught each year, a very small proportion was eaten fresh. The remainder was cleaned, smoked and stored for winter in underground pits lined with birch bark. Wild vegetable foods-chiefly roots and berries-also formed an important part of the diet of the Plateau First Nations, particularly the Interior Salish.

The vast food resources of the ocean-salmon, shellfish, octopus, herring, crabs, whale and seaweed-made it possible for Pacific Coast First Nations to settle in permanent locations. Unlike the Haudenosaunee who relocated every 10 years or so, Pacific Coast First Nations usually built permanent villages. Some village sites show evidence of occupation for more than 4,000 years. Like Plateau First Nations, those of the Pacific Coast dried most of their salmon in smokehouses so that it could be stored and eaten later. Fish oil also played an important part in people's diet, serving as a condiment with dried fish during the winter months. A highly valued source of oil was eulachon, a type of smelt.

The Coast Tsimshian, Haida and Nuu-chah-nulth all hunted sea lion and sea otter, going out into the ocean with harpoons in slim dugout canoes. However, the most spectacular of all marine hunts was the Nuu-chah-nulth's pursuit of the whale. Nuu-chah-nulth whaling canoes were large enough for a crew of eight and the harpooner, who was armed with a harpoon of yew wood about four metres long and sat directly behind the prow.

Homes

Because of their migratory way of life, First Nations of the Woodland, Plains and Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins all built homes that were either portable or easily erected from materials found in their immediate environments. Woodland and northern peoples' homes were essentially a framework of poles covered with bark, woven rush mats or caribou skin, called tipis.

Plains First Nations' tipi poles were usually made from long slender pine trees. These were highly valued because replacements were not easy to find on the Prairies. The average tipi cover consisted of 12 buffalo hides stitched together. To prevent drafts and to provide interior ventilation, an inner wall of skins about two metres high was often fastened to the poles on the inside. Women made, erected and owned the tipis.

Unlike nomadic First Nations, the Haudenosaunee had relatively permanent villages. The longhouse was the most striking feature in an Haudenosaunee village. This structure consisted of an inverted U shape made of poles, which were then covered with slabs of bark. Longhouses were usually about 10 metres wide, 10 metres high and 25 metres long. Each longhouse was headed by a powerful matriarch who oversaw her extended family's day-to-day affairs.

Among First Nations of the Plateau, the subterranean homes of the Interior Salish were unlike those of other First Nations in the country. The Interior Salish dug a pit, usually about two metres deep and from six to twelve metres wide, in well-drained soil, typically near a river. This location meant that clean water, fish and a means of transport were all readily accessible. The Interior Salish then covered the pit with a framework of poles and insulated this dwelling with spruce boughs and earth that was removed from the pit. An opening approximately 1.25 metres square was left at the top and served as both the doorway and smoke-hole. People entered the house with the help of steps carved into a sturdy, slanting log, the top of which protruded out of the opening of the pit house.

Massive forests of red cedar along the Pacific Coast allowed the First Nations who lived in this part of the country to build huge homes. Excellent carpenters, these First Nations used chisels made of stone or shell and stone hammers to split the soft, straight-grained cedar into wide planks. One of the largest traditional homes ever recorded from the pre-contact era was in a Coast Salish village. It was 170 metres long and 20 metres wide. Because Pacific Coast houses were so large, they could accommodate several families, each with its own separate living area and hearth.

Modes of Transportation

Woodland First Nations constructed birch bark canoes that were light, durable and streamlined for navigating the numerous rivers and lakes in this area. Canoe builders stitched bark sheets together and then fastened them to a wooden frame using watup -white spruce root that had been split, peeled and soaked. The vessel's seams were waterproofed with a coating of heated spruce gum and grease.

In the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins, birch trees did not grow as large as in the southern regions of the country. However, many northern First Nations were able to construct long canoes, using spruce gum to seal the seams between the smaller pieces of bark.

Some Haudenosaunee also built bark-covered canoes. However, these First Nations mainly travelled by land. Exceptional runners, the Haudenosaunee could cover extremely long distances in a very short time.

When the horse was introduced on the Plains by European explorers around 1700, the peoples of the Plains First Nations readily adapted and became skilled riders. Within 100 years of its introduction, the horse was an essential part of Plains First Nations culture-in hunting, warfare, travel and the transportation of goods. Before that, the principal means of transporting goods and household possessions was the dog and travois-two long poles hitched to a dog's sides, to which a webbed frame for holding baggage was fastened.

Pacific Coast First Nations travelled almost exclusively by water, using dugout canoes made of red cedar. Size varied according to a canoe's function. A small hunting canoe for one or two men would be about five metres long. The Haida built very large canoes. Some Haida canoes were more than 16 metres long and two metres wide, and could carry 40 men and two metric tons of cargo.

The actual construction process of a canoe could last three to four weeks and had its own rituals, including prayer and sexual abstinence for the canoe maker. These talented men stretched a canoe hull using a steam-softening process. Water was poured into the hollow and brought to a boil with hot stones. Wooden stretchers were then inserted to hold the sides of the canoe apart while it cooled.

For winter travel, all First Nations built some form of snowshoe with a wood frame and rawhide webbing. The shape and size of snowshoes varied due to what sort of terrain was being travelled.

Clothing

All First Nations across the country, with the exception of the Pacific Coast, made their clothing-usually tunics, leggings and moccasins-of tanned animal skin. Woodland and northern First Nations used moose, deer or caribou skin. Plains First Nations mostly used light animal skins, such as buffalo, antelope, elk or deer.

Women prepared the animal skins and used a smoke tanning process to preserve the hides. Bone needles were used to sew the garments with sinew from the back or legs of a caribou, moose or deer. In winter, people wore robes of fur for extra warmth. Caribou skins were particularly valued by First Nations of the Mackenzie and Yukon River Basins because caribou hair is an excellent insulator.

Whenever weather permitted, men from Pacific Coast First Nations went unclothed. Coast Tsimshian women wore skirts of buckskin, but elsewhere on the Pacific Coast the women's skirts were woven of cedar bark that had been shredded to produce a soft fibre. Neither men nor women of Pacific Coast First Nations had footwear of any kind. In rainy weather these coastal people wore woven bark rain capes and wide-brimmed hats of woven spruce roots. The Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka'wakw also made a distinctive long robe woven from yellow cedar bark. Some of these robes were interwoven with mountain goat wool and the most luxurious had borders of sea otter fur.

Any decorative touches on clothing came from nature. Many Woodland, Haudenosaunee and northern First Nations used dyed porcupine quills to embroider designs on their clothing and moccasins. Men and women coloured their clothing with red, yellow, blue and green dyes derived from flowers, fruits, roots and berries. The men of the Plains First Nations also regularly wore face paint, and a red dye derived from the clay was a very popular colour.

Spiritual Beliefs

All First Nations believed that their values and traditions were gifts from the Creator. One of the most important and most common teachings was that people should live in harmony with the natural world and all it contained.

In oral stories and legends that Elders passed from one generation to another, First Nations children learned how the world came into being and that they were a part of the whole of creation. People gave thanks to everything in nature, upon which they depended for survival and development as individuals and as members of their communities. First Nations treated all objects in their environment-whether animate or inanimate-with the utmost respect.

This deep respect that First Nations cultivated for every thing and every process in the natural world was reflected in songs, dances, festivals and ceremonies. Among the Woodland First Nations, for example, a hunter would talk or sing to a bear before it died, thanking the animal for providing the hunter and his family with much-needed food.

In keeping with their farming culture, the Haudenosaunee held six to eight festivals a year relating to the cultivation of the soil and ripening of fruits and berries. There was a seven-day festival to give thanks when corn was planted, for example, and another when it was green. A third festival was held when corn was harvested.

First Nations of the Pacific Coast had many rituals to give thanks and celebrate the annual salmon run. These rituals included a welcoming ceremony and offerings to the first salmon of the year.

For the principles that guided their day-to-day conduct, many First Nations shared value systems similar to the Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Anishnaabe peoples. These teachings stressed Wisdom, Love, Respect, Bravery, Honesty, Humility and Truth as the values that enable people to live in a way that promotes harmony and balance with everyone and everything in creation.

Part 2 - History of First Nations - Newcomer Relations

First Encounters - Military and Commercial Alliances
(First Contact to 1763)

Indigenous peoples occupied North America for thousands of years before European explorers first arrived on the eastern shores of the continent in the 11th century. These newcomers were Norse explorers and settlers, moving ever-westward from Scandinavia to Iceland and Greenland, and eventually to the island of Newfoundland. There they founded North America's first European colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. Although this colony was short-lived, it marked the beginning of European exploration and migration that would radically change the lives of North America's Indigenous peoples.

European Colonial Settlements and the Fur Trade

In the 1500s Europeans returned to the eastern shores of North America to establish settlements. By that time, many Europeans had heard from returning fishermen about the wealth of resources that the New World offered. Attracted by the Grand Banks' teeming cod stocks, Basque, Breton, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Irish and English fishermen had already made contact and traded with the Mik'maq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples of the Eastern seaboard. As they returned each summer to fish and dry-cure their catch, these fishermen developed an informal trade system with First Nations, exchanging European goods for furs.

There was soon a network of competing colonies throughout the Americas as the various European powers pushed to expand their own wealth and influence in this New World. In North America, the British and the French quickly became the dominant powers. By the early 1600s the British had established several colonies and begun settlement on a large scale. The bases of France's North American empire were the colonies of Acadia in the Maritimes and New France in the St. Lawrence Valley.

Soon after founding these colonies, the two powers cemented alliances with First Nations to support their commercial interests, which included the fur trade. The British allied with the Iroquois Confederacy (now known as the Haudenosaunee, or People of the Longhouse, this group consisted of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca First Nations) and the First Nations of the Allegheny Mountain range. The French allied with First Nations north of the St. Lawrence River (the Huron, Algonquin, Odawa and Montagnais) and in Acadia (the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy). Using the long-established indigenous trade routes of the Interior, the English and French and their First Nations allies developed a vast trade focused on beaver pelts, that spread across North America. This trade spurred new European explorations throughout the Great Lakes basin, into the Prairies and down the Mississippi River.

Military Alliances and Conflict

French and British explorers, fur traders and soldiers followed the trade routes inland. There they established a network of forts and posts to supply their First Nations trading partners and confirm their presence. First Nations quickly adapted to this new commerce, which brought them European goods such as iron wares and firearms. The fur trade was so profitable and important that the various European and First Nations interests often clashed violently throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Competition between groups such as the Haudenosaunee mentioned above and the Huron resulted in all-out warfare. In the mid-1600s, the Huron were driven from their traditional territories around Georgian Bay.

In 1701, this tumultuous era came to an end when France and 40 First Nations signed a treaty in Montreal known as the Great Peace. Through the agreement, the various First Nations in the Great Lakes basin promised to stop violent attacks and to share the lands, as "a dish with two spoons." Moreover, just prior to the Montreal conference, Haudenosaunee leaders had agreed to sell all of the lands of the Great Lakes to the British in exchange for their protection and the continued right to hunt and fish throughout the territory. The Haudenosaunee not only attained a stable peace with the French and its allies, but also secured British protection for their lands and interests.

As French and British colonies pushed further inland, their competition for control of the rich Interior of North America became a new theatre of war in the power struggles erupting across Europe. These power struggles, particularly between the British and the French, transformed their respective commercial partnerships with First Nations into vital military alliances that brought much needed support to both camps. Desperate for military assistance ahead of what would turn out to be the final French-British conflict in North America (the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763), British administrators created the Indian Department in 1755 to coordinate alliances with the powerful Haudenosaunee. The new Department also tried to resolve concerns regarding colonial fraud and abuses against First Nations and their lands along the colonial frontier.

In 1760, the fall of Montreal-the last French stronghold on the St. Lawrence-put an end to French colonial efforts in what would become Canada. The British victory led to a realignment of the First Nations alliances that had been in place for more than 150 years. Across the former colonies of New France and Acadia, the British undertook a series of treaties to secure the neutrality of First Nations and to establish peaceful relations. In the Maritime region, where lands had been hotly contested since the early 1700s, the British and the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples entered into dozens of these "Peace and Friendship" treaties. In 1760, the Aboriginal allies of New France called upon the British to recognize their neutrality in the Seven Years War and concluded the Treaty of Swegatchie and the Murray Treaty.

Although Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of the Indian Department, worked hard at smoothing relations with the sceptical former allies of the French, he was not entirely successful. Shortly after the fall of Montreal, the Odawa leader Pontiac, doubting British intentions and motives, led a series of attacks against British military positions throughout the Great Lakes region. Nevertheless, a combination of military and diplomatic missions enabled Johnson and the Indian Department to establish peaceful, if somewhat uneasy relations with the various First Nations of the Interior.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763

The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended more than 150 years of European competition and conflict. Through this agreement, France ceded its colonial territories in what is now Canada, including Acadia, New France and the Interior lands of the Great Lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Britain was now the primary European power throughout much of North America, controlling all of the valuable commercial fur trade. Despite this dominance, the British did not fully control the continent. British administrators realized that the success of Britain's North American colonies depended upon stable and peaceful relations with First Nations. To help achieve this, King George III issued a Royal Proclamation in 1763, which specified how the colonies were to be administered. This wide-ranging document established a firm western boundary for the colonies. All the lands to the west of this boundary became "Indian Territories" where there could be no settlement or trade without the permission of the Indian Department.

The Proclamation established very strict protocols for all dealings with First Nations. From 1763 onward, the Indian Department became the primary point of contact between First Nations and the colonies. In addition, only the Crown could purchase land from a First Nation, which was done by officially sanctioned Crown representatives negotiating with an interested First Nation in a public meeting. All other land purchases were to be considered invalid and were dismissed.

The original intent of the Royal Proclamation was to slow the uncontrolled western expansion of the colonies and tightly control the relationship between First Nations and colonists. But crucially, the Proclamation also became the first public recognition of First Nations rights to lands and title.

Part 3 - A Changing Relationship - From Allies to Wards
(1763-1862)

Until the late 18th century, the relationship between First Nations and the British Crown was still very much based on commercial and military interests. The Indian Department had one primary goal for the British administration throughout the Great Lakes basin-to maintain the peace between the small number of British soldiers and traders stationed at far-flung trading posts and the far more numerous and well-armed First Nations. Under Sir William Johnson's direction, the Indian Department acted as an intermediary between the military and First Nations leaders, securing lands for forts; assuring access to trade, furs and goods; issuing yearly presents; and organizing peace conferences. As Johnson made clear in a letter to the British government, the powerful position of First Nations meant that British commercial interests could only flourish in the Interior if the Crown took definite steps to protect those interests.

Treaties and a Growing Colony

The outbreak of the American War of Independence and Britain's subsequent recognition of the United States of America in 1783 had a dramatic impact on the relationship between the British Crown and its First Nations allies. The loss of the American colonies brought some 30,000 United Empire Loyalist refugees to the remaining British colonies in North America. A powerful group of people who had lost everything because of their support for the British cause, these Loyalists asked colonial administrators for new lands.

Settlers were not the only refugees from the newly independent United States. First Nations who fought alongside the British were also dispossessed by the war, especially the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (this group consisted of the Five Nations Confederacy mentioned above, plus the Tuscarora First Nation). Their lands were unilaterally ceded to the Americans by the 1783 Treaty of Versailles. "His Majesty's Loyal Allies" from the Iroquois Confederacy were now refugees in Montreal and were asking for compensation for their efforts on the Crown's behalf. In response, officials from the Indian Department negotiated a series of land surrender treaties with the various Anishinaabeg peoples (Odawa, Ojibwa and Algonquin First Nations) inhabiting the lands along the St. Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. These land surrenders, which largely preceded the arrival of settlers to the area, allowed for the remarkably peaceful establishment of an agricultural colony. To help compensate their First Nations allies for the losses incurred during the war with the Americans, the British Crown set aside two parcels of lands as reserves for the Six Nations-one at the Bay of Quinte and the other along the Grand River.

In the last decades of the 18th century, British military leaders and the Indian Department still placed great value on their strong military alliances with First Nations. They feared future conflict with the new American state to the south and saw the numerous First Nations warriors as essential to their colony's defence. The Indian Department worked to bolster the damaged alliances by trying to secure fair deals on land surrenders and by protecting First Nations lands. The Department also issued yearly presents and weaponry during gatherings and conferences with First Nations chiefs and leaders, even those in American territories. These alliances were tested and proved to be strong as war did eventually break out between Britain and its former American colonies. During the War of 1812, First Nations fought alongside the British and Canadian colonists against the American invasion of what is now southern Ontario.

Shifting Relationships

Once peace returned to North America, new immigrants and colonists continued to arrive. Less than 50 years after the first land surrenders for settlers in Upper Canada, the non-First Nations population outnumbered the settler population in the Great Lakes basin. To provide land for new settlers' farms, the pace of land surrenders increased. Some 35 sales were concluded, covering all the lands of Upper Canada-from the productive agricultural lands in the south to the natural resource-rich lands of Lake Superior and Georgian Bay.

As settlers demanded more and more property, they began to pressure the colonial administration for the lands held by First Nations. Instead of a bastion of colonial defence, the colony's First Nations populations were now regarded as an impediment to growth and prosperity. Not only had military threats to the colonies faded with the end of the War of 1812, but the colonial militia was able to draw on the ever-growing settler population to meet the colony's defensive needs. In the decades following the War of 1812, British administrators therefore began to regard First Nations as dependents, rather than allies.

By the 1830s, with more and more lands surrendered for settlement, only pockets of First Nations lands remained in Upper Canada. For the most part, the land surrender treaties did not create sizeable reserves for the First Nations signatories. First Nations thus increasingly lost access to hunting grounds and became a dispossessed people on their former lands. A treaty concluded in 1836 by the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond Head, established Manitoulin Island in Georgian Bay as a reserve for the dispossessed First Nations population. The goal was to encourage these landless peoples to relocate to the island where they would be removed from the more harmful aspects of colonial society (specifically alcohol and prostitution) and where they would adapt to the new colonial reality at a controlled pace. However, few First Nations actually relocated to Manitoulin Island. Most continued to live on small plots of lands set aside by the treaties or on the lands of religious missions trying to convert them to Christianity. Some squatted on Crown Lands, living an increasingly destitute life. Meanwhile, the Crown continued to conclude land surrender treaties with First Nations until 1862.

As settlement lands were filled, attention turned for the first time to northern areas where minerals had been discovered along the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron. As a result, the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior treaties of the 1850s were negotiated with the various Anishinaabeg peoples inhabiting the area. These two treaties, unlike any previously negotiated treaties, would become the template for future agreements with First Nations in the West. Specifically, the two Robinson treaties ceded First Nations lands and rights to the Crown in exchange for reserves, annuities and First Nations' continued right to hunt and fish on unoccupied Crown lands. This formula to conclude agreements with numerous bands for large tracts of lands would become the model for the Post-Confederation Numbered Treaties.

The Hudson's Bay Company

While Britain established its new colony on the St. Lawrence, the Company of Adventurers, better known as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), continued to trade as it had done since 1670. With an exclusive monopoly and a charter for all the lands of the Hudson Bay watershed, the HBC traded with the First Nations of what is now Northern Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. In search of rich supplies of furs for the European market, this trade extended along the coasts of the Hudson and James bays. Only peripherally affected by the nearly continuous colonial conflict between France and Britain, the HBC was able to establish a series of posts at strategic major rivers. These early posts, such as Fort Albany and York Factory, became the base for an extensive trade alliance with the Cree. In exchange for a wide variety of goods (knives, kettles, beads, needles and blankets), the Cree traded vast amounts of animal furs from the Interior. As the fur trade grew more lucrative, the Cree became a sort of intermediary between the Company and the Interior groups. They collected furs and pelts from other First Nations hunters and took them to the HBC posts on the coast. Because of the HBC's monopoly over all trade on lands where the waters flowed into Hudson Bay, this trade relationship proved very profitable for both parties.

Not all parties, however, were happy with the Company's monopoly over some of the richest fur territories in North America. Following the transfer of New France to the British, French traders based in Montreal began to look for new sources of fur. Several new companies began to challenge the HBC, the most successful being the Northwest Company. Using the system of Interior trading posts and routes established by the French before 1763, the Nor'Westers, as they were known, exploited the lands of the Upper Great Lakes by going out to trade and collect the furs themselves. The Northwest Company, aided by the paddling and hauling skills of French-Canadian, Métis and First Nations voyageurs, went directly to the source of the furs. In this way, they were able to redirect a large quantity of furs away from the Cree intermediaries and the HBC posts far to the north. Using the Ottawa River route from Montreal up to Lake Nippissing and across to Lake Superior, the Northwest Company controlled the bulk of the fur trade heading to Montreal and across to Europe. From their company's primary post, Fort William (near present-day Thunder Bay), the Nor'Westers extended their reach into the vast Prairies of North America.

