Browse Exhibits (34 total)
A Fight for Rights, the Oka Crisis of 1990
The Oka crisis of 1990 has led to the start of reconciliation between the Canadian government and the indigenous community. The impact of the Oka crisis has still been seen in Kanehsatake. I wanted to focus on this topic because I grew up not far from the town of Oka and went to school with many people who live in Kanehsatake. I want to give a voice to the indigenous people of Kanehsatake. The Oka crisis took place in the summer of 1990 in the city of Oka just northwest of Montreal. This exhibit will focus on the Oka crisis during the 78-day standoff between the government and indigenous people. It will discuss the history before the Oka crisis, during and the years afterwards. The artifacts that I have chosen to speak the truth and show the resistance of indigenous people. The Oka crisis created a realization for indigenous communities that if they fight together the government will see the strength of the indigenous people. The fight over the land had started long before the summer of 1990 in Oka. The fight over the land in Oka started with the Sulpicians when the Roman Catholic church told them that they could have the land. The Mohawk community has fought with the Canadian government over the land for a long time when in 1868 the government gave them the title of “interim land base” (de Bruin 2013). Due to the government not calling the land a reserve made sure that the community was not under the Indian Act. The mayor of Oka wanted to expand a golf course and build townhouses into the Pines they were not consulted. The Mohawks of Kanesatake had protested the mayor’s plans for months beginning in March 1990. The mayor had sent two injunctions to have the blockade removed but the people of Kanesatake had ignored them causing the mayor to involve the Surete du Quebec. On the morning of July 11, the Surete du Quebec moved in to remove the blockade causing violence. There was escalation between the police and the Mohawk community. The community of Kahnawake blocked the Mercier bridge and the police created their own blockades and checkpoints to enter the town of Oka and Kanehsatake. The Oka Crisis made the Canadian government more aware of Indigenous rights and land claims. It also made the government more aware of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada.
The Motivating Factors of Canada's Confederation
The British North America Act was sanctioned by Queen Victoria on March 29, 1867. Approximately two months later, on July 1, 1867, the Act came into effect, and Canada officially became a self-governing nation by uniting the first four provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. From this union, Canada also welcomed its first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. The union of these previous British colonies became known as Confederation, and laid the necessary groundwork for Canada to become the nation it is today. The Act was completed in three stages of conferences throughout different locations, including Charlottetown, Quebec City, and London, where leaders from each of the different provinces negotiated terms for the new nation. Although Confederation initially only consisted of four provinces, it allowed Canada to become a separate nation from Britain, and would allow for more regions to join as time went on. Eventually the rest of the Canadian provinces and territories would enter Confederation, including the most recent addition of Nunavut in 1999.
There were several motivations behind Canada’s Confederation, including political and economic reasons. Many people had fears surrounding a possible invasion from the United States, particularly during the American Civil War, as the individual colonies lacked the forces necessary to defend themselves. Economic struggles were also a significant factor, as there were challenges in managing the costs of infrastructure and an urgent need to construct railways, which were necessary for transportation and trade at the time. Confederation was also a way for the colonies to come together and form a single government to be free of difficulties from Great Britain, allowing them to manage their own affairs and issues. These motives are what made the colonies come together and form the country known as Canada.
This exhibit walks viewers through the different motivations and causes behind Confederation. Through artifacts such as political documents, political cartoons, photographs, paintings, and newspaper articles, viewers will look at specific examples and learn about the ambitions that drove Canada’s Confederation. Each artifact represents different influences when it came to the creation of Canada, showing the steps that led the nation to where it is today.
Bibliography
Heidt, Daniel. Reconsidering Confederation: Canada’s Founding Debates 1864-1999. Calgary: University Of Calgary Press, 2018.
