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The Secret Life of Canada. S6, EP 19: Canada's historic Palestinian immigration program you probably haven't heard of

Hosts: Leah-Simone Bowen and Falen Johnson

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hey, Falen.

FALEN JOHNSON: Hey, Leah.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So today, we're going to talk about Pier 21. We've done a lot of episodes on immigration stories, but we've actually never talked about this historic port of entry for immigrants and refugees.

FALEN JOHNSON: That's true. And it's kind of wild that we've never looked into it.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I know, I know. Until season six, first time for everything. And, you know, there's also a lot of uncertainty in the world right now from Ukraine and Sudan to Gaza. And with that brings millions of people who are searching for urgent refuge. And so I'm just wondering, you know, what has changed from Pier 21's heyday until now, and are we better or worse at responding to refugees in crisis zones?

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay. Yes. And we've looked into the history of Ukrainian immigration in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And we will link to that episode in our show notes. So for those who might not know, what was Pier 21?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Well, I reached out to Dr. Jan Raska -- he's acting manager of research at the Canadian Museum of Immigration -- to learn more.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: So, Pier 21 was one of four transit sheds that was purposely built for the process of bringing immigrants and cargo into Canada. And it was located in the south end of Halifax at the historic Ocean Terminals. And from 1928 up until 1971, it was an active immigration facility or immigration shed, where nearly a million immigrants first came to Canada through its doors.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: After its closure in 1971, it was eventually preserved as a national historic site. And in 1999, the Canadian Museum of Immigration opened at the port.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: I think what makes it neat, certainly nowadays, is it's really our last ocean, or last standing ocean immigration shed, right? So, for example, the facilities in Vancouver or Victoria no longer exist. Same thing for Saint John or Sydney in Cape Breton.

FALEN JOHNSON: I love a museum that is housed in the actual space that the thing happened. I mean, I just love a museum. Like, as soon as I heard Pier 21 museum, I got excited, and I think that really says something about the impact of this podcast on my nerdy, nerdy self.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I know, it hits all the nerd centres.

FALEN JOHNSON: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I'm the same. And like, any place where the thing happened? Yes, please. So I've actually been to Halifax many times, though, but never to Pier 21. So I have great shame about that and I'm going to have to rectify that very soon.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I mean, I've been to Halifax a few times, but I haven't been to that museum. I mean, I usually get sidetracked by just eating lobster. I'm usually alone, too. I'm like the single lady with a plastic bib on, covered in butter, eating lobster. Anyway, it's a great city.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: It is. It is. So Jan told me that much of the work that they do there is collecting oral histories of people who have been through the refugee and immigration process.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: Working here at the Canadian Museum of Immigration, we obviously understand that there is a very grand narrative or tight narrative of like, what the immigration system is in the past and what were the rules and regulations in the process of, of coming to Canada. But when we do, for example, oral histories or people submit their stories to our collection, we quickly find out that even though there was an established process of coming to Canada, no two experiences-- no two immigrant experiences are the same.

FALEN JOHNSON: And that makes sense. And we have noticed that in the immigration stories that we've covered, some people have great experiences and others not so much. And of course, there is also a difference between an immigrant and refugees.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. And currently the government of Canada defines an immigrant as: a person who chooses to settle permanently in another country. And a refugee is someone who's forced to flee their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution and they're not able to return home. So both of these kind of groups came through Pier 21, which eventually became known as the Gateway to Canada. And even though it was established in 1928, they didn't really see a huge influx of people until the '40s and '50s.

SOUNDCLIP

[archival clip]

[crowd cheering]

CBC REPORTER: It was a great day when the first of the trial refugee ships steamed into a Canadian port. A thousand excited hands waved from the rails. A thousand young voices yelled a greeting to Canada.

FALEN JOHNSON: So I'm going to assume the '40s and '50s were busier because of World War II.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right, specifically after the war.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: In the first few years after the Second World War, Canada had its displaced persons movement, where close to 186,000 folks came to Canada between 1947 and 1952. And a good chunk of those, of course, came through Pier 21.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Close to 99,000 immigrants came to Canada through Pier 21 in 1951, so it was really busy. The majority of whom were from Europe.

FALEN JOHNSON: And they were landing in Halifax. [LEAH-SIMONE: Mm-hmm.] And so did they stay for the lobster?

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: So the overwhelming majority of, of immigrants and refugees actually had other sort of final destinations. So most of them boarded the train. So in those days, we actually had train tracks that came right alongside the immigration facility, and they would wait for the, the overnight train to Montreal. And so, and then from there they would have gone to places like Toronto, Winnipeg or Vancouver. Generally, maybe a 10th of those that came through Pier 21 actually stayed in town.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay, so people also weren't staying for the donairs.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: INo, it sounds like most people got on the train right away. But also, reminder: the donair had not yet been introduced into Halifax.