By going into the Interior and trading directly with First Nations hunters, the Northwest Company disrupted the long-standing relationship between the HBC and its Cree intermediaries. Faced with a sharp decline in fur stocks, the HBC governors in London responded by adopting their rival's tactics and abandoning the use of First Nations middlemen. During the first two decades of the 19th century, the HBC and Northwest Company pushed further down the North and South Saskatchewan, the Assiniboine and the Athabasca rivers (among others) in a race to get to First Nations hunters and their fur stocks. This competition not only pitted the traders against each other, but First Nations also joined the fray in an attempt to secure the best prices and goods for their furs. In 1821, after a bloody decade of violence and conflict on the Prairies, the two companies merged into a new and reinvigorated Hudson's Bay Company. The renewed HBC now stretched across the northern half of the continent and held a near total monopoly on trade from the Pacific Coast to Hudson Bay and down to Montreal.

This long history of trade, commerce and competition brought about major changes for the First Nations populations of the northern Plains. Above all, the European desire for fur radically transformed Indigenous economies. Rather than small-scale hunting for furs, First Nations were dedicating more and more time and resources to the seemingly endless European demand for animal pelts. The HBC's desire for bison pelts and pemmican (a type of preserved bison meat popular among traders and voyageurs) transformed the Plains First Nations' buffalo hunt from one of subsistence to extensive commercial exploitation. Trade patterns shifted towards the northern HBC posts and later to the Interior trading posts that were scattered across the Prairies. Traders who had to ship goods down the rivers to central depots such as Fort William hired First Nations men as labourers and porters. All of these activities contributed to a wide-scale diffusion of European goods, especially iron wares, knives and firearms, and to First Nations' dependence on these goods.

A second major impact of the extended fur trade was increased contact between First Nations, traders and settlers, which would have a dramatic effect on First Nations over the long term. The far-flung and isolated trading posts became gathering places for many groups-not only for trade with the HBC, but also for traders and First Nations themselves. This proximity to traders meant easy access to alcohol, which would have devastating effects on First Nations.

In 1812, the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Earl of Selkirk, established a colonial settlement where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet. Plagued by poor planning and the ongoing conflict between the HBC and the Northwest Company, this initial attempt to organize a colony in the Interior ended in failure. However, a few settlers and Company men did remain in the area and lived in the Interior year-round. Eventually, these people helped form a more established community along the Red River. Decades of intermarriage between HBC traders and voyageurs with First Nation women created a new and distinct Aboriginal group-the Métis-centred at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. This close-knit community merged and adopted European and First Nations customs and lifestyles to meet the needs of the growing frontier settlement.

Part 4 - Legislated Assimilation - Development of the Indian Act
(1820-1927)

"Civilizing the Indian"

As First Nations' military role in the colony waned, British administrators began to look at new approaches to their relationship. In fact, a new perspective was emerging throughout the British Empire about the role the British should play with respect to Indigenous peoples. This new perspective was based on the belief that British society and culture were superior; there was also a missionary fervour to bring British "civilization" to the Empire's Indigenous people. In the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, the Indian Department became the vehicle for this new plan of "civilization." The British believed it was their duty to bring Christianity and agriculture to First Nations. Indian agents accordingly began encouraging First Nations to abandon their traditional lifestyles and to adopt more agricultural and sedentary ways of life. As we now know, these policies were intended to assimilate First Nations into the larger British and Christian agrarian society.

Starting in the 1820s, colonial administrators undertook many initiatives aimed at "civilizing" First Nations. One early assimilation experiment took place at Coldwater-Narrows, near Lake Simcoe in Upper Canada. A group of Anishinaabe were encouraged to settle in a typical colonial-style village where they would be instructed in agriculture and encouraged to adopt Christianity and abandon hunting and fishing as a means of subsistence. But because of poor management by the Indian Department, chronic underfunding, a general lack of understanding of First Nations cultures and values, and competition between various religious denominations, the Coldwater-Narrows experiment was short-lived and a dismal failure.

Indian Legislation

Despite initial problems, the "civilization" program was to remain one of the central tenets of Indian policy and legislation for the next 150 years. One of the first such pieces of legislation was the Crown Lands Protection Act, passed in 1839. This Act made the government the guardian of all Crown lands, including Indian Reserve lands. The Act responded to the fact that settlement was occurring faster throughout the 1830s than the colony could manage. Squatters were already settling on unoccupied territory, both Crown lands and Indian reserves. The statute was thus the first to classify Indian lands as Crown lands to be protected by the Crown. The Act also served to secure First Nations interests by limiting settlers' access to reserves. More legislation protecting First Nations interests were passed in 1850, limiting trespassing and encroachment on First Nations reserve lands. This legislation also provided a definition of an "Indian", exempted First Nations from taxation and protected them from creditors. In 1857, the British administration introduced the Gradual Civilization Act. This legislation offered 50 acres of land and monetary inducements to literate and debt-free First Nations individuals provided they abandoned their traditional lifestyle and adopted a "civilized" life as a "citizen".

In 1860, the Management of Indian Lands and Property Act ( Indian Land Act) brought about another fundamental change in First Nations' relations with the Crown. This Act transferred authority for Indian affairs to the colonies, enabling the British Crown to dispense with the last of its responsibilities towards its former allies. However, colonial responsibility for the management of "Indians and Indian lands" very soon became a federal responsibility with the creation of the new Dominion of Canada under the 1867 British North America Act. The new nation continued the centralized approach to Indian affairs used by the British. In addition, in 1869 Canada extended its influence over First Nations by the purchase of Rupert's Land (the Hudson's Bay Company lands). The new Dominion was now responsible for addressing the needs and claims of First Nations from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains.

Indian Policy in British Columbia

On the West Coast, the relationship between European settlers and the region's First Nation inhabitants developed quite differently from that between settlers and First Nations in the Great Lakes basin. For nearly 50 years, the commercial aspirations of the Hudson's Bay Company had overshadowed settlement in the West. With a trade monopoly for the entire British half of the Oregon territory, the HBC was content to keep its diplomatic dealings with the West Coast First Nations restricted to commercial matters relating to the fur trade.

In 1849, the HBC received a new mandate to establish a colony on Vancouver Island. James Douglas, the HBC's Chief Factor and later colonial Governor after 1854, signed 14 treaties with various Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island between 1850 and 1854. Under these treaties, the First Nations surrendered land required for settlement around various HBC posts in exchange for lump sum cash payments and goods, and the continued right to hunt and fish. The creation of the colony of British Columbia in 1859 and the rise of local control over colonial administration had a deep and lasting impact on First Nations in the region. Led by colonial surveyor and later lieutenant governor, Joseph Trutch, the colonial assembly slowly retracted the policies established by Douglas during the 1850s. Treaty making did not continue after 1854 because of British Colombia's reluctance to recognize First Nations land rights, unlike all other British colonial jurisdictions. This denial of Aboriginal land title persisted even after British Colombia joined Confederation and ran contrary to the Dominion's recognition of this title in other parts of the country.

The Numbered Treaties

Between 1871 and 1921, Canada undertook a series of land surrender treaties throughout its new territories. The objectives of these surrenders were to fulfil the requirements under the transfer; to secure Canadian sovereignty; to open the land for settlement and exploitation; and to reduce possible conflict between First Nations and settlers. Adhering to the form of the 1850 Robinson Treaties, the Crown negotiated 11 new agreements covering Northern Ontario, the Prairies and the Mackenzie River up to the Arctic. As in the Robinson Treaties, these Numbered Treaties set aside reserve lands for First Nations and granted them annuities and the continued right to hunt and fish on unoccupied Crown lands in exchange for Aboriginal title. Also included in these new treaties were schools and teachers to educate First Nations children on reserves; farming, hunting and fishing equipment; and ceremonial and symbolic elements, such as medals, flags and clothing for chiefs. First Nations were not opposed to this process and in many cases pressured Canada to undertake treaties in areas when it was not prepared to do so. First Nations signatories had their own reasons to enter into treaties with the Crown. On the whole, First Nations leaders were looking to the Crown for assistance in a time of great change and upheaval in their communities. Facing disease epidemics and famine, First Nations leaders wanted the government to help care for their people. They also wanted assistance in adapting to a rapidly changing economy as buffalo herds neared extinction and the HBC shifted its operations to the North.

Throughout the negotiations and in the text of the Numbered Treaties, First Nations were encouraged to settle on reserve lands in sedentary communities, take up agriculture and receive an education. The Treaty Commissioners explained that the reserves were to help First Nations adapt to a life without the buffalo hunt and that the government would help them make the transition to agriculture. These 11 treaties included land surrenders on a massive scale. The Numbered Treaties can be divided into two groups: those for settlement in the South and those for access to natural resources in the North. Treaties 1 to 7 concluded between 1871 and 1877, led the way to opening up the Northwest Territories to agricultural settlement and to the construction of a railway linking British Columbia to Ontario. These treaties also solidified Canada's claim on the lands north of the shared border with the United States. After a 22-year gap, treaty making resumed between 1899 and 1921 to secure and facilitate access to the vast and rich natural resources of Northern Canada.

The Indian Act

In 1876, the government introduced another piece of legislation that would have deep and long-lasting impacts on First Nations across Canada. The Indian Act of 1876 was a consolidation of previous regulations pertaining to First Nations. The Act gave greater authority to the federal Department of Indian Affairs. The Department could now intervene in a wide variety of internal band issues and make sweeping policy decisions, such as determining who was an Indian. Under the Act, the Department would also manage Indian lands, resources and moneys; control access to intoxicants; and promote "civilization." The Indian Act was based on the premise that it was the Crown's responsibility to care for and protect the interests of First Nations. It would carry out this responsibility by acting as a "guardian" until such time as First Nations could fully integrate into Canadian society.

The Indian Act is one of the most frequently amended pieces of legislation in Canadian history. It was amended nearly every year between 1876 and 1927. The changes made were largely concerned with the "assimilation" and "civilization" of First Nations. The legislation became increasingly restrictive, imposing ever-greater controls on the lives of First Nations. In the 1880s, the government imposed a new system of band councils and governance, with the final authority resting with the Indian agent. The Act continued to push for the whole-scale abandonment of traditional ways of life, introducing outright bans on spiritual and religious ceremonies such as the potlatch and sun dance.

The concept of enfranchisement (the legal act of giving an individual the rights of citizenship, particularly the right to vote) also remained a key element of government policy for decades to come. As very few First Nations members opted to become enfranchised, the government amended the Act to enable automatic enfranchisement. An 1880 amendment, for example, declared that any First Nations member obtaining a university degree would be automatically enfranchised. An 1933 amendment empowered the government to order the enfranchisement of First Nations members meeting the qualifications set out in the Act, even without such a request from the individuals concerned. In 1927, the government added yet another new restriction to the Act. In response to the Nisga'a pursuit of a land claim in British Columbia, the federal government passed an amendment forbidding fundraising by First Nations for the purpose of pursuing a land claim without the expressed permission of the Department of Indian Affairs. This amendment effectively prevented First Nations from pursuing land claims of any kind.

Indian Education and Residential Schools

In 1883, Indian Affairs policy on First Nations education focused on residential schools as a primary vehicle for "civilization" and "assimilation". Through these schools, First Nations children were to be educated in the same manner and on the same subjects as Canadian children (reading, writing, arithmetic and English or French). At the same time, the schools would force children to abandon their traditional languages, dress, religion and lifestyle. To accomplish these goals, a vast network of 132 residential schools was established across Canada by the Catholic, United, Anglican and Presbyterian churches in partnership with the federal government. More than 150,000 Aboriginal children attended residential schools between 1857 and 1996.

Part 5 - New Perspectives - First Nations in Canadian Society
(1914-1982)

Despite decades of difficult and painful living conditions for First Nations under the restrictive regulations of the Indian Act, many First Nations answered the call to arms during both World Wars and the Korean War. Approximately 6,000 Aboriginal soldiers from across Canada served in the First World War alone. By the late 1940s, social and political changes were underway that would mark the start of a new era for First Nations in Canada. Several First Nations leaders emerged, many of them drawing attention to the fact that thousands of their people had fought for their country in both World Wars. First Nations across the country began to create provincially based organizations that forcefully expressed their peoples' desire for equality with other Canadians, while maintaining their cultural heritage.

Rolling Back Paternalism

In 1946, a special joint parliamentary committee of the Senate and the House of Commons undertook a broad review of Canada's policies and management of Indian affairs. For three years, the committee received briefs and representations from First Nations, missionaries, school teachers and federal government administrators. These hearings brought to light the actual impact of Canada's assimilation policies on the lives and well-being of First Nations. The committee hearings were one of the first occasions at which First Nations leaders and Elders were able to address parliamentarians directly instead of through the Department of Indian Affairs. First Nations largely rejected the idea of cultural assimilation into Canadian society. In particular, they spoke out against the enforced enfranchisement provisions of the Indian Act and the extent of the powers that the government exercised over their daily lives. Many groups asked that these "wide and discretionary" powers be vested in First Nations chiefs and councillors on reserves so that they themselves could determine the criteria for band membership and manage their own funds and reserve lands. While the joint committee did not recommend a full dismantling of the Indian Act and its assimilationist policies, it did recommend that unilateral and mandatory elements of the Act be scaled back or revised. The committee also recommended that a Claims Commission be established to hear problems arising from the fulfilment of treaties.

Despite the committee's recommendations, amendments to the Indian Act in 1951 did not bring about sweeping changes to the government's Indian policy, nor did it differ greatly from previous legislation. Contentious elements of the Act such as the involuntary enfranchisement clause were repealed, as were the provisions that determined Indian status. However, the amendments did introduce some changes. For example, sections of the Act banning the potlatch and other traditional ceremonies, as well as a ban on fundraising to pursue land claims, were repealed. Bands were also given more control over the administration of their communities and over the use of band funds and revenues. National pension benefits and other health and welfare benefits were to be extended to First Nations. While the 1951 Act did limit some of the authority of the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development over individual bands, the government continued to exercise considerable powers over the lives of First Nations.

Despite the fact that the Indian Act still limited First Nations' control over their own affairs, by 1960 social and economic conditions on reserve began to improve. That year First Nations were at long last extended the right to vote in federal elections, another recommendation of the 1946 joint committee. First Nations veterans played a big role in this important advance, pointing out that, despite having fought for Canada in two World Wars, they were still deprived the right to vote. Other improvements for First Nations included the provision of better healthcare services in the mid-1950s. With these improvements, the Status Indian population increased rapidly. In addition, many more First Nations children had access to schooling, including secondary and post-secondary education. In general, however, the living conditions of First Nations still fell far short of the standards of other Canadians.

The White Paper

In 1969, the government began to examine a radically new approach to its Indian policy. This approach was based on the view that all Canadians held the same rights regardless of ethnicity, language or history. Arguing that the "special status" of First Nations and Inuit had put them at a disadvantage, and that both of these groups should be fully integrated into Canadian society, the government tabled a policy paper commonly known as the White Paper. This paper called for a repeal of the Indian Act, an end to federal responsibility for First Nations and termination of special status. It also called for the decentralization of Indian affairs to provincial governments, which would then administer services for First Nations. The White Paper further recommended that an equitable way be found to bring an end to treaties. In this way, the government hoped to abolish what it saw as a false separation between First Nations and the rest of Canadian society.

First Nations overwhelmingly rejected the White Paper. The complete lack of consultation with the people who would be directly affected-First Nations themselves-was central to their criticism. It became apparent that while many people regarded the Indian Act as paternalistic and coercive, the Act nevertheless protected special Aboriginal status within Confederation and therefore specific rights. In the face of such strong negative reaction not only from First Nations, but also from the general public, the government withdrew the White Paper in 1971. The government's attempt to change its relationship with First Nations created a new form of Aboriginal nationalism. First Nations leaders from across the country united in new associations and organizations determined to protect and promote their peoples' rights and interests. These organizations proposed their own policy alternatives. The Indian Association of Alberta, for example, argued in a paper entitled Citizens Plus that Aboriginal peoples held rights and benefits that other Canadians did not. Rallying around this concept, First Nations leaders argued that their people were entitled to all the benefits of Canadian citizenship, in addition to special rights deriving from their unique and historical relationship with the Crown.

The federal government slowly began to change its approach and scale back its paternalistic presence in the lives of First Nation, for example, by withdrawing all Indian agents from reserves. The government also began to fund Aboriginal political organizations. This funding allowed these groups to focus on the need for full recognition of their Aboriginal rights and the renegotiation of existing treaties.

Comprehensive Land Claims

As First Nations organizations such as the National Indian Brotherhood (later the Assembly of First Nations) increasingly challenged the government's Indian policy, the courts also began to weigh in on the issue. In the early 1970s, three landmark court decisions brought about an important shift in the recognition of the rights of First Nations in Canada. In Northern Quebec, a proposed hydro-electric project in the James Bay region announced in 1971 became a focal point for Cree and Inuit protests. Arguing that the lands of Northern Quebec were not covered by any existing treaties and that they still held Aboriginal rights over those lands, the Cree Nation and Inuit of Northern Quebec filed for an injunction to block the project until their claim of rights and title was addressed. In an unprecedented decision in Canadian law, in 1973 the Superior Court of Quebec ruled in favour of the Cree and Inuit, deciding that there remained an unfulfilled obligation to resolve Aboriginal title in Northern Quebec.

That same year, the courts once again brought the issue of First Nations claims under public scrutiny. After decades of persistence, the Nisga'a people in British Columbia succeeded in bringing their case before the Supreme Court of Canada. Led by Frank Calder, the Nisga'a argued that Aboriginal title to lands was part of Canadian law. In their 1973 decision in the Calder case, six of the seven Supreme Court justices ruled in favour of the Nisga'a, confirming the legality of Aboriginal title. In a third court case in 1973, the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories ruled in what has become known as the Paulette Caveat that Canada had not fulfilled its obligations under the terms of Treaties 8 and 11 in the Territories. As such, Aboriginal rights and title could not be fully relinquished to the Crown.

A review of these three monumental court decisions led the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (now Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada or AANDC) to announce its willingness to negotiate land claims based on outstanding Aboriginal title. The Department's new Comprehensive Claims Policy, the aim of which was to settle land claims through a negotiated process, was announced in August 1973. Through this new policy, Aboriginal rights and title would be transferred to the Crown by an agreement that guaranteed defined rights and benefits for the signatories (i.e. land title, fishing and trapping rights, financial compensation and other social and economic benefits). The first agreement under this new policy was with the Cree and Inuit of Northern Quebec. Soon after the 1972 James Bay ruling, the Cree, Inuit and the federal and Quebec governments began negotiations in an attempt to settle Aboriginal claims and allow the hydro-electric development project to resume. Under the final agreement signed in November 1975, the concerned Cree and Inuit groups surrendered their Aboriginal title to about 981,610 square kilometres of the James Bay/Ungava territory in Northern Quebec. In return, these parties were awarded a $225-million settlement, to be paid over 20 years. The Cree and Inuit also received tracts of community lands with exclusive hunting and trapping rights, the establishment of a new system of local government on lands set aside for their use, and First Nations control over their education and health authorities. In addition, the agreement set out measures relating to policing and the administration of justice, continuing federal and provincial benefits, and special social and economic development measures.

Since 1975, the Comprehensive Claims Policy has been modified in response to Aboriginal concerns and positions. Most notably, new options were added in 1986 relating to the transfer of rights and title (as well as a broader scope of rights and other issues). A cap on the number of ongoing negotiations was lifted in 1991.

The negotiation of comprehensive claims is a long and painstaking process, requiring many years to complete. From 1975 to 2009, there were 22 comprehensive claims agreements, commonly known as "modern treaties," concluded across Northern Quebec, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and British Columbia. Two of the most important agreements concluded are the Nunavut and Nisga'a agreements. Signed in 1993, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was the first treaty with Inuit in Canada and laid the groundwork for the creation of the Territory of Nunavut on April 1st, 1999. One year earlier in British Columbia, after over a century of claims and 24 years of negotiation, the Nisga'a Agreement was ratified by the Nisga'a, Canada and the province of British Columbia. The Nisga'a Final Agreement of 2000 was the first modern treaty in British Columbia.

Specific Claims Policy

As part of the wider review of how Canada dealt with First Nations claims, AANDC created a companion policy to Comprehensive Claims that addressed claims of a more specific nature. While the idea of addressing specific First Nations claims was first proposed in the 1948 joint committee report, it was not acted upon until 1973. From this point forward the Comprehensive Claims Policy would deal with issues stemming from claims to Aboriginal title, whereas the Specific Claims Policy addressed claims relating to the failure to fulfill any "lawful obligations" flowing from the Indian Act or existing treaties. To accompany the policy, the Office of Native Claims was created to guide claims through the process. However, the claims process proved difficult and cumbersome, leading many First Nations to complain it was ineffective and inefficient. After amendments to the policy in the mid-1980s and again in the early 1990s, the government created the Indian Specific Claims Commission to review AANDC's decisions regarding claims and to make recommendations.

