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between 1665 and 1673 about a thousand women were brought to the colony under a policy of careful selection, supervision, and distribution
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Between 1755 and 1763, approximately 10,000 Acadians are deported after delegates refuse to take an oath of allegiance to Britain. Acadians, the first French community in Canada, are allies of the Mi’kmaq and possess a distinctive culture. Following the Acadian Expulsion, thousands die of disease or starvation.
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The Seven Years’ War is the first global war, fought in Europe, India, America, and at sea. In North America, Britain and France (aided by Indigenous allies) struggled for supremacy. With the Treaty of Paris, France formally cedes Canada to the British.
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3,000 Black Loyalists, among them freemen and slaves, fled the oppression of the American Revolution and came to Canada.
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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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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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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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The first residential school for Indigenous children, the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, ON, opens. By separating children from their families.
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Grosse Île, near Québec, was opened as a quarantine station during the cholera epidemics and all ships stopped there for inspection. This station was a futile attempt by the government to control the disease that killed up to 10% of the population.
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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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Thousands of persecuted Jews, fleeing pogroms in the Pale of Settlement, sought refuge in Canada.
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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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George Washington Carmack, Skookum Jim and Tagish Charlie discovered gold on Bonanza Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. During the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1899 at least 100,000 people stampeded to the gold fields.
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Alberta and Saskatchewan entered Canada as the 8th and 9th provinces by two federal Acts which received royal assent on 20 July. Alberta's boundary with Saskatchewan was set at 110°, though Albertans wanted 107°. The Acts (Autonomy Bills) declared that the West was to have non-denominational schools.
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The second wave of Ukrainians fled from Communism, civil war and Soviet occupation.
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On Easter Monday, four Canadian divisions and one British brigade captured Vimy Ridge, near Arras, France, with a loss of 3578 killed and 7000 wounded. It was a brilliant victory for the Canadians, who sensed a new national awareness.
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The third wave of Ukrainians fled Communist rule.
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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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The United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was created.
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37,000 Hungarians escaped Soviet tyranny and found refuge in Canada.
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Chinese refugees fled the Communist violence of the Cultural Revolution.
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Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, whose grandfather was a German refugee of the Napoleonic Wars, introduced Canada’s first Bill of Rights.
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Canada signed the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and its Protocol, agreeing not to return a person to their country of origin if that person had grounds to fear persecution.
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Coming into force of the Immigration Act of 1976, which recognized refugees as a distinct class of immigrants. These changes also allowed Canadian citizens to privately sponsor refugees.
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The United Nations awarded Canada the Nansen Medal for its outstanding humanitarian tradition of settling refugees.
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The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and new refugee determination system began work on January 1, 1989.
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Immigration and Refugee Protection Act came into force and set out main principles and features of the refugee protection program.
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The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States is established for responsibility sharing in processing refugee claims from nationals of third countries.
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Canada expands its refugee resettlement programs by 20% over three years.
