Racial/ethnic relations in Canada

Significance: Many white Canadians are largely unaware of or oblivious to the racial and ethnic discrimination that exists around them and are reluctant to acknowledge that a race relation problem even exists. Proponents of reform have occasionally encountered a defensive reaction when they have exposed the plight of “visible minorities” (blacks, Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, Latin Americans, Pacific Islanders, South Asians, Southeast Asians, West Asians, and Arabs) struggling for fair and equal treatment in a society that prefers to ignore the problem rather than strive to overcome it.

The extent of discrimination in Canada has varied depending on the region, economic necessity, and the policies of provincial and federal governments. The experience of aboriginal Canadians is examined in separate articles.

Systemic Discrimination

Historically, racism in Canada has not been confined to interactions between white and ethnic minority individuals, although these personal interactions fueled the entire scope of discriminatory treatment, particularly where Asians were concerned. Instead, systemic and institutionalized discrimination has been a marked feature of Canadian history. Systemic discrimination historically involved provincial and federal legislation to keep out visible minority immigrants, to segregate schooling and thereby hinder the upward mobility of African Canadians, to prevent family reunification for Asian male immigrants already in Canada, to disfranchise Asian Canadians and restrict their economic opportunities, to confine Japanese Canadians in detention camps and confiscate their property during World War II, and to deny refuge to Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution in Europe. The discrimination involved almost every level of Canadian government, which produced immigration and refugee determination policies and regulations designed to keep Canada white.

Given a political context that was hostile to the establishment of visible minority communities, it was almost inevitable that some of those individuals who persisted and came to Canada found themselves isolated, marginalized, restricted in employment opportunities, and denied access to adequate housing and education. They were subjected to negative stereotyping, to mockery of cultural differences, and to racial harassment. Ironically, although they were treated as inferior beings, many immigrants exemplified the very values that were highly prized in middle-class white mainstream Canadian society. These immigrants were largely hardworking, thrifty, determined to succeed, family-oriented, and dedicated to their communities and their religious ideals. Because of these core traditions and values, they thrived in spite of the racism, excelling in business, blue-collar work, and later the professions.

Although racism may never be expunged from Canadian society, systemic discrimination has declined. Visible minorities in Canada received an indirect boost from the success of decolonization in Asia and Africa following World War II. As the newly independent states took their place in the United Nations and Commonwealth, it became embarrassing for the Canadian government to continue systemic discrimination at home when it was seeking so avidly to play a leading role as champion of democracy and human rights on the international stage. Canada also needed to trade with these nations and could not afford the reputation of being a racist country. Economic factors facilitated a change of policy. Canada championed international human rights covenants and scrambled to undo discrimination internally to provide an appearance of adhering to its international commitments. The result, in 1967, was a color- and race-neutral points system for immigrants that enabled qualified individuals and families to come to Canada. In 1982, Canada officially committed itself to a policy of multiculturalism and included this pledge in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. On paper, at least, discrimination was dismantled, and Canadian citizenship, the vote, and all benefits were conferred regardless of race or color.

Lingering Attitudes

The implementation of these policies and the promulgation of these ideas has, however, at times been painfully slow. Visible minorities continue to be underrepresented politically at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, in the civil service, and in government appointments. By 1998, only eleven hundred visible minority members were employed in the regular military force, which numbered approximately sixty-three thousand. A survey of the military in 1996 found a greater degree of racial intolerance in the armed forces than in the general population, a factor that may have been a disincentive to about eighty-eight thousand visible minority members who could potentially have been recruits. Access to employment, particularly in nontraditional fields and access to housing continue to be serious problems for racial minorities. The plight of visible minority women is even more severe because they suffer both racial and gender-based discrimination.

However, gains have been made, especially with the growth of minority populations in the 1990s and the twenty-first century. Statistics Canada's 2003 Ethnic Diversity Study found that 93 percent of the population never or rarely encountered ethnocultural discrimination or mistreatment, although those that did tended to be recent immigrant visible minorities. By 2016 the Canadian population included 22.3 percent visible minorities, with a projected increase to 31 to 36 percent by 2036. Workforce representation also increased during this time. Canada became one of the most diverse countries in the world, with one out of five members of the population foreign born, leading to increased familiarity and acceptance of multiculturalism. Still, challenges remained.