While these changes to the policy did allow for more claims to be addressed, the complexity, volume and diversity of the claims were increasingly difficult to manage. Lengthy delays were common. In 2006, the Senate Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples recommended that the government establish a dedicated fund for the payment of specific claims settlements and an independent body with a mandate and power to resolve specific claims. In response, AANDC invited First Nations organizations to become directly involved in formulating the new Specific Claims Policy. As a result, in 2008 the Specific Claims Tribunal Act created an independent adjudicative tribunal with the authority to make binding decisions on the validity of claims and on compensation.

"Existing Aboriginal and Treaty Rights"

The federal government entered into constitutional discussions with provincial premiers between 1977 and 1981 to reform and repatriate the Constitution. Aboriginal political organizations tried unsuccessfully to get a seat at the negotiations table. When a 1981 constitutional proposal was announced, Aboriginal and treaty rights were excluded. However, after several months of concerted lobbying, First Nations, Inuit and Métis organizations succeeded in having two clauses included in Section 35 of the Constitution, to recognize "existing Aboriginal and treaty rightsAboriginal peoples that included all three groups. At conferences held between 1983 and 1987, attempts were made to define "existing Aboriginal and treaty rights." However, those rights remained undefined because of disagreements between the provinces, Canada and Aboriginal groups. Given this lack of consensus on a clear definition of "existing Aboriginal and treaty rights," responsibility has fallen to the courts to define the extent and scope of these rights and to direct government policies and programs so that they respect these rights and prevent any infringement of them.

Part 6 - Towards a New Relationship
(1982-2008)

Bill C-31

Since the mid-1800s, government policy had dictated that First Nations women automatically lost their Indian "status" if they married non-Aboriginal men. This automatic enfranchisement was entrenched in successive legislation for more than a century. For decades, many First Nations members, especially women, criticized this section of the Indian Act as blatant discrimination. By the 1980s, criticism of this aspect of the Act was widespread throughout Canadian society. Spurred by a series of 1970s court challenges attacking the legality of this loss of status for First Nations women, the government consulted with First Nations leaders across the country on how best to amend the Act.

Parliament passed Bill C-31 in 1985. This amendment to the Indian Act removed discriminatory provisions, eliminated the links between marriage and status, gave individual bands greater control in determining their own membership, and defined two new categories of Indian status. Through this amendment, some 60,000 persons regained their lost status. In addition, Bill C-31 distinguished between band membership and Indian status. While the government would continue to determine status, bands were given complete control over membership lists.

The Oka Crisis and RCAP

The need to deal with the long-standing grievances of First Nations became more urgent following the events at Oka, Quebec, in the summer of 1990. A conflict that would grab near-immediate national attention was sparked on July 11th of that year when the Quebec Provincial Police tried to dismantle a roadblock that had been set up outside Montreal in mid-March by a group of Mohawks from Kanesatake. This First Nation community had erected the roadblock to prevent the nearby town of Oka from expanding a golf course onto sacred Mohawk lands. One police officer was killed during the raid. For 78 days, armed Mohawk warriors faced off against the Quebec Provincial Police, and later the Canadian Armed Forces, before voluntarily withdrawing from their barricade after an agreement was reached between all parties.

Following what became known as the Oka Crisis, First Nations leaders and political commentators across the country debated the impact of the standoff. Supporters of the Mohawk Warriors Society argued that the conflict raised the profile of Aboriginal issues in a way that Aboriginal leaders had been unable to do previously. However, others argued that any gains made were offset by increased racism toward Aboriginal peoples, a loss of credibility for the Aboriginal rights movement and rising militancy among discontented Aboriginal youth.

In an attempt to address the concerns of First Nations leaders, and mere days before the conclusion of the Oka Crisis, the government announced a new agenda to improve its relationship with First Nations. The new measures included progress on land claim settlements, the creation of the Indian Specific Claims Commission, improved living conditions, an improved federal relationship with Aboriginal peoples and a review of the role of Aboriginal peoples in Canadian society. A few months later, in 1991, the government established the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). The Commission's mandate was to propose specific solutions to issues that had long plagued the relationship between Aboriginal peoples, the government and Canadian society as a whole.

The Commission published its final report in 1996, which included 440 recommendations covering a wide range of Aboriginal issues. The RCAP report is a significant body of work that has been widely used to inform public debate and policy making.

Self-Government

In 1983, in response to First Nations' demands for greater autonomy, the House of Commons established a parliamentary committee (the Penner Committee) to investigate Aboriginal self-government. Following its study, the committee stated in its report that this right was inherent to all First Nations and should be entrenched in the Constitution alongside Aboriginal and treaty rights.

In 1995, the government launched the Inherent Right Policy to negotiate practical arrangements with Aboriginal groups to make a return to self-government a reality. This process involved extensive consultations with Aboriginal leaders at the local, regional and national levels, and took the position that an inherent right of Aboriginal self-government already existed within the Constitution. Accordingly, new self-government agreements would then be partnerships between Aboriginal peoples and the federal government to implement that right. The policy also recognized that no single form of government was applicable to all Aboriginal communities. Self-government arrangements would therefore take many forms based upon the particular historical, cultural, political and economic circumstances of each respective Aboriginal group. Since the introduction of the policy, there have been 17 self-government agreements completed, many of which are part of larger Comprehensive Claims agreements.

National Aboriginal Day

The growing recognition of Aboriginal rights in Canadian law led to calls for greater recognition of the contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian society. Shortly after the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood, the leading body representing First Nations in Canada, called for the creation of a yearly "National Aboriginal Solidarity Day" on June 21st. Pressure for a national day of recognition continued to grow during the following decade as new ways were sought to bridge the divide between Aboriginal peoples and Canadians, especially in the wake of the 1990 Oka Crisis. In 1995, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommended the designation of a "National First Peoples Day" as a way to focus attention on the history, achievements and contributions of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. This message was repeated later that year during the Sacred Assembly, a national conference chaired by Elijah Harper, which called for a national holiday to celebrate the contributions of Aboriginal peoples. On June 13, 1996, after considerable consultation with Aboriginal organisations, June 21st was officially declared National Aboriginal Day.

Since its inauguration, National Aboriginal Day has become part of the annual nationwide Celebrate Canada! festivities held from June 21st to July 1st. June 21st was chosen because of the cultural significance of the summer solstice and because many Aboriginal groups mark this day as a time to celebrate their heritage. Setting aside a day for Aboriginal peoples is part of the wider recognition of their important place within the fabric of Canada and the ongoing contributions to Canadian society made by First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Residential Schools Apology

As the government continued to transfer control of local affairs to individual First Nations, education also began to be decentralized. New education policies began to emerge in the 1970s, with First Nations developing education systems that incorporated both the fundamental elements of a modern curriculum, as well as aspects of their respective traditions, languages and cultures. Special grants for training First Nations teachers, traditional language classes and lessons in First Nations history and culture helped strengthen these new education systems. With these advances, the residential school system increasingly fell out of favour and was slowly phased out. The final residential school, located in Saskatchewan, was closed in 1996.

While First Nations took charge of educating their children, the legacy of the residential school system became increasingly apparent. More and more stories surfaced regarding abuse and mistreatment of children by school administrators and teachers. In 1990, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs leader Phil Fontaine called on the government and the churches involved with residential schools to acknowledge and address the decades of abuse and mistreatment that occurred at these institutions. In its final report, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples noted the deep and lasting negative impacts this policy had on those who attended the residential schools, as well as their families, communities and cultures. As claims and litigation against the government and churches continued to mount, the first steps toward reconciliation began in the 1990s. The various churches involved in running these institutions were the first to offer their apologies to residential school survivors. In 1998, the government also acknowledged its role in the abuse and mistreatment of Aboriginal students during their time at residential schools.

After nearly a decade of negotiations, in 2007 the Government announced a landmark compensation package (the Common Experience Package) for residential school survivors, worth nearly $2 billion. The settlement included a common experience payment, an independent assessment process, commemoration activities, measures to support healing and the creation of an Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission to act as an independent body and to provide a safe and culturally appropriate place for former students and others affected by the residential school system to share their experiences.

The Government of Canada offered an historic formal apology on June 11, 2008, to all former students of residential schools and asked their forgiveness for the suffering they experienced and for the impact the schools had on Aboriginal cultures, heritage and languages. The apology also made clear the government's commitment to address the legacy of residential schools through continuing measures, including the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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First Nations in Canada is an educational resource designed for use by young Canadians; high school educators and students; Aboriginal communities; and anyone interested in First Nations history. Its aim is to help readers understand the significant developments affecting First Nations communities from the pre-Contact era (before the arrival of Europeans) up to the present day.

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Namwayut: we are all one. Truth and reconciliation in Canada | Canada is ...

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Newcomers Guide to First Peoples (Indigenous Peoples)

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Newcomers Guide to First Peoples (Indigenous Peoples)

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Newcomers Guide to First Peoples (Indigenous Peoples)

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Newcomers Guide to First Peoples (Indigenous Peoples)

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Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and more commonly known as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

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Lord Strathcona drives the Last Spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway on 7 November 1885.

First Nations

The area now known as British Columbia was populated after the last Ice Age. Evidence of human habitation dates back at least 14,000 years. On the coast, several First Nations emerged. These include the Tagish, Tsimshian, Haida, Tlingit, Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka). Meanwhile, the Dakelh (Carrier), Interior Salish and Ktunaxa (Kootenay) were among those nations living inland.

Colonization

Europeans didn't arrive on the Pacific Coast in significant numbers until after the voyage of James Cook in 1778 and the mapping expedition of George Vancouver in the 1790s. By 1849, the land was home to about 50,000 Indigenous people and a few hundred British settlers. The settlers established the colony of Vancouver Island that year.

Fraser River Gold Rush

Everything changed with the Fraser River Gold Rush. In 1858, 30,000 gold-seekers, many from the United States, raced to cash in. The influx of settlers prompted Britain to create a separate mainland colony that same year called British Columbia. ( See also The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia.)

A form of representative government was established in BC in 1864. At the same time, the British North American colonies were debating Confederation. ( See also: Charlottetown Conference; Quebec Conference, 1864.) In 1866, the colonies of Vancouver Island and BC were united under one legislative assembly and governor. The capital was placed in Victoria.

When the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867, British Columbians debated joining the new country. Entering Confederation would help BC take on debt to pay for the building of roads and other infrastructure. It would also provide a measure of security and ensure the continuation of the British nature of the colony. This was believed to be especially important following the US purchase of Alaska that same year. The Alaska purchase sparked fears that the United States would try to annex BC to link Alaska with American territories in the Pacific Northwest.

Amid these debates, Indigenous people had little or no say in their political future. Joseph Trutch, the chief commissioner of lands and works, refused to negotiate treaties with First Nations or to recognize Aboriginal title to land. ( See Indigenous Territory.) He also cut the size of existing Indigenous reserves. As a result, British Columbia is the only province in Canada to exist on unceded land. ( See also Aboriginal Title.)

Yale Conference, 1868

Politician Amor De Cosmos, a newspaper publisher, led the movement for BC to join Confederation. He was joined by John Robson and Arthur Kennedy. De Cosmos formed the Confederation League in May 1868 to unite the colony with Canada and bring responsible government to BC. The league grew in popularity. Over the course of the summer, branches were established in New Westminster, Hope, Yale and Lytton.

On 14 September 1868, a meeting of 26 Confederation League delegates from across the colony was held in Yale. The delegates passed 37 resolutions. Nearly all of them outlined the possible terms for a union with the Dominion of Canada. Delegates agreed that Canada should pay down the colony's debt, that the province should have a responsible government, and that a wagon road should be built to link British Columbia to the east. Delegates also wanted assurances that the province would have control over immigration, First Nations affairs, land grants, education and settlement policy.

Born Bill Smith, he changed his name to Amor de Cosmos, which, he said, "tells what I love most. order beauty the world the universe".

However, the Confederation League's greatest opponents were the powerful, unelected members of BC's colonial government. They feared for their jobs and pensions if BC became a Canadian province with a fully elected, rather than a partially appointed, legislature. As a result, when the League's proposals were brought before the legislative council, they were defeated. Economic recession in the colony, as well as the presence of a group of settlers who favoured the annexation of BC by the United States, also hampered the Confederationists.

One major obstacle to union was removed in 1869 with the death of Governor Frederick Seymour. He had opposed joining Canada. His replacement, Anthony Musgrave, supported union. The following year, Canada also purchased Rupert's Land and the North-West Territories from the Hudson's Bay Company. This gave Canada control over the vast territory between the Great Lakes and BC. It cleared the way for a coast-to-coast country and, eventually, a transcontinental railway.

CPR construction in British Columbia, 1881.

BC Becomes a Province

The colony's legislature debated Confederation in the spring of 1870. It decided, despite opposition, to seek entry into Canada without responsible government. The colony then sent a three-man delegation to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of entry.

Federal leaders insisted on BC having responsible government if it became a province. They agreed to provide pensions for unelected local officials who would lose their positions in the process. Canada also agreed to take on BC's debt, build a rail link to the Pacific Coast, and give BC the right to send three senators and six members of Parliament to Ottawa.

The terms were passed by both the BC assembly and the federal Parliament in 1871. The colony joined Canada as the country's sixth province on 20 July 1871. Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, a central condition of the deal, was finally started in 1878 after many delays. It was finished in 1885. ( See also The Last Spike.)

See also: Fathers of Confederation; Mothers of Confederation; Confederation: Collection; Confederation: Timeline.

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Lord Strathcona drives the Last Spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway on 7 November 1885. The area now known as British Columbia was populated after the last Ice Age. Evidence of human habitation dates back at least 14,000 years. On the coast, several First Nations emerged.

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The vast stretch of land between British Columbia and Ontario comprises an area known as the Canadian Prairies, a 2,000 km valley of plains, forests, and farmland. Divided into three provinces - Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan - the resource-rich region has long served as the country's breadbasket and a crucial lynchpin in the national economy.
While the Prairies are now home to some of Canada's biggest cities, rural life remains an important part of the region's identity. At a time when more and more Canadians live exclusively in downtown apartments and earn a living sitting in front of computers, the Prairies are a place where farming, mining, and oil still generate a livelihood for many, and traditional-minded folk live in small, pioneer-founded communities separated by vast fields and open skies.

Geography of the Prairies

The Prairies begin where the Rocky Mountains end, which is to say, Alberta's western border with British Columbia. Moving east, the landscape proceeds to get very flat very quickly, as BC's tall forests give way to plains, lowlands, and grassy fields. The dark soil that lies beneath is the best in Canada, and together the three Prairie provinces house nearly 90 per cent of the country's arable farmland. Vast fields of wheat, barley and other crops remain among the region's most iconic sights. Flatness is by far the defining adjective of the region, though the Prairies' lesser-known and mostly underpopulated northern region is far more forested and hilly.

Weather-wise, the prairies alternate between warm, dry, sunny days and cold nights, which get particularly fierce in the winter. Warm Chinook winds and thunderstorms have helped contribute to the romantic idea of the Prairies as a land with sharp, moody seasons.

Owing to the region's history of aggressive settlement and farming, the population of the Prairies is more evenly distributed than any other region in Canada, with towns and cities spread all over the interior of the three provinces rather than huddled along the U.S. border, as is common in the rest of the country.

History of the Prairies

A lasting monument to the Victorian-era colonization plans of the Canadian federal government, the three Prairie provinces all trace their histories back to 19th century settlement programs. Following Ottawa's acquisition of the massive Rupert's Land territory from the fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company in 1870, and subsequent creation of the sea-to-sea Canadian Pacific Railroad, Ottawa promoted " homesteading" - where large swaths of government-owned land were sold to settlers at very low cost - as a way to ensure the speedy occupation and development of the new territory. It worked, and the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw large waves of immigrant farmers, particularly from Germany, Scandinavia, Russia and Ukraine, help transform the previously underpopulated area into a thriving base of Canadian agriculture.

Canada's farming boom came to an abrupt end during the 1920s and thirties, when the so-called Dust Bowl era of storms, droughts and crop failures further devastated a region already hard hit by the Great Depression (1929-1939). Born from economic unease, the Prairies quickly became a hotbed of political radicalism; socialism, communism and fascism all rose in popularity, as did the uniquely Canadian movements of farmer progressivism and Social Credit monetary theory. All the Prairie provinces retain unorthodox political parties to this day.

After the economic boom that followed World War II (1939-1945), the Prairie economies stabilized, and were further buoyed by new discoveries of oil, minerals,and natural gas. Steady economic growth has helped the provinces of the region diversify their economies in recent decades, moving away from farming and natural resources in favour of more service-oriented, "white collar" forms of employment as more residents begin to abandon rural life for an urban lifestyle similar to that of the larger provinces.

Alberta

The country's energy powerhouse, Alberta has exploited its great natural resources to become the richest per-capita province in Canada - with a generous self-image to boot. Today, Alberta is known for being a sort of "Canadian Texas," due to its vast oil fields, cowboy culture and long tradition of political conservatism.

Owing to the region's comparatively dry, grassy landscape, Alberta's early homesteaders found their land better suited for cattle ranching than farming and founded thriving Albertan beef industry that continues to this day. Its poor farmland scaring settlers to the lusher terrains of neighbouring Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Alberta languished in its first few decades of provincehood, but then in 1947 oil was discovered in the city of Leduc and the place was never quite the same.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, Alberta underwent a massive oil boom that helped Canada become one of the world's leading petroleum-exporting countries, and Alberta the nation's richest province. Cities like Calgary and Edmonton exploded with growth as new jobs in the energy sector (and all the related industries around it) drew thousands of wealth-hungry residents, while a government rich on oil royalties was able to attract even more with promises of low taxes and cheap utilities. Oil remains Alberta's dominant industry to this day, and even as traditional wells begin to dry up, extraction and drilling continues thanks to the province's recently developed oil sands in the north. Oil can be a risky investment, however, and during periods when the global price plummets - as it did most recently in 2014 - the province tends to enter a deep recession.

Albertan culture is known for being quite conservative and traditional, with a strong focus on family, Christianity, and community. Politically, the province is often portrayed as a right-wing outlier in an otherwise fairly liberal country. During federal elections, it's not uncommon for every single Alberta riding to elect a Conservative Party member of Parliament, and many of the country's most famous conservative politicians, such as recent Tory prime minister Stephen Harper (b. 1959), originate from the province.

For information about things to see and do in Alberta, see the Alberta tourism chapter.

More About Alberta

Saskatchewan

The most easily stereotyped of the Prairie provinces, Saskatchewan is said to contain the most intense version of everything the region is known for: the flattest land, the biggest farms and the dullest people. Though the last point can certainly be debated, the other two are indisputable: Saskatchewan is entirely mountain-free, and its vast acres of farmland comprise nearly 50 per cent of the country's total.

The preferred destination of settlers during the homestead period, Saskatchewan quickly rose to become the third biggest province in Canada until World War II (1939-1945), greatly prospering from the Canadian agricultural boom of the early 20th century. Though the province was dubbed a "one crop economy" for being so dependent on wheat farming, technological advancements after the war led to the discovery of new sources of wealth under the ground, notably uranium, oil and potash, allowing for a more diversified economy. Fuelled by favourable resource prices and growing trade with the United States, in recent years Saskatchewan has steadily risen to become one of the richest parts of Canada.

These days, fewer and fewer Saskatchewaners work as farmers or miners as more residents take up careers in the vast " service sector" of office jobs, bureaucracy and retail that have come to dominate the Canadian economy in general. Even so, the province's one million residents remain fairly spread out, and Saskatchewan's two biggest cities, Regina and Saskatoon, house less than 40 per cent of the provincial population. The province's famously easygoing, small-town culture of tractors, trailers and truck stops has been celebrated in everything from sitcoms to folk songs.

More About Saskatchewan

Manitoba

Manitoba is a history-rich region of Canada that traces its roots back to the Red River Settlement of the early 19th century, a small colony in southern Rupert's Land inhabited by aboriginal women, French-Canadian fur traders, and their mixed-race offspring, known as the Métis. The Métis people formed a distinctive hybrid culture of aboriginal and French traditions, and were largely independent and self-governing. This came to an end in 1869, when the Canadian federal government attempted to seize the Red River lands to make way for the Canadian Pacific Railway, triggering a phase of armed conflict known as the Red River Rebellion. In 1870, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald (1815-1891) negotiated with the Métis leaders to found Manitoba as Canada's fifth province, though Métis displeasure with the deal would eventually spawn a second phase of armed conflict, known as the North-West Rebellion, in 1885. After that, in turn, was put down, Manitoba's Métis culture largely was wiped out as waves of white settlers flooded in and displaced the locals. Today, the province is 90 per cent white, with most Manitobans tracing their roots to 19th century British, French, German, or Ukrainian immigrants. Only in recent years has Manitoba come to celebrate its Métis past as an important part of its identity.