Krikorian, Jacqueline D., David R. Cameron, Marcel Martel, Andrew W. McDougall, and Robert C. Vipond. Roads to Confederation: The Making of Canada, 1867. Volume 2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Extraordinary Women During Women's Suffrage In Canada
This exhibit focuses on the extraordinary women active during the fight for women's suffrage and the important movements created throughout Canada. They were taking in their experiences and reliving the timeline of events through campaigns, photographs, and posters during this time. The women's suffrage movement in Canada has been around as early as the 19th century, but hit its peak in the 1920s-1960s, the overall goal of this movement was for rights to vote, day-care programs, reform family law, end family violence, equal pay, end workplace harassment, programs for women's poverty, and abortion rights. This fight for suffrage was not only caucasian women but also the women of color who were also fighting for their basic human rights. It should be known that suffragists showed little interest in Indigenous or Asian women, who served more often as an inspiration for charity rather than for sisterly alliance (Strong-Boag). However, that does not mean Indigenous, Asian, and African Canadian women did not have a vital role in fighting for suffrage, they also were fundamental in the movement. When going through the exhibit we will look at famous activists, such as The Famous Five (Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby) and Flora MacDonald Denison. But also lesser-known women who fought just as hard, such as Emily Howard Stowe and Pauline Johnson. With women's suffrage came women's movements. One of the biggest movements/groups formed from the woman suffrage movement was Voice of Women (VOW) which campaigned for nuclear disarmament and peace. The National Council of Women is a council in which women’s views can be presented and debated on both a federal and provincial level. However, the suffrage movement everywhere endorsed improvements in education, healthcare, and social services that would improve lives for women and children. The women's suffrage movement shows that the fight for justice and equality still holds to the present day and without these heroic women who dared to take action are needed to be remembered and discussed. Without them, our society would not be where it is today.
Immigration Community in Canada
This digital museum exhibit will explore the lives and treatment of immigrant communities in Canada from the 1900s to the 1950s. This topic aims to shed light on the journey toward today's inclusive, multicultural Canada, where diverse ethnicities coexist. By examining the injustices present in early foreign immigration policies, this exhibit helps understand the hardships faced by immigrants and provides insight into Canadian society.
1. The Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver, 1907
The Vancouver Riots, which occurred in 1907, is an important event highlighting the racism faced by the Asian immigrant community in Canada in the early 20th century. It began as an anti-immigration rally, organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League, and as time went by this Anti-Asian, especially Chinese protest escalated to a riot. They argued that relatively low-paying Asian immigrant workers were threatening the livelihoods of white workers amid the recession and high unemployment rates. The incident(riot) resulted in an estimated 10,000 Vancouver residents storming Chinatown, causing widespread property damage, and forcing the evacuation of about 2,000 Chinese residents. This is a gloomy incident in which tension between Canadians and immigrants escalates into violence.
2. Chinese Immigration Act, 1923
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923 and the Head Tax on Chinese Immigrants exemplify the profound racial discrimination entrenched in Canadian immigration policy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Head Tax Initially imposed under the 1885 Chinese Immigration Act, was a targeted economic and immigration barrier designed to curtail Chinese immigration after Chinese laborers had been in constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Head Tax starting at CA$50 per person and escalating to CA$500 by 1903, this tax imposed a significant financial burden on immigrants family at the time, and symbolizing Canada's institutionalized racial exclusion.
3. Japanese Internment Camps, 1942
The Internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II is a prime illustration of racism and the Canadian government's discriminatory actions. After Japanese militaristic government attacks on Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong in 1941, fear and hatred of Japanese Canadians spread throughout British Columbia, and exaggerated media coverage fueled it. On Feb. 24, 1942, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Cabinet authorized the removal and Internment of Japanese Canadians from Canada's western coast through council order P.C. 1486. This resulted in the forced expropriation of more than 21,000 Japanese Canadians, whose property was confiscated and auctioned off by the government. The Internment was a serious violation of the citizenship and human rights of Japanese Canadians, leaving a deep scar on the immigrants community.
Discrimination and the Komagata Maru
Stranded at sea for sixty two days, the Komagata Maru, carrying hundreds of South Asian passengers, arrived at the docks of Vancouver on May 23, 1914. This event, along with Canada’s strict immigration policies, attracted a mass of negative attention from the general public and the police force, portraying discriminatory ideals against non European immigrants. The anti-Asian sentiment against Chinese and Japanese during this time was already prominent, and the Komagata Maru would only enforce the same beliefs against British Indians, starting protests within the ship to let them enter into the country having come from the same British empire. Soon, Canada would use its policies to their advantage and order the deportation of a handful of men on the ship, causing an even bigger outage from those stranded at sea. The tragedies of this event show how even in the face of prejudice, discriminatory Canadian policies were challenged and showed the flawed systems that still affect a mass of people today. In modern Canada, we live in remembrance of the events stemming from racist ideologies and with Komagata Maru serving as insight for major anti-Asian sentiments, we see how even to this day, the effects of these beliefs are felt by marginalized groups, bleeding into their day to day lives. This exhibit will outline sources found during the Komagata Maru incident, and will provide an understanding of what happened during the event and how people retaliated against the widely accepted western norm. The Anglo-Canadian belief of who should and should not be accepted ultimately comes from the fear of not maintaining the position of being the dominant group with the Komagata Maru highlighting this fear through the exclusion of South Asian immigrants. This exhibit portrays Canada’s attempts at creating a “White man’s country,” purposely excluding non White immigrants due to immigration policies that ultimately stem from racist, discriminatory beliefs.