FALEN JOHNSON: Right, we did cover this. [crosstalk]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: If you remember, we did an episode on this. [chuckles]

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah. I kind of remember. [chuckles]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, we covered that in our episode on donairs. And that was actually about Lebanese immigration, and we will, we will link to all of that. It's a good companion episode to this one on immigration.

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, I mean, and so many of our episodes make a link between immigration and food. Like our episode on Jewish Montreal that talks about the bagel and smoked meat. And we also did an episode on the Jamaican patty.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we, we've done a lot of food episodes. [FALEN: We have.] Anyway, I digress. Yes. So everybody, we'll link to all those episodes so you can check those out. But let's get back to what we're talking about here, which was 1951 and 1952.

[music]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So in 1951 we see this huge influx of people. And then in 1952, the laws connected to immigration and refugees change.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: The 1952 Immigration Act is really important because what the government does is that it basically concentrates or centralizes the powers invested in controlling or regulating immigration. Basically what that means is that the federal cabinet and its members basically tighten controls over immigration powers. And so really, it just kind of centralized authority and made it really difficult. You know, there wasn't necessarily an appeal for certain aspects of immigration in those days.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay, so things got more difficult. And correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a government ban on Chinese immigration at this time?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Actually, the Chinese Exclusion Act ended a few years before this in 1947. But it's a great point. The laws about who got in and who didn't were often discriminatory and biased against non-European immigrants. Hell, even a lot of European immigrants were given a hard time. And so these new policies in 1952, they didn't change much for people coming [from] countries like from Asia, Africa or the Middle East. But a couple of years later, in 1955, the government did attempt to admit Palestinian refugees who were fleeing as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: And Canada, being a founder of the United Nations and being a middle power, it really believed that by helping resettle people or by alleviating the refugee problem in the Middle East, that it would bring about further stability and sort of alleviate tensions. Canada considered a refugee resettlement scheme.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay, so how many people was Canada taking at this time?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Well, the approved plan initially was to take in 100 workers and their families.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay. So Canada wasn't really stepping outside of its comfort zone in terms of numbers here, I'm thinking.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: No, they weren't flinging open the doors, you know. It was a really small group. But it was seen as a first.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: And what's interesting is certainly in those days, most of the folks coming to Canada, of course, were of European origin. And here the government's thinking, well, why don't we try to resettle just 100 refugees, as sort of what they called a special experiment, to see if people from outside of a European background could not only enter Canada, but actually integrate and acculturate into Canada's economy and society.

FALEN JOHNSON: Okay, so you said 100 workers and their families. So, so that is more than a hundred.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, I think the maximum number was a total of 500 that they were open to taking. But one of the interesting details that I read was that Canadian officials were very confused about large, multi-generational families. So, many Palestinians who applied with both working parents, little kids and working age children, and maybe like some grandparents, they were flagged because that wasn't considered normal.

FALEN JOHNSON: Heh. Normal to who?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, exactly.

FALEN JOHNSON: In the '50s, like, this is still a time when there were enormous families in Canada. You know, like I'm thinking about like farms in the Prairies where you needed to have, like, a brood of children to make the thing go.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Mm-hmm. Or anywhere that there were a lot of Catholics, to be honest. Like, [FALEN: Yeah.] you know, I know some still very extended large historical Catholic families that had just tons of people in them. So, [FALEN: Mm-hmm.] it's strange that they found it strange, but they did.

FALEN JOHNSON: It sounds like they are watching too much TV. Too much Leave it to Beaver.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. [FALEN: You know?] That was the problem, American television. And it's strange that they found it strange, but they did, and those families were sadly screened out. And so in the end, just 76 people made it.

[music]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: The majority came to Halifax by ship, on the S.S. Saturnia, on April 24th, 1956. Like others who came through Pier 21, the Palestinian refugees had prepaid train tickets, and they left for Montreal after they were processed at the immigration hub.

SOUNDCLIP

DR. JAN RASKA: But because it was so small, right, just 76 people, and they were scattered, you know, they were resettled to Toronto and Montreal and Port Arthur... So they're not really, they're not all in one spot, right, so it's difficult to say what society's response was to that. And it isn't a very big number of refugees. But I think if anything, it at least exposed the immigration bureaucrats and sort of federal leaders to the idea that, yes, you can bring non-European refugees to Canada and they do have a contribution to make, and yes, they can settle and fully integrate into Canadian society.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: There were estimates that there were one million Palestinian refugees at this time and under a hundred people made it here. The resettlement program in '55 and '56 is seen as a precursor to the shift in Canada's immigration policies. By 1967, a new points system came into play that said it didn't factor in a person's race and religion.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, but the points system was highly discriminatory and continued to discriminate against Chinese immigrants for decades, right?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah. And shortly after, Pier 21 would close its doors, as new immigrants and refugees were now travelling mostly by plane.

FALEN JOHNSON: Right. And then in 1976 things changed again, and Canada took on the ideals of multiculturalism. At the same time, we know that it was still a struggle for some people to either gain refugee status or immigrate here. We did an episode on Caribbean migrant workers. Some have been working in Canada for decades and can't gain status.