Geographically, Manitoba is a mix of northern forests and southern grasslands, and contains three of the country's biggest lakes - Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Winnipeg. Though the vast majority of Manitobans live in or around the capital city of Winnipeg, the far-north city of Churchill on the coast of Hudson Bay remains equally famous for its history with the fur trade and tourist-friendly arctic animals.

Manitobans boast of being hearty survivors of some of the harshest weather in Canada (floods and tornadoes are not uncommon), but also take pride in the natural beauty and varied wildlife of their region, which includes beavers, bears, caribou, wolves, and buffalo. In contrast to Alberta and Saskatchewan, Manitoba lacks an easily caricatured identity, and has had far less cultural, political and economic impact on Canada at large. In many ways, the defining theme of Manitoba may simply be its mellow diversity - of land, nature, politics and people.

More About Manitoba

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The vast stretch of land between British Columbia and Ontario comprises an area known as the Canadian Prairies, a 2,000 km valley of plains, forests, and farmland. Divided into three provinces - Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan - the resource-rich region has long served as the country's breadbasket and a crucial lynchpin in the national economy.

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Key Facts About Residential Schools

What were residential schools?

Residential schools were government-sponsored schools run by churches.

What was the purpose of residential schools?

The purpose of residential schools was to educate and convert Indigenous youth and to assimilate them into Canadian society.

How many students attended residential schools?

An estimated 150,000 children attended residential schools.

How many children died at residential schools?

An estimated 6,000 children died at residential schools (records are incomplete).

How many residential schools were there in Canada?

In total, over 130 residential schools operated in Canada between 1831 and 1996.
In 1931, there were 80 residential schools operating in Canada. This was the most at any one time.

When did the first residential school in Canada open?

The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, accepted its first boarding students in 1831.

When did the last residential school in Canada close?

The Gordon Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. It was the last federally-funded residential school in Canada.

Early Residential Schools in New France and Upper Canada

Residential schools have a long history in Canada. The first residential facilities were developed in New France by Catholic missionaries to provide care and schooling. However, colonial governments were unable to force Indigenous people to participate in the schools, as First Nations people were largely independent and Europeans depended on them economically and militarily for survival.

Residential Schools After 1880

Beginning in the 1870s, both the federal government and Plains Nations wanted to include schooling provisions in treaties, though for different reasons. Indigenous leaders hoped Euro-Canadian schooling would help their young to learn the skills of the newcomer society and help them make a successful transition to a world dominated by the strangers. With the passage of the British North America Act in 1867, and the implementation of the (1876), the government was required to provide Indigenous youth with an education and to assimilate them into Canadian society.

The federal government supported schooling as a way to make First Nations economically self-sufficient. Their underlying objective was to decrease Indigenous dependence on public funds. The government therefore collaborated with Christian missionaries to encourage religious conversion and Indigenous economic self-sufficiency. This led to the development of an educational policy after 1880 that relied heavily on custodial schools. These were not the kind of schools Indigenous leaders had hoped to create.

Isolation and Assimilation

Overall, students had a negative experience at the residential schools, one that would have lasting consequences. Students were isolated and their culture was disparaged or scorned. They were removed from their homes and parents and were separated from some of their siblings, as the schools were segregated according to gender. In some cases, they were forbidden to speak their first language, even in letters home to their parents. The attempt to assimilate children began upon their arrival at the schools: their hair was cut (in the case of the boys), and they were stripped of their traditional clothes and given new uniforms. In many cases they were also given new names. Christian missionary staff spent a lot of time and attention on Christian practices, while at the same time they criticized or denigrated Indigenous spiritual traditions.

Daniel Kennedy (Ochankuga'he) described his experience at the Qu'Appelle (Lebret) residential school in his memoirs, published as Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief (1972):

In 1886, at the age of twelve years, I was lassoed, roped and taken to the Government School at Lebret. Six months after I enrolled, I discovered to my chagrin that I had lost my name and an English name had been tagged on me in exchange... "When you were brought here [the school interpreter later told me], for purposes of enrolment, you were asked to give your name and when you did, the Principal remarked that there were no letters in the alphabet to spell this little heathen's name and no civilized tongue could pronounce it.

'We are going to civilize him, so we will give him a civilized name,' and that was how you acquired this brand new whiteman's name.'" ...In keeping with the promise to civilize the little pagan, they went to work and cut off my braids, which, incidentally, according to the Assiniboine traditional custom, was a token of mourning - the closer the relative, the closer the cut. After my haircut, I wondered in silence if my mother had died, as they had cut my hair close to the scalp. I looked in the mirror to see what I looked like. A Hallowe'en pumpkin stared back at me and that did it. If this was civilization, I didn't want any part of it. I ran away from school, but I was captured and brought back. I made two more attempts, but with no better luck.

Realizing that there was no escape, I resigned myself to the task of learning the three Rs. ...visualize for yourselves the difficulties encountered by an Indian boy who had never seen the inside of a house; who had lived in buffalo skin teepees in winter and summer; who grew up with a bow and arrow.

(Daniel Kennedy (Ochankuga'he), former student at Qu'Appelle residential school)

Life at Residential Schools

Until the late 1950s, residential schools operated on a half-day system, in which students spent half the day in the classroom and the other at work. The theory behind this was that students would learn skills that would allow them to earn a living as adults. However, the reality was that work had more to do with running the school inexpensively than with providing students with vocational training.

Tasks were separated by gender. Girls were responsible for housekeeping (cooking, cleaning, laundry, sewing), while boys were involved in carpentry, construction, general maintenance and agricultural labour. Funding was a pressing concern in the residential school system. From the 1890s until the 1950s, the government tried constantly to shift the burden of the system onto the churches and onto the students, whose labour contributed financially to the schools. By the 1940s, it was clear to many that the half-day system had failed to provide residential students with adequate education and training. However, the half-day system was not eliminated until the late 1950s, when more funding became available owing to a strong economy.

Daily Routine at Residential Schools

School days began early, usually with a bell that summoned students to dress and attend chapel or mass. Students then performed chores (usually referred to as "fatigue" duty) before breakfast. Breakfast, like all meals, was spartan, and eaten quickly in a refectory or dining hall. This was followed by three hours of classes or a period of work before breaking for lunch. The afternoon schedule followed a similar pattern, including either classes or work, followed by more chores before supper. Time was also set aside for recreation, usually in the afternoon or evening. Some schools had small libraries, while many schools offered organized sports as well as musical instruction, including choirs and brass bands. The evening closed with prayer, and bedtime was early. It was a highly regimented system.

On weekends there were no classes, but Sunday usually meant more time spent on religious practices. Until the 1950s, holidays for many of the students included periods of work and play at the school. Only from the 1960s on did the schools routinely send children home for holidays. Therefore, many students in the residential school system did not see their family for years.
Daily Schedule at Qu'Appelle Industrial School, 1893
(Source: Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, 1893, 173-74; reproduced in Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p 296)

6.00

Chapel [religious service]

6.30-7.15

Bedmaking, washing, milking and pumping

7.15-7.30

Inspection of pupils in the school rooms to see if they are clean and properly dressed, their condition, health & c., a note being taken of those requiring attention, if of clothes, this is done by the sister directly after dinner

8.00-9.00

Fatigue [chores] for small boys

8.00

Trade boys go to work

9.00-12.00

School with 15 minutes recess.

12.00-12.10

Prepare for dinner [lunch]

12.10-12.40

Dinner [lunch]

2.00-4.00

School and Trades

4.45-6.00

Fatigue [chores], such as milking, carrying coal, ashes, filling tanks, wood boxes, pumping, sweeping

6.00-6.10

Prepare for supper

8.00

Prayer and retire [to bed]

Education and Vocational Training at Residential Schools

Overall, students received a poor education at the residential schools. This was true both in terms of academic subjects and vocational training. Students had to cope with teachers who were usually ill-prepared, and curricula and materials derived from and reflecting an alien culture. Lessons were taught in English or French, languages that many of the children did not speak. In the workplace, the overseers were often harsh, and the supposed training purpose of the work was limited or absent.

The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published in 2015, outlined several "undeniable" conclusions about the system:

First, the federal government failed to set clear goals and standards for education at the residential schools.

Second, the curriculum at residential schools was essentially an elementary curriculum, which reflected a belief that Indigenous people were intellectually inferior.

Third, the government did not develop or implement a policy regarding teacher qualification.

Fourth, the teaching staff was, in general, underqualified, overworked and poorly paid.

Fifth, the curriculum (which emphasized the "four Rs" - reading, writing, arithmetic and religion) was not only basic but also largely irrelevant to the students' needs, experiences or interests.

Sixth, students left school without the skills they needed to either succeed in their home communities or in the "broader labour market." Moreover, many of them left without completing their education.

In short, the education and vocational training provided by residential schools was inadequate.

Between Two Worlds: Assimilation and Loss of Culture

Moreover, the attempted assimilation of Indigenous students left them disoriented and insecure, with the feeling that they belonged to neither Indigenous nor settler society.

John Tootoosis, who attended the Delmas boarding school (also known as the Thunderchild school) in Saskatchewan, was blunt in his assessment of the residential school system:

[W]hen an Indian comes out of these places it is like being put between two walls in a room and left hanging in the middle. On one side are all the things he learned from his people and their way of life that was being wiped out, and on the other side are the whiteman's ways which he could never fully understand since he never had the right amount of education and could not be part of it. There he is, hanging in the middle of two cultures and he is not a whiteman and he is not an Indian.

They washed away practically everything from our minds, all the things an Indian needed to help himself, to think the way a human person should in order to survive.

(John Tootoosis, former student at Delmas school)

Abuse at Residential Schools

Many students suffered abuse at residential schools. Impatience and correction often led to excessive punishment, including physical abuse. In some cases, children were heavily beaten, chained or confined.

Some of the staff were sexual predators, and many students were sexually abused. When allegations of sexual abuse were brought forward - by students, parents or staff - the response by government and church officials was, at best, inadequate. The police were seldom contacted, and, even if government or church officials decided that the complaint had merit, the response was often simply to fire the perpetrator. At other times, they allowed the abuser to keep teaching.

Health, Death and Disease at Residential Schools

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), at least 3,200 Indigenous children died in the overcrowded residential schools. Due to poor record-keeping by the churches and federal government, it is unlikely that we will ever know the total loss of life at residential schools. However, according to TRC Chair, Justice Murray Sinclair, the number may be more than 6,000.

Underfed and malnourished, the students were particularly vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza (including the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19). Food was low in quantity and poor in quality, in large part due to concerns about cost. Faced with limited funding, schools were instructed to observe "the strictest economy... in all particulars." In general, school menus seem to have been both monotonous and nutritionally inadequate. According to Basil Johnston, who attended the residential school in Spanish, Ontario, he was served "mush, mush, mush, sometimes lumpy, sometimes watery, with monotonous regularity every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday."
Menu for the Qu'Appelle, North-West Territories, Industrial School, 1893
(Source: Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, 1893, 174; as quoted in Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p. 491)

Breakfast

Four days in the week porridge of oatmeal or cornmeal with either milk or syrup, this is served with hot tea and bread; the working pupils, and those not in robust health, receive butter in addition.
On three days all the pupils receive butter and cheese with their bread instead of porridge, this is served with hot tea.

Dinner [lunch]

Soup, meat or fish, vegetables and bread ad libitum [i.e., not regulated]. For dessert, rice or stewed apples, or stewed rhubarb or syrup, or bread and milk, with cold water to drink, excepting to the weak children, and those working outside, who get hot tea.

Supper

Meat for the working pupils, hashed meat and vegetables for the rest, bread ad libitum and dessert similar to that named for dinner, hot tea.

Moreover, research by food historian Ian Mosby (published in 2013) revealed that students at some residential schools in the 1940s and 1950s were subjected to nutritional experiments without their consent or the consent of their parents. These studies were approved by various federal government departments and conducted by leading nutrition experts. They included restricting some students' access to essential nutrients and dental care in order to assess the effect of improvements made to the diet of other students. Overall, the experiments do not seem to have resulted in any long-term benefits.

Nutritional deficiencies and overcrowding led to regular outbreaks of diseases at the schools. Tuberculosis and influenza were the major killers, but students were also affected by outbreaks of smallpox, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, pneumonia and whooping cough. In the winter of 1926-27, for example, 13 children died from a combination of measles and whooping cough at the Lytton school. Louise Moine, who attended the Qu'Appelle school in the North-West Territories, remembered one year in the early 20th century when tuberculosis was "on the rampage":

There was a death every month on the girls' side and some of the boys went also. We were always taken to see the girls who had died. The Sisters invariably had them dressed in light blue and they always looked so peaceful and angelic. We were led to believe that their souls had gone to heaven, and this would somehow lessen the grief and sadness we felt in the loss of one of our little schoolmates. There would be a Requiem Mass in the chapel. We would all escort the body, which was lying in a simple handmade coffin, to the graveyard which was located close to the R.C. [Roman Catholic] Church in the village.

(Louise Moine, former student at Qu'Appelle residential school)

Although medical experts such as Dr. Peter Bryce, Dr. James Lafferty, Dr. O.I. Grain and Dr. E.L. Stone recommended measures to improve health and medical treatment, these were not implemented by the government, largely due to concerns about cost and opposition by the churches.

The schools could have helped children to reduce their vulnerability to tuberculosis by providing them with sanitary, well-ventilated living quarters, an adequate diet, warm clothing, and sufficient rest. Rather, the residential schools regularly failed to provide the healthy living conditions, nutritious food, sufficient clothing, and physical regime that would prevent students from getting sick in the first place, and would allow those who were infected a fighting chance at recovery.

( Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p. 451)

Resistance and Closure

Indigenous students and parents resisted and protested the harsh regime in place at most residential schools. Some children refused to co-operate and sabotaged the operations of the kitchen or classroom, stole food and supplies, or ran away (as did Chanie Wenjack in 1966). At least 25 fires were set by students as a form of protest. Their parents and political leaders protested the schools' harsh conditions and pedagogical shortcomings, though their objections were mostly ignored.

Ground-Penetrating Radar Searches

In May of 2021, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia hired a team of specialists to conduct ground-penetrating radar searches on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. They detected ground disturbances, and later concluded that these were 200 "possible burials" at the site.

In operation by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969, the Kamloops Indian Residential School reported having up to 500 children registered each year, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). The 2008 TRC was told that only 50 deaths had occurred at the institution. The school officially closed in 1978 after the federal government took over control in 1969.

There have been findings using ground penetrating technologies at few residential school sites due to the sensitive process and impact on communities. It is presumed that historical records pertaining to deaths at the institutions are flawed due to some Catholic orders withholding statistics on the institutions. As a result, similar findings, such as those at the Kamloops Indian Residential School could occur in the future.

Recovery, Reparations, and Reconciliation

Indigenous communities, often with church support, and since 1998 with government financial assistance, have been carrying out the difficult work of supporting their members with the long-term impact of residential schools, including family breakdowns, violence and aimlessness. Beginning in the late 1990s, former students demanded that government and churches publicly acknowledge their role in the schools and provide compensation for their suffering.

In 2005, the federal government established a $1.9 billion compensation package for the survivors of abuse at residential schools. In 2007, the federal government and the churches that had operated the schools agreed to provide financial compensation to former students under the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

On 11 June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Government of Canada, offered an apology to all former students of residential schools in Canada. The apology openly recognized that the assimilation policy on which the schools were established was "wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country." The apology recognized the profoundly damaging and lasting impact the schools had on Indigenous culture, heritage and language and was one of the steps that the government has taken to forge a new relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Harper's apology and the compensation packages offered by the federal government excluded survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. Since Canada did not establish or operate residential schools in that province (Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time the schools began operating), the federal government argued that it was not responsible for compensating former students. After survivors launched a class-action lawsuit against the government, a settlement of $50 million was reached on 10 May 2016. The settlement was approved by Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Robert Stack on 28 September 2016. On 24 November 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized to survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In 2020, the federal government announced it is designating two former residential schools - Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia and Portage La Prairie Residential School in Manitoba - as national historic sites. The government is also recognizing the residential school system as an event of historic significance in Canada. ( See also Reconciliation in Canada.)

On 3 June 2021, the federal government recognized every 30 September annually as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the survivors of residential schools as well as their families. Another commemorative day, Orange Shirt Day, is also held every year on 30 September. Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 and was inspired by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad. On her first day of school, Webstad wore an orange shirt that was taken from her by the school authorities and never given back. Orange shirts are worn to commemorate all those children who had their culture taken from them.

In September 2021, Queen Elizabeth II commemorated Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by saying, "I join with all Canadians on this first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to reflect on the painful history that Indigenous peoples endured in residential schools in Canada, and on the work that remains to heal and to continue to build an inclusive society." As Canada's head of state, the Queen is being asked to formerly apologize for the Crown's role in the operation of residential schools.

Pope Francis formally apologized for the Catholic Church's involvement in residential schools in March 2022. The Pope asked forgiveness "for the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church" who were involved in the residential school system. A delegation of Indigenous peoples who went to Rome to speak with the Pope heard the historic apology in person. Cassidy Caron, the leader of the Métis National Council said that "an apology is one step forward, but there is more work to be done." In July 2022, the Pope travelled to Canada and offered an apology on Canadian soil. He said, "I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples." The Pope acknowledged that his apology is only a step toward making amends and that an investigation must be conducted into the events of the past. Many have called on the church for financial compensation as well as other forms of reconciliation, including the return of Indigenous artifacts, the release of school records, and the overturning of the Doctrine of Discovery.

Did You Know?
Historica Canada, using data supplied by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba, has created a map (see below) of all residential schools in Canada. Part of a larger effort by Historica Canada called the Residential Schools Awareness Program, the map includes the location, name, religious denomination, opening and closing dates, and any other names by which the schools were known.

Names of Children Who Died in Residential Schools Released

On 30 September 2019, the names of 2800 children who died in residential schools in Canada were released by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in a ceremony in Gatineau, Quebec ( see Truth and Reconciliation Commission). The ceremony was the culmination of years of archival research of government and church records dealing with Indigenous children in 80 schools across the country, with records going back as far as the 1890s. According to archivists, another 1600 children who died in residential schools remain unnamed, and researchers continue to pore over records to discover their identities.

The names and schools of the children were displayed on a huge 47-metre long, blood-red cloth banner. Tia-o-qui-aht First Nation Elder Dr. Barney Williams, a residential school survivor and member of the Indian Residential School Survivor Committee (an advisory body to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), believes that the ceremony was important to ensure that the children who died are not forgotten: "Today is a special day not only for myself but for thousands of others, like me, across the country to finally bring recognition and honour to our school chums, to our cousins, our nephews, to our nieces that were forgotten." To Elder Williams, the unveiling of the 2800 names was a "heartwarming" and "very emotional" moment for himself and thousands of Indigenous families across Canada.

Residential Schools in Canada: A Timeline

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Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools that were established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Although the...

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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The Canadian Pacific Railway company (CPR) was incorporated in 1881. Its original purpose was the construction of a transcontinental railway, a promise to British Columbia upon its entry into Confederation (see Railway History). The railway - completed in 1885 - connected Eastern Canada to British Columbia and played an important role in the development of the nation. Built in dangerous conditions by thousands of labourers, including 15,000 Chinese temporary workers, the railway facilitated communication and transportation across the country. Over its long history, the Canadian Pacific Railway diversified its operations. The company established hotels, shipping lines and airlines, and developed mining and telecommunications industries (see Shipping Industry; Air Transport Industry). In 2001, Canadian Pacific separated into five separate and independent companies, with Canadian Pacific Railway returning to its origins as a railway company. CP, as it is branded today, has over 22,500 km of track across Canada and the United States. It is a public company and it trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CP. In 2020, CP reported $7.71 billion in total revenues. This is the full-length entry about the Canadian Pacific Railway. For a plain-language summary, please see The Canadian Pacific Railway (Plain-Language Summary).

Indigenous Lands

In 1870, the newly created nation of Canada acquired Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, an enormous tract of land stretching north and west. One year later, British Columbia entered Confederation based in part on the promise that a transcontinental railway would connect it to the rest of Canada within 10 years ( see Railway History). In order to construct the railway and encourage future settlement, the government considered it necessary to extinguish Indigenous title to the land ( see Indigenous Territory). Bound by the terms of the Royal Proclamation, Canada was responsible for both the protection of Indigenous people s and the preservation of their rights to unceded traditional territories.

In order to procure land for the construction of the railway, a series of treaties, known as the Numbered Treaties, were negotiated. Between 1871 and 1877, Numbered Treaties 1 to 7, were established. Treaties 1 to 7 solidified Canada's claim to lands north of the United States-Canada border. The treaties enabled the construction of a national railway and opened the lands of the North-West Territories to agricultural settlement.

Government negotiators made various promises to First Nation peoples in exchange for their traditional territory. These promises, which were made orally and in the written texts of the treaties, included special rights to treaty lands and the distribution of cash payments, hunting and fishing tools and farming supplies. These terms of agreement are controversial and contested. The Numbered Treaties have ongoing legal and socioeconomic impacts on Indigenous communities.

