[1] Blair developed and rigorously enforced strict immigration policies based on race and is most remembered for his successful effort to keep Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany out of Canada during the 1930s and the war years that followed.
Though he couched his public statements and policies in generalized, protectionist language, Blair's letters and private conversations, quoted extensively in None Is Too Many, reveal his distaste for Jews.
[4] In September 1938, in a letter to the prime minister, Blair wrote, "Pressure by Jewish people to get into Canada has never been greater than it is now, and I am glad to be able to add that, after 35 years of experience here, that it has never been so carefully controlled".
[1] Representative of Blair's xenophobic and anti-Semitic "careful control" was Canada's refusal in June 1939 to allow the MS St. Louis, the so-called "Voyage of the Damned" to dock in Halifax with 907 Jewish emigrants aboard.
There is now an exhibit, entitled The Wheel of Conscience in the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, as a reminder of that event.