A Chronology of Race Relations in Canada

Because most incidents of racism occur on a personal level, they escape quantification and public notice and remain largely in the realm of anecdotal evidence, discussed among the visible minority communities but not widely known. The unfortunate result of this is that many white Canadians tend to believe that the legal guarantees of racial equality mirror the reality of life for visible minorities. Scholars, lawyers, and community activists who have attempted to present a more accurate picture of the reality of visible minority life in Canada have produced a variety of reactions in the white majority from disbelief to avoidance of the issue to hostility. Those members of visible minorities who have fought against or pointed out racism have been categorized as troublemakers, misfits, and worse. Although this is a generalization, it appears that unlike in the United States, where there has been a lengthy dialogue at many levels on race relations and a clear desire to confront and deal with the issue, in Canada, bringing this topic to the fore is likely to result in the speaker’s being considered confrontational, difficult, demanding, and controversial, characteristics that are not perceived as being conducive to the “Canadian way of life.”

The pervasiveness of the myths about Canada being a kinder, gentler version of the United States, a society of compromise rather than confrontation, continues to bedevil efforts at reform. Community activists have found that some white Canadians will simply not admit to racial prejudice being a significant factor in their society, preferring instead to search for other motivation for incidents of discrimination against minorities. If the problem does not exist, obviously there is nothing to be concerned about and no necessity for change. The issue does, however, come very uncomfortably to the fore when members of racial minorities are assaulted and murdered. Although sporadic, these racially motivated incidents have involved victims from the elderly to children and, unlike most other acts of discrimination, these murders receive the attention of the Canadian media.

Slavery and the Black Minority

Few Canadians are even aware that aboriginal peoples were enslaved during the seventeenth century and that African slaves were imported to work in New France, Upper Canada, and other areas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Upper Canada stopped the importation of slaves in 1793, but slavery was not abolished in Canada until its abolition throughout the British Empire in 1833. Although slavery was over, racism, discrimination, and grinding poverty continued to be the lot of African Canadians, who were provided with infertile land for farming, confined to poorly funded segregated schools, denied employment opportunities, and prevented from moving upward in society.

During the American Revolution, the British government in Canada offered freedom and some land to any American slaves who could escape to Canada. However, the former slaves found that in Canada, they were paid lower wages than white workers, given inferior land, and denied the vote or the right to sit on juries. The Civil War in the United States caused many slaves to flee to Canada, but an estimated 75 percent of them eventually returned to the United States.

The Canadian government did not encourage black immigration until the 1950s and 1960s, when the numbers of this visible minority doubled, largely because of immigration from the Caribbean islands.

During the second half of the twentieth century, a number of confrontations took place between Canadian whites and blacks: Individuals at a hockey game in 1973 experienced racially motivated assaults, and a black teen was murdered in a racial incident in Toronto in 1975. Discrimination also took a number of other forms. Blacks were the subject of racial slurs and signs in Nova Scotia, and employment agencies and real estate companies in Ontario were found to be withholding the names of applicants and customers of color from prospective employers and housing vendors. African Canadians were denied service in some Ontario restaurants during the 1950s. Racism also affected accessibility to theaters, hotels, bars, and recreation centers.

Minority Canadians, especially those of African descent, have complained about discriminatory treatment at the hands of police forces. Between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, about sixteen black people were shot, ten of them fatally, by police in Ontario. Although criminal charges were brought in nine of these cases, none of the officers involved was convicted. In 1988, Ontario police shot four black men and in 1991 shot four civilians. In 1995, the Report of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Ontario Criminal Justice System revealed the existence of discrimination and a strong perception of different treatment given minorities caught in the criminal justice system. Significantly, the report found that any suggestion of racial bias was negatively and defensively perceived as a commentary on the individual officials involved and on their own decisions and actions. “Indignant denials” were the response to any charges, and the report concluded that “racism is still entrenched in Canadian society.”

