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← CHC2D Canadian History since World War I

CHC2D · Exam review

Canadian History since World War I Exam Review

A practice exam with questions from all 5 units, then the key facts from every lesson, unit by unit. For a deeper look at one unit, open its test review.

Unit test reviews

  1. Unit 1. Historical Thinking & Inquiry~10%
  2. Unit 2. Canada, 1914–1929~22%
  3. Unit 3. Canada, 1929–1945~23%
  4. Unit 4. Canada, 1945–1982~23%
  5. Unit 5. Canada, 1982 to the Present~22%

Practice exam

35 questions, the same number from each unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. Unit 1: The Four Concepts of Historical Thinking
    1
    Which question mainly uses the concept of continuity and change?
  2. Unit 1: The Four Concepts of Historical Thinking
    2
    A historian says: "The 1923 Chinese Immigration Act is one of the most important events of the 1920s for Chinese Canadian families, even though many older histories barely mention it." Which idea about significance does this show?
  3. Unit 1: Sources and Evidence: Primary, Secondary and Oral, Credibility and Citation
    3
    Which of these is a primary source for studying the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike?
  4. Unit 1: Sources and Evidence: Primary, Secondary and Oral, Credibility and Citation
    4
    Which statement about oral histories is most accurate?
  5. Unit 1: Sources and Evidence: Primary, Secondary and Oral, Credibility and Citation
    5
    Match each source with the question it would be primary evidence for.
    A 1931 census table
    A Le Devoir editorial from 1917
    A survivor's statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
    A 1960s magazine article about the First World War
  6. Unit 1: The Historical Inquiry Process and Where It Leads
    6
    What type of inquiry question asks "how important", "how successful" or "to what extent"?
  7. Unit 1: The Historical Inquiry Process and Where It Leads
    7
    Which is the best example of using historical skills as an informed citizen?
  8. Unit 2: Causes of World War I and Why Canada Was at War
    8
    Why was Canada at war on August 4, 1914?
  9. Unit 2: Canadians on the Battlefield, 1914–1918
    9
    Name the Canadian general who took command of the Canadian Corps in June 1917.
  10. Unit 2: The Home Front: War Economy, Women, Internment, Conscription and the Halifax Explosion
    10
    Which statement about women on the First World War home front is most accurate?
  11. Unit 2: The 1920s: Economy, Technology, Arts and Popular Culture
    11
    Which development best explains why the Maritime Rights movement arose in the 1920s?
  12. Unit 2: Women's Rights and the Persons Case; Immigration Policy and Discrimination
    12
    Put these milestones for women's rights in chronological order.
    1. 1The Privy Council rules that women are persons
    2. 2Agnes Macphail is elected to the House of Commons
    3. 3A federal law extends the vote to most women
    4. 4Manitoba women win the provincial vote
    5. 5The Wartime Elections Act gives some women the federal vote
  13. Unit 2: First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1914–1929
    13
    Until what year did the 1927 Indian Act ban on raising money or hiring lawyers for land claims remain in force?
  14. Unit 2: Growing Autonomy: From Versailles to the Statute of Westminster
    14
    What did the Balfour Declaration of 1926 state about Britain and the dominions?
  15. Unit 3: The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada
    15
    Which cause of the Depression affected the Prairies far more than other regions of Canada?
  16. Unit 3: Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions
    16
    What 1933 document set out the CCF's democratic socialist program?
  17. Unit 3: Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor
    17
    Which statement about Adrien Arcand is accurate?
  18. Unit 3: The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry
    18
    Put these steps on the road to war in chronological order.
    1. 1The Munich Agreement gives Germany the Sudetenland
    2. 2Germany invades Poland
    3. 3The Nazi–Soviet Pact is signed
    4. 4Japan invades Manchuria
    5. 5Italy invades Ethiopia
    6. 6German troops enter the Rhineland
    7. 7Germany annexes Austria (the Anschluss)
  19. Unit 3: Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands
    19
    Put these Canadian campaigns and battles in chronological order.
    1. 1D-Day landings at Juno Beach
    2. 2German forces in the Netherlands surrender
    3. 3The Battle of the Scheldt
    4. 4The defence of Hong Kong
    5. 5The Dieppe Raid
    6. 6The invasion of Sicily
    7. 7The Battle of Ortona
  20. Unit 3: The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment
    20
    Which statement about Japanese Canadians during the war is accurate?
  21. Unit 3: First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945
    21
    What did enfranchisement mean under the Indian Act?
  22. Unit 4: The Postwar Boom: Baby Boom, Suburbs, Economy and Technology
    22
    Which factor helped prevent a return to depression after 1945?
  23. Unit 4: Canada in the Cold War: Gouzenko, NATO, NORAD, Korea and Peacekeeping
    23
    In what year did Lester B. Pearson win the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Suez Crisis?
  24. Unit 4: Building the Social Safety Net: Family Allowance, Pensions and Medicare
    24
    Why did federal social programs often cause tension with Quebec?
  25. Unit 4: First Nations, Métis and Inuit Rights, 1945–1982
    25
    In what year did status First Nations people gain the right to vote in federal elections without losing their status?
  26. Unit 4: Equality Movements: Women's Rights and Black Canadians' Resistance to Anti-Black Racism
    26
    What was Viola Desmond charged with after refusing to leave the whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre?
  27. Unit 4: Immigration, Refugees and Multiculturalism, 1945–1982
    27
    Why did some Québécois criticize the 1971 multiculturalism policy?
  28. Unit 4: Identity and Independence: the Flag, Expo 67, Culture, the United States and the Charter
    28
    What is the name of the November 1981 compromise between Ottawa and nine provinces that led to patriation?
  29. Unit 5: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Action
    29
    Which part of the Charter allows governments to place reasonable limits on rights?
  30. Unit 5: Quebec and National Unity: Meech Lake to the Clarity Act
    30
    Which statement best describes the Supreme Court's Reference re Secession of Quebec (1998)?
  31. Unit 5: First Nations, Métis and Inuit Since 1982: From Oka to UNDRIP
    31
    Which group started the Idle No More movement in 2012?
  32. Unit 5: Canada in the World: Peacekeeping, Conflicts and Alliances Since 1982
    32
    Put these international events involving Canada in chronological order, earliest first.
    1. 1Canadian troops go to Afghanistan
    2. 2Canada's NATO-led air mission over Libya
    3. 3Canada declines to join the invasion of Iraq
    4. 4Canada joins the coalition in the Gulf War
    5. 5The Somalia Affair
    6. 6The genocide in Rwanda
    7. 7NATO's air campaign over Kosovo
  33. Unit 5: Black Communities in Canada Since 1982: Systemic Racism, Activism and Recognition
    33
    Put these events in chronological order, earliest first.
    1. 1The ten-dollar note featuring Viola Desmond enters circulation
    2. 2Ontario's rules restricting arbitrary street checks take effect
    3. 3The House of Commons recognizes August 1 as Emancipation Day
    4. 4The Yonge Street uprising and the Stephen Lewis report
    5. 5The House of Commons recognizes February as Black History Month
    6. 6The Senate recognizes Black History Month
  34. Unit 5: Acknowledging the Past: Apologies, Redress and Commemoration
    34
    Why did some Chinese Canadians criticize the 2006 head tax redress?
  35. Unit 5: Canada–US Relations and Canadian Identity Today
    35
    What is the name for rules requiring Canadian broadcasters to air a share of Canadian-made music and programs?

