Article Six: New Technology

In the final chapter of our six-part series on early twentieth century Canada, we will finally discuss a subject that has literally nothing to do with race: technology. As Canada entered the twentieth century, many innovators and freethinkers took initiative and revolutionized the technological capabilities of our world. Inventions like the car, telephone and radio changed the how people lived their lives and how we as a society interacted with the world. These inventions have had an immense and profound impact in Canada’s development that is still enjoyed a century later.

Widely considered to be the greatest innovation in transportation (next to the airplane) is the car. The very first (proven to exist) automobile was, quite surprisingly, invented in 1769 by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot. He invented a military tractor that was utilised by the French to haul artillery (more info in the link). More advanced designs popped up throughout the nineteenth century by various people, so it is difficult to pinpoint when exactly the “car” came to be. Most people would credit that achievement George Selden because he patented the automobile at some point during his life. Canada’s first automobile was bought by Father G. A. Belcourt in 1866 on Prince Edward Island, where it was ironically banned many years later. Eventually, Canadian companies like Canadian Cycle and Motor Company took advantage of its popularity and started to produce them here in Canada. The car started off as something for only the wealthy, but eventually grew to become a fundamental mode of locomotion for almost all Canadians.

This is Nicholas Cugnot's first automobile.

Much like the car, the invention of the telephone was an effort by many different people, though the obsession with crediting it to Alexander Graham Bell is likely due to the fact that he got the patent. Regardless of who invented it however, it’s invention would finally allow easier communication than just a standard telegraph. In 1911, it is estimated that over three hundred-thousand telephones were in use, making Canada the greatest user of telephones in the world. As well, the first wireless telegraph was received from Wales in 1901 by Guglielmo Marconi, and the first radio broadcast was by a Canadian inventor in in 1907. These new and exciting technologies contributed to making canada the communications superpower that it is today.

Guglielmo Marcon's first use of the wireless telegraph.

An actor portraying Mr. Bell's first use of
the telephone.

These inventions not only improved Canada in almost every way, they redefined how people lived their lives across the globe. Greater access to transportation and communication has been one of the greatest pillars of technology since that time, with cellphones and autonomous cars being the ultimate manifestation of these innovations, and serve as an example as to how innovation has had such great impact on the world of today.

Article Five: BC Land Claims and Modern Treaties

In 1763, King George III issued a document called the Royal Proclamation that contained a number of rules with regards to the purchase of aboriginal land. It stated the existence of Aboriginal title and mandated that their land could only be ceded by means of a treaty. With the exception of the Douglas Treaties, Treaty Eight, the Tsawwassen Final Agreement and the Nisga'a Treaty of 1998, most of British Columbia’s land has not been settled by treaties. This is makes things quite complicated in terms of land ownership and settling land disputes with the natives. In the fifth part of our six-part series on early twentieth century Canada, we will examine how precedent has influenced how land claims are handled, and how even today there is much work to be done to resolve the issues of aboriginal land.

In Canada, there are two types of native land claims: comprehensive claims and specific. This link explains the difference.

On December 3 of 1990 a taskforce was created with the job of finding a way to start negotiations between the the First Nations of BC, the Government of BC and the Government of Canada. In 1991 the BC Claims Task Force released their report which recommended that a commission established to handle the treaty process. This was done in 1992 with the creation of the BC Treaty Commission. They are currently handling the disputes of 60 different aboriginal groups in 49 separate negotiation processes and were responsible for the Nisga’a Treaty and the Tsawwassen First Nations Final Agreement in recent years.

This map shows which Aboriginal groups have claimed which part of BC.

However, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the government and court’s decisions and actions with the process. In 2002, the liberal party sent out a referendum that has received vocal dissent from critics and aboriginal groups, the intention of the referendum being to gauge the public opinion of native land rights. Elections BC received only thirty-five percent of the ballots, questions were phrased in the negative (Private property should not be expropriated for treaty settlements Yes/No, which is confusing) and it was ultimately considered to be a ridiculous waste of time and resources. As well, the court ruled in 2007 that the Xeni Gwet’in Nation should receive half of its claimed land, a stark contrast from the averag five percent for other nations. This outraged many First Nations and made them question whether they should take part in the process at all.

