Minority Groups In Canada

Despite today’s Canada is composed of many people with different cultural backgrounds, and is well-known of its multiculturalism, diversity and equal rights, however, the situation was not the same during the World War I. Back to the early 19th century, the minority groups in Canada including the Black Canadians and Aboriginal people, encountered discrimination and exclusion from the recruiting stations of Canadian army. Although many of their rights were deprived and were restricted from joining the Canadian Armies, their notable contributions and the willingness to fight for the country that impacted Canada during the First World War could not be undervalued. In August 1914, as Great Britain declared war on Germany, Canada was then legally …show more content…
the Canadian government in Ottawa also prohibited the enlistment of Aboriginal peoples. The government was very concerned that Indian people would not get along with White people, their laziness might rub off on the White people, their strange ways and customs might offend White troops. During the wartime, Aboriginal People were not even considered as “Canadian citizens”, they could not own land and had very little stake in Canada. First Nations felt emasculated as their cultural had been taken away, they were not allowed to speak their language, practice their religion and even dancing was prohibited. Before 1915, First Nations were exempt from conscription, unless they abandon their Indian status. Also, Aboriginal kids were put into residential schools by the Canadian government that were far away from reserves where they lived during the wartime in order to assimilate them. It was unreasonable that the Canadian government just took away the children from their parents, and the parent had no longer contact with their child anymore. Aboriginal people still signed up voluntarily to go fight a war for people that did not really respect them and a war that has nothing to do with them, as present-day novelist Joseph Boyden stated that “they wanted to prove themselves and reclaim their warrior spirit.” Indian Affairs’ records indicate that including the aboriginal people who lived in the isolated northern communities of Newfoundland and Labrador, more than 3,500 status Indians enlisted during the First World War, which was a greater number than any other population in Canada. The Canadian government was so shocked and surprised by the sheer numbers of Indian volunteers early in the war, that they considered and almost created their own First Nation infantry and regiment (Boyden). Since most Native recruits spent their lives hunting, they were