Sports have provided one venue of escape for a few African Canadians. Several notable athletes' prowess and excellence allowed them to overcome racial barriers and succeed as stars in the national spotlight, achieving statuses available to few minorities. They have represented Canada internationally and have brought much prestige to the country along with a wealth of medals.

In 2014, a chapter of Black Lives Matter—an organization founded in the US to promote equality and dismantle forms of anti-Black racism—opened in Canada. The group received renewed attention following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer. The event led to protests around the globe including across Canada. Like the movement in the US, Black advocates in Canada called for the defunding the police.

Japanese Canadians

Scholar Mitsuru Shimpo divided the Japanese Canadian experience into four parts: the period of free immigration (1877–1907), the period of controlled immigration (1908–1941), the period of deprived civil rights (1942–1948), and the period of restored civil rights (from 1949). Initially, Japanese immigration was perceived as threatening by some elements of white society who feared economic competition. The Japanese settled primarily in British Columbia, where they numbered nearly five thousand by 1901. They worked with great success in a variety of fields, ranging from forestry and mining to fishing and boat and railroad construction. When head taxes were imposed on Chinese immigrants, officials in British Columbia proposed that the Japanese be similarly treated. The province’s attempts to raise the head tax to five hundred dollars in 1898 and 1899 and impose it on Japanese as well as Chinese immigrants were not successful.

In 1875, the provincial government had deprived the Japanese of their franchise, thereby severely restricting the political and economic scope of their lives. They could not vote provincially or federally, hold public office, become school trustees, or be on juries. The legislation also disqualified Canadian-born children of Japanese immigrants. In 1896, the Japanese and Chinese were denied the right to vote in municipal elections in British Columbia. The following year, a provincial Alien Labor Act prohibiting the employment of Japanese and Chinese on public works projects was rejected by the dominion government as was an attempt to bar Chinese and Japanese workers from mining jobs. The provincial government sought in 1900 and 1903 to make knowledge of English or a European language a criterion in order to preclude Japanese and Asian immigrants and workers, but these attempts failed.

Japanese Canadians were supported by extensive lobbying by Japanese consular officials in Canada and by the diplomatic intervention of the Japanese government. Japan was the only major Asian country to have escaped European colonial domination, and its protests against the racist treatment of Japanese Canadians prevented them from receiving the treatment meted to the Chinese in Canada. As Japan was an ally of Britain before and during World War I, restrictions on Japanese immigration to Canada existed but were not implemented very severely. Although Japanese Canadians who volunteered for military service during the Boer War were rejected, several groups of Japanese Canadian soldiers participated in World War I.

Labor shortages in Canada during World War I decreased the hostility to immigrants, but in 1919, British Columbia attempted to curtail the number of fishing licenses issued to Japanese Canadians by about one thousand and agitated against Asian immigration and Asian economic involvement in development of resources such as agriculture, forestry, mining, fishing, and industries. Economic competitiveness and Japanese Canadian financial success were at the heart of the racial animosity and motivated the harassment. Driven from the fisheries, Japanese Canadians in British Columbia turned to farming and by the mid-1930s enjoyed considerable success and again generated enormous hostility for their efforts.

When the Japanese government became the enemy of Canada in World War II, the situation for Japanese Canadians changed dramatically. Although Japanese Canadians pledged their support for the Allied war effort, they were rebuffed. Three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police undertook the compulsory registration of all Japanese adults in Canada, and Japanese Canadians were required to carry identification cards.

In 1942, the thriving Japanese Canadian community was torn asunder by governmental actions that forced the evacuation of men, women, and children from coastal communities and their internment in detention camps. There was no conclusive evidence of Japanese Canadian collusion or conspiracy with the Japanese government to justify such drastic action against this community. Those taken to the camps included Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese schools were closed, and educational opportunities were drastically curtailed. Japanese-language newspapers were prohibited. Japanese Canadians could not own radios, automobiles, or cameras. Their mail was censored. More than twelve hundred Japanese fishing boats were confiscated. The British Columbia Security Commission oversaw the transfer of thousands of Japanese civilians into detention, the confiscation of their vast property holdings by the Custodian of Alien Property, and the sale of the seized properties. Some researchers suggest that the property seizure demonstrates that the detention of Japanese Canadians was economically and politically motivated rather than a matter of military security. Hardship followed for the Japanese Canadian detainees who were forced to build roads in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario and work in sugar-beet production. After World War II ended, about four thousand Japanese Canadians moved to Japan.

