Poster Brainstorming:
Inquiry Question: Why were the passengers on the Komagata Maru rejected to stay in Canada?
Answer: The one and only reason Canada reject the entrance of the Komagata Maru passengers was racism
Racism:
Why were Canadians racist?
Since the Indian immigrants were part of the British Empire they should have been able to enter Canada, just like they were able to enter Uganda and Malaya. In 1906, the prime minister of Canada Wilfrid Laurier had said “if an immigrant arrives in good faith and with every intention of becoming a Canadian, then he must be treated on equal grounds, as it would be outrageous to act with discrimination against such a person for reasons of faith, place of birth, or origins.” What Laurier said in
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This shows that the Canadian government had made these regulations just because they wanted to maintain a “White Country” and they were just being racist towards most Asians. They did not even care about what would have happened to the passengers on the Komagata Maru when they were sent back because they were so focused on making Canada a “White Man’s Country”. If the Canadians had tried to look across the fact that the Indians were a darker skin colour than them, they would have seen that they were still in fact humans that were just trying to live a better …show more content…
Canada was a racist country is because most Canadians referred to the Indian immigrants as ‘Hindus’ even though most of them were from the Sikh religion. This shows that they were racist because they did not even care about the fact that most of the immigrants from India were Sikhs and they just assumed they were all Hindus. That is like saying that Christians and Roman Catholics are from the same religion, when they are not.
To get Canadians against the idea of Indian immigration the government had accused Indians of having ‘Hindu hookworms’ since they had “low living standards” because they usually went places barefoot and they did not maintain proper sanitization. Once the Indians in British Columbia were tested, the reports showed that they did not have hookworms, so instead they were accused of consuming thymol to disguise their condition. As you can see Canadians were very racist against non-whites. As long as your skin colour was white you were allowed and welcomed into
The fact that there was a need for the Canadian government to seize all of their property, itself shows how terribly they were treated and cared about. Likewise, if the Canadian government was suspecting Japanese-Canadians of being spies and reporting back to Japan for the war, the need to seize their property would be irrelevant and just another excuse to confiscate all of their property and torment them, which left them distraught. For this reason, the Canadian government may have purposely not revealed all of the information to the media. It is evident that Canadians did not want Japanese-Canadians in their midst since they were in a constant fear of disloyalty and fear as they were afraid of being sabotaged by Japanese-Canadians. The abolishment of possessions left Japanese-Canadians with little to no money to support their family.
The Indian Act was an attempt by the Canadian government to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society through means such as Enfranchisement, the creation of elective band councils, the banning of aboriginals seeking legal help, and through the process of providing the Superintendent General of the Indian Affairs extreme control over the aboriginals, such as allowing the Superintendent to decide who receives certain benefits, during the earlier stages of the Canadian-Indigenous' political interaction. The failure of the Indian Act though only led to more confusion regarding the interaction of Canada and the aboriginals, giving birth to the failed White Paper and the unconstitutional Bill C-31, and the conflict still is left unresolved until this day.
The period of 1914 to 1939, Canada’s immigration policy got very unfair. Changes were made to the Immigration Act in 1914 that allowed the rejection of anyone from any race that was deemed unsuitable for Canada’s requirements. Also, in that same year, the Komagata Maru came to the coast of Vancouver. It was a ship that carried many from Punjab, India. The ship wasn’t allowed to dock and passengers weren’t allowed to disembark off the ship. The ship hadn’t sailed directly to B.C. from India so only 24 passengers were allowed to disembark; most of them were doctors or Canadian citizens already. Another act to keep out unwanted immigrants from Canada was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. This act came into effect on July 1st, 1923. It banned all Chinese immigrants from entering Canada, except merchants, diplomats and foreign students. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act was put into place, the Chinese had to pay a head tax of $500 just to get into the country. The numbers of Japanese immigrants were also restricted. The Canadian government restricted only 150 Japanese immigrants to come to Canada in a year. In 1925, the government relaxed restrictions on immigrants coming from many countrie...
Until the 16th century, Aboriginal people were the only inhabitants of what is now Canada, hence, they were an independent and self-governing people till the Europeans had the capacity to dominate Canada's original inhabitants and possessors (Elias 1). The European Invasion brought about The 1876 Indian Act, which was developed over time through separate pieces of colonial legislation regarding Aboriginal peoples across Canada such as the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. In 1876, these acts were consolidated as the Indian Act (Hanson). This essay aims to explain how the Indian Act tried to destroy the Aboriginal culture through residential schools and unequal recognition of women, successive acts,
Labour leaders in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s were strongly opposed to the idea of Asians immigrating to Canada. In “Constructing the Great Menace” by David Goutor, it outlines the oppression of Asians by labour leaders which does not conclude that labour leaders hated all immigration and had a prejudice against all racialized groups. The unionists’ main argument for this opposition is based on the stereotype that Asians were claimed to have “accepted low wages and degraded working conditions” thus proving that they will diminish the standard of living for Canadian workers. These Labour Leaders were prejudice to Asians in an effort to supposedly protect Canadian workers and their jobs. However, it is not fair to say that labour
The Japanese were stunned as they heard the announcement that all Japanese Canadians were to be moved from the Pacific Coast into internment camps until the war ended. Five days after the announcement that all Japanese were to be interned, the cabinet passed an order-in-council which empowered the BCSC (British Columbia Security Commission) to remove and detain “any and all Japanese Canadians.
