Canada is a nation famous for its tolerance for different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It is said that Canada is a mosaic of cultures, and every individual culture is treated the same with the same respect. Yet that is idealistic, wishful thinking. While Canada might offer a more tolerant environment than most, it is certainly not without its problems. Intolerance has been an issue in Canada since the first settler stepped onto this land. Injustice and discrimination permeates every era and aspect of Canadian history, observed in the political injustice of enemy aliens and internments of both world wars, the social discrimination of Canada’s immigration policy, and the cultural oppression and assimilation the aboriginals faced and still face.
Perhaps the most infamous act of racial discrimination in Canadian history was the internment of Japanese Canadian during WWII. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia were driven out of their home, their assets confiscated and auctioned off at ridiculously low prize. They were sent to internment camps in the interior camp, forced to live apart from friend and family, doing strenuous work for almost no pay. All of this was done in the name of defense of Canada; government argued that those Japanese people might be enemy spies, even though most of them were born in Canada or lived in Canada for a long time and had little or no ties to Japan. Most people might know of this, though they might not be aware that it was not the first time such things happened in Canada. In the First World War there was also abundant hostile feelings towards new immigrants from the German and Austria-Hungary Empire. They were discriminated against, their businesses were trashed and their possessions were confiscated. Many Ukrainian immigrants were also subjected to internment camps. All of those show the intolerance for people suspected to be of different political orientation based on their ethnicity. Those events still haunt Canada today as the Japanese people seek compensations for their suffering in WWII.