National Imperative

Competition for the lucrative transcontinental railway contract was bitter. In 1872, shipping magnate and railway promoter Sir Hugh Allan was awarded the charter. However, Allan had also contributed around $350,000 to the Conservative party's election campaign. When this became public knowledge in 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald 's government was forced to resign ( see Pacific Scandal).

Macdonald returned to power in 1878, with the completion of the railway as one facet of his National Policy. The railway contract was finally awarded to interests led by Donald A. Smith, J.J. Hill and George Stephen. The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated on 16 February 1881. The difficulties of construction and demand for early completion of the line ensured generous provisions to the company, including $25 million in cash, 25 million acres (about 10 million hectares) of land in a belt along the railway, the cost of surveys totalling $37 million and the monopoly over transportation south to the United States for 20 years. Due to the high cost of construction, the CPR would later receive an additional $22.5 million in loans under the Railway Relief Act of 1884.

These terms were loudly denounced by opposing interests at the time and remained contentious with the development of the Prairie West ( see History and Settlement in the Canadian Prairies). However, in the face of American expansion westward, Macdonald and the federal Conservatives considered completion of the railway a national imperative.

Construction

Under the management of W.C. Van Horne, construction was rapidly pressed across the plains. Sandford Fleming had recommended a route through the Yellowhead Pass but a more southerly route through Kicking Horse Pass was decided upon in 1881. Construction through the rock and muskeg of the Canadian Shield almost equalled in difficulty the engineering feats required to build through the mountains of British Columbia.

The difficulty in obtaining an adequate work force in British Columbia led to the controversial employment of thousands of Chinese workers ( see History of Labour Migration to Canada). Upward of 15,000 Chinese labourers helped to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Working in harsh conditions for little pay, these workers suffered greatly and historians estimate that at least 600 died working on the railway. The employment of Chinese workers caused controversy, particularly in British Columbia, where politicians worried about the potential economic and cultural impact of these workers.

Did you know?
When the CPR was finished in 1885, the government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, which established a head tax for anyone of Chinese origin entering the country. The government also passed the Electoral Franchise Act, which excluded "persons of Mongolian or Chinese race" from voting ( see Right to Vote in Canada).

The line through to the Pacific coast was completed on 7 November 1885 with the driving of the " Last Spike" at Craigellachie in Eagle Pass, British Columbia. The first through passenger train left Montreal on 28 June 1886 and arrived at Port Moody, British Columbia, on 4 July.

Did you know?
Although sections of the track were not quite complete, the section from Callander to Port Arthur ( Thunder Bay), Ontario, was used to move troops westward during the North-West Resistance, though it was not quite complete.

Developing Business

During construction, the CPR became involved in the sale and settlement of land (1881), the acquisition of the Dominion Express Company (1882) and the acceptance of commercial telegraph messages (1882). The company provided its own sleeping and dining cars on trains and constructed tourist hotels (e.g., at Lake Louise, Alberta) and dining halls along the route in the western mountains. This foothold on the tourist industry benefited the CPR later in its international development of hotels, steamships and airlines ( see Hotel; Tourism).

Did you know?
In the first decades of the 20th century, the job of a sleeping car porter was one of the few positions available to Black men in Canada. Sleeping car porters were railway employees who attended to passengers aboard sleeping cars. While the position carried respect and prestige for Black men in their communities, the work demanded long hours for little pay. Porters could be fired suddenly and were often subjected to racist treatment.

Following construction, the greatest challenge facing the CPR was to develop business to make the line self-sustaining. Though settlement proceeded rapidly in the wake of the rail lines, the population in western Canada was insufficient to sustain the line fully for many years. To increase business, the corporation became very active in promoting trade in the Pacific. Within days of the arrival of the first train on the west coast in 1886, sailing vessels chartered by the CPR began to arrive from Japan, bringing tea, silk and curios. By 1891, the company had secured a contract from the British government to carry the imperial mails from Hong Kong to Britain via Canada. The result was the purchase of three ocean passenger-cargo vessels, forerunners of the present-day fleet.

Hotels

By 1900, the mountain hotel system had expanded into the major cities, led by the Hotel Vancouver (1887), Québec's Château Frontenac (1893) and Montreal's Place Viger (1898) ( see Hotel; Tourism). Other services expanded simultaneously. A line was opened (1889) across northern Maine from Montréal to Saint John, giving the CPR direct access to an all-weather Atlantic port.

Rail Construction

Attempts to capture traffic from the western American states were made with the construction of a line to North Dakota (1893) and the eventual consolidation of what is now the Soo Line Railroad Company in the United States. Branch lines were greatly extended to feed traffic to the East-West main line. Rapid settlement followed construction of branches in southern Manitoba, in Saskatchewan from Regina to Prince Albert (1890), and in Alberta from Calgary North to Strathcona ( Edmonton) in 1891.

Mining

Expansion into the Kootenay mining region of southern British Columbia (1898) involved the acquisition of a railway charter that included a smelter at Trail, BC. This was the nucleus of the CPR's involvement in mining and metallurgy, formalized by the formation of Cominco Limited in 1906, a CP-controlled company (in 2001, Cominco was acquired by Teck, another mining company).

Fleet

The CPR's Pacific fleet was improved and, in 1903, the company purchased the Beaver Line shipping company and opened service in the North Atlantic. In 1909, CPR purchased the long-established Allan Line, and formed Canadian Pacific Ocean Services in 1914-5. After 1921, it became known as Canadian Pacific Steamships Limited.

Expansion and Competition

Between 1899 and 1913, the CPR increased its trackage from approximately 11,200 km to 17,600 km. More than half of the new track was in the Prairie provinces, and it was intended both to provide branch lines into areas of need and to ensure that the CPR would remain competitive in relation to the developing transcontinental lines of the Canadian Northern Railway and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway.

The widespread expansion of the company, much of it under the presidency of T.G. Shaughnessy (1899-1918), placed a heavy drain on company resources, but continuance of the National Policy, with its substantial tariffs, meant continuing high freight rates in the West.

Attacks on these rates in 1896 helped to bring about the defeat of the Conservatives. The Liberals reduced rates with the Crow's Nest Pass Agreement in 1897 and, under the Manitoba Grain Act of 1900, required railways to provide loading platforms for farmers. Charters were also granted to the Canadian Northern Railway to develop the huge area of northern prairie left vacant by the CPR.

Canadian National Railway (CNR), formed by the government of Canada between 1917 and 1923, was a major challenge for the CPR. The CNR consolidated the failing Grand Trunk Pacific, Canadian Northern, Intercolonial and Canadian Government Railways. The CNR also competed with the CPR in hotels, telegraphs, steamships and express services as well as railway services.

Second World War

Despite this massive, government-supported competition, CPR survived as a commercial enterprise. During the Second World War it provided not only transportation, but also the production of armaments and materiel in its own shops. During the conflict, much of its merchant fleet was commandeered for military transport purposes, resulting in the loss of 12 vessels.

Airlines

Canadian Pacific Air Lines (later CP Air) was organized in 1942 with the purchase of Grant McConachie's Yukon Southern Air Transport and numerous other flying concerns. After 1947, under McConachie's leadership, CPA developed into an international carrier serving the Far East, Australasia, most of South America and several European countries ( see Aviation). In 1987, CP Air was acquired by Pacific Western and the two companies began operations as Canadian Airlines International (CAI). It was later expanded with the purchase of Wardair. A rigorously competitive market and government regulation caused significant changes to the airline industry in the 1990s. CAI was taken over by Air Canada in 2000.

Diversification

Until the late 1950s, CP's diverse interests were looked upon as ancillary to the rail system. Beginning around this time, management embraced a policy of full diversification by making each operation fully self-supporting. Thus, operations that had been handled by specific departments in the railway corporate structure were set up as enterprises in their own right; e.g., Marathon Realty Co Ltd (1963), which took over the administration of real estate other than that required for railway use; CP Hotels Ltd (1965); and CP Oil & Gas Ltd (1958), which later became PanCanadian Energy Corporation.

Non-transportation interests were vested into a holding company called Canadian Pacific Enterprises Limited. Founded in 1962 this holding company left railway, air, ship and highway transportation fields under the jurisdiction of the parent company. In 1968, a new corporate identity program gave the names CP Rail, CP Ships, CP Transport and CP Air to the various transportation modes.

In 1967, the communications wing was integrated, along with CN's parallel organization, into a new, jointly owned company known as CNCP Telecommunications Ltd ( see Telecommunications). In 1990, CNCP became Unitel Communications, which was later sold to other communications providers.

In 1971, to reflect its broader orientation, the company's original name was altered to Canadian Pacific Limited (CPL).

Restructuring

In 1996, the company was restructured, with Canadian Pacific Railway becoming a subsidiary of the company rather than a division (in effect, CPR would operate independently, with no cross-subsidies from the other divisions). The company also sold several of its enterprises, including Marathon Realty (1996) and its interest in Laidlaw Inc. (1997).

In 2001, the company separated into five independent companies: Canadian Pacific Railway, CP Ships, PanCanadian Energy Corporation, Fording Coal and Canadian Pacific Hotels (renamed Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc.). The restructuring meant that CPR was once again purely a rail company.

PanCanadian merged with the Alberta Energy Company Limited in 2002 to become Encana, one of the world's leading energy producers, while CP Ships was sold to a German conglomerate in 2005, becoming part of the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company. Fording Coal was purchased in 2008 by Teck Cominco.

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The Canadian Pacific Railway company (CPR) was incorporated in 1881. Its original purpose was the construction of a transcontinental railway, a promise to British Columbia upon its entry into Confederation (see Railway History). The railway - completed in 1885 - connected Eastern Canada to British Columbia and played an important role in the development of the nation.

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Hjalte, Nanna, and Evelyn

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Nunavut Flag

Nunavut is Canada's newest territory and the Nunavut flag was created by a local artist in 1999. It features a red Inukshuk, a traditional stone formation made by the territory's Native peoples. In the top right corner sits the North Star, another traditional symbol of northern Canada.

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Nunavut is Canada's newest territory and the Nunavut flag was created by a local artist in 1999. It features a red Inukshuk, a traditional stone formation made by the territory's Native peoples. In the top right corner sits the North Star, another traditional symbol of northern Canada.

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The constitution of Canada provides the rules that Canada's government must follow - both in terms of how the government operates politically, as well as what it can and cannot do to its citizens.

What is the Canadian Constitution?

When we talk about the Constitution of Canada, we're not talking about a single document, but rather a bunch of different ones that collectively make up the highest levels of Canadian law.

The most important of these is the Constitution Act of 1867, also known as the British North America Act. It outlines Canada's system of government, including the structure of Parliament, the way elections work, the role of the monarchy and the division of powers between the federal government and the provinces.

The second key piece is the Constitution Act of 1982, which is dominated by a long section called the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which outlines the civil rights of each Canadian citizen. The 1982 Act also describes the process for changing ( amending) constitutional laws.

Then there is everything else, which is to say various other lesser-known pieces of legislation that regulate things deemed to be "constitutional" matters - that is, laws that affect the fundamental institutions of the Canadian government - such as laws that regulate the Governor General, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the provincial parliaments. Treaties with the aboriginal peoples of Canada also have the force of constitutional law.

History of the Canadian Constitution

Modern Canada was founded in 1867 when four British colonies in North America decided to unite and form a single, self-governing confederation under the British Crown. The British law that outlined the terms and structure of this union was known as the British North America Act, and it provided Canada with a workable political system for nearly 120 years.

Since the British North America Act was a British law, it could only be modified by the British parliament when British politicians felt like it. From time to time, the Canadian prime minister would ask the British government for changes and they'd usually be made, but as Canada aged and became a more independent, powerful, and self-confident nation this state of affairs became increasingly awkward and embarrassing.

In the early 1980s, the government of Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000) made it a priority to "bring home," or patriate, the BNA Act, and turn it into a wholly Canadian law that could only be modified by the government of Canada. With the support of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), this goal was achieved in 1982 with her government's passage of the Canada Act, which stripped Britain of all remaining lawmaking powers over Canada. The subsequent sight of Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) signing the new, patriated BNA Act - now renamed the Constitution Act - on Canadian soil remains one of the most iconic images of modern Canadian history.

The British North America Act / Constitution Act, 1867

Written in Victorian legalese, the Constitution Act, 1867 - which is the post-1982 name for the British North America Act - is not an easy thing to read, nor does it say a lot of things you might expect. Though it's the document that spells out Canada's system of government, it doesn't mention how the parliamentary system works, how the prime minister is chosen, how the bureaucracy is organized or other seemingly important matters.

The reasons why are perhaps best explained in the Act's preamble:

Back in 1867 the authors of the Constitution Act did not really think of themselves as creating a new country, but rather outlining the terms of union between four existing British colonies. It's from this perspective that the bulk of the Constitution Act is written, which explains why the majority of the document focuses on clarifying the different powers of the federal and provincial governments, rather than the style of those governments themselves.

The preamble's other important phrase is " a constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom." The Constitution of the United Kingdom operates more on tradition and custom than clear, explicit rules, and this was also intended to be the case with Canada. Even today, most of the rules governing the Canadian parliamentary system still aren't written down, but are said to be set by constitutional conventions that have arisen from centuries of British (and, since 1867, Canadian) tradition. As is often the case when rules aren't written down, however, there's always a lot of debate in modern Canada over what is and isn't a "convention," especially when an unexpected or unusual situation arises that doesn't seem to have much precedent. This is why it can be a good thing to be a professor of political science in Canada; you'll often be summoned by the media and politicians to help interpret a tricky situation when the Constitution itself isn't much help.

Parts of the Constitution Act, 1867

The Constitution Act is divided into 11 parts which are divided into 147 sections. There are also six "schedules" at the end that clarify in greater detail things mentioned earlier in the document.

Parts I and II are essentially the preamble, that describe the context of Canada's 1867 union.

Part III describes the powers of the Queen and Governor General, and by extension, the powers of the prime minister and cabinet.

Part IV describes the powers of the House of Commons and Senate.

Part V is a dated chapter describing how the provincial governments of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia work (other provincial constitutions exist in the form of separate acts of the British Parliament).

Part VI describes the different powers of the federal government and the provincial governments.

Part VII describes some information about the judicial branch.

Part VIII sets out some of the debt and payment deals that were worked out between the colonies as part of the terms of the 1867 union, as well as some general economic rules and regulations the governments of Canada must follow.

Part IX is "miscellaneous," which includes more specifics about Ontario and Quebec, oaths of office, the languages of parliament, foreign treaties, and the appointment of government officers.

Part X mandated the government of Canada to build a railroad from Quebec to Nova Scotia, and was repealed after it was completed.

Part IX sets out a formula for deciding how many senators the Atlantic provinces will get after Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland join Canada, which was widely expected to eventually happen at the time the constitution was written (and indeed did, in 1873 and 1949, respectively).

Full text of the Constitution Act, 1867

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Along with the patriation of the BNA Act, one of the crowning achievements of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was adding a Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the Canadian Constitution. This Charter outlines the inalienable, protected human rights, liberties, and freedoms enjoyed by all Canadian citizens and prevents any Canadian government, at any level, from passing a law that violates them.

The Charter is formally called Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, which is the second half of Canada's "main" constitution (after the Constitution Act, 1867, described above). The Charter is divided into 34 sections.

The five Charter freedoms (Section 2):

The six main Charter rights (Sections 3-23):

How the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Works

Laws passed by the Canadian government (or any provincial government) are not allowed to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 24 of the Constitution Act, 1982 gives Canada's courts the power to overturn laws that violate the Charter, and since 1982 it has become common for Canadians to sue governments over laws and policies that they claim violate their Charter rights. Obviously, all laws limit rights and freedoms to some degree, but Section 1 of the Act explicitly states that these limits must be " demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." It's thus up to the courts to figure out when a law stops being a "demonstrably justified" limit on a freedom and starts being a violation of that freedom. In recent decades, Canadian courts have declared all sorts of laws unconstitutional, including limitations on abortion, laws criminalizing prostitution, and long mandatory prison sentences for convicted criminals. Though technically any court can rule a Canadian law unconstitutional, in practice, legal cases involving so-called "Charter challenges" are usually appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, which makes the final decision.

It's worth noting that the violation of a Canadian's human rights by a private entity, such as a business with discriminatory hiring practices, would not be considered a Charter matter, since the Charter only regulates the government and government employees. The Canadian Human Rights Act regulates actions between private individuals, with violations adjudicated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, not the Canadian court system.

Other Constitutional Laws

Many other laws passed by Britain or Canada since 1867 hold the status of constitutional law, though these tend to be largely unknown to anyone who isn't a constitutional scholar. The laws Britain passed every time a new province joined Canada, for instance, are considered constitutional laws, as are a few special laws regulating the office of the Governor General, the House of Commons, and the Supreme Court. The Constitution Act, 1982 gives special protections to Indian treaties, which means those have the force of constitutional law as well.

What separates a normal law from a constitutional law? Well, Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982 contains a list of subjects which can only be changed using the constitutional amending formula. If a law affects one of those things, it's part of the constitution.

Changing the Canadian Constitution

As mentioned, the pre-1982 system for changing the Canadian constitution was to ask the British Parliament to pass a constitutional amendment. After the constitution was patriated - made an entirely Canadian law - a complicated new system for changing the constitution was introduced, known as the amending formula. Under this system, (described in Part V of the Constitution Act, 1982) there are different rules for passing different kinds of amendments.

An amendment that only "applies to one or more, but not all, provinces" requires approval from the Canadian parliament and the governments of any affected provinces. An amendment that affects all provinces, by contrast, requires the approval of at least seven of the provincial governments representing at least 50 per cent of the Canadian population (sometimes called the 7-50 formula). On a handful of really important matters, such as changing the amending formula itself, unanimous provincial consent is necessary.

The very high bar for passing substantial amendments is probably the main reason Canada's Constitution has not been significantly modified since 1982, though there have been a few, small provincial amendments passed, usually only involving one province (see sidebar). These are known as Constitution Amendment Proclamations.

The Troubles of the 1980s and 90s

Though the patriation of 1982 was a proud moment for Canada, and the Charter an important development for Canadian human rights, the overall structure of the Canadian government has long been controversial, which has made the topic of constitutional reform a popular topic of political debate in Canada. Common criticisms include:

Canada's Senate is undemocratic and unrepresentative, and should be changed,

Quebec's status as a fundamentally "unique" part of Canada needs to be acknowledged, and Quebec needs to be given special powers to protect its culture and language,

The secretive process of appointing judges to the Supreme Court of Canada needs to be changed,

Seats in the House of Commons need to be more fairly distributed,

Depending on your perspective, either the federal government or the provincial governments need more powers.

When Brian Mulroney (b. 1939) was elected prime minister of Canada in 1984, he twice tried to substantially change the Constitution to address some of these concerns, and twice failed.

The first effort came in 1987 with the Meech Lake Accord. Among other things, this package of constitutional amendments would have given Quebec the legal status of a " distinct society" within Canada, given provincial governments the ability to veto future constitutional amendments, and mandated provincial involvement in the process of appointing Supreme Court justices. This package was rejected after it failed to get unanimous consent of all provinces, but never one to be discouraged easily, in 1992 Mulroney proposed another even more ambitious package of amendments, known as the Charlottetown Accord. It promised many of the same things as Meech, but with many ambitious new ideas as well. On October 26, 1992 Charlottetown was put to a nation-wide referendum and was voted down, 54 to 46 per cent. The Accord was so complicated that almost everyone could find something wrong with it, and its rejection was a stinging rebuke to Mulroney, who resigned shortly after.

In the aftermath of Mulroney's resignation, "fixing the Constitution" quickly fell out of fashion as something Canadian politicians were willing to talk about, let alone attempt. Today, it continues to be seen as a very divisive topic with high potential to exacerbate Canada's regional cleavages, particularly between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

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The constitution of Canada provides the rules that Canada's government must follow - both in terms of how the government operates politically, as well as what it can and cannot do to its citizens. When we talk about the Constitution of Canada, we're not talking about a single document, but rather a bunch of different ones that collectively make up the highest levels of Canadian law.

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Forest fires are heating up

"A spark can light a raging inferno," says University of Alberta wildfire expert Mike Flannigan. Fire has always been an essential part our ecosystem, but now they are becoming more dangerous. 2017 was devastating in western Canada; British Columbia experienced its worst fire on record, almost 900,000 hectares went up in smoke. In 2016, one of the most destructive fires in the country swept through Fort McMurray, destroying nearly 2,500 buildings forcing the evacuating of 90,000 citizens. It was the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

MORE: New Science tells Us Why Fire is a Growing Threat

Wetter winters mean more grass grows in the spring, and prolonged summers with higher temperatures intensify the fire season. Hot, dry weather turns the grass into a flammable fuel source turning our forests into a powder keg ready to burn. Flannigan describes what we're facing, "The warmer we get, the more fire we have. The more fire we have, the more greenhouse gasses that are released. The more gasses that are released, the warmer we get. A vicious cycle."