The Indian Act is made up from the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The Gradual Civilization Act encouraged the Indian people to give up their status and become a Canadian citizen. The Gradual Enfranchisement Act gave the government full control over the Indian people. They were able to decide everything from who kept their status, received benefits, and even who were able to keep their children. In 1876, these acts together alongside with other rules and regulations formed the Indian Act. The government thought it was best to be able to control every aspect of the First Nations people’s lives. It was stated in annual report of the Department of the Interior Indian Affairs in 1876:
...panese Canadian Interment and Racism During World War II." IMAGINATIONS. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
Do you think Canada is still racist country? In my opinion, I definitely support the fact that Canada is not a racist country anymore. It has changed significantly since its birth; it was once a child, however, it has now grown up and is a role model for other countries. Rewinding back to the early and mid 1900, Canada was known as a racist country; however after WWII, it started to reduce the racism, sexism, and hatred against non-white Races. Canada began to allow multi races such as Chinese, Japanese, and the Jewish to live in Canada, however, life was still difficult for the non- whites. The essay “Our Home and Racist Land” was written approximately 50 years ago and talks about facts that occurred 30 years before the essay was written. The narrator of this story talks about her father in the 1930s. She states “looking for a job in the thirties was a scare, especially for blacks”. Her father had a tough time finding a job, since the racism level in Canada was reaching the sky. At first her father was a cook at The Great Lakes, he worked for extended hours a day and was not paid a fair amount, her father usually returned home in a jaded condition. . Is it anything like that in Canada today? No, it is not, today in Canada all adult workers are paid nothing below the minimum wage, and bonus pay kicks in when a worker decides to work overtime. Differiencity is not the solution in Canada anymore; it usually is against the Canadian law. The narrator of the essay includes that her father finally found a job in 1942 at Ford Motor Company’s transportation centre in Windsor. Her father was hapless at the time, fortunately his life and luck made a U turn and this proofs that Canada began to take a step towards a multiculturalism nation. ...
At the beginning of World War I, the Canadian government was hesitant about Aboriginals in the military. When the war broke in 1914, recruitment of “Status Indians” was prohibited, as they were often connected to torture and scalping. Some natives enlisted in face of the law, thanks to a commitment to their land. It wasn't until 1916 that the government allowed active recruitment of Status Indians by reason of Robert Borden's endeavours to replace the growing number of casualties on the front lines. Still the active recruitment of Aboriginals was an effort to encourage the men to join, not force them. However, in 1917, the Canadian government chose to enforce conscription, or mandatory military service. Native communities reacted very quickly to this news, writing to the government with letters noting that Aboriginals still did not have rights of citizens and should therefore be exempt from conscription. Finally, in January 1918, the cabinet passed an order-in-council absolving Aboriginals from compulsory enlistment. At the beginning of the Great War, Aboriginals were not accepted by the Canadian government for military service, but the Canadian leaders soon came to realize that native men would be a great addition to the service.
Systemic discrimination has been a part of Canada’s past. Women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as First Nations people have all faced discrimination in Canada. Policies such as, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provincial and federal Human Rights Codes, as well has various employment equity programs have been placed in Canada’s constitution to fight and address discrimination issues. Despite these key documents placed for universal rights and freedoms Aboriginal and other minority populations in Canada continue to be discriminated against. Many believe there is no discrimination in Canada, and suggest any lack of success of these groups is a result of personal decisions and not systemic discrimination. While others feel that the legislation and equality policies have yet resulted in an equal society for all minorities. Racism is immersed in Canadian society; this is clearly shown by stories of racial profiling in law enforcement.
Harold Cardinal made a bold statement in his book, The Unjust Society, in 1969 about the history of Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples. His entire book is, in fact, a jab at Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s idea of ‘the just society’. Pierre Elliott Trudeau made great assumptions about First Nations people by declaring that Aboriginal people should be happy about no longer being described as Indian. His goal was to rid Canada of Indians by assimilating them into the Canadian framework. Considered by many as a progressive policy, Trudeau’s white paper demonstrates just how accurate the following statement made by Harold Cardinal at the beginning of his book is : “The history of Canada’s Indians is a shameful chronicle of the white man’s disinterest,
The Indian act, since being passed by Parliament in 1876, has been quite the validity test for Aboriginal affairs occurring in Canada. Only a minority of documents in Canadian history have bred as much dismay, anger and debate compared to the Indian Act—but the legislation continues as a central element in the management of Aboriginal affairs in Canada. Aboriginal hatred against current and historic terms of the Indian Act is powerful, but Indigenous governments and politicians stand on different sides of the fence pertaining to value and/or purpose of the legislation. This is not shocking, considering the political cultures and structures of Aboriginal communities have been distorted and created by the imposition of the Indian Act.
Canada is internationally renowned for its commitment to multiculturalism. In fact, Canada was the first nation to officially adopt a multicultural policy. However, while the Canadian government has developed a broad-based multicultural mandate that includes a national human rights code and increased penalties for hate-motivated crimes, and most Canadians oppose overt forms of discrimination and hate, racism continues to exist in Canadian society, albeit in a subtle fashion.
Canada is perceived by other nations as a peace-loving and good-natured nation that values the rights of the individual above all else. This commonly held belief is a perception that has only come around as of late, and upon digging through Canadian history it quickly becomes obvious that this is not the truth. Canadian history is polluted with numerous events upon which the idea that Canada is a role model for Human Rights shows to be false. An extreme example of this disregard for Human Rights takes place at the beginning of the twentieth-century, which is the excessive prejudice and preconceived notions that were held as truths against immigrants attempting to enter Canada. Another prime example of these prejudices and improper Human Rights is the Internment of those of Japanese descent or origin during the Second World War. Also the White Paper that was published by the government continues the theme of Human Rights being violated to the utmost extreme. All these events, as well as many others in history, give foundation to the idea that “Canada as a champion for Human Rights is a myth”.