Today Canada prides itself with how multicultural and diverse it is, taking a look at the 20th century shows that it has not always been that way, and that there have been many obstacles to overcome. The mistreatment of Japanese-Canadians during their internment, denying the 376 passengers of the Komagata Maru food or water for 2 months after not letting them into Canada, forcing indigenous children into the residential schools where they were stripped of everything they knew and taught to be “normal Euro-Canadian citizens”.
Those are the 3 main events of the 20th century that showed how truly intolerant Canada was with people of other origins and backgrounds. After the Pearl harbour incident on December 7th 1941, Canada began to distrust any and all Japanese immigrants. Japanese-Canadian internment began to take effect after that, this was the forced relocation of the Japanese-Canadian citizens during WWI. January 16th 1942, was the day that they banned Japanese-Canadians from the West Coast.
Less than a month after that, whether they were considered enemies or not, all Japanese-Canadians were forced into internment camps located in British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. After being sent to the camps many realized that they were completely isolated from the outside world, due to the camps being set up in such remote locations they would not have any contact with outsiders that were not military officials and guards. “I was a 22-year-old Japanese Canadian,a prisoner of my own country of birth.
We were confined inside the high wire fence of Hastings Park just like caged animals. ” said Tom Tamagi, a prisoner of one of the internment camps. The internment camps were okay at first, but as the prisoners stay dragged on, the conditions got worse and worse, especially during the winter times, where a lot of people died of pneumonia. Many families were torn apart and sent to different camps entirely, if a family was together they still had a rough time trying to stay healthy and with a decent place to live, if they were lucky enough to get their own cabin at all.
During the internment not all of the guards were kind and many mistreated the prisoners and showed them no respect. A lot of the prisoners held onto the hope that it would all be over soon and they could return to their homes, or farms, or businesses and continue on with their old normal lives. That last shred of hope was soon crushed when the Canadian government started to sell the prisoners belongings and auction off their properties without even talking to them first.
Then they were given the option to either move farther away to another internment camp, or be sent back to Japan for free. Those who thought Japan would be a good choice were often mistaken because the Japanese looked at them differently and had no trust for them since they had come from Canada, and they also made fun of them because many prisoners were raised on English so they could not communicate properly. Later though, many were given the chance to return to Canada if they agreed to work in the military.
After the deaths, over 100, tragedy and mistreatment of the Japanese-Canadians, the Canadian government announced a compensation package for those who had suffered, and a public apology for all of the injustices. Those born before 1949 were given $12,000, $24 million was given to make the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, and $12 million was given to Japanese Canadian Association for low-cost housing for the elderly Japanese-Canadians. Even though the internment was solely for Japanese-Canadians, Asian-Canadians and Asian immigrants faced racism and exclusion as well.
The Komagata Maru was a terrible ordeal that affected many innocent immigrants. In 1914 the ship left Hong Kong with 376 passengers fleeing bad living conditions in India and looking to start a new life in Canada. Unfortunately around this time Canada had begun to have Asians and had set up some rules that they hoped would prevent or at least lessen the amount of Asians immigrating to Canada. This included an unfair head tax of $200 that all Asian immigrants had to have on them when they arrived in Canada, whereas European immigrants only needed to have $25 on them upon arrival.
The second rule that Canada had was the Continuous Journey Regulation. This meant that any ship bringing immigrants into Canada could not make any stops or detours on their route to the country, not even to get supplies or food. The Canadian government knew that the regulation would be nearly impossible for ships coming from Asia to fulfill. That is exactly what happened, somewhere along the way the Komagata Maru had stopped, so they were denied entry to the country.
The immigrants on the boat were devastated and were at a loss. They had nowhere to go since they did not want to return to their home country, so they decided to wait until they would hopefully be let into the country. They arrived on May 23rd and waited 2 months before anything happened. During the 2 months that they waited at the dock, they were denied food and water by the Canadian government, they were lucky enough that earlier Asian immigrants managed to get them some supplies to keep them going.