Key facts by unit

Unit 1: Historical Thinking & Inquiry

The Four Concepts of Historical Thinking

  • Ontario's four concepts of historical thinking: historical significance, cause and consequence, continuity and change, and historical perspective.
  • Significance is argued with criteria (impact, duration, what it reveals, relevance today) and can differ from one group to another.
  • Causes can be long-term, short-term or the trigger; consequences can be intended or unintended, short- or long-term.
  • Continuity and change compares two points in time; change is not always progress, and a turning point is where the direction or speed of change shifts.
  • Historical perspective means understanding people in the context of their time and avoiding presentism, without excusing injustice; people at the same time often disagreed.

Sources and Evidence: Primary, Secondary and Oral, Credibility and Citation

  • A primary source was created at the time or by a participant or witness; a secondary source interprets the past later. Which one a source is depends on your question.
  • Oral histories and oral traditional knowledge are valid evidence: in Delgamuukw (December 11, 1997) the Supreme Court of Canada said they must be placed on an equal footing with written documents.
  • Judge credibility by author, date and context, purpose, audience, bias and perspective, and corroboration with other independent sources.
  • A biased source is still useful: it is evidence of what its creator believed or wanted others to believe.
  • Trace images to an archive, use reverse image search, and look for signs of manipulation or AI generation before using them as evidence.
  • Chicago-style notes and bibliography are common in history; MLA or APA is also acceptable if used consistently.