[music]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So I was curious, you know, where are things at now with our immigration system, specifically with refugees that are fleeing war in places like Gaza and Sudan? I connected with the Canadian Council for Refugees to find out a little bit more.

SOUNDCLIP

GUARI SREENIVASAN: My name is Guari Sreenivasan. I'm co-executive director at the Canadian Council for Refugees. What I would say that has been of great concern to the CCR, in looking at the recent response to the crises in both Gaza and Sudan, is one that belies a form of systemic racism that exists in our immigration system.

FALEN JOHNSON: And so what does the council do?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Well, it's a national umbrella organization which represents about 200 front-line organizations who work with refugees and migrant communities all across the country. Guari told me that Canada's response to refugee claimants in Ukraine was excellent. But when it comes to Sudan and Gaza, it's been much different.

SOUNDCLIP

GUARI SREENIVASAN: So we modelled so well how to respond to a crisis in the context of the Russian attack on the Ukraine. In that context, we had no quota. We just identified who needs to come, who would be interested to come to Canada safely for a temporary visa. There were no processing fees. There was no caps on who could come. There was no requirement that you had to have a specific family member here to anchor you or to support you. The visas themselves were provided free of charge until recently. And that rallied the whole country. Canadians were also told, this is a time that we can respond to people in need. And that is the correct way for Canada to think about what is our capacity to respond and to message the opportunity for Canadians to welcome refugees. Which responds to deep values to communities right across the country. When you contrast that with what's happened, for example, with the special immigration measures for Gaza, it is a completely failed program.

SOUNDCLIP

CBC REPORTER 2: Palestinians with family in Canada have been trying to escape the war in Gaza. In January, the Canadian government promised to help, saying that it would issue up to a thousand temporary visas for Palestinians with family here. Three months since that announcement, not a single person has been evacuated under this program. Immigration Minister Marc Miller has admitted that the program is a failure.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So that was reporting from CBC. It was about five months ago when that reporting happened. And Guari told me, as of this recording that we're doing right now, the number of people that have been admitted into Canada from Gaza is approximately 41 people.

FALEN JOHNSON: Oh. That's...

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Low.

FALEN JOHNSON: That's very low. I thought it would be much more than that. Okay. So what about Sudanese refugee claimants?

SOUNDCLIP

CBC HOST: It has been seven months since Ottawa launched a family reunification program for Sudanese Canadians. But in seven months, not a single person has been brought over to this country under that program.

SOUNDCLIP

GUARI SREENIVASAN: So the only pathway that is open currently is for family members to sponsor. So it's a kind of a family reunification program. But the timeframes on that now are very long, and families, um, speaking with the Sudanese Canadian community... people are thinking that their loved ones may not arrive until 2027, in the context of current active attacks, because it's being kind of processed slowly as a family reunification. A pathway to PR, which is welcome, but what you want is a kind of emergency government-assisted refugee program to just bring people who can come out of safety. So again, there is, there is a cap of just over 3,000 on the Sudanese program. The caps fill almost immediately.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So since the creation of places like Pier 21, Canada's immigration and refugee policies have shifted. But in other respects, they haven't. For the council, it's really about equal access.

SOUNDCLIP

GUARI SREENIVASAN: We know that we won't be resettling all of the world's refugees. The vast majority of those who are displaced are being supported in developing countries, in Africa, in Asia. Think of Lebanon; Pakistan. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are, by far, bearing the great majority of the work to support refugees. But then when Canada thinks about those where it can provide help, let's respond equitably. Let's respond in a way that, that reflects the actual needs on the ground. And there's much we can do to be improved on that front.

FALEN JOHNSON: I think Canada has a reputation, um, maybe globally, that it is, you know, that it is this kind, you know, accepting country that will take in refugees and immigrants. And I really feel like... that doesn't seem to be the case.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Mm-hmm. It's really, really changed.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, it feels like there's a lot more work to be done.

[Episode closing music]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: This episode of The Secret Life of Canada was written and produced by me, Leah-Simon Bowen.

FALEN JOHNSON: And me, Falen Johnson. With sound design and editing by Graham MacDonald.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Script editing is by Yvette Nolan with research assistance by Andrea Eidinger and CBC Archives. Our logo is by Patuo’kn Illustration and Design.

FALEN JOHNSON: For CBC Podcasts, the co-ordinating producer is Roshini Nair. Kate Evans is the senior producer, and the executive producers are Cesil Fernandes and Chris Oke. The director of CBC Podcasts is Arif Noorani.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: You can find us on our socials @thesecretlifeofcanada. Show notes and links for this episode are on our website at cbc.ca/secretlife. Remember to subscribe and follow the show. We are now on YouTube. You can share your thoughts on our Spotify feed or reach us by email at secretlifeofcanada@cbc.ca.

FALEN JOHNSON: Thanks for exploring Canada's hidden history with us.

TRANSCRIPT: SLOC, S6: Canada's historic Palestinian immigration program you probably haven't heard of

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