These fierce fires are burning deeper into the soil where most of the boreal's carbon is locked. Jill Johnstone, University of Saskatchewan professor, says "These forests are part of the lungs of the planet. The boreal forest stores about 50% of the global carbon that is in the soil." As fires become more intense, this carbon is released in a plume of smoke straight into the atmosphere continuing the warming cycle.

More drought means less food to eat

California, the sunshine state, has been gripped by a multi-year drought. As winters have become shorter, the snowpack has shrunk. Less snow means that come spring; less water melts into the rivers and valleys where the farmland is located.

California's agricultural industry has been devastated. Much of North America's produce is grown here, and many of California's citizens are complaining that they're exporting their precious water to feed others. Geologist Nick Eyles predicts that in the future they'll want water from their northern neighbours, in return for fresh produce. "Water for vegetables; it may come to that," says Eyles.

Canada's grey jay and other wildlife in trouble

Climate change is already impacting the wildlife that lives in the boreal forest across Canada. Here's just one example of the many species that are in trouble.

WATCH: What Trees Talk About

The grey jay is a plucky little bird that stays here all winter long. It uses trees - like a refrigerator - to stash morsels of food for winter. But warm winters are spoiling their larders early. By spring there's nothing left to feed their hungry chicks.

New diseases coming from the south

Others species are invading areas that are newly habitable due to the warmer weather. The deer tick is infiltrating Canada - and it carries a harmful disease.

Cases of Lyme disease have been reported across Canada, in areas where it was never thought to exist. The disease can cause initial symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and fever, but chronic infection can lead to arthritis, heart problems and neurological impairment.

WATCH: Ticked Off, The Mystery of Lyme Disease

With warmer winters, ticks mature faster and begin biting their hosts, white-footed mice, earlier. Once bitten, the mice carry the Lyme disease bacteria for life. The deer tick has moved further north; studies show that the tick's range is expanding by 45 km every year. Eighty per cent of Canadians east of Saskatchewan expected to be living in high-risk areas by 2020.

MORE: A Beginner's Guide to Lyme Disease

Climate change is opening the door to other diseases which may make their way into Canada in the future. As conditions warm, mosquitoes previously only found in the tropics are finding their way north carrying with them dengue, zika, yellow fever and chikungunya viruses.

Melting ice is revealing long lost secrets from our past

Ice packs and glaciers around the globe are melting at unprecedented rates causing ocean levels to rise. But the thaw is also revealing the lost history of Arctic populations. In Canada's Yukon, the receding ice is exposing archaeological relics have been protected for thousands of years and preserved in incredible detail.

MORE: Melting Ice Reveals Secrets About Human History

Without climate change, archaeologists would not have been able to find artifacts or understand the people that used them. Archaeologist Dr. Martin Callanan studies these remarkable finds. "It's its own special field," he says. "But there is an immediacy to this research because climate models suggest that in the next decade's many sites will be lost to melting and decay."

WATCH: Secrets From The Ice

From increased fire and drought to the loss of iconic species, Canada is entering a period of change.

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Five Ways Climate Change Is Already Affecting Canada - The Nature of Things: Science, Wildlife and Technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Forest fires are heating up "A spark can light a raging inferno," says University of Alberta wildfire expert Mike Flannigan. Fire has always been an essential part our ecosystem, but now they are becoming more dangerous. 2017 was devastating in western Canada; British Columbia experienced its worst fire on record, almost 900,000 hectares went up in smoke.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Forest fires are heating up

"A spark can light a raging inferno," says University of Alberta wildfire expert Mike Flannigan. Fire has always been an essential part our ecosystem, but now they are becoming more dangerous. 2017 was devastating in western Canada; British Columbia experienced its worst fire on record, almost 900,000 hectares went up in smoke. In 2016, one of the most destructive fires in the country swept through Fort McMurray, destroying nearly 2,500 buildings forcing the evacuating of 90,000 citizens. It was the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

MORE: New Science tells Us Why Fire is a Growing Threat

Wetter winters mean more grass grows in the spring, and prolonged summers with higher temperatures intensify the fire season. Hot, dry weather turns the grass into a flammable fuel source turning our forests into a powder keg ready to burn. Flannigan describes what we're facing, "The warmer we get, the more fire we have. The more fire we have, the more greenhouse gasses that are released. The more gasses that are released, the warmer we get. A vicious cycle."

These fierce fires are burning deeper into the soil where most of the boreal's carbon is locked. Jill Johnstone, University of Saskatchewan professor, says "These forests are part of the lungs of the planet. The boreal forest stores about 50% of the global carbon that is in the soil." As fires become more intense, this carbon is released in a plume of smoke straight into the atmosphere continuing the warming cycle.

More drought means less food to eat

California, the sunshine state, has been gripped by a multi-year drought. As winters have become shorter, the snowpack has shrunk. Less snow means that come spring; less water melts into the rivers and valleys where the farmland is located.

California's agricultural industry has been devastated. Much of North America's produce is grown here, and many of California's citizens are complaining that they're exporting their precious water to feed others. Geologist Nick Eyles predicts that in the future they'll want water from their northern neighbours, in return for fresh produce. "Water for vegetables; it may come to that," says Eyles.

Canada's grey jay and other wildlife in trouble

Climate change is already impacting the wildlife that lives in the boreal forest across Canada. Here's just one example of the many species that are in trouble.

WATCH: What Trees Talk About

The grey jay is a plucky little bird that stays here all winter long. It uses trees - like a refrigerator - to stash morsels of food for winter. But warm winters are spoiling their larders early. By spring there's nothing left to feed their hungry chicks.

New diseases coming from the south

Others species are invading areas that are newly habitable due to the warmer weather. The deer tick is infiltrating Canada - and it carries a harmful disease.

Cases of Lyme disease have been reported across Canada, in areas where it was never thought to exist. The disease can cause initial symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, and fever, but chronic infection can lead to arthritis, heart problems and neurological impairment.

WATCH: Ticked Off, The Mystery of Lyme Disease

With warmer winters, ticks mature faster and begin biting their hosts, white-footed mice, earlier. Once bitten, the mice carry the Lyme disease bacteria for life. The deer tick has moved further north; studies show that the tick's range is expanding by 45 km every year. Eighty per cent of Canadians east of Saskatchewan expected to be living in high-risk areas by 2020.

MORE: A Beginner's Guide to Lyme Disease

Climate change is opening the door to other diseases which may make their way into Canada in the future. As conditions warm, mosquitoes previously only found in the tropics are finding their way north carrying with them dengue, zika, yellow fever and chikungunya viruses.

Melting ice is revealing long lost secrets from our past

Ice packs and glaciers around the globe are melting at unprecedented rates causing ocean levels to rise. But the thaw is also revealing the lost history of Arctic populations. In Canada's Yukon, the receding ice is exposing archaeological relics have been protected for thousands of years and preserved in incredible detail.

MORE: Melting Ice Reveals Secrets About Human History

Without climate change, archaeologists would not have been able to find artifacts or understand the people that used them. Archaeologist Dr. Martin Callanan studies these remarkable finds. "It's its own special field," he says. "But there is an immediacy to this research because climate models suggest that in the next decade's many sites will be lost to melting and decay."

WATCH: Secrets From The Ice

From increased fire and drought to the loss of iconic species, Canada is entering a period of change.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Five Ways Climate Change Is Already Affecting Canada - The Nature of Things: Science, Wildlife and Technology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Forest fires are heating up "A spark can light a raging inferno," says University of Alberta wildfire expert Mike Flannigan. Fire has always been an essential part our ecosystem, but now they are becoming more dangerous. 2017 was devastating in western Canada; British Columbia experienced its worst fire on record, almost 900,000 hectares went up in smoke.

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A founding member of Cape Dorset's famed printmaking co-op, Kenojuak Ashevak introduced Inuit art to the world (1927-2013). For more information on Kenojuak Ashevak's life, visit: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/kenojuak-ashevak/

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Occupying nearly 40 per cent of Canada's total landmass, the North is an iconic yet mysterious part of Canada. Though its igloos, icebergs, polar bears, seal hunters and Northern Lights are some of the country's best-known symbols, it remains a region few Canadians will ever visit.

Small in population, mostly weak economically and often unbearable in weather, Canada's three northern territories are among the most isolated parts of the country, and are easily ignored by all but those who live there. For those tough enough to do so, however, northern living can be a source of great pride - a symbol of man's ability to overcome some of nature's harshest terrain in the pursuit of a traditional self-sufficient lifestyle a small number of Canadians have enjoyed for centuries.

Geography

"Northern" Canada encompasses all land above the country's 60th parallel, which is divided into three territories (from west to east): Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Upwards of 90 per cent of the land in all three is strictly uninhabitable, a barren wasteland of rock, ice and snow, meaning the populated areas are located either in the southern regions, or close to the coast of a lake, river or ocean. Still, "habitable" remains very much in the eye of the beholder. Even in the north's larger cities, it's not at all uncommon for winter temperatures to dip below -40˚(C).

Along with the snowy, generally treeless landscapes, Canada's North is particularly well-known as being the fabled " land of the midnight sun." Due to its proximity to the Arctic Circle, northern days can entail up to 24 straight hours of sunlight in the summer, but also 24 hours of straight darkness in the winter. In Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, for instance, the month of June will get an average of 19 straight hours of sunlight, while in December, the average is about five.

Canada's most extreme northern region, which is comprised of a series of large islands around the Arctic Circle - the very topmost point of the planet - is home to land that is so frozen, barren, dry and featureless it's been used as training ground for astronauts. Despite the sub-arctic temperatures, this territory is technically considered a desert byscientists, since there is virtually no moisture or precipitation and few living things can survive.

History of the Canadian North

Unlike the rest of the country, Canada's North had very low levels of European settlement, as they considered much of the land undesirable. The populations of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are thus still majority aboriginal, while in Yukon around 23 per cent of the population is aboriginal. Many of these indigenous peoples, known as Inuit, retain cultures and traditions that have remained unchanged for centuries, and in some rural communities, subsistence hunter-gatherer lifestyles are still practiced.

Scandinavian explores from Sweden and Denmark were some of the first Europeans to discover the lands of northern Canada, and though they ultimately chose to make nearby Greenland and Iceland the focus of their arctic empire, many places in northern Canada, such as the Sverdrup Islands or the Prince Gustaf Adolf Sea still bear Scandinavian names. French and British fur traders first migrated to Canada's North in the mid 1600s, moving westward from their colonies on the Atlantic coast. In 1670, the British made a sweeping claim of ownership of much of the northernmost region of North America, naming the vast territory Rupert's Land and placing political control in the hands of the British-run Hudson's Bay Company. Permitted a great deal of independence by London, for two centuries the HBC grew large and wealthy through its cutthroat dominance of the lucrative Canadian fur trade, dotting the northern half of the continent with military bases and commercial trading posts that gradually evolved into modest villages and towns (to this day, many northern cities are still named "Fort" something-or-other).

In 1870, the British decided management of the north was better suited to governments than corporations, and agreed to sell Rupert's Land to the recently-formed Government of Canada. In the years that followed the land was chopped into several pieces, with the southern half becoming the Prairie provinces of Manitoba (1870), Saskatchewan (1905), and Alberta (1905), while the northern half was divided into the Northwest Territories (1870), Yukon (1898), and Nunavut (1999).

The North Today

Today, the combined population of the three northern territories is just under 120,000, a number below the capacity of some sports arenas. The cold climate and general isolation of the region continues to make it an unpopular place to live, work, or visit, which has caused difficulties for those born there.

Though tour guides may attempt to put an upbeat face on Canada's North by playing up its "serenity" and "vast open spaces," the North is not generally a happy part of Canada. Virtually all negative statistics - crime, domestic violence, per-capita prison population, drugs, suicide - are vastly higher in the North than anywhere else in Canada, to the point where the region is often excluded from national statistics in order to avoid warping the average. The most common explanation is that the overbearing dullness and economic hopelessness of the region, coupled with hideous weather, provokes chronic depression and anxiety in its residents, as well as a generally nihilistic worldview. The very high aboriginal population - who are already among Canada's most disadvantaged demographic - only complicates the situation further, as many young Inuit struggle with questions of purpose, identity and culture in the modern world.

The Government of Canada has become more sensitive to the plight of the North in recent decades, and federal subsidies for northern education, infrastructure, healthcare, social programs, and aboriginal cultural renewal have risen dramatically. Though the geographic realities of the isolated region will always present an obstacle to substantial development, there is some hope that recent discoveries of oil, natural gas, and diamonds could help usher in an era of economic opportunity if managed properly.
Territory vs. Province - what's the difference?
Historically, the difference between a Canadian "province" and a "territory" was that territories were run by Ottawa, while provinces had democratic self-government. After self-governance was granted to the territories in the 1970s, the only real distinction was that territorial governments could not charge nor collect royalties on their natural resources - only Ottawa could. This was in turn abolished through so-called "devolution" reforms in the 2000s, meaning there are now basically no meaningful differences between a province and a territory beyond name.

Government in Canada's North

From the time Canada first gained control of Rupert's Land to about the mid-1970s, there was very little democracy in Canada's North. They had to share a single member of Parliament (but no senators), and local affairs were managed by Ottawa-appointed commissioners who ruled much like the colonial governors of old. Increasingly unpopular, this state of affairs was massively reformed during the administration of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000), who gave the territories their own MPs, senators and elected legislatures from which a local prime minister (once called the government leader, now simply the premier) would be chosen, replacing the powers of the commissioner. Though commissioners remain, they're now powerless figureheads akin to the lieutenant-governors of the provinces, and are usually beloved local personalities or retired politicians, rather than out-of-territory bureaucrats.

The territorial legislatures of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are also distinct in that they are strictly non-partisan, meaning all members are elected without political party affiliation. The territorial premier and his cabinet, in turn, are elected by the legislature as a whole, rather than being appointed from the majority party faction in traditional British parliamentary style. This is sometimes known as consensus-style government, since it places greater emphasis on making decisions through the entire legislature, rather than just one faction of it.

Yukon

The history of Yukon (often called " the" Yukon, though that's no longer the official name) is essentially the history of the gold rush, the territory's big moment of international fame from which it has never fully recovered.

Located in the far northwestern corner of Canada, the Yukon district began life as a sleepy fur-trading outpost of the Northwest Territories. Then, in 1897, gold was discovered in the famed Klondike River. Over the next decade, thousands of new residents flooded into Yukon from all over the world, hoping to get their hands on some of the precious metal. Hastily-built apartments, saloons, and shops soon crowded the river-adjacent city of Dawson. Despite popular legends of overnight millionaires, only a handful of rich plutocrats actually profited from the rush, and by the early 20th century the Yukon was falling as quickly as it rose. World War II (1939-1945) brought a second boost through the construction of a massive military highway that linked the Yukon to British Columbia and Alaska, providing the territory with a vital lifeline that helped it integrate into mainstream North American trade and culture during the latter half of the century.

While still tiny in terms of population, the Yukon's modernity and urbanization have earned it the reputation as the least exotic of the three territories, in contrast to the more barren and desolate NWT and Nunavut. Today, over 70% of Yukoners live in or around the new capital of Whitehorse, Dawson having long since faded. In contrast to the more blue collar, resource-based economies and cultures of the other territories, the Yukon has also effectively made the transition to a largely middle-class, service-based economy, in large part thanks to a resilient tourism sector based on gold rush nostalgia.

More About Yukon

The Northwest Territories

Though the name ends with an "s," the Northwest Territories are now actually a single unit, the last remaining piece of Britain's massive Rupert's Land colony that was split into several different provinces and territories after being acquired by Canada in 1870. The modern " NWT," as it's casually known, is a roughly rhombus-shaped parcel of land located between the Yukon and Nunavut and contains two of Canada's biggest lakes, Great Bear and Great Slave. Most NWT people, known as Northerners, live around the coast of the latter.

Remote and desolate, as the fur trade began to fizzle and the livable parts of the territory were cleaved off, the rump NWT retained a tiny population of less than 10,000 until the 1930s, when new deposits of minerals, oil and natural gas were slowly unearthed, spawning an influx of natural resource corporations and government bureaucrats. The same thing happened again in the mid-nineties, when diamonds were discovered.

Though these resource rushes created an influx of new people, industries, and jobs, swelling NWT into Canada's largest territory with over 44,000 residents, NWT has not profited as much from its natural resource wealth as other resource-rich parts of Canada, like Alberta and Newfoundland. This was partially due to a lingering, pseudo-colonial setup in which Ottawa collected royalties on the territory's resources, rather than the local government (see above). This system was finally abolished in 2014, and hopes are high that a new royalty regime will allow Northerners, and particularly the territory's many aboriginal bands, to profit more directly from the resources extracted from their lands.

More About the NWT

Nunavut

The most obscure, exotic and stereotypical of the territories, to even say " Nunavut" in Canada is to conjure an image of the most remote, lonely, backwards part of the country. Carved from the NWT in 1999 as part of the federal government's efforts to promote greater self-government for Canada's northern aboriginal people, Nunavut is the only region of Canada where whites comprise less than 20 per cent of the population and over 70 per cent speak neither English or French as their first language.

Nunavut comprises a full fifth of the Canadian landmass and consists of two parts: a vast, but mostly uninhabitable mainland (unambiguously-named the Barren Grounds) and a massive northern archipelago of hundreds of gigantic, icy islands that reach all the way to the North Pole. On both the mainland and the islands, the few small population centres are tightly packed along the coasts. Nunavut's largest city, (formerly known as Frobisher Bay), has less than 7,000 people, and most communities are generally poor and extremely rural. There are no roads connecting Nunavut cities.

As you might expect from a place that was only incorporated in 1999, much of Nunavut was created relatively recently. Many of its cities are either the outgrowth of World War II-era air force bases (as is the case with Iqaluit), or the result of Cold War-era settlement programs, when the Canadian government encouraged northerners to relocate to underpopulated parts of the territories in an effort to assert greater sovereignty over the Arctic. Virtually the entire economy of Nunavut is government-run or subsidized in some way.

More About Nunavut

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Occupying nearly 40 per cent of Canada's total landmass, the North is an iconic yet mysterious part of Canada. Though its igloos, icebergs, polar bears, seal hunters and Northern Lights are some of the country's best-known symbols, it remains a region few Canadians will ever visit.

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The term Arctic peoples in Canada generally refers to the Inuit population, descendants of the Thule people, who lived in the Arctic from 400 to 1,000 years ago. The Inuit refer to their homeland as Inuit Nunangat. In 2011, there were nearly 60,000 Inuit in Canada, 73 per cent of whom lived in Inuit Nunangat.

Community on the north coast of Baffin Island in Nunavut.

Who are Arctic Indigenous Peoples?

Indigenous peoples in Canada, both historical and contemporary, have inhabited six cultural areas that, unlike provinces and territories, do not have strict boundaries, and instead refer to areas in more general terms. The Arctic is one of these cultural areas. The others include the Plains, Plateau, Subarctic, Northwest Coast and Eastern Woodlands.

Referred to as Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland comprises those inland and coastal areas north of the treeline. It is for this reason that the terms Inuit - itself a generic term - and Arctic peoples are often used interchangeably.

There are nine main Inuit groups in Canada:

A tenth group, the Sallirmiut (Sadlermiut), are no longer in existence.

In 2011, there were nearly 60,000 Inuit in Canada, 73 per cent of whom lived in Inuit Nunangat.

The Inuit are not the only northern Indigenous peoples in Canada. In areas close to the treeline, Indigenous peoples, including some Innu, Dene and Cree nations, have traditionally occupied similar environments to the Inuit (though rarely at the same time), and have hunted and fished similar game species. These northern Indigenous peoples have lived in parts of the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Québec and Labrador.

Geography and Traditional Territory

Inuit Nunangat is comprised of four regions: Inuvialuit (in the northern parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon), Nunavut, Nunavik (in northern Québec) and Nunatsiavut (in northern Labrador.)

Inuit Nunangat.
(courtesy Victor Temprano/Native-Land.ca)

These arctic regions are characterized by long daylight hours in summer with moderate temperatures. Winters are long and cold, and at more northerly locations there is a mid-winter period when the sun is entirely absent. Plant cover may be continuous, especially in well-watered locations, although rocky outcrops and barren dry areas are common. Trees are entirely lacking in the Arctic, though low shrubby plants occur, including several varieties of edible berries. Landforms are variable, from lake-studded lowlands to glacier-strewn alpine areas.

Society

Inuit family inside an igloo. The man on the left is using a bow-drill, used to drill holes and to start fires.

Historically, Inuit communities contained 100 -1,000 members. These regional bands were the most important social and political unit. Band members often congregated for short periods during the winter months, when people gathered in sealing or hunting camps.

Several regional bands made up the larger Inuit groups. Marriages occurred within these larger groups and all members spoke a similar dialect.

