Are Canadians really that wonderful?
Writing in the National Post a couple of weeks ago, Matthew Fisher stated that with regard to the Syrian refugees, "The orgy of backslapping that has gripped the country for several months is way over the top."
Fisher goes on to state that our assistance to refugees from Syria is commendable but nowhere as significant as to justify the giddy "self congratulation that has gripped the country."
We are seeing now that the numbers promised by the Liberals of 25,000 refugees by the end of 2015 had no basis in reality - like many Liberal policies, I'm afraid; but good on them and individual Canadians for at least trying.
What I found more disconcerting was the general notion that Canada was such a warm, welcoming country that greeted refugees with open arms. This wasn't in accord with my recollection of Canadian history, which was no doubt influenced by a recent visit to the Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
Some of our most egregious examples occurred during the world wars. The expulsion from this coast of persons of Japanese heritage during the Second World War is relatively well known. Families were relocated to the interior of the province and their assets stolen by the federal government. An estimated 30,000 to 35,000 Japanese-Canadians were interned because of their race.
As the dark clouds of Nazism spread over Europe, Canada did not have a welcome mat out for Jews fleeing that continent. In 1939, the MS St. Louis with 937 passengers set sail for Cuba and was not allowed to dock in either Cuba or the United States. Did Canada come to the rescue? No, we left them to their fates and the ship returned to Europe.
Prior to that in the First World War, Canadians were interned if they had come from countries with which Canada was at war. In the current centenary most of the battles in which Canadians took part seem to have involved the Germans. However from those Canadians interned, you wouldn't think they were our major protagonist.
The internal enemies targeted in that war were from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. About 8,500 Canadians were interned as enemy aliens. Of that number about 2,000 were German and 6,000 were from the disappearing Hapsburg Empire where the whole thing started. Since you don't hear much mention of the Austro-Hungarian menace, the number from there seems peculiar.
It turned out that about 5,000 of those interned were peasants from parts of the Ukraine controlled at the start of the war by the Hapsburg Empire. Prior to the start of the war, there had been a big push by Clifford Sifton, the minister of the interior, to attract immigrants from central Europe to homestead the less productive farmland in the Prairies.
So Ukrainian immigrants were freezing their butts trying to eke out a living on marginal farmland, when the war in Europe starts and the Canadian government determines them to be a threat. Five thousand were shipped to work camps where they essentially became slave labour. No, Canada does not have a warm and fuzzy tradition. One can only hope that when Trudeau is done with the photo ops, the Syrian refugees will be treated better than previous immigrants.
Tom Siba is an ex-publisher of the Delta Optimist whose father immigrated to Canada from what is now Slovakia.