The Historical Inquiry Process and Where It Leads

  • Four types of inquiry questions: factual (what happened?), comparative (how similar or different?), causal (why, and with what results?) and evaluative (how important, successful or justified?).
  • The inquiry process: formulate questions; gather and organize; interpret and analyse; evaluate and draw conclusions; communicate. It is not a straight line.
  • Strong inquiries use evidence from multiple perspectives and note which voices are missing.
  • A strong thesis takes a clear, debatable position; each point needs evidence plus analysis, and a counter-argument should be addressed.
  • Historical inquiry builds the Ontario Skills Passport essential skills (reading text, writing, document use, computer use, oral communication, numeracy, thinking skills) used in many careers.
Unit 2: Canada, 1914–1929

Causes of World War I and Why Canada Was at War

  • Long-term causes of the First World War: militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism (MAIN).
  • The spark: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.
  • The Allies (Triple Entente: Britain, France, Russia) fought the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, later Bulgaria).
  • Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, after Germany invaded neutral Belgium; Canada, as a dominion, was automatically at war.
  • Canada decided the size of its contribution; the first contingent of the CEF sailed from Quebec on October 3, 1914.
  • English Canadians with strong British ties tended to support the war more eagerly than French Canadians; Henri Bourassa opposed fighting for imperial interests.

Canadians on the Battlefield, 1914–1918

  • Second Ypres (April 1915): Canada's first major battle and the first large-scale chlorine gas attack on the Western Front; more than 6,000 Canadian casualties.
  • Beaumont-Hamel (July 1, 1916): the Newfoundland Regiment lost about 700 of roughly 800 men; only 68 answered roll call the next day.
  • Vimy Ridge (April 9–12, 1917): all four Canadian divisions attacked together under Byng; 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded.
  • Passchendaele (October 26–November 10, 1917): 15,654 Canadian casualties in the mud; Currie had commanded the Canadian Corps since June 1917.
  • Canada's Hundred Days (August 8–November 11, 1918), starting at Amiens, ended at Mons on Armistice Day.
  • About 620,000 enlisted in the CEF; close to 61,000 Canadians died (about 66,000 counting later war-related deaths) and about 172,000 were wounded.

The Home Front: War Economy, Women, Internment, Conscription and the Halifax Explosion

  • The War Measures Act (1914) gave the federal cabinet emergency powers; 8,579 "enemy aliens", many Ukrainian, were interned in 24 camps from 1914 to 1920, and about 80,000 had to register.
  • The Income War Tax Act (September 20, 1917) introduced a "temporary" federal income tax that became permanent.
  • Military Service Act (August 29, 1917), Wartime Elections Act (September 20, 1917), Union Government (October 1917) and the election of December 17, 1917, split Canada along language lines.
  • Quebec City Easter riots (March 28–April 1, 1918): soldiers fired on a crowd and four civilians were killed.
  • Halifax Explosion (December 6, 1917): the Mont-Blanc and Imo collided; nearly 2,000 were killed and about 9,000 injured.

Peace and Upheaval: Versailles, the 1918 Influenza and the Winnipeg General Strike

  • The armistice ended the fighting at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918.
  • Canada won separate representation at the Paris Peace Conference and signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919; it became a founding member of the League of Nations.
  • The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic killed about 55,000 Canadians, many of them young adults; isolated Indigenous communities suffered extreme losses.
  • The Winnipeg General Strike lasted from May 15 to June 26, 1919; more than 30,000 workers walked out.
  • Bloody Saturday (June 21, 1919): police charged a crowd, two men were killed and about 30 injured.

The 1920s: Economy, Technology, Arts and Popular Culture

  • A postwar recession (1920–1922) gave way to a boom from about 1924 to 1929, led by pulp and paper, mining, hydroelectricity, wheat and cars.
  • American investment overtook British investment in the 1920s, often through branch plants.
  • The boom was uneven: the Maritimes declined (Maritime Rights movement, Duncan Commission 1926) and Prairie farmers backed the Progressive Party (58 seats in 1921).
  • Insulin was discovered in Toronto in 1921–1922 by Banting and Best, with Collip and Macleod; Banting and Macleod won the 1923 Nobel Prize.
  • The Group of Seven held its first exhibition on May 7, 1920; American movies, radio and magazines grew more influential.
  • Canada's urban population passed half for the first time in the 1931 census (53.7 per cent).