During the rest of the year, Inuit lived in smaller bands, often composed of two to five families. Each household generally consisted of a married couple and their children, though elderly or unmarried relatives might also be present. Many economic and social activities involved inter-household co-operation, and widespread sharing was, and still is, a fundamental characteristic of Inuit social life.

Most families who chose to live together were closely related, with leadership of the group generally assumed by the family heads. In some groups, the isumataaq, an informal leader who was often a young man with proven hunting and leadership skills, also held authority on social matters, such as adoption and marriage.

Family Structure

Marriage was nearly universal among Inuit and customarily took place in early adulthood; it was common for the young couple to reside close to the parents of one or the other spouse. Many households included adopted children, an indication of the high value accorded to children. Children were an important means of establishing valued inter-family relationships through adoption, engagements, adult-child relationships established at birthing ceremonies, and naming practices. The family was an important economic unit, relying on a decided division of responsibilities among all household members, including children and elderly relatives.

Inuit society associated birth with several socially significant rituals. Among some groups, in addition to an attending midwife, there was another adult who served as the child's ritual sponsor, assuming responsibilities for the child's moral upbringing. Throughout life, special terms of address were used. For example, according to a Netsilingmiut elder interviewed in 1991 for Betty Issenman's Sinews of Survival (1997), a godfather calls his goddaughter arnaliaq, which means "making you a woman," while she calls him sanajiarjuk, "dear little maker." Naming occurred at birth and had special significance, as Inuit names included part of the identity and character of the name bearer.

The arrangement of children's future marriages could occur at any time, even before birth. Young people promised to each other used a special form of address, and their families related in ways appropriate to the future relationship. Marriage, an exceptionally stable institution among Inuit, was customarily preceded by a period of trial marriage. Polygyny, having multiple wives, and more rarely polyandry, having multiple husbands, also occurred, but were not common practices.

Traditional Life

Food and Economy

Most Inuit groups based their economy on sea-mammal hunting, particularly seals. In summer and fall, many groups hunted caribou or moved to favoured coastal locations to hunt and fish a variety of game species. Fishing and food gathering (for bird eggs, shellfish and berries) were important seasonal activities, as were hunts for polar bear and whale. Though high value was placed on fresh food, people also preserved and stored goods for future use. Drying and caching in cool areas were common techniques, although several special techniques (such as storing in oil) were also used.

Traditional technology was based on locally available materials, principally bone, horn, antler, ivory, stone and animal skins. In some areas people used grass or baleen (the material used by whales to strain krill and plankton) for basketry and other containers. They also substituted wood or copper for antler or bone, and bird or possibly fish skins for animal skins. Many Inuit inventions are considered technological masterpieces for their resourcefulness and strength of design, like the igloo, the toggling harpoon head and the kayak.

There was an important relationship between location of settlements and seasonably available food resources. The composition of settlements might change periodically in response to social needs and desires to interact with kinsmen residing elsewhere. Many hunting methods became more effective when several hunters worked co-operatively, such as during winter seal hunting.

In many contemporary northern communities, foods such as fruit, vegetables and milk must be transported long distances. The resulting high costs, limited availability and lower quality of the food is somewhat eased by the availability of "country food" - wild foods such as seal, caribou, duck, whale and fish. A 2005 report found that 68 per cent of Inuk adults in Inuit Nunangat harvested country food. ( See Social Conditions of Indigenous Peoples.)

Transportation and Dwellings

All Inuit used sleds and skin-covered boats, though regional variations in both design and use were common. Dogs historically served as hunting animals, locating seal breathing holes in the sea ice, hunting muskoxen, holding bears at bay and serving as pack animals in the summer. Men used single-seat kayaks for hunting sea mammals, and for hunting caribou in rivers and lakes. In the Beaufort Sea and along the Alaskan coast, large skin-covered umiaks were used for whale hunting, although in the Canadian Arctic (and Greenland) women more often used such boats to transport households from place to place.

The skin tent, often with a short ridgepole, was generally made from sealskins and weighted down along the ground with rocks. Among the Kivallirmiut, the tent was often conical shaped and constructed from caribou skins. When suitable snow was not available for igloos, or when away from the sites of sod and stonewalled houses, tents served as temporary shelters.

Igloo design varied. At winter settlements, the main living chamber could be quite large, perhaps four metres in diameter and almost three metres in height. In addition, igloos featured chambers for storage and an entrance passage, and often, extra living chambers attached to the side. In some regions it was customary to line the walls with caribou skins for insulation. Most igloos had a snow sleeping platform and a window (made from clear lake ice) set into the roof. Smaller, less elaborate igloos are still used during winter travel.

In the western Arctic, where driftwood logs were available, permanent dwellings were constructed for winter use. Windows in this case were made from translucent animal skin parchment.

Clothing

Inuit skilfully manufactured footwear and clothing from animal skins. Even though parkas, gloves and boots followed a similar basic design, regional variations in pattern and technique persisted. Most Inuit made sealskin footwear for both winter and spring or summer use; the latter were entirely waterproof. In some areas, caribou skin replaced sealskin, especially for winter boots.

The parka traditionally consisted of an inner and outer jacket, usually of caribou fur. Some groups wore sealskin parkas and pants in the spring and summer, and caribou fur in winter. Women's clothing was often more elaborate than men's, with a voluminous hood on the tailed and aproned parka. Women carried infants in a pouch against the woman's back, not in the hood.

To adorn their bodies, women generally practiced facial and arm tattooing. Men sometimes had tattoos on their faces and bodies. Women also generally wore headbands made of copper or bone, while some men had facial piercings. Both men and women were known to have pierced ears and noses.

Culture

Charlotte Qamaniq-Mason of the group Tumavut, plays a traditional Inuit drum in a performance at Westfest in Ottawa (10 June 2011).

As in many Indigenous cultures, the drum is a sacred cultural item among the Inuit. Made by stretching an animal-skin membrane across a wooden hoop, drums served as traditional musical instruments. Among Western Arctic Inuit, several sitting drummers usually accompanied one or several dancers; whereas in the Central and Eastern Arctic, the drummer would not sing.

Following contact with outsiders, instruments such as concertinas, accordions, fiddles, harmonicas, jaw harps and, more recently, guitars became widespread. Square dancing, often in extended and intricate performances, sometimes without a caller, has remained very popular.

Inuit vocal games, also known as throat singing, occurred among some groups, usually performed by two women producing a wide range of sounds from deep in the throat and chest. This art is still practised in the Arctic.

Artisans made decorative art by sewing skins or inscribing on utensils. Recent innovations in Inuit art, such as soapstone carving, printmaking and wall hangings, stem from traditional skills, sometimes using new materials or techniques.

In terms of sport and recreation, many Inuit compete in physical challenges that test one's ability to high-kick (one and two foot varieties), kneel-jump, and perform many other feats of strength and dexterity. Many of these games are featured in the Arctic Winter Games, held every two years in a new location across the Arctic, including Alaska and Greenland. The Games attract competitors from Inuit Nunangat, as well as from other arctic regions.

Cultural Change

Since contact with outsiders, Inuit society and culture has undergone change. The early adoption of iron tools, firearms, cloth, and wooden boats altered or replaced certain material items. The spread of Christianity resulted in the loss of many traditional religious ideas and practices, and Canadian law has been superimposed on customary law in areas concerned with marriage, dispute settlement and wildlife management. ( See Indigenous Law.) Even the language has changed; written Inuktitut, for example, uses Latin script - the same letters as English and French - as well as syllabics.

Many items traditionally used by Inuit remain in use by all peoples in the Arctic; among these are harpoons used in marine mammal hunting, sealskin boots and caribou parkas required for winter hunting, and sleds used in winter travelling. Techniques of preparing animal skins and sewing skin clothing have also been preserved.

Important elements of the value system have also resisted change, including traditional childrearing practices, concerns about environmental matters, the continued survival of the Inuit language and culture, and respect for individual autonomy. ( See Inuit Co-operatives.)

Religion and Spirituality

Prior to contact with Europeans, Inuit religious leaders were shamans, who underwent lengthy and arduous training. Shamans were intermediaries between the Inuit and the various spiritual forces that influenced activities. Inuit life required strict adherence to various prohibitions and rules of conduct, so the role of the shaman was usually to determine wrongdoers and to prescribe appropriate punishment or compensation. ( See Religion and Spirituality of Indigenous Peoples.)

Early missionary activity was similarly constituted, with many new rules and prohibitions introduced and penitence demanded after sinning. In the 20th century, the intensive efforts of missionaries led many Inuit to adopt Christianity; ordained Inuit clergy or catechists serve many communities.

Inuit mythology, a system based on oral traditions and used to explain and instruct daily life, has experienced resurgence as a vehicle for cultural vitality. Programs exist to support the oral traditions and encourage interaction with traditional stories through youth and elders. Young Inuit are expected to learn by example, through close association with adults. Many of the values and beliefs of the society are demonstrated implicitly in behaviour. For instance, the constant sharing of food and other commodities exemplifies the value of generosity and co-operation, and discourages stinginess, greediness and selfishness. Stories that elders like to tell, especially to children, reinforce these important lessons.

The Inuit Language

Inuit in Canada traditionally speak Inuktitut, of which there are many different dialects. ( See Indigenous Languages in Canada.) However, because of improved travel opportunities and the development of Inuit-language radio and TV programming, language differences are diminishing. ( See Communications in the North and Indigenous People: Communications.) Traditionally, there was no written language, but after contact with missionaries, the Inuit widely adopted writing systems.

In the 2011 census, 34,110 people reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue, with 63.1 per cent of these residing in Nunavut and 32.3 per cent in Québec. In the majority of communities in both Québec and Eastern Nunavut, over 90 per cent of the population reported having Inuktitut as a first language. One exception is Iqaluit, which reported only 46.6 per cent. Percentages were significantly lower in Labrador; for example, Nain reported 36 per cent and Rigolet had only 5 per cent.

European Contact and Colonization

Evidence exists of Norse settlement in the Arctic in the 14th century. ( See Norse Voyages.) However, the first sustained contact with outsiders occurred between Moravian missionaries and Labrador Inuit in the late 18th century. ( See Moravian Missions in Labrador.)

At a few other locations in the Arctic, the Inuit and Europeans established fleeting trade contacts, but most contact occurred nearly a century later. During the latter half of the 19th century, explorers and commercial whalers introduced various trade items to the Inuit, though it was only following the end of commercial whaling, effectively after 1910, that trading posts became more or less permanently established in the arctic regions.

Inuit were largely ignored by the federal government until 1939, when they were deemed the government's responsibility. During the Second World War, Inuit were given disk numbers in lieu of names, for ease of government administration. ( See Project Surname.) After the war, there was an intensification of government activity, including the establishment of schools, nursing stations, airports and communication installations, and housing programs in the newly established settlements and hamlets. These impositions caused much cultural tension, as many Inuit were forcibly relocated to areas with which they were unfamiliar.

Political Organizations

In the early 1970s, a national organization, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (now known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami), was established to protect Inuit cultural and individual rights. The organization created several agencies in response to expressed needs. An Inuit Language Commission, for example, was formed to seek the best means of ensuring the increased use of Inuktitut for governmental, educational and communications purposes, and a Land Claims Office was established to research and negotiate Inuit land claims.

Many of these issues, such as protection of the arctic environment, are international in scope. Therefore, an international Inuit organization, the Inuit Circumpolar Council, was formed with committees seeking to strengthen pan-Inuit communication, cultural and artistic activities, and international co-operation in environmental protection. This organization has affiliation with numerous international bodies, including the United Nations, thereby ensuring that Inuit concerns become widely understood throughout the world.

Contemporary Life

Significantly altered by the long-lasting effects of colonization, many northern communities face significant socio-economic challenges, such as overcrowding, food scarcity, chronic health issues and high rates of youth suicide. ( See Social Conditions of Indigenous Peoples and Economic Conditions of Indigenous Peoples.)

A 2006 survey found that in Inuit Nunangat more than 15,000 Inuit were living in overcrowded conditions, and were the most likely to live in households with more than one family. Living conditions and lack of access to health care partially contribute to an increase in chronic health conditions, including obesity, diabetes and respiratory infections. The suicide rate among Inuit youth is markedly higher than for the rest of Canada, making suicide prevention a key priority for continued cultural growth. ( See Suicide among Indigenous Peoples in Canada.)

Despite these challenges, Inuit peoples in Canada have celebrated many achievements in numerous fields, most notably self-government and the creation of Nunavut. The Inuit have also been active in discussions surrounding environmental policy, business and education in the North and the revitalization of Inuit culture and language.

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The term Arctic peoples in Canada generally refers to the Inuit population, descendants of the Thule people, who lived in the Arctic from 400 to 1,000 years ago. The Inuit refer to their homeland as Inuit Nunangat. In 2011, there were nearly 60,000 Inuit in Canada, 73 per cent of whom lived in Inuit Nunangat.

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Canada is one of the world's richest nations, with a highly sophisticated economy and a top-tier standard of living. Though obviously not everyone in Canada is equally well-off, most Canadians nevertheless hold reasonably well-paying jobs and access to ample creature comforts that citizens in many other countries can only dream of.

Economic History of Canada

Canada was basically founded as a money-making scheme. In the 17th century, when North America was first being colonized by the French and British, the northern half of the continent was considered an alluring place because of all the furry woodland creatures it contained, since beautiful, glossy furs were one of the most desired possessions of wealthy Europeans of the time. For centuries, the early Canadian colonies thrived under a simple economic system known as the fur trade, where hunters gathered and sold animal skins under the employment of large fur corporations - mostly the Hudson's Bay Company - who then used their profits to purchase land and build trading posts in new areas where even more fur could be found.

As they moved west from the St. Lawerence River region, European settlers discovered Canada was full of lots of other things they could harvest and sell too, including lumber, fish, coal, iron, and gold. The development of farms in arable regions, meanwhile, yielded ample harvests of wheat and other grains as well as meat and dairy products from raising livestock. Originally, much of Canada's resource bounty was sold to Britain and France, the colonial rulers. But as the years went on, it soon became more logical and profitable for Canada to do most of its trade with the United States - which was considerably closer - or simply among cities and provinces within Canada itself.

The industrial revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced all sorts of exciting new machines to the world, and saw Canadians begin to develop a robust manufacturing sector, with giant factories able to transform raw natural resources into useful high-tech things like paper, cloth, steel, chemicals, and automobiles, while dams and derricks enabled the production of new commodities like hydroelectricity, oil, and natural gas. In the decades following World War II (1939-1945), the Canadian economy shifted dramatically once again as industrial profits were invested into higher wages and taxes, and social services. A growth of schools, particularly affordable colleges and universities, produced a more educated population able to pursue office work and largely abandon manual labour in factories and farms, while Canadian corporations sought larger profits by outsourcing manufacturing jobs to cheaper workers in poorer countries. By the dawn of the 21st century, Canada had become an integrated part of a thoroughly globalized economy in which Canadian workers now only produce goods and services that cannot be produced cheaper in some other country. This has made life more affordable for many Canadians, but has come at the cost of eliminating many traditional sources of Canadian employment.

Canada's Modern Economy and Industries

Having largely abandoned the country's agricultural-manufacturing past, today upwards of 75 per cent of Canadians work in what is dubbed the service sector of the economy, while only a small minority still work in farms or factories. The service sector of the Canadian economy is extremely vast and diverse, and basically entails any sort of (mostly) non-physical work that deals with helping people, rather than making or growing things. Most Canadians who live in large cities like Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal work in the service sector.

Within the service sector, the largest sub-sector is the trades, which are highly specialized, skill-based professions like electrician, carpenter, or computer repairman. Other large sub-sectors include health care, which includes doctors, nurses and surgeons, plus their clerks and assistants; finance, which includes bankers, stock brokers, and real-estate agents; education, which includes teachers, professors, librarians and administrators; and food and retail, which covers cooks, store clerks, and cashiers in places like shopping malls, restaurants, grocery stores, and other shops. Writers, artists, journalists, and entertainers are all considered service workers, too. Government or bureaucratic work has also become quite popular in recent decades, with the Canadian federal government now said to be the single largest employer in the country.

Canada's few remaining farmers reside primarily in the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, where they continue to grow crops such as wheat, corn, and oilseed, as well as raise cattle and pigs for meat and dairy,just like their forefathers before them. In many parts of the country, a renewed interest in organic food is helping provide some Canadian farmers, particularly fruit and vegetable farmers, with a mini boom, but overall, Canadian agriculture remains very much an industry in decline.

Canadian manufacturing remains only slightly more lucrative, and still employs about two million workers, or about 13 per cent of the country's total labour force. Like agriculture, it's another industry highly concentrated in one part of the country, in this case the so-called "central Canadian region" of Ontario and Quebec, which together house more than 75 per cent of all Canadian manufacturing jobs. The most famous of these remain centred around Canada's automotive sector, historically one of the leading symbols of Canada's postwar economic boom, but now in steady decline as outsourcing and robotics lower the need for Canadian workers in this sector. In forest-rich British Columbia, the production of lumber and paper still dominates provincial manufacturing, while the production of food, chemicals, electronics, and other miscellaneous bits of machinery dominate in small communities elsewhere. As is the case with most western nations, much of what Canadians still manufacture in their own country consists of specialty products that are either too expensive or impractical to build overseas.

Trade and the United States

Trade comprises more than 65 per cent of Canada's Gross Domestic Product ( GDP), making it one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world. Of this, upwards of 75 per cent of all Canadian trade is done exclusively with the United States, meaning the modern Canadian economy is extremely dependent upon, and integrated with, the economic happenings of America. So much so, in fact, that some economic analysts don't think it's even worth talking about "Canada" and the "United States" as two separate economic entities, so conjoined are their economies.

The most valuable goods Canada exports, or sells, to the United States are energy resources, namely oil, chemical fuels, electricity, and natural gas (many are surprised to learn that Canada, and not some country in the Middle East, is America's biggest foreign source of oil). Most of Canada's remaining exports to the U.S. are simply half-assembled products that are then completed in America. Half-assembled cars comprise a particularly large category, and Canada and the United States jointly operate the largest automobile manufacturing sector on Earth, based out of the Ontario-Michigan border region. From the U.S., Canada imports just about everything, including food, completed cars, chemicals, electronics, and tons of entertainment products like books, movies, and video games. Overall, Canada is the single biggest foreign consumer of American goods and the United States runs a large trade surplus with Canada - meaning Canadians buy a lot more from the United States than the United States buys from Canada.

Along with being the country's biggest trade partner, the United States is also the single largest foreign investor in the Canadian economy, with around 50 per cent of all foreign direct investment in Canada held by Americans. Much of this investment takes the form of American corporations setting up shop in Canada. Cruise the streets of any major Canadian city and you'll be greeted with an endless array of popular American chains, from McDonald's to Starbucks to Wal-Mart, catering to Canadian customers. It's not an entirely uncontroversial state of affairs; while American corporations provide millions of jobs for Canadians, critics argue the dominance of American companies in Canada hurts Canadian corporations and investors who have difficulty competing with Americans. The Canadian government does have rules that limit foreign ownership in certain industries deemed too important to trust to Americans (or any other foreigners, for that matter), including telecommunications, energy, national defence, and culture.

In addition to the United States, Canada currently has free trade agreements with much of Latin America ( Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, and Peru), middle eastern allies Israel and Jordan, and the four non-EU countries in Europe - Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, though the amount of trade Canada does with these countries is quite small.

Taxes in Canada

Canadians like to complain about taxes, but compared to other major industrialized democracies, Canada's rate of taxation is comparatively low. Total tax revenue in Canada represents about 32 per cent of the country's GDP, compared to 36 per cent in Germany, 45 per cent in France and 47 per cent in Denmark. The bulk of the money Canadians give to their government is withdrawn through taxes on incomes and purchases, which are charged at both the national and provincial level.

Personal income taxes in Canada are progressive, which is to say, people pay a different rate depending on how much income they make. Federally, the bottom rate is 15 per cent and the top rate is 33 per cent, while at the provincial level most rates are (very roughly) half that. Corporations pay income tax too. The federal corporate tax rate is a flat 15% (10% for "small businesses"), one of the lowest rates in the world, while the provincial rates are, again, roughly half that. The bulk of income taxes Canadians pay are deducted automatically from their paycheques, along with other specialized taxes that are used to finance the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP), unemployment insurance, and in some provinces, other services as well (these are known as payroll taxes). Canadians are expected to double-check their income tax records at the end of every fiscal year (April) and pay the government any outstanding income tax owed. Collection of provincial and federal income taxes is jointly managed by the Canadian Revenue Agency ( CRA), meaning all tax related matters in Canada are handled by a single federal bureaucracy.

Everything you buy in Canada receives an extra mark-up at the cash register in the form of the Goods and Services Tax ( GST) and a Provincial Sales Tax ( PST). These days, a lot of provinces merge the two taxes together to make things easier, in the form of a Harmonized Sales Tax, or HST. The GST rate is currently set at 5 per cent of purchase price, while PST rates vary from province to province, but is usually a bit higher.

