Transcript Minorities in WW2 File

M INORITIES
AND
WWII
C ANADA’ S TREATMENT
OF MINORITIES

Canada’s treatment of ethnic
minorities during the Second World
War leaves one with the sense that
Canada was a divided nation whose
federal leaders frequently battled
episodes of prejudice and racism
spawned by regionalism, ignorance
and intolerance.
R ACISM +

PREJUDICE
Yet, racism and prejudice were
dominant motifs in existence well
before WWII; they were deeply
imbedded within the various levels of
government and were key factors in
federal decisions regarding
immigration and wartime planning.
A BORIGINALS C ANADIANS
+ WWII
Photo: Recruits from the Saskatchewan's File Hills community pose with
elders, family members, and representative from the Department of
Indian Affairs before departing for Great Britain. National Archives of
Canada/PA-66815. National Archives of Canada/PA 6681
A BORIGINAL S OLDIERS P OEM
How proudly the flag waved overhead, the
bands played and the troops marched
away from the reserves, the isolated
villages, the city streets.
We were Canadian Native soldiers ...
warriors in a proud tradition stretching
back over the thousands of years into
the dim past.
We travelled by ship, by plane ... and
mostly on foot. In a dozen places France, Germany, Italy ... Japan - we
raised our flags, and were buried in
those foreign soils.
A BORIGINAL S OLDIER ’ S
S ERVICE

Aboriginal peoples from every region
of Canada served in the Armed Forces
during WWII, fighting in every major
battle and campaign.

Their courage, sacrifices and
accomplishments are a source of pride
to their families, communities and all
Canadians.
N UMBERS S ERVED

At least 3,000 status (treaty) Indians,
including 72 women, enlisted as well
as an unknown number of other
Aboriginal people.

Among this small number of identified
Aboriginal members of the forces, at
least 17 decorations for bravery in
action were earned.
C HIEF J OE D REAVER
D AVID G REYEYES
O LIVER M ILTON
TOMMY P RINCE
TOMMY P RINCE :
C ANADIAN H ERO OF WAR

The most decorated Canadian First
Nations soldier of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
gyvrBOGorNA (4:16)
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Code talkers (Windtalkers) in the
United States have been storied,
honored and lauded for their
military contributions, but much less
known, and barely recognized for
their service by the Canadian and
USA governments, were Cree Code
Talkers from Canada who assisted
the Allies in World War II.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Several Aboriginals (Cree and Métis)
from western Canada - Alberta and
Saskatchewan - had joined the army
and were given a very secret
assignment of communications.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

The Aboriginal language speakers
would translate vital messages into
Cree and transmit them to another
Cree speaker at the other end who
would translate the message back
into English.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Because many military terms didn’t
exist in native languages, new terms
had to be made up for things like
tanks, and machine guns and
bombers = a machine gun might be
called for example, a “little gun that
shoots fast”, while a Mosquito
fighter-bomber would use the cree
word for mosquito- “sakimes”.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Many Aboriginals from Canada went
to work in the USA military sworn to
absolute secrecy.

Canadian Code Talkers have never
been honoured by either the
Canadian or USA governments.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Code Talkers were never officially
recognized or commended partly
because their work was considered
so covert that they were sworn to
secrecy even long after the war was
over = the program was not
declassified until 1963, but even
then most did not speak of their
work.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

A great many people are unaware
that Aboriginals in Canada played a
vital role in secret communications
for the Allies in the Second World
War using their language to
completely confound the enemy
who were never able to break the
"code“.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

Charles “Checker” Tomkins, a Métis
Cree soldier from Grouard, Alberta,
Canada enlisted to escape the Great
Depression but ended up with a
career in the military, serving 25
years with the Sherbrooke Fusilier
Regiment, the Royal Canadian Army
Service Corps and the Princess
Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

During World War II, Tomkins was
stationed in Britain and was one of
hundreds called upon to use his Cree
language to code talk - he grew up
hearing it from his grandparents on
the Pine Acres Reserve in
Saskatchewan.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

The Code Talkers in Canada have
now entirely died out.