On July 23rd, they were forced to leave the dock they were staying at and had to head back to India. While they were crossing the ocean the First World War broke out and that prevented them from leaving any ports they got to. When they arrived back in India they were ordered onto a train, many resisted which resulted in police pulling out their firearms and shooting. 19 people were killed, 202 were arrested, and the remainder managed to escape during the commotion.
The Komagata Maru was quickly forgotten by most Canadians and it remained largely forgotten for several generations, except among Punjabi Canadians that is why it is still a sensitive topic, for years people acted as if it did not happen and thought it was no big deal. There is soon to be an official government apology, previous Prime Minister Stephen Harper did apologize back in 2008, and more recently Justin Trudeau greeted the first plane load of Syrian refugees Throughout Canada’s intolerance in the 20th century, the Indigenous, Metis and Inuit arguably had it the worst with the residential schools.
Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Although the first residential facilities were established in New France, the term usually refers to the custodial schools established after 1880. Originally conceived by Christian churches and the Canadian government as an attempt to both educate and convert Indigenous youth and to integrate them into Canadian society, residential schools disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term problems among Indigenous peoples.
The students who had to attend the residential schools often did not leave with happy memories, starting with the fact that they were taken away from their families back home. Many of the Indigenous children were abused, physically, mentally, and even sexually while they lived at the schools. The overseers, were not always kind or understanding of the children and their situation, the lessons were always taught in english or french, so the teachers would get frustrated with the children when they did not understand something, and lash out on them.
Some instructors did have good intentions, ut they were not as common and their kindness got lost in the terrible treatment of most. Throughout the student’s stay at the schools they were stripped of their identity completely, and given a new one. They were often not allowed to speak or write in their native language, not even in letters home to their families. This created a language barrier and put the Indigenous children in a terrible situation, they could not communicate with their families in the right way anymore and they also did not fit in properly with Euro-Canadian culture, they were stuck.
During times of worship at the school they were taught the schools religion while the teachers,or preachers, often denigrated indigenous spiritual traditions, and the kids could not practice their own religions at the school. Besides stripping the children of their own identities, the residential schools were not good environments for the children. Pretty much every child was malnourished, some worse than others because of the fact that some schools performed experiments on the children without them, or their parents consenting. The schools were always low on food and what they did have was never in good condition.
The children also got sick very often due to the inadequate clothing they were given for the cold winter months, and the living quarters were very crowded, thus promoting the spread of disease and sickness. The residential schools ran on a half-day schedule, where the kids would learn for half of the day, and do work, that they had little-to-no training for, during the other half. The government hoped this would promote them to become active members of society who could make their own living, really this allowed them to run the schools more inexpensively rather than providing the children with vocational training.
When the school’s first started up, the Indigenous leaders thought they would be a good idea, since it would enable their children to learn the skills of the newcomer society and would help them make a successful transition into a world run by strangers. Throughout the whole time the residential schools were running, at least 3,200 indigenous children died in the overcrowded schools from; being underfed, disease with no medical treatment,etc. A few things have happened in support of the survivors of the terrible nightmare.
In 2005 the federal government established a $1. 9 million compensation package for the survivors of the abuse, in 2007 the federal government and churches that ran the schools agreed to provide financial compensation to former students, under the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. On June11, 2008 at the time Prime Minister Stephen Harper, released an official apology to all former students of residential schools in Canada on the government’s behalf.
Finally, last year there was a $50 million settlement for the survivors over in Newfoundland and Labrador, who are still awaiting an apology from Trudeau for leaving them out for so long. Through the mistreatment of Japanese-Canadians during their internment, the unfair prejudice towards Asian immigrants, and the terrible conditions and loss of the Indigenous Canadians, Canada has comea long way. Canada may seem like an amazing, free, accepting country today, but it has been a long road to tolerance.