As well, many of the aboriginal leaders have received strict criticism for their role in the treaty process. Bertha Williams questions the motives of the Chiefs in agreeing to sign the treaty, and points to the infrastructural upgrades of Tsawwassen terminal as a point of concern.

This is the territory given to the Tsawwassen nation.

These events are significant because they show Canada’s commitment to resolving the great wrongs and legal mistakes of the past, as explored in our previous article. To some, however, the process represents the government’s disregard for the Aboriginals and their desire to spin the land agreements in their favour. It’s quite ironic, with perhaps some poetic justice,  that what is the government’s attempt to make up for their profound moral failures is seen as nothing more than yet another profound moral failure.

Article Four: Residential Schools

To this day, arguably the most reprehensible action of the Canadian government was the Residential School System. Aboriginal children were cruelly ripped from their family’s, forced to convert to a religion and culture that was not theirs and taken to deplorable institutions where they were physically and sexually abused and even killed. In Part Four of our six-part series on early twentieth century Canada, we will examine one of the darkest elements in Canada’s history and how it forever shattered the aboriginal way of life.

This cartoon shows how the intention of residential school's
was to inflict punishment for their Aboriginal culture
and assimilate them to mainstream Canadian culture.

It all began with the Indian Act of 1876, which made Aboriginals wards of the state and set up the Residential School System with the intention of assimilating them into Canadian society. The school system was quickly set up in the early 1880’s, and were located far from the Aboriginal communities to eliminate exposure to aboriginal culture and alienate them from their friends and family. The very first step was to change the appearance of the children and make them dress in a fashion more suited to mainstream Canadian culture, and so their hair was cut and they were given mandatory uniforms to wear. They were not allowed to speak their own language; if they were ever caught speaking any aboriginal language then they were severely punished. This would have been extremely confusing for many of the children because many of them didn’t know English or French and therefore could not have complied with that rule.

An example of a boys class at a residential school.

Students were forced to pray and become Christians at these
schools regardless of their religious or spiritual beliefs

The education they received in residential schools was not the same as in the Public School System. They focused more on practical skills like sewing and housework for girls while boys learned carpentry, farming and tinsmithing. As well, many of them worked without pay for the schools for large amounts of time. This, along with religious instruction, meant that students had very little time in the classroom for learning. In fact, most graduated residential schools at a Grade 5 skill level.

Not only was the residential system incompetent, it served to facilitate the physical, sexual and psychological abuse of the students by school staff and older students. They were victims of deplorable human experimentation as well as nutritional experimentation, in which children were deliberately starved for research purposes. Twenty-four percent of previously healthy aboriginal children died while attending a residential school and anywhere from forty-seven to seventy-five percent of students died after being discharged from school for illness.

Scientists studied nutritional information by
deliberately starving native children. 

While the Residential School System is no longer active and the government has long since issued a formal apology, it is still significant because many of the issues from the residential schools are still prevalent in native communities today. Addiction and alcoholism, domestic abuse, the loss of languages and culture, deprived childhoods, mental illness and suicide are just some of the pervasive long-term impacts of the residential schools on Canada

Article Three: East Indian Immigration

3. East Indian Immigration

Previously, we explored Canada’s identity crisis in the early twentieth century. Now, in the third part of our six-part series on early twentieth century Canada, we shall look at how racism and abuse of power systematically denied East Indians access to Canada, which would culminate in the incident involving the Komagata Maru in 1914.

After the Anti-Oriental Riots in Vancouver, Labour Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King to determine why asian immigrants kept coming to Canada and he determined that it was because of the CPR agents who had facilitated East Indian emmigration from India.

And so it was that the government, in order to cut back on Indian immigrants, passed the Continuous Passage Act, which stated that all immigrants “in the opinion of the Minister of the Interior" that did not "come from the country of their birth or citizenship by a continuous journey and or through tickets purchased before leaving their country of their birth or nationality” would not be permitted to enter. Considering the great distance between India and Canada, this basically ensured that no Indian would ever be able to come here because a direct route was almost impossible.

This is the Continuous Passage Act.

This Act is not only ethically questionable, but it is also illegal. Anyone from any part of the British Empire could travel to another part of the Empire legally and because Canada was part of it then it meant that they shouldn’t have even been allowed to pass that law. This darker aspect of Canada’s history is significant not just because it happened, but because it meant that the racism of Canadians superseded their judgment, and is a testament to the racism prevalent within all levels of Canadian society.