The Internment of Japanese Canadians and the Stain of Injustice
The internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II marked a profound shift in Canada's treatment of its citizens, motivated by a combination of wartime paranoia and underlying racial prejudice. This exhibit explores and analyzes the systemic violation of civil rights enacted under the camouflage of national security, revealing a consequential era where fear and discrimination led to harsh realities for an entire community.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, over 21,000 Japanese Canadians were categorized and labeled as enemy aliens and further subjected to strict regulations that uprooted families, dismantled communities, disrupted their livelihood, and marked them as outsiders in their own country. Men, women, and children were forcibly uprooted from their homes, stripped of their possessions, and ultimately relocated to remote internment camps across the country. These actions by the government were taken without any solid evidence of collective nor individual espionage or sabotage, rather based instead on a government policy deeply rooted in racial prejudice.
This exhibit presents a series of artifacts that illustrate the scope and impact of these government actions. The Order-in-Council P.C. 1486 set the legal basis for the internment, while photographs of the mass seizure of Japanese Canadian fishing boats and the forced relocation of families to camps highlight the personal, emotional, and economic toll of the policy. Additionally, a photograph of Tashme, the largest of the internment camps, reveals the scale of internment and the resilience of the internees. A featured newspaper artifact from the time provides contemporary insights into the public and governmental discourse surrounding the Japanese Canadian community, reflecting broader societal attitudes and the immediate impacts of policy decisions on the lives of affected individuals.
Concluding with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's apology in 1988, this exhibit not only recounts a major historical injustice but also emphasizes the steps taken towards reconciliation and restitution, marking Canada's progress in acknowledging and learning from this dark chapter. Through these artifacts, the exhibit highlights the enduring spirit and contributions of the Japanese Canadian community and stresses the importance of remembering and understanding this period to ensure the protection of civil liberties for all.
The October Crisis and the War Measures Act
On October 5, 1970 British Diplomat James Cross was kidnapped at gunpoint, followed by the kidnapping of Canadian Cabinet Minister Piere Laporte five days later, by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), who claimed responsibility for both of these events. The FLQ was a group of Quebec nationalists who aimed to create an independent Quebec as a means to combat against English colonialism. In the eyes of this extremist group oppressed French Canadiens and was still rampant in Canada in the late 20th Century. The shockwaves of these events not only held consequences for the FLQ but also caused widespread backlash towards the government of Canada, as they invoked the War Measures Act. The use of the Act allowed for the search and seizure of individuals property and arrests without a need for a warrant. Many people viewed this as an infringement on their rights set by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as many did not see the reason for the War Measures Act to be invoked at this time. Nevertheless, the Canadian government viewed the kidnapping of Laporte as a threat to the country, therefore invoking the War Measures Act. In this exhibit you will see that the invocation of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970 was a powerful and tenacious move by the Canadian Federal Government. Some question if it was indeed the correct response or only caused the conflict to grow more intense due to the paranoia of Canadian government officials. Furthermore, as the observers look through the exhibit they may ask themselves if the War Measures Act did infringe on the rights of Canadians or was the government doing their due diligence to protect its citizens? The artifacts, such as the First Page of the War Measures Act, “Soldier and Child”, and Tables for People to Send Telegrams to Prime Minister Trudeau, Protesting the War Measures Act; will provide the observer with enough historical background to reach their own conclusions as to how and if the War Measures Act was needed in this conflict. The October Crisis of 1970 is a defining moment in Canadian history and therefore requires observers to think critically about the actions taken by the Canadian government during this period.
Bibliogarphy:
Crelinsten, R.D. 1987. “The Internal Dynamics of the Flq during the October Crisis of 1970.” Journal of Strategic Studies 10 (4): 59-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402398708437315.
Munroe, H.D. 2009. “The October Crisis Revisited: Counterterrorism as Strategic Choice, Political Result, and Organizational Practice.” Terrorism and Political Violence 21 (2): 288-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546550902765623.
