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Spanish Flu
The Spanish Flu was a deadly epidemic that killed nearly 50 million people. They believed it started from animals and then spread to humans. The filth and close quarters of the trenches did nothing to stop the disease from spreading. It went around like wildfire and injured soldiers brought it home and spread it around the world. It got to Canada and nearly 50 000 Canadians were killed from the deadly influenza. -
Immigration Policies Part 1
Before WWI Canada was receiving 2.5 million immigrants to Canada between 1896 and 1914 and most were from Britain and the U.S. After WWI Canada made its immigration policy a lot stricter. It was called Canada's Immigration Act, 1919, and it refused people from the countries that sided with the Central Powers. -
Immigration Policies Part 2
You also had to be able to read and had to believe in a democratic government. Canada was afraid that they would fall to the same thing that Russia did and turn communist. They only wanted white British immigrants to farm the extensive amounts of land. -
Bloody Saturday
Bloody Saturday occurred when a strike wiped through Winnipeg and shut down the whole city. The strike lasted for six weeks, from May 1 till June 25. By the middle of May 30 000 people had joined the strike. They went on strike because their employers wouldn't negotiate fair wages. The city called in special police and the RNWMP (now RCMP) and they were sent to the heart of the strike. Things got violent, two people died and over 100 were injured. -
Reisdental Schools Part 2
They took Indian children out of their homes and community and shoved them into British society. They were forced to speak English and Christian beliefs were forced into their minds. Many children were abused, physically and sexually, and many left with emotional trauma after. They lost their culture and didn't fit in when they were shipped back home. 80 schools were opened and 150 000 Indian children attended them over the years. -
Residental Schools Part 1
In the early 1920s, many Canadians believed that Indians/First Nations were savages. They wanted to eradicate all Indians and their culture. The leader of the Department of Indian Affairs said, "Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department." - Duncan Campbell Scott. They believed that to achieve assimilation they needed to reach the children. -
Rise of Fascism
After WWII Germany's government was changed and they had no idea how to ruin a democratic country, people were angry about the war guilt clause, the economy was struggling due to the war reparations, and hyperinflation made their money worth nothing. Germans were suffering in the 20s and the depression made it even worse. -
Rise of Fascism Part 2
The Germans wanted change and a political group called National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazis) rose and played the part. Adolf Hitler, their leader, seemed to be the perfect person to get Germany back on their feet. -
Insulin
At the time diabetes was a deadly disease and was nearly impossible to treat. Fredrick Banting, from Alliston, Ontario, believed he could cure it by using insulin. He used J.J.R Macleod's lab at the University of Toronto and was assigned Charles Best to assist him. They first tested it on animals before testing it on a fourteen-year-old boy named Leonard Thompson. It worked and Banting and Macleod won the Nobel Prize of medicine for it. -
Chinese Exclusion Act Part 1
Racism in Canada was a big deal at the time. Canada openly said we don't want you here too many minorities such as; Chinese, Indian, Black Americans and Japanese. Chinese people already had to pay a head tax to get in the country but the Canadian government was set on not having any Chinese come into the country. A law was passed called the Chinese Immigration Act. -
Chinese Exclusion Act Part 2
It stopped nearly all Chinese people from coming in. Husbands that were working in Canada could not bring their families over and most of the Chinese population at the time was bachelors. Less the 50 Chinese people immigrated to Canada between 1923 and 1947. -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell created the first telephone in 1876 and it quickly advanced from there. The first phones had to go through an operator who then connected you to the person you wanted. The operators were normally women. They first had an earpiece and a talking piece, then it modernized to the dial phone then to one-piece handsets. In the early stages of the telephone, it was only for the wealthy as they were expensive, but they started to get more affordable and by 1927. -
Crop Failure Part 1
Saskatchewan was booming during WWI. The prices for wheat had skyrocketed at $2.37 a bushel and the majority of farmers, in Saskatchewan, were growing it. After WWI was a different story. Other countries began to tariff grain imports and the price for wheat dramatically dropped to 80 cents then to 35 cents a bushel. -
Crop Failure Part 2
While that was happening a drought swept through the province and dried the soil up. Strong winds came and swept the top soil off the ground to made dust storms. It killed people and live stock when it went into their lungs and eyes. Farmers abounded their farm when they could not pay the mortgage. -
Stock Market Crash Part 1
The Stock Market Crash was know to be one of the triggers to start the depression. People in large cities such as New York, Montreal, and Toronto began selling their stocks on those exchanges. The Toronto stock lost $200 million in value but the politicians reassured them that it was fine. -
Stock Market Crash Part 2
New York had sold 12 million shares in one day and Montreal sold 400 000, 25 000 was the daily average. People began to panic and sell their shares, that's when Toronto's stock fell at $1 million a second. The day after that was called Black Tuesday, many people lost all of their money and that's when the Great depression officially started. -
Child Labour Laws Part 1
Child Labour wasn't uncommon in early Canada. You could easily find children working on farms and as apprentices. Later, as Canada grew, more children were seen in factories, mills, and mines. A big problem with this is those jobs did not benefit the children later in life and were very dangerous. -
Child Labour Laws Part 2
To stop this they made a law that stated that children under 14 can not work in factories and mines. In 1911 only 63% of 14 year old children but by 1931 83% were going daily. It didn't stop child labour because many children, under 14, were still working full-time at other places other than factories and mills but it helped. -
Persons Case Part 1
The persons case started when a women named Emily Murphy was appointed a judge in Alberta, many men did not trust her judgement but the Alberta courts claimed that she was qualified. Later many women tried to add her name to list of people considered for the Senate but Prime Minister, Robert Borden, would not have it, claiming that she was not a "qualified person". -
Persons Case Part 2
Four other women took up a stand against the claim and came together before the Supreme Court to fight this action. They were dismissed but they did not back down. At the time the Privy Council in Britain could overrule Canada's decisions and the act was passed their. Women were now considered "persons". -
ON-to-Ottawa Trek Part 1
During the Depression men would ride on top of freight trains, going from city to city, looking for work. Relief camps were set up were men could stay and work. The conditions at these camps were bad, the shacks they stayed in were cold and crowded, the work was hard and laborious, and they were payed close to nothing. -
On-to-Ottawa Trek Part 2
Men planned a walk-out to Ottawa demanded better wages and conditions. They rode the trains and were welcomed at each town, sometimes with pots of stew and donated food and supplies for them. Though the government did not welcome them and they were met with riots in Regina. -
Regina Riot
As men were on their way to Ottawa, Bennett, the Prime Minister at the time, was bent to stop the travelers in Saskatchewan before they could collect more men as they went on. The travelers were stopped by RCMP and their leader had a one to one talk with Bennett but could not come to an agreement. Bennett said that they were communist and they needed to be stopped. A riot broke out and one officer died while nearly a hundred of people, and officers, were injured. -
The St. Louis
Jews were severely persecuted during WWII and many were desperately seeking refuge in other countries. Canada was afraid to upset the Germans so they wouldn't accept jews. A boat named the St. Louis was holding nearly 900 Jews and was planning to head to Cuba with tourist visas. They were denied and desperately pleaded with Canada and America to help them but they turned them away. They headed back to Europe and more then half of the passengers were eventually killed by the Nazis.
