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The Expulsion of the Acadians
The Expulsion of the Acadians as the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from the present day Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island—an area also known as Acadia. The Expulsion occurred during the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War) and was part of the British military campaign against New France. -
Battle of the Plains of Abraham
What: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was a pivotal moment in the Seven Years’ War and in the history of Canada. A British invasion force led by General James Wolfe defeated French troops under the Marquis de Montcalm, leading to the surrender of Quebec to the British.
The is important to Canadian identity because if the British had lost the battle, Canada would have been significantly more French -
The Royal Proclamation
The Proclamation established very strict protocols for all dealings with First Nations people. The Indian Department was to be the primary point of contact between First Nations people and the colonies. Furthermore, only the Crown could purchase land from First Nations people by officially sanctioned representatives meeting with the interested First Nations people in a public meeting. The Royal Proclamation became the first public recognition of First Nations rights to lands and title. -
The Durham Report
Lord Durham, a British politician, was sent to North America in 1838 to investigate the causes of the twin rebellions the previous year in the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada. Durham's famous Report led to a series of reforms and changes including the union of the two Canada's into a single colony. It also paved the way for responsible government, which was a critical step in the evolution of Canadian democracy. -
North-West Rebellion
The North-West Rebellion (or North-West Resistance) was a violent, five-month insurgency against the Canadian government, fought mainly by Métis militants and their Aboriginal allies in what is now Saskatchewan and Alberta. -
Confederation
The union of the British North American colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada was the first step in a slow but steady nation-building exercise that would come to encompass other territories, and eventually fulfill the dream of a country from sea to sea -
The Indian Act
The Indian Act is the principal statute through which the federal government administers Indian status, local First Nations governments and the management of reserve land and communal monies. -
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Chinese Head Tax
The Chinese head tax was levied on Chinese immigration to Canada between 1885 and 1923, under the Chinese Immigration Act (1885). With few exceptions, Chinese people had to pay $50 (later raised to $100, and then $500) to come to Canada. This would have created some resentment in the Chinese. -
Manitoba Schools Question becomes an issue in the Federal Election
The Manitoba Schools Question was a political crisis in the Canadian Province of Manitoba involving publicly funded separate schools for Roman Catholics and Protestants. The crisis eventually spread to the national level, becoming one of the key issues in the federal election of 1896. Because of the close linkage at that time between religion and language, the Schools Question raised the deeper question whether French would survive as a language or a culture in Western Canada. -
Conscription crisis during World War One
The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I. It was mainly caused by disagreement on whether men should be conscripted to fight in the war. -
Chinese Immigration Act
The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, known also as the Chinese Exclusion Act, banned the entry of virtually all Chinese immigrants for 24 years. Although migration into Canada from most countries was controlled or restricted in some way, only Chinese people were singled out completely from entering on the basis of race. -
The Newfoundland Referendums
What: It was a series of votes to decide whether or not Newfoundland should join the Canadian Confederation.
Who:The pro-Canada Confederates, led by Bradley and Joseph Smallwood and a disparate coalition favouring the return of self-government, which included Peter Cashin, who denounced union with Canada as a "Judas act," and Chesley Crosbie -
Parti Quebecois
Who: The Province of Quebec
What: The Parti Québécois (PQ) is a nationalist political party formed in Québec in 1968 through the merger of the Mouvement souveraineté-association and the Ralliement national. Its main purpose was for Quebec to separate from Canada -
The White Paper
The 1969 White Paper was a Canadian government policy paper that attempted to abolish previous legal documents pertaining to Indigenous peoples in Canada, including the Indian Act and treaties, and assimilate all “Indian” peoples under the Canadian state. -
The Calder Case
In 1969, Frank Arthur Calder and the Nisga'a Nation Tribal Council brought an action against the British Columbia government for a declaration that aboriginal title to certain lands in the province had never been lawfully extinguished.It was the first time that Canadian law acknowledged that aboriginal title to land existed prior to the colonization of the continent and was not merely derived from statutory law. -
The Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was a period of intense change in the Canadian province of Quebec, characterized by the effective secularization of government, the creation of a welfare state (état-providence), and realignment of politics into federalist and sovereignist factions and the eventual election of a pro-sovereignty provincial government in the 1976 election. -
Quebec Referendum of 1980
In this referendum, the government asked the people of Québec to give it a mandate to “negotiate a new constitutional agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations.” When the votes were counted, nearly 60% of Quebecers had voted against this plan, and it was thereby rejected. -
National Energy Program is implemented
The 1980 National Energy Program (NEP) was a sweeping attempt by the federal government to gain greater control over the Canadian petroleum industry, secure Canadian oil supplies, and redistribute Alberta's oil wealth to the rest of the country. Introduced by the Liberal regime of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the now defunct program angered many Albertans and led to decades of resentment throughout the West against the federal Liberal Party. -
The Meech Lake Accords
Who: The Federal government of Canada and all the Provincial Governments
What: It was a series of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and all ten Canadian provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of Quebec to symbolically endorse the 1982 constitutional amendments by providing for some decentralization of the Canadian federation.
Why was this important -
Canadian Multiculturalism Act
The Canadian Multiculturalism Act formalized the government's commitment to "promote the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in the continuing evolution and shaping of all aspects of Canadian society" by establishing legislation to protect ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious diversity within Canadian society. -
The Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada, which began on July 11, 1990, and lasted 78 days until September 26, 1990 with one fatality. -
The October Crisis
The October Crisis began with the kidnapping of James Cross by members FLQ. It rapidly devolved into the most serious terrorist act carried out on Canadian soil after another official, Minister of Immigration and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte, was kidnapped and killed. The crisis shook the career of recently elected Liberal Premier Robert Bourassa, who asked for federal help. This help would lead to the only invocation of the War Measures Act during peacetime in Canadian history. -
Baltej Dhillon Case
Who: Baltej Singh Dhillon and the RCMP
What: Baltej petitioned to get the uniform of the RCMP changed so that he could wear a turban.
Why: Baltej wanted a solution that did not require him to give up on his dream of being a RCMP officer, or to change his religion.
When: 1991
How: He made a petition -
Formation of the Bloc Quebecois
What: The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty -
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
The Commission’s Report, the product of extensive research and community consultation, was a broad survey of historical and contemporary relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The Report made several recommendations, the majority of which were not fully implemented. However, it is significant for the scope and depth of research, and remains an important document in the study of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. -
Charlottetown Accord
Who: The Federal Government and all the Provincial Governments
What: The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated. -
Quebec Referendum of 1995
The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the Canadian French-speaking province of Quebec whether Quebec should proclaim national sovereignty and become an independent country, with the condition precedent of offering a political and economic agreement to Canada. -
Bill 101 is passed in Quebec
Who: The Province of Quebec
What: Bill 101 made it so that French was the only official language in Quebec. -
Recognition of Quebecois nation
The motion presented by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on November 22, which says the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada, is largely symbolic in that it requires no constitutional amendment or change of law. The opposition Liberals and New Democrats supported the motion, so it passed easily through the House of Commons. -
Canada Apologizes for residential schools
On 11 June 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons to offer, on behalf of the Government of Canada, an apology to Aboriginal peoples in Canada for the abuse, suffering, and generational and cultural dislocation that resulted from assimilative, government-sanctioned residential schools. -
TRC 94 Calls to Action
Who: The Canadian Government and survivors of residential schools -
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls[edit]
It is a organization independent from the government of Canada that was created to make a report of missing and murdered indigenous women.
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