News

The “White Canada” Immigration Era: Exclusion and the Construction of Racial Hierarchies in Canadian Policy

Published

1 month ago

August 16, 2024

The initial period of Canada’s immigration history is often overlooked, described by Hawkins (1989) as being “relegated to discreet silence.” Legal scholars, sociologists, and historians have since explored this period, revealing that Canada was largely constructed as an extension of Britain (Venkatesh, 2019). According to Jakubowski (1997), efforts to preserve Canada’s British identity led to policies that excluded certain groups from entering the country, while actively encouraging others, typically from Great Britain, the United States, France, and, to a lesser extent, Northern and Western Europe.

In the late 19th century, Canada sought White agriculturalists to populate the western prairies. These immigrants were perceived as being of “superior stock” compared to immigrants of colour (Jakubowski, 1997; Satzewich, 1991). Even after expanding the “White category” to include immigrants from Eastern Europe, Canada’s labour needs remained unmet, particularly in large-scale projects like the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) from 1881 to 1885, which relied heavily on Chinese workers (Bolaria & Li, 1988; Venkatesh, 2019).

The arrival of Chinese labourers, while economically necessary, fueled xenophobic and racist responses. As Venkatesh (2019) explains, Chinese immigration policies epitomized the tension between migrant labour demand and anti-immigrant sentiment. Stereotypes about Chinese workers painted them as a threat to Canadian health and safety, prompting policies like the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, which imposed a head tax on Chinese immigrants and severely restricted their entry into Canada (Triadafilopoulos, 2013; Abu-Laban, 1998).

Other discriminatory policies followed, such as the 1907 Gentleman’s Agreement with Japan and the 1908 Continuous Journey Stipulation, both of which aimed to limit Asian immigration, particularly from India and Japan (Bolaria & Li, 1988; Jakubowski, 1997). The Komagata Maru incident in 1914, where Indian passengers were denied entry into Canada despite being British subjects, exemplifies the deeply rooted racial exclusion embedded in Canada’s immigration policies.

This racial exclusion extended to African Americans as well. Between 1905 and 1912, while hundreds of thousands of Americans settled in Canada, only about 1,000 African Americans were admitted. Canadian authorities implemented a variety of tactics to prevent Black immigration, including deceptive practices and selective enforcement of regulations, driven by the belief that Black people were unsuited for Canada’s climate and society (Schwinghamer, 2021).

By 1910, Canada’s immigration policies explicitly prioritized “healthy, white” immigrants, with legislation empowering the government to exclude those deemed racially unsuitable. This was formalized through laws like the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which effectively halted Chinese immigration for decades (Bolaria & Li, 1988). The racial preference for European immigrants persisted until the mid-20th century, when the aftermath of World War II and the global shift toward human rights began to challenge these discriminatory practices.

In the post-World War II period, a global discrediting of racism began to influence Canadian immigration policy. However, as Triadafilopoulos (2012) and Thobani (2007) argue, while overt racial discrimination diminished, Canada’s immigration system continued to favor European immigrants under the guise of “assimilability.” The points system, introduced in 1967, marked a shift toward skill-based immigration, formally ending racial selection. Yet, scholars like Ellermann (2019) note that biases persisted, with discrimination continuing subtly through factors such as language proficiency and education levels that disproportionately favored immigrants from Western countries.

Canada’s immigration policies evolved significantly over time, but the legacy of racial discrimination continued to influence the country’s approach to both permanent and temporary migration. Programs like the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and domestic worker schemes, initiated in the 1960s, perpetuated these biases by restricting pathways to permanent residency for non-European immigrants. Scholars argue that these programs reflect a history of racist immigration policies that categorized non-White workers as temporary, unfree labour suited for low-wage jobs but not for integration into Canadian society (Perry, 2012; Venkatesh, 2019).

Canada’s transition toward a more inclusive immigration system has been gradual and complex, influenced by global pressures and domestic labour needs. While the formal removal of racial criteria from immigration policies represents progress, the persistence of implicit biases highlights the ongoing challenges in fully addressing the legacy of discriminatory practices in Canada’s immigration history.

News

Two youths arrested after emergency alert issued in New Brunswick

Published

2 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.

Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.

Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Source link

News

World Junior Girls Golf Championship coming to Toronto-area golf course

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.

The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.

Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”

McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.

“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”

Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.

Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.

“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”

Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.

Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.

Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.

“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”

The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.

Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.

Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.

Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.

“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

Source link

News

Purple place: Mets unveil the new Grimace seat at Citi Field

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.

The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.

That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.

New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.

The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.

The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.

“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”

Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.

So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?

“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.

“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”

___

AP MLB:

Source link