In 1914, Gurdit Singh chartered a ship called the Komagata Maru to carry 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 HIndus on a voyage to Vancouver from Hong Kong. When the ship arrived in Vancouver it was held in quarantine and no one was allowed off the ship. They were kept on the ship for so long that many of the people onboard nearly starved, save for the generous donations of food and water by the Sikh community. They were denied food, water, medical attention, communication with their family and legal counsel. On July 6 of that year, the B.C. court of appeals ruled that it could not interfere with the Department of Immigration and Colonization. The ship was taken back out to sea by the Sea Lion and was forced to return to India, where many of them were imprisoned or killed for breaking the law and being political agitators.

These are the people aboard the Komagata Maru.
Notice the crowded condition.

This event is significant because of how it represents Canada’s racism towards people of other ethnicities. Had an Englishman stopped in the United States before arriving in Canada then this certainly would have been a problem; the fact that the Continuous Passage Act specifically targeted Asian immigrants makes it not only racist, but against the multicultural values that Canada has today. The Komagata Maru serves as a harsh reminder that the Canada we celebrate today did not always exist, and that Canada had to evolve from the prejudices of the past to become the country that it is today. Now, Asians make up over 26% of British Columbia’s population, and while immigration certainly has its restrictions, they are based on the character and skills of the person rather than their ethnicity.

Population of Asians in Canada today

Article Two: The Canadian Identity

Last week, we looked at how some of Laurier’s decisions involving Anglo-Canadians and French Canadians alienated many of his supporters from both sides. Now, in our second article of our six-part series on early twentieth century Canada, we will examine Canada’s identity, and how the Naval Issue and the Alaskan Boundary dispute distorted the perception of Canada an independent, autonomous nation.

This graph details the ship building statistics during the Anglo-German Naval Arms Race

At the time, England was in a naval race with the German Empire called the Dreadnought Crisis. In order to get a competitive edge over the Germans, the British asked Canada for funds to aid in this endeavour. As per usual, the French and English were divided on the matter; obviously the English wanted Canada to give the money to Britain, while the French wanted Canada to refuse and get a navy of their own; the British Royal Navy, up until 1810, guarded Canadian shorelines. Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier decided to compromise (and no one was surprised). In 1910, Laurier made the Naval Service Act which gave Canada its own navy, while still keeping the ties to the British Empire by making it so that it could be lent to the British in the event of an emergency.  Henri Bourassa claimed that an “emergency” would occur every four years, considering Britain’s rather warlike actions throughout the century, and reprimanded Laurier for allowing Canada to be dragged into those future conflicts.

This comic represents the divided opinion on Laurier due to his compromises.

Like Bourassa, many Canadians were skeptical of Laurier’s solution. The English believed that Canada’s navy was a mere joke and gave it the nickname “Tin-pot Navy.” Likewise, the French weren't too fond of the Act; they didn’t want Canada to be dragged into more imperialist wars at Canada’s expense. Universally disliked by most people, it became a major cause for concern in the 1911 election, and along with reciprocity the Naval Issue compelled many people to vote him out.

A comic representing the"Tin-pot Navy."

While Britain kept badgering Canada for handouts, yet another national power wanted something from Canadians. The United States wanted control of the Alaskan Panhandle, a region that had grown exponentially in importance since the Klondike Gold Rush, while Canada wanted an all-Canadian path to the Yukon.

In 1903, the Hey-Heybert Treaty  between Laurier and American President Theodore Roosevelt left it up to Britain to decide who should receive the land. Three Americans and two Canadians attended a meeting in London with Baron Alverstone for arbitration on the issue. In the end, much of the Panhandle was given to the United States (though not as much as they wanted). Many Canadians felt betrayed by this decision because it cut British Columbia’s coast in half, and the land was commonly thought to (by Canadians, albeit) belong to Canada.

This map annotated map shows the land that the
Americans and Canadians wanted, and how
Britain divided it.