Women's Rights and the Persons Case; Immigration Policy and Discrimination

  • Manitoba gave women the provincial vote first (January 28, 1916); most women gained the federal vote by a law of May 24, 1918; Quebec women waited until 1940.
  • Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons on December 6, 1921.
  • Persons Case: the Supreme Court said no (April 24, 1928); the Privy Council ruled women were persons (October 18, 1929); Cairine Wilson became the first woman senator in 1930.
  • Several of the Famous Five, notably Murphy and McClung, also supported eugenics and sterilization laws such as Alberta's Sexual Sterilization Act (1928), which harmed thousands of people, Indigenous people out of proportion to their numbers.
  • The Chinese Immigration Act (in force July 1, 1923) banned almost all Chinese immigration until 1947; the federal government apologized in 2006.
  • Immigration policy ranked newcomers as "preferred" (British, American, northern European) or "non-preferred", and excluded most Asian and Black immigrants.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1914–1929

  • More than 4,000 First Nations men volunteered in the First World War; status Indians were exempted from conscripted combat service on January 17, 1918.
  • A 1920 Indian Act amendment made schooling compulsory for First Nations children aged 7 to 15, under Duncan Campbell Scott.
  • A 1927 amendment made it illegal to raise money or hire lawyers for land claims without government permission (until 1951).
  • Fred Loft founded the League of Indians of Canada, the first national Indigenous political organization; its first congress met at Sault Ste. Marie in 1919.
  • Deskaheh took the Haudenosaunee case to the League of Nations in 1923; the RCMP imposed an elected council at Six Nations in October 1924.
  • First Nations, Métis and Inuit faced different policies: the Indian Act for status First Nations, neglect for Métis, and growing trade and police presence for Inuit.

Growing Autonomy: From Versailles to the Statute of Westminster

  • 1914: Canada was automatically at war when Britain declared war; by 1939 Canada decided for itself.
  • 1919: Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles separately and joined the League of Nations.
  • Chanak Crisis (1922): King said Canada's Parliament would decide whether to send troops; Halibut Treaty (March 2, 1923): first treaty Canada negotiated and signed on its own.
  • King–Byng Affair (1926): Byng refused King's request for an election; King won the September 1926 election and argued the governor general must follow the advice of Canada's government.
  • Balfour Declaration (1926): Britain and the dominions were "equal in status"; Statute of Westminster (December 11, 1931) made this law.
  • Amending the constitution stayed in British hands until patriation in 1982.
Unit 3: Canada, 1929–1945

The Great Depression: Causes and Impact Across Canada

  • The Great Depression lasted roughly from 1929 until the Second World War; the stock market crash of October 1929 (Black Tuesday, October 29) was the trigger.
  • Long-term causes: overproduction, buying on credit and on margin, and Canada's dependence on exporting a few staples such as wheat.
  • Aggravating factors: high tariffs, especially the US Smoot–Hawley Tariff (1930), and drought on the Prairies (the Dirty Thirties).
  • Between 1929 and 1933 Canada's gross national expenditure fell by about 42 per cent; by 1933 an estimated 19 to 30 per cent of the labour force was unemployed, depending on how it is measured.
  • The Prairies, especially Saskatchewan, were hit hardest; single men, immigrants, women and Indigenous communities also faced particular hardship.

Responding to the Depression: Relief, Protest, New Parties and New Institutions

  • King's "five-cent piece" remark (April 1930) helped R. B. Bennett's Conservatives win the July 28, 1930 election.
  • Federal relief camps (October 1932–June 1936) paid single men 20 cents a day; their protest became the On-to-Ottawa Trek (from June 3, 1935), stopped by the Regina Riot on July 1, 1935.
  • Bennett's New Deal (radio broadcasts, January 1935) promised unemployment insurance, a minimum wage and work-hour limits; most of it was struck down in 1937 as provincial jurisdiction.
  • New parties: the CCF (1932, Regina Manifesto 1933, J. S. Woodsworth), Social Credit (Alberta, 1935, William Aberhart) and the Union Nationale (Quebec, 1936, Maurice Duplessis).
  • Lasting institutions: Bank of Canada (1935), Canadian Wheat Board (1935), CBC (1936), unemployment insurance (1940).

