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black loyalists
1776: 3,000 Black Loyalists, among them freemen and slaves, fled the oppression of the American Revolution and came to Canada. -
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first loyalists
1781: Butler’s Rangers, a military unit loyal to the Crown and based at Fort Niagara, settled some of the first Loyalist refugees from the United States in the Niagara peninsula, along the northern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. 1789: Lord Dorchester, Governor-in-Chief of British North America, gave official recognition to the “First Loyalists” – those loyal to the Crown who fled the oppression of the American Revolution to settle in Nova Scotia and Quebec -
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anti slavery
1793: Upper Canada became the first province in the British Empire to abolish slavery. In turn, over the course of the 19th century, thousands of black slaves escaped from the United States and came to Canada with the aid of the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network. -
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escape Russian oppression
1830: Polish refugees fled to Canada to escape Russian oppression. The year 1858 marked the first significant mass migration of Poles escaping Prussian occupation in northern Poland. -
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Italians escaped
1880-1914: Italians escaped the ravages of Italy’s unification as farmers were driven off their land as a result of the new Italian state reforms. -
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persecuted Jews
1880-1914: Thousands of persecuted Jews, fleeing pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, sought refuge in Canada. -
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first wave of Ukraines
1891: The migration of 170,000 Ukrainians began, mainly to flee oppression from areas under Austro-Hungarian rule, marking the first wave of Ukrainians seeking refuge in Canada. -
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second wave of ukraines
1920-1939: The second wave of Ukrainians fled from Communism, civil war and Soviet occupation. -
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third wave of Ukraines
1945-1952: The third wave of Ukrainians fled Communist rule. -
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Europe came to Canada
1947-1952: 250,000 displaced persons (DPs) from Central and Eastern Europe came to Canada, victims of both National Socialism (Nazism) and Communism, and Soviet occupation. -
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Canada admitted to Palestinian Arabs
1950s: Canada admitted Palestinian Arabs, driven from their homeland by the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. -
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a significant influix of canada
1950s-1970s: A significant influx of Middle Eastern and North African Jews fled to Canada. -
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united nations convention
1951: The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was created. 1956: 37,000 Hungarians escaped Soviet tyranny and found refuge in Canada. -
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canadas first bill rights
1960: Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, whose grandfather was a German refugee of the Napoleonic Wars, introduced Canada’s first Bill of Rights.