These major issues undermined the notion that Canada was its own country. Having been forced to surrender land and navy at the mercy of the British showed that Canada’s international power was extremely limited, if it had any at all. These events are significant because of what they reveal about Canada’s international strength, and how its identity was dependent on the foreign affairs of the British rather than what Canadians wanted for themselves. Much like our rather neighbors to the south, an identity of our own required one thing that Laurier did not have: freedom from the British. To this day, Canada's identity is often mixed and has never really been defined due to the large variety of different cultures; so much so, in fact, that even the government chooses to explain Canada based on the cultural identity of nations and people before it. This shows how Canada’s struggle to define itself has not only shaped its identity, but it became the identity itself.

Article One: French and English Relations

In the first article in our six part series on early twentieth century Canada, we’ll take a look at how the Second Boer War and the Manitoba Schools exposed some of the most fundamental differences in political opinion between the French and the English, the social subjugation of the French to the more popular English ideals and how Wilfrid Laurier’s decisions to with regards to that paradigm were significant.

           
Tensions between the British Empire and the two Dutch-speaking Boer colonies, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, had existed since before even the First Boer war. It was, however, inarguably the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand area and the immigration of foreign mine workers (dubbed uitlanders) that began a sequence of events leading to that inevitable conflict. The influx of the uitlander population in the Transvaal (South African Republic) area caused previous tensions between the Dutch and the British from Cape Colony to resurface. They desired political power beyond the limited extent of the Second Volksraad (similar to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada while it was under the control of the Family Compact), so the British Colonial Secretary demanded full voting rights for the British in the Transvaal. The government of the Republic issued an ultimatum for the British to withdraw their soldiers from the area in response to this demand, to which the British refused, resulting in the joint declaration of war between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State against the British. As Hermann Giliomee Bernard Mbenga, renowned South African scholars, described: “[The] South African War remains the most destructive armed conflict in South Africa’s history.” Here’s a four part documentary explaining some of the key themes and main events of the war.   

A map showing the geographical location of the two independent republics.

     

While certainly an interesting chapter in the annals of British imperialism, it’s not quite that relevant to Canada, which was the dilemma Laurier was faced with when the British requested soldiers to help fight in the war. While the majority of English speaking Canadians wanted the government to involve the military in the Boer War because they saw Canada as part of the British Empire, the French Canadians wanted the government to refuse the British request. They did not want to be part of a war that did not involve them; they did not think that Canada should aid in an what they believed  to be an unjust war based on British imperialist rhetoric.

 
Laurier decided to compromise on the matter. He sent only a battalion of volunteers to help the British, balancing the opinions of both the French and the English, but as a very wise man once said, “a good compromise leaves both parties unhappy,” and that was certainly the case with this decision. The French despised any involvement with the British at all, while the English felt that it wasn’t enough.

 

This event in Canadian history serves to demonstrate how Anglo-French relations defined the very nature of Canadian politics, and how Laurier’s ability to compromise ensured that the tensions between the two groups stayed in check and worked towards eroding the longstanding political barrier between the two groups. As well, it was the precursor of Canada’s involvement in foreign wars, including World War I, World War II the Korean War and many others. This incident also reflects on Laurier as a politician. This was but the first of many compromises made by him during his time in office, and serves as a prime example of how compromise can be just as polarizing as doing without.

 
Another issue in which Anglo-French relations forced Laurier to find a medium between the two was the Manitoba Schools question. Ever since the Manitoba Act in 1870, the English Protestant schools had the exact same rights as the French Catholic schools. However, with the increase in the English population during the 1870’s and 1880’s, opinion began to sway against the French Catholic schools, and many people wanted them abolished. The government of Manitoba did this in the 1890 Public Schools Act, which removed support for them. In 1896, however, Wilfrid Laurier and Thomas Greenway reached a suitable compromise: Catholic instruction would be permitted at the end of the school day for thirty minutes and French could be taught in any school with at least ten Francophones. There would be no government funding for these schools. This completely undermined the previously established equality between French and English in Manitoba and considered French the equivalent to “any other language.”
 
This habit of compromise exhibited by Laurier may have helped him further his political image, but in the end it stripped him of the support he would have needed in the 1911 election, which he lost. Had he chosen a more strong position on matters, or even any position at all, he may have retained some of his support from both the French and English. The significance these events is that instead of bringing anglophones and francophones together, his compromises only drove them further apart and against him. As well, this did nothing to quell the tensions between the two, problems which persist even to modern times with Quebec Separatists and the FLQ (a little while ago).