Extreme Ideologies of the 1930s and the Holodomor

  • Communism under Stalin (USSR), fascism (Mussolini's Italy, from 1922) and Nazism (Hitler, chancellor January 30, 1933) were all totalitarian: one party, secret police, propaganda, no free elections and persecution of scapegoated groups.
  • In Canada, Adrien Arcand founded the fascist National Social Christian Party (1934) and the National Unity Party (1938); he was interned in 1940.
  • The Christie Pits riot (Toronto, August 16, 1933) began when a swastika banner was unfurled at a game involving a mostly Jewish team; fighting lasted about six hours.
  • The Holodomor (1932–1933) was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine caused by Stalin's policies; it killed millions (demographers estimate about 3.9 million).
  • Canada's Parliament recognized the Holodomor as genocide in 2008; Holodomor Memorial Day is the fourth Saturday in November.

Antisemitism, the Holocaust and Canada's Response

  • The Holocaust (Shoah) was Nazi Germany's systematic persecution and murder of about six million Jews, about two-thirds of Europe's Jews, from 1933 to 1945.
  • Steps toward genocide: Nazi takeover (1933), Nuremberg Laws (1935), Kristallnacht (November 9–10, 1938), ghettos and mass shootings, Wannsee Conference (January 20, 1942), killing centres; Auschwitz liberated January 27, 1945.
  • Canada admitted fewer than 5,000 Jewish refugees from 1933 to 1945 (Abella and Troper, None Is Too Many); immigration director F. C. Blair strongly opposed Jewish immigration.
  • In June 1939 Canada refused the MS St. Louis; 254 of its passengers were later murdered. Canada apologized on November 7, 2018.
  • Canadian troops liberated Westerbork (April 12, 1945); about 35,000 to 40,000 survivors later settled in Canada; John Humphrey drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).
  • Antisemitism continues: in 2024 police-reported data, Jewish people were the group most often targeted by hate crimes in Canada.

The Road to World War II and Canada's Entry

  • Long-term causes of WWII: the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression, aggressive dictatorships (Italy, Germany, Japan), a weak League of Nations, and appeasement and isolationism.
  • Key acts of aggression: Manchuria (1931), Ethiopia (1935), the Rhineland (1936), the Anschluss (March 1938), the Sudetenland after the Munich Agreement (September 1938), Czechoslovakia (March 1939), Poland (September 1, 1939).
  • The Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 23, 1939) cleared the way for Germany's invasion of Poland.
  • Because of the Statute of Westminster (1931), Canada made its own declaration of war on September 10, 1939, one week after Britain.
  • The Ogdensburg Agreement (August 18, 1940) and Hyde Park Declaration (April 20, 1941) tied Canada's defence and war economy more closely to the United States.

Canada's War: From the Atlantic to the Netherlands

  • More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the Second World War; more than 45,000 died.
  • The BCATP (from December 1939) trained more than 130,000 Allied aircrew in Canada, more than half of them Canadians.
  • In the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) the RCN grew from 13 ships to about 400, escorting convoys; more than 1,600 Canadian and Newfoundland merchant mariners were killed.
  • Hong Kong (December 1941): 1,975 Canadians, about 554 died in battle or as prisoners. Dieppe (August 19, 1942): 916 Canadians killed, nearly 1,950 captured.
  • Italy (1943–1945, Ortona December 1943), D-Day at Juno Beach (June 6, 1944, 359 killed), the Scheldt (fall 1944) and the liberation of the Netherlands (German surrender there May 5, 1945; more than 7,600 Canadian deaths).

The Home Front: Total War, Women, Conscription and Internment

  • Total war means mobilizing all of a country's people and resources; C. D. Howe directed war production, and the Wartime Prices and Trade Board controlled prices and wages.
  • Rationing began in 1942; Victory Bond campaigns raised about 12 billion dollars; Canada's GNP roughly doubled from 1939 to 1945.
  • Women in paid work roughly doubled (about 600,000 to 1.2 million, 1939–1944); about 50,000 women served in uniform, in the CWAC, RCAF Women's Division and WRCNS and as nursing sisters.
  • NRMA (June 21, 1940): home-defence conscription. Plebiscite (April 27, 1942): about 65 per cent yes nationally, about 73 per cent no in Quebec. November 1944: 16,000 conscripts ordered overseas.
  • About 22,000 Japanese Canadians were uprooted from the BC coast from February 1942; their property was sold from 1943; restrictions lasted until April 1, 1949; redress came September 22, 1988.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit, 1929–1945