For those who remained, the scars of wartime detention, forced labor, and the deprivation of all their personal property meant a very painful adjustment back into society. Racism hindered them in various realms. Lethbridge, Alberta, forbade Japanese Canadians to live in the city until 1952. Gradually, the restrictions were lifted, and Japanese Canadian civil rights restored. In 1988, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney provided $300 million (Canadian) as compensation to the Japanese Canadian community.

Chinese Canadians

Economic need and the desire for profit facilitated the importation of thousands of Chinese workers, who were desperately needed to perform railroad, mining, and forestry work because of the shortage of white laborers. Between 1881 and 1884, nearly sixteen thousand Chinese men were brought in to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. These men did back-breaking physical labor for lower wages than white workers, lived in miserable conditions, and suffered social isolation. Once the railway was completed, various measures were undertaken to persuade them to leave the country. Family reunification was hindered by the imposition of excessively high head taxes on new immigrants. In contrast, white British immigrants were encouraged to emigrate with travel funding. Chinese Canadians were denied both the provincial (British Columbia) and federal vote in 1895. This effectively denied them employment in any occupation requiring an official license as they were not on a voter’s list. Ironically, they continued to pay full taxes. Between 1924 and 1947, Chinese immigration was legislatively halted.

Sir Richard McBride, administrative head of British Columbia, stated in 1914, “To admit Orientals in large numbers would mean in the end the extinction of the white people, and we have always in mind the necessity of keeping this a white man’s country.” Chinese Canadians were not allowed to obtain Crown land, work on publicly funded projects, or own liquor or logging licenses. In 1923, they lost certain fishing rights. Chinese Canadians were also denied the opportunity to work as teachers, lawyers, and pharmacists and did not receive the vote until 1947.

The Chinese community in Canada during the nineteenth century was overwhelmingly male. An environment of racial prejudice, head taxes on immigrants, and the curtailment of immigration in 1923 prevented Chinese women from joining their husbands in Canada. These factors created a community in 1911 with a male-female ratio of 2,790 to 100. The disruption of family life and long years of forced separation took an enormous toll psychologically and emotionally for thousands of individuals caught in the coil of systemic racism in Canada. Family reunification was allowed following the repeal in 1947 of the Chinese Immigration Act. About twenty-two thousand Chinese immigrants arrived between 1947 and 1962, rectifying the sex imbalance somewhat.

In 1962, the Chinese gained the right of entry as independent immigrants, and between 1968 and 1976, Canada accepted more than ninety-one thousand Chinese immigrants. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Chinese immigration into Canada was actively encouraged by the Canadian government. The scheduled 1997 annexation by China of the British colony of Hong Kong brought a flood of well-to-do, entrepreneurial, highly motivated and skilled businesspeople and professionals to Canada. Their presence set off a financial boom in British Columbia as they built enormous mansions, engaged in development projects, and enthusiastically pursued their vision of the Canadian dream. However, the euphoria was short-lived. The media portrayed their disillusion with the racism, marginalization, and social isolation some of them encountered in Canada, and a number of them returned to Hong Kong, taking their vast fortunes, their dynamism, and their expertise with them. Hong Kong immigration declined, and this, combined with other factors, caused a serious economic downturn in British Columbia during the late 1990s. However, the same period witnessed a surge in immigration from China. Chinese—the language of about 3 percent of the total population—became Canada’s third most-spoken language. Still, in 1998, the United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society complained about lengthy delays in immigration acceptance of Chinese spouses and attributed this to discriminatory attitudes among Canadian bureaucrats.