Tomkins died in August 2003 at age
85, but not before beginning to talk
a little about his experiences with
family members.
C REE C ODE TALKERS

New documentary film on Canada’s
Code Talkers coming soon =
Alexandra Lazarowich, a
documentary film producer, will be
teaming up with director Cowboy
Smithx to create a documentary
short about Cree code talkers as part
of the National Screen Institute of
Canada’s Aboriginal Documentary
Training Course.
H ONOURING
A BORIGINAL V ETERANS

Aboriginal veterans' contributions,
achievements and sacrifices, as well as those of
all veterans and currently serving members, are
formally recognized on Remembrance Day,
November 11, each year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU9v8o71
Uic (1:31)
C HINESE C ANADIANS + WWII
C ONTRIBUTIONS

Chinese contribution to the Canadian
war effort was exemplary.

They bought millions of dollars worth
of government war bonds.

More than five hundred were called
into military service, some as officers.
C ONTRIBUTIONS

They did war work in shipyards and
factories, exerted themselves to
produce more food on their farms for
Canadian troops, and served as air raid
wardens (many were women).

They also donated millions of dollars
to the Chinese resistance against
Japan.
C HINESE C ANADIANS :
T HE U NWANTED S OLDIERS

http://video.kcts9.org/video/1479265166 (5:09)
I NDIAN C ANADIANS
+ WWII
I NDIANS S ERVICE

Indian soldiers fought valiantly in World
War 2 most with the Indian Army which
began in 1939 and some with the
Canadian military.

In the Indian Army, Sikh and Ghurka
troops were among the fiercest of any
war - they wore turbans instead of
helmets in battle.
I NDIANS S ERVICE

Most of their stories have never been
told.
B LACK C ANADIANS
+ WWII
B LACKS A CCEPTED INTO
C ANADIAN S ERVICES

Initially, the Canadian military rejected
Black volunteers, but as the war
continued, many Blacks were accepted
into the Regular Army and officer
corps.
B LACKS A CCEPTED INTO
C ANADIAN S ERVICES

While there was still some segregation
in the Canadian Forces until the end of
the war, hundreds of Black Canadians
served alongside Whites in Canada
and Europe.

Although many Black soldiers went
overseas to fight for their country
when they returned home they were
denied their old jobs.
C ONDITIONS ON THE
H OME F RONT

Blacks at home assumed the
responsibilities of the men and
women serving overseas, working
alongside Whites in jobs across the
country.

During World War II, hundreds of
Black workers joined labour unions for
the first time.
Paratroopers
of the 1st
Canadian
Parachute
battalion on a
Churchill tank;
1945.
One of two Black Canadian men in
the Radar Division, a highly secret
operation of the Allied Forces.
CANADA’S FIRST BLACK
AIRMAN: GERRY BELL
J EWISH SOLDIERS + I MMIGRANTS
& WWII
J EWISH S OLDIERS

Out of a Canadian Jewish population of
approximately 167,000 Jewish men,
women and children, over 16,880
volunteered for active service in the
army, air force, and navy.

There were an additional 2,000 Jews
who enlisted, but who did not declare
their Jewish identity in order to avert
danger if captured by the Nazi forces.
J EWISH S OLDIERS

Of the 16,880 who served, which
constituted more than one-fifth of the
entire Jewish male population in the
country, 10,440 served in the army,
5,870 in the air force, and 570 in the
navy.
J EWISH S ACRIFICE

1,971 Jewish soldiers received military
awards.

Over 420 were buried with the Star of
David engraved on graves scattered in
125 cemeteries.

Thousands returned home with serious
physical and mental wounds.
Captain Samuel Cass,
a rabbi, conducting
the first worship
service celebrated on
German territory by
Jewish personnel of
the 1st Canadian
Army near Cleve,
Germany
J EWISH

IMMIGRANTS
The Canadian government justified its
stingy position against accepting
Jewish refugees by arguing that
Canada had a high unemployment rate
and therefore could not let in Jews,
who might take jobs away from
Canadians.
A NTI -S EMITISM

An overlay of anti-Semitism was the
nail in the coffin that limited any
chance Jews had of emigrating to
Canada.

