Canada is the product of migration. Yet it has often had conflicting views on newcomers – a struggle The Globe began to chronicle (and comment on) even before the nation was born. These snapshots of that coverage show how both the country and its level of tolerance have grown.
Let them come
Pro and con
Feb. 25, 1885: Canada's first prime minister declares "the Chinaman quite as moral as his neighbours and a more serviceable citizen," declaring continued immigration "a most desirable thing."
Latins and Slavonians
Influx no more
May 7, 1908: "The full and frank interchange of views between the British and Canadian governments has resulted in the adoption of a mutual policy of co-operation in which Great Britain's well-known policy of protection of the native races of India harmonizes with Canada's policy of keeping his country a white man's country."
Then deputy minister of labour, William Lyon Mackenzie King wins accolades for thwarting immigration from India.
An about-face
June 19 and July 11, 1914: " A Case For Calm Consideration" and "Treat the Hindus Generously"
Globe editorials sympathetic to the migrants trapped aboard the Komogatu Maru in Vancouver harbour
But not a 'union man'
Cause for shame
Bankable refugees
Young and not Jewish
Better late …
A turning point
The boat people
March 8, 1976: Despite this Globe report from Montreal, the federal government waited two years to allow more than a few escaping the fall of Saigon to come.
Anomalies happen
Away to Nova Scotia
Why there are rules
Sobering thought