Racial segregation in Canada
Until 1965, racial segregation in schools, stores and most aspects of public life existed legally in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and informally in other provinces such as British Columbia.
[4][5] Responding to the anti-immigration sentiment in British Columbia, the Canadian government of John A. Macdonald introduced the Chinese Immigration Act, receiving Royal Assent and becoming law in 1885.
[6] Under its regulations, the law stipulated that all Chinese people entering Canada must first pay a CA$50 fee,[7][8] later referred to as a head tax.
[8] However, not all Chinese arrivals had to pay the head tax; those who were presumed to return to China based on the apparent, transitory nature of their occupation or background were exempt from the penalty.
The majority of settlers had emigrated from Oklahoma, Texas, and other southern states in the US with the desire to flee from the racial violence they faced there.
[20] However, this history includes a legacy of slavery in Canada that lasted for over 200 years as well as acts of terror perpetrated by white Ontarians such as burning the barns of Black families to the ground.
White business owners and even provincial and federal government agencies often did not hire black people, with explicit rules preventing their employment.
When the labour movement took hold in Canada near the end of the 19th century, workers began organizing and forming trade unions to improve the working conditions and quality of life for employees.
[23] In the 1920s, city officials in Calgary codified restrictive covenants to prevent non-whites from purchasing homes outside of the boundaries of the railway yards.
For example, a clause in Vancouver real estate deeds for entire neighbourhoods going back to at least 1928 and included as late as 1965 stated, "That the Grantee or his heirs, administrators, executor, successors or assigns will not sell to, agree to sell to, rent to, lease to, or permit or allow to occupy, the said lands and premises, or any part thereof, any person of the Chinese, Japanese or other Asiatic race or to any Indian or Negro.
[26] This system prevented Chinese students from learning the English language, which was a main focus in Canadian education at the time.
[28] A CBC panel in Vancouver in 2012 discussed the growing public fear that the proliferation of ethnic enclaves amounted to a type of self-segregation.
[30] In 1946, Viola Desmond, a black woman, refused to leave the segregated whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
Despite the efforts of the Nova Scotian Black community to assist her appeal, Viola Desmond was unable to remove the charges against her and went unpardoned in her lifetime.
[32] In 1936, Fred Christie and another black acquaintance Emile King, were refused service at the York Tavern in the Forum in Montreal after watching a boxing match.
Few taverns in Saskatchewan, Ontario, and British Columbia allowed black visitors, and those that did had designated tables or side rooms for non-whites.
As a result, he filed an application with the city council to permit him to hire white women as employees, as Chinese business owners were not allowed to do so.