  • First Nations, Métis and Inuit were governed by different policies: the Indian Act and residential schools (80 operating in 1931); Alberta's Métis Population Betterment Act (1938); Inuit placed under federal responsibility (Re Eskimos, 1939) and given disc numbers (from 1941).
  • The Dominion Franchise Act (1934) barred Inuit and First Nations people living on reserves from federal voting, except some veterans; Inuit won the vote in 1950 and all status First Nations people in 1960.
  • Just over 3,000 status First Nations people were recorded as enlisting in the Second World War (an undercount), along with Métis, Inuit and non-status people.
  • Notable service: Tommy Prince (Military Medal and US Silver Star), Cree code talker Charles "Checker" Tomkins, and Mary Greyeyes of the CWAC.
  • Wartime injustices: Stoney Point reserve taken for Camp Ipperwash (1942), loss of status through enfranchisement, and unequal Veterans' Land Act benefits.
Unit 4: Canada, 1945–1982

The Postwar Boom: Baby Boom, Suburbs, Economy and Technology

  • The postwar boom (about 1945 to the early 1970s) was driven by wartime savings, pent-up demand, government spending, Cold War demand for resources and American investment.
  • Statistics Canada dates the baby boom from 1946 to 1965; births peaked at about 479,000 in 1959.
  • Newfoundland joined Canada on March 31, 1949; the Trans-Canada Highway opened in 1962 and the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959.
  • The Rand Formula (1946) required all workers under a union contract to pay dues, strengthening unions.
  • Key technology: CANDU reactors (1962 onward), Alouette 1 (1962), the cancelled Avro Arrow (1959), Anik A1 (1972) and the Canadarm (1981).
  • The 1970s brought oil shocks (1973, 1979) and stagflation, ending with the recession of 1981–1982.

Canada in the Cold War: Gouzenko, NATO, NORAD, Korea and Peacekeeping

  • Igor Gouzenko defected from the Soviet embassy in Ottawa on September 5, 1945, exposing a Soviet spy ring and helping start the Cold War in Canada.
  • Canada was a founding member of NATO (April 4, 1949) and joined NORAD with the United States (1957–58).
  • Over 26,000 Canadians served in the Korean War (1950–1953); 516 died. Kapyong (April 1951) is the best-known Canadian battle.
  • Lester B. Pearson proposed the UN Emergency Force during the 1956 Suez Crisis and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.
  • Diefenbaker cancelled the Avro Arrow on February 20, 1959, and hesitated during the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962); the nuclear warhead dispute helped bring down his government in 1963.

Building the Social Safety Net: Family Allowance, Pensions and Medicare

  • The Family Allowance Act (1944) paid a monthly baby bonus for every child, starting in July 1945.
  • Old Age Security (1952) paid 40 dollars a month to every Canadian aged 70 and over, with no means test.
  • Saskatchewan introduced hospital insurance (1947) and medicare (July 1, 1962), sparking a doctors' strike.
  • The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans began on January 1, 1966; the Medical Care Act (1966) came into force on July 1, 1968.
  • The 1971 Unemployment Insurance reform covered almost all workers and added sickness and maternity benefits.

Quebec: Duplessis, the Quiet Revolution, the October Crisis and the 1980 Referendum

  • Maurice Duplessis and the Union Nationale governed Quebec 1936–1939 and 1944–1959; critics called the era la Grande Noirceur.
  • The Quiet Revolution began with Jean Lesage's election on June 22, 1960; "Maîtres chez nous" led to the Hydro-Québec takeover of private power companies (1962–63).
  • The October Crisis (1970): the FLQ kidnapped James Cross and Pierre Laporte; Ottawa invoked the War Measures Act on October 16, and 497 people were arrested.
  • René Lévesque's Parti Québécois (founded 1968) won power on November 15, 1976, and passed Bill 101, the Charter of the French Language, in 1977.
  • In the referendum of May 20, 1980, Quebecers rejected sovereignty-association: No 59.56 per cent, Yes 40.44 per cent.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit Rights, 1945–1982

  • The 1951 Indian Act revisions lifted the bans on ceremonies such as the potlatch and on raising money for land claims, but kept Indian agents, enfranchisement and a rule (s. 12(1)(b)) that took status from women who married non-status men.
  • Inuit gained the federal vote in 1950; status First Nations people gained it without losing status in 1960.
  • The High Arctic relocation (1953 and 1955), the sled-dog killings, the Sixties Scoop and continuing residential schools disrupted families and communities.
  • The White Paper (June 1969) proposed abolishing the Indian Act and Indian status; the Red Paper, Citizens Plus (June 1970), rejected it, and it was withdrawn in 1971.
  • The Calder decision (1973) recognized that Aboriginal title existed in Canadian law; section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, recognized and affirmed existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

