FLASHPOINTS

Immigration

Necessary but not welcome

The government recognizes the need for

people to settle the west
The existing Anglophone and Francophone
populations fear the impact of the
outsiders

Siftons sturdy peasants were subjected

to discrimination but non-white
immigrants faced outright hostility

Francophone Fears

Feel themselves in an already precarious

position with regard to the Anglophone
population and feared the immigrants
would also outnumber them

This sentiment was combined with fear of

difference and ethnocentric points of view

Anglophone Anxieties

Racial concerns were paramount with

many believing that Canada ought to
remain a white country

BC was particularly unwelcoming

There was also the perceived threat to

Canadian jobs that drove much of the
hostility

Some lobbied for deportation, others that

Canada needed to close its doors

1907 Riot in Vancouver

Chinese and Japanese immigrants were

already denied the franchise, barred
from accessing professions,
discriminatory housing rules and
segregated in public places

An anti-immigration rally turned to

violence as a mob of broke windows,
attacked people and tore through the
streets

1908 Continuous Passage

Act

The Canadian government wanted to

stop immigration from India but could
not officially do so

The Continuous Passage Act was

designed to make it logistically
impossible to immigrate to Canada
without officially denying entrance to
other British Subjects

Komagata Maru

1914 the Continuous Passage Act is

challenged (unsuccessfully)