Canada on Rails! -Knoll Konopka
Imagine a country as large as Canada before the times of semi-trucks and planes, or massive cargo freighters. Before the 1900s when cars started to develop more and more, and before planes could even fly, how would you transport goods and people across the second largest landmass in the world? It’s simple: a train system. That was the magnificence of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Starting as a means to incline BC (British Columbia) to join the federation, the railway connected the eastern provinces to BC. The CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) train system went through massive mountains in Alberta and expansive plains in Manitoba. The conditions for building the railway were different across all of the provinces too. For example, the mining conditions in Alberta were especially dangerous as workers (mostly Chinese immigrants) would use the dynamite they would light—by hand—to carve tunnels through the Rocky Mountains. The CPR would hire surveyors to scout the terrain ahead of the tracks to decide where was best to install new tracks. After the railway was completed, it went through every single mainland province through its many stops, delivering supplies, passengers, and communications. Today, the Canadian Pacific Railway is used by Canada as a means to link the eastern provinces to the western ones, like how it was used one hundred years ago. However, the company has fragmented into other separate and independent companies to increase the value of each business. The company that has railway tracks across Canada is branded ‘CP’, and spans 22,500 kilometers across both Canada and the United States. Across this display, you will see the actual survey maps used to help overseers decide on track placements, passenger logs of people going to and from different provinces, and other relevant artefacts to the Canadian Pacific Railway as it was all the way back in the 1880s!
Impact of the First World War on Canada’s unity
World War I, which involved more than 30 nations, was one of the worst wars in the history of humanity, mostly because of the introduction of new military technologies and trench warfare. Canada made no exception, as it was the deadliest conflict in its history. In addition to causing the death of more than 60,000 Canadian soldiers, the country had to deal with another unintended consequence. Indeed, WWI also highlighted and reignited an internal conflict that had never been resolved : the division between Quebec and "the rest of Canada." This divide can be traced back to before Canada was even officially created, after France’s loss of Quebec to the British. When a situation calls for a single national decision, this lack of internal cohesion keeps coming up, which frequently results in French Canadian voices being ignored or silenced. Canada had to fight overseas, but it was also fighting within its own territory. Here, in a conflict as significant as WWI, the debate over the level of involvement Canada should pursue caused French Canadian voices to be marginalized in favor of the dominant British Canadian perspective. This exhibit seeks to challenge the portrayal of Canada as a unified single nation by highlighting the divergence of opinions and visions regarding WWI, an important moment in Canadian history. Its purpose is to demonstrate the extent of this almost forced involvement of French Canadians in the war, whose voices were overlooked as if they were not representing a part of the country. To point out the reciprocity of this feeling of division and the omnipresence of the conflict in all shapes and forms, a variety of sources were purposefully chosen.. The selection of artifacts reflects this disagreement and reveals the difficulty French Canadians experienced in having their voices heard and their presence taken into consideration. It is crucial to acknowledge how this internal conflict influences numerous historical occurrences in Canada since it is a major problem that affects many other challenges the country faces. In essence, this digital exhibit will illustrate how Canada’s involvement in World War I resulted in divisions within the population based on war-related disagreements between French and British Canadians.
Robert Borden, the Man Who Shaped Canada Forever
This exhibit is meant to showcase the complex prime-ministership of Robert Borden that lasted from 1911 to 1920. Since his government was in-power from a time spanning from before the Great War to after it, it will be evident that his government made policy and engaged in foreign affairs that would affect Canada for generations to come. This exhibit is meant to showcase the most important decisions and policies that Borden influenced and created, which have left a lasting impact on Canadian society. Prior and during World War One, Canada and other British colonies were essentially extensions of Britain and were therefore immediately brought into the war when Britain declared war. Robert Borden was a loyal supporter of the British and would stand firmly behind Britain throughout the war. Although, to Borden, The Great War was the perfect opportunity to call for more autonomy for British subjects because all colonies were working together for the same goal: to win the war. Robert Borden, showcased through several artefacts in this exhibit, believed it was important for Canada, and other British subjects, to gain more autonomy and decision-making as part of the post-war process. The artefacts illustrated in this exhibit showcase Robert Borden’s resilience and strength in a time of crisis and should illustrate to the viewer the importance of his leadership to the Canadian identity. Through images, speeches, and newspapers, it will be clear that Borden was able to negotiate with other political parties in order to advance the Canadian war effort and to unify all Canadians together in a time of war. Borden was not only able to create strong national pride in Canada, but was also able to further develop the alliance between British subjects which led to progress for all. My exhibit highlights how Borden's prime-ministership was of vital importance to the Canadian legacy, both in his fight for more Canadian autonomy in The Great War and his ability to unite political parties under a time of crisis. This exhibit showcases the strength of Borden's leadership and his resilience in both politics and within the Allies.
Bibliography:
Brown, Robert Craig. "Sir Robert Borden." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 21, 2008.