Equality Movements: Women's Rights and Black Canadians' Resistance to Anti-Black Racism

  • The share of women in the paid labour force rose from about a quarter of women in 1951 to about half in 1981, but most worked in lower-paid jobs and earned less than men.
  • The Royal Commission on the Status of Women (1967–1970) made 167 recommendations; in 1981 women's lobbying won section 28 of the Charter.
  • Viola Desmond was arrested on November 8, 1946, for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a New Glasgow theatre; she was pardoned in 2010 and appears on the ten-dollar note (2018).
  • Ontario passed the Racial Discrimination Act (1944), the Fair Employment Practices Act (1951) and Canada's first Human Rights Code (1962).
  • Africville in Halifax was destroyed between 1964 and 1970; Halifax apologized in 2010.
  • Lincoln Alexander became the first Black MP (1968); Rosemary Brown the first Black woman elected to a provincial legislature (1972).

Immigration, Refugees and Multiculturalism, 1945–1982

  • Canada admitted more than 165,000 displaced persons after the Second World War; the Canadian Citizenship Act took effect on January 1, 1947.
  • The Chinese Immigration Act was repealed on May 14, 1947, but racial preferences remained in policy until the 1962 regulations and the 1967 points system.
  • The 1967 points system judged applicants on education, skills, language, age and job offers rather than race or nationality.
  • Prime Minister Trudeau announced the policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework on October 8, 1971.
  • The Immigration Act of 1976 (in force 1978) made refugees a separate class and allowed private sponsorship; about 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees came in 1979–80.

Identity and Independence: the Flag, Expo 67, Culture, the United States and the Charter

  • The Massey Commission (report 1951) led to the National Library (1953) and the Canada Council (1957) to support Canadian culture; CanCon radio rules began in 1971.
  • The Maple Leaf flag was first raised on February 15, 1965; Expo 67 in Montreal drew about 50 million visits during the Centennial.
  • Canada–US ties deepened (Auto Pact, 1965) but were also challenged (Vietnam, the Third Option, FIRA in 1973, the National Energy Program in 1980).
  • The Kitchen Accord (November 5, 1981) led to the Constitution Act, 1982, proclaimed April 17, 1982, with an amending formula and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
  • Quebec did not agree to patriation; its National Assembly has never formally endorsed the Constitution Act, 1982.
Unit 5: Canada, 1982 to the Present

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Action

  • The Charter of Rights and Freedoms became part of the constitution with the Constitution Act, 1982, proclaimed April 17, 1982; equality rights (section 15) took effect April 17, 1985.
  • Section 1 allows reasonable limits on rights that can be justified in a free and democratic society; the Oakes test (1986) decides whether a limit is justified.
  • Section 33 (the notwithstanding clause) lets a legislature override section 2 or sections 7–15 for five years at a time; it cannot override democratic, mobility or language rights.
  • Landmark cases: Singh (1985), Oakes (1986), Morgentaler (1988), Andrews (1989), Sparrow (1990, section 35 Aboriginal rights), Vriend (1998), Carter (2015).
  • The Charter limits governments and their laws; it does not directly govern private disputes, which are handled by human rights codes.

Quebec and National Unity: Meech Lake to the Clarity Act

  • Meech Lake Accord: agreed April 30, 1987; recognized Quebec as a distinct society; died June 23, 1990, after Elijah Harper blocked a vote in Manitoba and Newfoundland cancelled its vote.
  • Charlottetown Accord: rejected by about 54 per cent of voters in the national referendum of October 26, 1992.
  • The Bloc Québécois (founded 1991, led by Lucien Bouchard) became the Official Opposition in 1993; the Reform Party (founded 1987, Preston Manning) won 52 seats in the West.
  • 1995 Quebec referendum, October 30: No 50.58 per cent, Yes 49.42 per cent, turnout over 93 per cent.
  • Reference re Secession of Quebec (1998): no unilateral secession, but a clear majority on a clear question creates a duty to negotiate; the Clarity Act (2000) put this into federal law.