Canadian Unions

In the old days, when Canada's manufacturing sector was considerably larger and more important than it is today, many Canadian factory workers formed unions in order to lobby for safer working conditions and higher pay from their employers. As manufacturing declined, unionization steadily shifted towards white collar work, and of the 30 per cent of Canadians who hold union membership today, the majority work in fields such as teaching, nursing, or government bureaucracy.

In a reflection of this growing dominance of government employees in the Canadian labour movement, the largest union in Canada is now the Canadian Union of Public Employees ( CUPE), which represents more than 615,000 Canadians working for the provincial and federal governments. Considerably smaller, the country's largest private sector union is Unifor, which was founded in 2013 through a merger of various manufacturing unions. It represents over 300,000 workers. Most union workers are also members of labour federations in their provinces, and there is a national lobby group for union interests known as the Canadian Labour Congress.

Canada is not a country that experiences a great deal of labour unrest, and strikes are usually short and rare. Since an increasing number of the country's unionized workers now perform safe, comfortable jobs for government employers, contract negations have lost a lot of their earlier passion and intensity, and are now mostly around the calm negotiation of things such as vacation lengths, sick days, and layoff procedures.

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Canada is one of the world's richest nations, with a highly sophisticated economy and a top-tier standard of living. Though obviously not everyone in Canada is equally well-off, most Canadians nevertheless hold reasonably well-paying jobs and access to ample creature comforts that citizens in many other countries can only dream of.

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History of Settlement in the Canadian Prairies | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Homesteading | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher

From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement, and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking a new life. This immigration boom created key industries still important to Canada's international role - like agriculture, mining, and oil. The Prairie Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta grew rapidly in these years as settlers began to transform the barren prairie flatland and establish unique cultural settlements. Many motivations brought immigrants to Canada: greater economic opportunity and improved quality of life, an escape from oppression and persecution, and opportunities and adventures presented to desirable immigrant groups by Canadian immigration agencies. By examining these motivations, an understanding of Prairie immigration experiences and settlement patterns evolves in interesting ways.

The immigration boom leading up to 1914 was one of the most important periods of Canadian population growth. Significant changes occurred in Canada after 1867 that made the Prairie immigration boom possible: the construction of a transcontinental railroad made transportation and travel accessible; the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 created free and fertile homesteads for settlers; the establishment of the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 guaranteed the safety of Prairie residents; and the creation of the Department of the Interior in 1873 attracted hard-working immigrants to the region.
In 1870, no urban centres existed on the Prairies. By 1911, thirteen cities with populations over 5,000 had been established.[1]
While the period after 1867 saw a rise in international immigration, the movement did not fully take off until 1896. After a tough economic recession from 1873 to 1896, Canada thirsted for settlers. With the help of Sir Clifford Sifton, Minister of the Interior from 1896 to 1905, immigrants began to find their way to the Canadian Prairies. Sifton is known for promoting the immigration of non-traditional immigrants to Canada. Sifton strongly believed that sturdy European immigrants were the best settlers for the challenging Prairies, because of their familiarity with agriculture, rural lifestyles, and harsh climates. He is best known for his statement that "a stalwart peasant in a sheep-skin coat, born on the soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife and a half dozen children, is a good quality."[2] Sifton disliked the idea of urban populations settling the Prairies, for they would congregate in cities, instead of developing Prairie homesteads. Instead, he promoted the immigration of groups like the Ukrainians, Hungarians, and Mennonites over the more ethnically "desirable" British immigrants.

Thanks to intensive advertising and international immigration agencies after 1867, foreign populations began to settle the Prairies. These immigrants fostered distinct ethno-cultural pockets and diverse industries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The population in the West exploded; Winnipeg grew from a city of 20,000 in 1886, to 150,000 in 1911.[3]
Saskatchewan's population grew by 1124.77% between 1891 and 1911.[4]
Thousands of diverse immigrants came to Canada between 1867 and 1914 for different reasons. For the thousands of immigrants who were inspired to emigrate in search of greater economic opportunities and improved quality of life, the Canadian West presented seemingly infinite possibilities. This category of immigrants encompassed populations of Hungarians, French, Icelanders, Romanians, Chinese, and Ukrainians.

Economic and social situations in Europe were increasingly challenging in the mid to late 1800s. During this time, Europe's population was growing at an unprecedented rate and death rates were decreasing, leading to a population surplus. This resulted in work shortages and competition for resources. Political tensions in Europe also ran high in the late 1800s, as empires reorganized and borders shifted.

For Hungarians, Romanians, and Ukrainians, overpopulation and unemployment definitely prompted their migration to the Canadian West. These "Sifton" immigrants were hearty European farmers, well-known for their ability to survive harsh climates. After decades of landless tenant occupation on tiny farms in Europe, free 160 acre homesteads in the Canadian West appealed to these poor eastern European agriculturalists. Hungarians left Austria-Hungary after neglect from the government, and while many came to Canada, most moved to the United States. Romanians and Ukrainians however, favoured settlement in Canada, and moved in large numbers to Western Canada.

Romanians began arriving in 1895, and like many other "Sifton" immigrants, the Prairies were their first and ultimately permanent home. Over 8,000 Romanians not only succeeded agriculturally, but also possessed trade labour skills, making them valuable Prairie immigrants.[5] Ukrainians were also an immigrant group valued for their skills. Between 1896 and 1914, an estimated 170,000 Ukrainians came to Western Canada and arranged in block settlements.[6] Block settlements were compact settlements populated by a specific ethnic group, which created a patchwork of cultural zones on the Prairies.[7] Though agricultural backwardness had hindered Ukrainian communities in Europe, it actually helped Ukrainian-Canadian populations succeed on the Prairies, where the lack of agricultural development required knowledge of pioneer farming techniques.

Canada represented a second chance for many immigrants. For the French, Icelanders, and Chinese, unfavourable environmental conditions added to their desire to relocate. The French had lived in other areas of North America before moving to the Canadian West. French migration to the Prairies came from eastern Canada, as well as New England, and the western United States. French populations favoured settlement in Manitoba, where distinct French communities had already been established by French fur traders and the Métis, well before Confederation.
Did you know? Manitoba has the largest concentration of Icelanders outside of Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik.
While overpopulation, underemployment, and poor treatment of rural farmers were the primary motivations for immigrants coming from Iceland and China, these groups were also pushed to emigrate by unique environmental conditions. Approximately 16,800 Icelanders left for North America between 1871 and 1915, the majority of whom came to settle in block settlements in Manitoba. Most of these immigrants came from the agriculturally depressed region of northeast Iceland, which was further affected by a number of detrimental volcanic eruptions in the 1870s that caused remaining arable land to be covered in debris.

The Chinese experienced a similar fate. Over 15,000 Chinese immigrants came from China and the United States to help construct the Canadian Pacific Railway during the 1880s. The majority of these Chinese immigrants originated from Taishan, in Guangdong province, which had been repeatedly ravaged with floods, earthquakes, plagues, typhoons, droughts, and civil wars during the late 1800s. The Chinese, like the Icelanders, saw Canada as a refuge with ample opportunities for a better life.

The opportunity for a better life in Canada was also sought after by many "undesirable" immigrant groups, who took advantage of the Sifton period of liberalized immigration to escape their plight in the homeland. Survival and freedom were the motivations of oppressed and persecuted populations like the American Blacks, Doukhobors, Jews, Mennonites, and Mormons. For them, the Canadian Prairies represented a safe place to resettle.

The Blacks and Mormons, both American-based populations, came to Western Canada to escape the discrimination they faced in the United States. After restrictive acts were imposed on Blacks in Oklahoma in 1907, a group of 1500 Blacks fled to Canada, settling in Amber Valley, Alberta in 1910 and 1911. Despite this movement, the population of Blacks on the Prairies was never as large as other groups, as Black populations were sometimes barred entry, or tended to move into other urban areas in Canada.
Mormons brought irrigation techniques to Canada that enabled thousands of people to farm dry lands in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Mormonism was born in the United States in the 1830s, and faced major backlash from conservative Americans. The practice of polygamy in Mormon communities was met with serious distaste by the majority population, and the American government passed laws to prohibit polygamy. Threatened by imprisonment and persecution, thousands of Mormons moved to southern Alberta in the 1880s, creating a thriving Mormon population of 7,000 by 1910.[8] Mormons enjoyed increased freedoms in Canada; although polygamy was not officially legal, the persecution and imprisonment of Mormons because of polygamy ended when they came to Canada.

In Europe, as in the United States, governments were making restrictive laws which prohibited many groups from living free and happy lives. For the Jews, Mennonites, and Doukhobors, life in Europe became increasingly difficult towards the end of the nineteenth century.

Most Jews did not have strong agricultural skills to qualify them as desirable immigrants, but they came to the Prairies in large numbers nonetheless. After numerous failed rural settlements, the majority of Jews in Western Canada settled in cities. Winnipeg in particular, became a thriving Jewish community in the early 1900s, where many successful Jewish businesses emerged. Still today, Winnipeg continues to be a centre for Jewish-Canadian life and culture.
What is Russification? It was an attempt to assimilate all peoples of the Russian Empire by forcing non-Russians to give up their own cultures, languages, and traditions, and adopt Russian language and culture.
When the Russian government imposed intense Russification in the late 1800s, Doukhobors and Mennonites experienced major violations of their cultural and religious rights. These peoples were imprisoned and banished for resistance to Russification and refusal to participate in the military. After their immigration to Canada, Doukhobors in Saskatchewan and Mennonites in Manitoba became some of the most successful Prairie farmers. The social impacts of these groups in Canada are also substantial; both Doukhobors and Mennonites introduced communal lifestyles and the practice of shared communal goods to the Prairies. Currently, the population of Doukhobors in Canada is twice that which remains in Europe, and Mennonites continue to be a dominant ethno-cultural group in Manitoba.
In the first six months of 1900, one million pieces of immigration literature flooded the European countryside.
Even though negative motivations pushed many immigrant groups away from their homelands, some groups came to Canada for positive opportunities and adventures presented to them by Canadian immigration agencies. Advertisements for the Canadian West were distributed in different European countries, and the recruitment of ethnically desirable immigrants by Canadian immigration agents flourished. The most ethnically and culturally desirable immigrants to Canada between 1867 and 1914 - though not all the most productive Prairie farmers - were the British, Belgians, Americans, Poles, Dutch, German, Finns, and Scandinavians.

While some of these "desirables" did become successful rural farmers, like the Americans, Dutch, Germans, Poles and Scandinavians, the Belgians and British and did not experience success agriculturally. Belgians were a unique settler group; despite cultural differences and mediocre agricultural skills, they were considered desirable immigrants by Canadian immigration agents. Many Belgians spoke French, and as a result, settled in French areas of Manitoba, where they practiced a diversity of agricultural, skilled, unskilled, and resource labour.

Despite their limited contribution to a skilled agricultural or trades-related workforce, the British were the most numerous and ethnically desirable immigrants to Canada. As Canada remained heavily influence by England in the twentieth century, British immigrants (predominantly from Scotland and England after 1867) helped maintain the dominant white Anglo-Saxon presence in Canada. The failure of British settlers to prosper in rural landscapes meant that they tended to congregate in urban centres, where they added to the unskilled workforce. During the Sifton era, immigration had shifted away from the British, but as new ministers took power after 1905, the desire to preserve and protect Canada's "British-ness" re-emerged.

Though British immigrants displayed a general ineptitude on rural farming enterprises, many other desirable immigrant groups succeeded in Prairie agriculture. The Americans, Poles, Dutch, Germans, Finns, and Scandinavians all proved to be prosperous settlers. Interestingly, most of these groups get muddled in the "American" immigrant category, for these peoples often tried their luck in the American West before moving northward and settling permanently in Canada. Like the French, these groups encountered high land costs and overdevelopment in the American West, spurring their movements to Canada.

These groups were highly desirable settlers to Canadian immigration agencies: they were familiar with the Prairie climate and land conditions from experience in the American West, they were ethnically pleasing immigrants with physical similarities to the Brits, they were accustomed to democratic institutions, and while displaying high rates of cultural retention, they did not practice "questionable" customs (like communal living or polygamy) like some other immigrant groups.

Like the Dutch and the Germans, many Poles that settled in Western Canada came from agricultural backgrounds and were familiar with a harsher climate. Though Poles came in considerably larger numbers after the First World War, they still had a strong presence in the Prairies during the turn of the century. By 1911, there were over 30,000 Poles in Canada, many of whom were farmers in the West.[9]
The Dutch, Germans, and Scandinavians were some of the most ethnically desirable and agriculturally skilled immigrants to the Canadian Prairies.
The Dutch and Germans were two of the most desirable Prairie settler groups in Canadian history. They were praised for their agricultural prowess and hearty work ethics. Both the Germans and Dutch established strong ethnic block settlements in the West. The Germans flocked mainly to Saskatchewan, and established two large colonies in the early 1900s. Germans from the United States settled in St. Peter's colony, comprised of fifty townships, which had 7,000 people in 1914. European Germans favoured St. Joseph's colony, comprised of seventy-seven townships, where the 1916 population hovered around 11,000.[10]

The ability of the clean and sober Dutch to assimilate gracefully into the dominant culture made them favourable immigrants. Many Dutch immigrants already spoke English, from years in the United States, making them even more desirable in the eyes of the Canadian government. The Dutch settled predominantly in Alberta, where a large population still thrives.

Northern European groups shared similar languages, physical resemblances, and cultural identities, and were therefore typically categorized as Scandinavians.[11] Scandinavians came in their largest numbers between 1880 and 1900, mostly from the United States. In fact, only 6,000 of the 40,000 Swedes to the Prairies between 1893 and 1914 travelled directly from Sweden.[12] Scandinavians favoured block settlement, which helped preserve their culture and languages. About 20,000 Finnish immigrants came to the Prairies, and favoured settlement in Saskatchewan.[13] Danish populations favoured Alberta, where one in every two Danes settled in Dickson, Alberta.[14] Nearly 20,000 Norwegians came to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and about 40,000 Swedes created block settlements in Erickson, Manitoba and rural Saskatchewan.

Immigration to the Prairies between 1867 and 1914 diversified the land by building a solid agricultural and resource-based economy in the West, and by establishing a web of unique cultures with a lasting presence in the Prairies today. Though different motivations brought immigrants to the Prairies, they stayed because of opportunities and prosperity found through settlement. The boom period of immigration between 1867 and 1914 had a major impact on the development of the Prairies, and has permanently shaped Canada's society, economy, and culture.

Notable Immigrant Settlements in the Prairies
Belgians

St. Alphonse, MB (1882, first Belgian settlement)

St. Boniface, MB (pre-Confederation, one of the first Belgian settlements on the Prairies)

Blacks

Amber Valley, AB (1910-11, largest black community in Alberta)

Eldon, SK (early 1900s, largest black community in Saskatchewan)

British

Lloydminster, AB (1903, formerly Britannia Colony/Barr Colony)

Cannington Manor, SK (1882)

(Scottish)

Selkirk Settlement, MB (pre-Confederation, also known as Red River colony)
(Irish) Chinese Doukhobors

Verigin, SK (1899, Verigin district includes Runnymede, Coté, Kamsack, Mikado, Canora)

Kamsack-Canora colonies, SK

Dutch

Granum, AB (1903, formerly Leavings, AB)

Nobleford, AB

Neerlandia, AB

Finnish French

St. Albert colony , AB (1874, includes Legal, Morinville, Ray, Hazelwood, Picardville)

Ste. Rose colony, MB (includes Sainte-Rose du Lac, MB)

St. Boniface, MB (pre-Confederation French settlement)

Germans

St. Peter's Colony, SK (1902, 50 townships, including Humboldt, Annaheim, Muenster, Lake Lenore, Englefeld, St. Gregor, Carmel, Bruno, Daylesford)

St. Joseph's Colony, SK (1907, 77 townships, including Kerrobert, Wilkie, Scott, Unity, Biggar, Macklin, Trampling Lake)

Edenwold, SK (second oldest German settlement in Saskatchwan)

Leduc, AB (largest area of German settlement in AB)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Hungarians

Esterhazy, SK (1885, Esterhaz-Kaposvar colony)

Minnedosa, MB (1885)

Hutterites

James Valley colony, MB (1918)

Waterton, AB

Icelanders

Gimli, MB (1875, formerly the Republic of New Iceland)

Markerville, AB (1888-89, first Icelandic settlement in Alberta)

Thingvalla, SK

Jews

Winnipeg, MB (1880s)

Bender Hamlet, MB (1880s)

New Jerusalem, SK (1884)

Mennonites

Gretna, MB (1881, first grain elevator on the Prairies))

East Reserve, MB (1874-75, 8 townships)

West Reserve, MB (1874-75, 17 townships, including Reinland, Chortitz, Bergthal, Halbstadt, Blumenort, Neuhoffung, Hoffnungsfeld)

Rosthern, SK (1902)

Mormon

Cardston, AB (1887, first Mormon settlement on the Prairies)

Raymond, AB (1903, first sugar beet factory on the Prairies)

Polish

Rabbit Hill, AB (1897)

Skaro, AB (1897)

Round Hill, AB (1899)

Springfield, MB

Lac du Bonnet, MB

St. Michael, AB (1905)

Romanian Scandinavian

Minnedosa, MB (1886)

Canwood-Polworth district, SK

(Danes)

Nokomis, SK

Dickson, AB (1903, oldest and most populous Danish settlement on the Prairies)

(Norwegian)

Calgary, AB (Bow River area)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Macoun, SK

(Swedes)

Erickson, MB (1885, establishment of New Sweden, also called Scandinavia, MB)

New Stockholm, SK (1886)

Wadena district, SK (1904)

Norquay, SK (1905)

Wetaskiwin, AB

Ukrainians

Edna-Star colony, AB (1892)

Interlake, MB (1898, first Ukrainian school district on the Prairies)

Gilbert Plains, MB (1902)

Wakaw, SK

Image Gallery:

Bibliography and Consulted Works
Primary Sources
Macleans' Magazine, Sir Clifford Sifton, "The Immigrants Canada Wants,"
April 1, 1922, 16.
Secondary Sources
Bicha, Karel Denis. "The Plains Farmer and the Prairie Province Frontier,1897-1914,"
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
Vol. 109, No. 6 (Dec. 10, 1965), pp. 398-440.

Francis, Douglas and Howard Palmer, editors. The Prairie West,
Historical Readings . (Edmonton: Pica Pica Press), 1992.

Friesen, Gerald. The Canadian Prairies: A History. (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press), 1987.

Knowles, Valerie. Strangers at Our Gates: Canadian Immigration and
Immigration Policy, 1540-2006 . (Toronto: Dundurn Press), 2007.

Magocsi, Paul Robert. of Toronto) Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. (Toronto: University
Immigration Policy, 1540-2006.
(Toronto: Dundurn Press), 1999.

Palmer, Howard. The Settlement of the West. (Calgary: Comprint
Publishing Company), 1977.

Patterson, G. James. "Romanians," in Magocsi, Paul Robert. Encyclopedia of
Canada's Peoples . (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1999,
pp. 1092-1100.

Swyripa, Frances. Storied Landscapes, Ethno-Religious Identity and the
Canadian Prairies.(Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press), 2010.

Widdis, Randy William. "Saskatchewan Bound: Immigration to a New CanadianFrontier,"
Great Plains Quarterly, (Fall, 1992), pp. 254-268.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/649

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Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914

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by Erica Gagnon, Collections Researcher From 1867 to 1914, the Canadian West opened for mass settlement, and became home to millions of immigrant settlers seeking a new life. This immigration boom created key industries still important to Canada's international role - like agriculture, mining, and oil.

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The Canadian Atlas Online - First Peoples

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Shawinigan Handshake is the epithet given to a chokehold executed on February 15, 1996 by Jean Chrétien, then- Prime Minister of Canada, on anti-poverty protester Bill Clennett. The phrase comes from Chrétien's birthplace of Shawinigan, Quebec, as the former prime minister often styled himself the "little guy from Shawinigan".

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* Three days later Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, giving police the right to arrest and detain people on suspicion alone.

* The act, created in 1914 for cases of war or national emergency, was repealed in 1985.

* Trudeau also outlawed the Front de libération du Québec and told police to arrest those with "extreme-left" literature, posters, stickers or pamphlets.

* Eighty-five per cent of Canadians agreed with invoking the act.

* Cabinet documents later revealed that Trudeau originally didn't want to invoke the War Measures Act. Then-Indian Affairs minister Jean Chrétien advised him to "act now, explain later."

* Trudeau changed his mind when he discovered the FLQ had two tons of dynamite to blow up Montreal buildings.

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1970: Pierre Trudeau says 'Just watch me' during October Crisis - CBC Archives

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Three days later Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, giving police the right to arrest and detain people on suspicion alone. * The act, created in 1914 for cases of war or national emergency, was repealed in 1985. * Trudeau also outlawed the Front de libération du Québec and told police to arrest those with "extreme-left" literature, posters, stickers or pamphlets.