The Chinese community in Canada triumphed over tremendous obstacles to become a very significant minority contributing extensively in business, the professions, and numerous other realms. Chinatowns in large Canadian cities draw tourists from around the world. In order to redress past injustices, during the late 1990s, the Chinese Canadian National Council sought the return of the approximately $1 billion (1998 dollar value) paid in head tax by Chinese immigrants between 1885 and 1923. By 2016, Chinese Canadians made up 20.5 percent of the visible minority population and 4.6 percent of the total population.

Immigrants from India

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Asian Indians came to Canada to work on the railroad, in mining, and in construction jobs, which were experiencing a severe labor shortage. However, the presence of a few Indian immigrants in Canada alarmed authorities and propelled the Canadian government to pass an Order in Council in 1908 that immigrants had to reach Canada from the country of their birth by “continuous passage,” an almost-impossible feat in those days of relatively primitive traveling systems. The measure was specifically designed to keep out Indians who had no normal means of continuous passage from India to Canada. However, a group of nearly four hundred Sikhs decided to test the Canadian law. They charted a ship, the Komagata Maru in 1914 and arrived at Vancouver, having traveled in a “continuous passage.” After three months, the passengers were nonetheless denied entry to Canada, and the ship and its occupants were eventually turned away. The Canadian navy was used to uphold the discriminatory actions of the government.

Indians suffered from many of the debilitating racial restrictions imposed on the Chinese and Japanese. They were also disfranchised and therefore deprived of the opportunity to engage in certain occupations. Those who were employed had to work at far lower wages than their white counterparts and were exploited to provide profit for the development of Canadian resources.

The termination of official racist immigration policies in the 1960s resulted in the arrival of many Indian professionals whose skills in medicine, university-level instruction, engineering, and the law were a valuable contribution to Canadian society. Indians tend to congregate in large urban centers such as Toronto, where their community activities are extensive. Although held in great respect by many Canadians because of their conscientious dedication to their patients, employers, and clients, Indian professionals still report that they encounter prejudice and racism when they venture into nontraditional opportunities.

Undoing History

During the early 1960s, Alabama governor George Wallace commented to a Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) interviewer, “You folks are pretty smart. You got your immigration laws fixed so that you don’t let anybody come into your country but who you want to let in.” This ringing endorsement by a segregationist reveals the extent of the problem then faced by visible minorities in Canada. However, change did come, albeit slowly. In 1967, immigrants were allowed into Canada on the basis of a points system that examined qualifications, language fluency, ability, education, and other factors that were racially neutral. These measures enabled large numbers of immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America to enter Canada.

If judged by its laws and policies on paper, at the end of the twentieth century, Canada had a strong measure of fairness to minorities and conceivably one of the better legal underpinnings of equal and fair treatment. Unfortunately, it has been less successful in the implementation and practice of these laws and policies. In the 1960s and beyond, the Canadian provinces and federal government established a system that consists of human rights commissions with investigative and adjudicative elements to provide a measure of protection to disadvantaged minorities. Human rights codes exist throughout Canada to prevent racial discrimination and provide remedies. A plethora of legislative documents elucidate various rights, ensuring employment equity and nondiscrimination in the public service, measures against discrimination in housing, fair treatment of suspects in criminal matters, and a host of related areas of concern.

However, implementation and enforcement have not always kept pace with the legislation. Fostering greater awareness and tolerance in the white community for minority members may be the key to reducing prejudice. Some visible minority members, instead of waiting for Canadian society to change, are opting to return to their home countries or to migrate to the United States because they perceive that nation as more willing to recognize the problem of race relations and confront it.

Still, the major increases in visible minority immigration to Canada in the 1990s and 2000s greatly increased the country's overall diversity, slowly pushing the population to live up to its multicultural ideals. By 2011 Canada was one of the most diverse countries in the world and on track to continue to increase its proportions of visible minority citizens. Indeed, by 2014 conversations circulated in the media about whether very term "visible minority" had become outdated and even offensive, as it elides the wide range of racial, ethnic, and cultural distinctions among minority groups. Furthermore, opponents of the term say, workplace gaps and other disadvantages for minorities have begun to shrink. Yet others recognized that many disadvantages persisted, and more work would be required before Canada could truly be considered free of racial and ethnic discrimination.

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