First Nations, Métis and Inuit Since 1982: From Oka to UNDRIP

  • Oka (Kanehsatà:ke) resistance: a 78-day standoff, July 11 to September 26, 1990, over land the Kanien'kehá:ka had long claimed.
  • The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples reported in 1996 with 440 recommendations; Nunavut became a territory on April 1, 1999; the Nisga'a Final Agreement took effect in 2000.
  • Prime Minister Harper apologized for residential schools on June 11, 2008; the TRC released 94 Calls to Action in 2015.
  • The MMIWG Inquiry's final report (June 3, 2019) made 231 Calls for Justice; the UNDRIP Act became law on June 21, 2021.
  • The first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was held on September 30, 2021.

Economy and Regionalism: Free Trade, Globalization and Western Alienation

  • Free trade: FTA in effect January 1, 1989 (after the 1988 "free trade election"); NAFTA January 1, 1994; CUSMA July 1, 2020.
  • The northern cod moratorium of July 2, 1992 put roughly 30,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador out of work.
  • Manufacturing's share of jobs fell sharply after the 1980s as globalization moved production abroad and service and tech jobs grew.
  • The National Energy Program (1980) remains a symbol of Western alienation; the Reform Party (1987) gave it a political voice.
  • Equalization (since 1957; section 36 of the Constitution Act, 1982) transfers federal money so that have-not provinces can offer comparable services.

Canada in the World: Peacekeeping, Conflicts and Alliances Since 1982

  • Gulf War (1991): Canada joined the UN-authorized coalition that expelled Iraq from Kuwait.
  • Somalia (1993): the killing of Shidane Arone led to the Airborne Regiment's disbanding in 1995; Rwanda (1994): Roméo Dallaire's UN mission could not stop a genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 or more people.
  • Afghanistan (2001–2014): more than 40,000 Canadian Armed Forces members served and 158 were killed; combat in Kandahar from 2006 to 2011.
  • Canada declined to join the 2003 invasion of Iraq because the UN Security Council had not authorized it.
  • Since 2014, and especially since February 24, 2022, Canada has supported Ukraine with training, military, financial and humanitarian aid.

Black Communities in Canada Since 1982: Systemic Racism, Activism and Recognition

  • The Yonge Street uprising of May 4, 1992 led to the Stephen Lewis report (June 9, 1992), which identified anti-Black racism in policing, jobs, housing and schools as the root problem.
  • Systemic racism is built into institutions' policies and practices; it is shown by patterns in data, such as who is carded, streamed or charged.
  • Ontario restricted arbitrary street checks (carding) from January 1, 2017; anti-racism protests spread across Canada in June 2020.
  • Black History Month: House of Commons motion by Jean Augustine (December 1995); Senate motion by Donald Oliver (2008).
  • Viola Desmond appeared on the ten-dollar note from November 19, 2018; the House of Commons recognized August 1 as Emancipation Day in 2021.

Acknowledging the Past: Apologies, Redress and Commemoration

  • Japanese Canadian Redress (September 22, 1988): apology, 21,000 dollars per eligible survivor, a community fund, pardons and restored citizenship.
  • Apologies: Chinese head tax (June 22, 2006), residential schools (June 11, 2008), Komagata Maru (May 18, 2016), LGBT Purge (November 28, 2017), MS St. Louis (November 7, 2018).
  • Parliament recognized the Holodomor as a genocide in 2008 and created Holodomor Memorial Day (fourth Saturday of November).
  • Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom ha-Shoah) was created by law in 2003; the National Holocaust Monument opened in Ottawa in 2017.
  • Most acknowledgements followed long campaigns by the affected communities; their significance depends on specificity, action and community acceptance.

Canada–US Relations and Canadian Identity Today

  • Canada and the US are deeply integrated: FTA (1989), NAFTA (1994), CUSMA (2020); most Canadian exports go to the US.
  • Cooperation and conflict coexist: the 1991 Air Quality Agreement, 9/11 and Gander (2001), but also softwood lumber disputes and Canada's refusal to join the 2003 Iraq invasion.
  • In 2025 the US imposed tariffs on many Canadian goods and its president called for Canada to become the 51st state; Canada answered with counter-tariffs, boycotts and a push to diversify trade.
  • At CUSMA's first joint review on July 1, 2026, the US did not agree to extend it; the agreement remains in force with yearly reviews.
  • The Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988) made multiculturalism law; in 2021 about 23 per cent of people in Canada were immigrants.