Regardless of any public support the
Jewish organizations were able to
garner, the government refused to
budge.
J EWISH R EFUGEES :
C ANADA’ S R ESPONSE

Canada took in proportionately fewer
Jews than any western country.

Canada accepted fewer than 4000
before the war.

The U.S accepted 240 000 and Britain 85
000.
J EWS

AS
E NEMY A LIENS
In New Brunswick, 711 Jews, refugees
from the holocaust, were interned at
the request of British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill because he thought
there might be spies in the group.
S T. L OUIS I NCIDENT

In June of 1939, the St. Louis Ocean Liner
arrived off the East Coast of Canada
carrying 907 Jews.

These refugees had been denied entry
into Cuba and other Latin-American
countries and had turned to Canada in
hopes of finding somewhere to live.
S T. L OUIS I NCIDENT

Earlier in 1939, Canada had allowed
nearly 3000 Jews into Canada, but now
refused to allow these Jews enter Canada.

It was believed that Jewish refugees
would not make good settlers.
S T. L OUIS I NCIDENT

They were forced to return to Europe and
many died in the Nazi concentration +
death camps.
I MMIGRATION P OST WWII

About 40 000 survivors of the Holocaust
came in the late 1940s, seeking a
peaceful country, a place where they
might have a chance at rebuilding their
lives, or simply coming because they had
relatives here.
E NEMY A LIENS I N C ANADA
D URING WWII
E NEMY A LIENS

During World War II the War Measures
Act was used again to intern
Canadians, and 26 internment camps
were set up across Canada.

In 1940 an Order in Council was
passed that defined enemy aliens as
"all persons of German or Italian racial
origin who have become naturalized
British subjects since September 1,
1922".
E NEMY A LIENS

A further Order in Council outlawed
the Communist Party.

Estimates suggest that some 30,000
individuals were affected by these
Orders; that is, they were forced to
register with the RCMP and to report
to them on a monthly basis.
E NEMY A LIENS :
I TALIAN C ANADIANS

The loyalties of Italian Canadians were
questioned = 31,000 Italian
Canadians were placed on ‘enemy
alien’ lists.

They were considered to be fascist
sympathizers and potential terrorists
and were put under surveillance.
I TALIAN C ANADIAN
I NTERNMENT

The government interned
approximately 600 Italians and over
100 communists.

They were taken from their families
and held in prisons and remote camps
(Petawawa, Ontario; Kananaskis,
Alberta) or told to join the Canadian
military.
Kananaskis, Alberta
Memorabilia collected
from the camps
include a shirt with a
red circle indicating a
prisoner, a German
Army buckle and a
homemade knife
discovered in Camp
133 at Lethbridge.
A member of the Veterans
Guard of Canada mans his
position at a guard tower
in Monteith, Ont.
E NEMY A LIENS :
G ERMAN + A USTRIAN
C ANADIANS

Around 850 German-Canadians were
interned and over 66,000 German and
Austrian nationals and naturalized
citizens, who had arrived in Canada
after 1922, were forced to report to
police regularly.

Internment operations in Canada were
notably small considering that there
were over 600,000 Germans living in
Canada.
E NEMY A LIENS :
G ERMAN C ANADIANS

Leniency was a product of the fact
that most German Canadians did not
demonstrate any concern for, let alone
affiliation with German political
interests.

Most had left Germany to flee the
hostile climate that was developing or,
they had been born in Canada.
E NEMY A LIENS :
G ERMAN C ANADIANS

In 1939, the only camps that were
open were in Kananaskis, Alberta, and
Petawawa, Ontario.

It was not until the British started
sending their prisoners of war to
Canada, that major operations in
Quebec opened in order to
accommodate German POWs.
Petawawa, Ontario
Petawawa, Ontario
IN
WAR THERE ARE NO
UNWOUNDED SOLDIERS
J APANESE C ANADIAN
I NTERNMENT IN WWII