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How Did WW2, The Holocaust, And The Cold War Shape Canada's Identity,…

- - - - What soldiers ate in WW2
    - - Canadian Corvette
    - - Battle of the St. Lawrence
        
        Battle of Hong Kong
  - - - To support the war efforts, women took on jobs outside the home which were typically known as men's jobs. But, because men were off at war, the government needed the economy to continue to grow and called for their aid. Women were the main manufacturers in munitions creations, and other creations of weapons.
        
        Women also took a big step forward on the path to gender equality with Elsie MacGill becoming the first woman to be accepted into University of Toronto's Practical Science in electrical engineering. "In 1929, she completed her master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. This was a groundbreaking step for women. It effectively made MacGill the first woman aeronautical engineer in the world" (Sissons). Elsie contributed greatly in the manufacturing of planes during WW2 and was well respected by her peers.
  - - - Because of the attack, Canadians began to believe that all Japanese peoples were or could be associated, and/or connected to the attack, and/or living in Canada as spies.
        
        Because of these prejudices and beliefs, Japanese Canadians were evacuated to internment camps (concentration camps), but not before being attacked by white Canadians. People had their stores, houses, crops, things destroyed. Any boats, cars, etc. they owned were confiscated by the government and sold to white Canadians or to the military. People never got their things back which included family heirlooms.
        
        Japanese Canadians were forced to leave their families most times. They'd go to these places and be forced to live in small houses with several other people. They were allowed to bring one suitcase and one duffel bag.
        
        Upon arrival, they'd be forced to work in extremely straining and difficult labour jobs such as building roads, mining, other constructions, etc. for only twenty five cents an hour. Temperatures were also not favourable for people and they weren't provided with any support. They had minimal food and water, little to no leisure time, and were often abused by camp administrators.
        
        Internment Camps (winter)
        
        Internment Camps
        
        Japanese people leaving by train to go to Internment Camps
        
        Confiscated Boats
      - Pearl Harbor
  - - - For the first time in ten years business was booming and income was being made. This change gave Canadians a purpose once again.
        
        These items made up a lot of the growth of Canadian GDP. They are the products that most of Canadians taxes went to in order to increase the war effort.
        
        This graph demonstrates Canadian GDP growth. In the thirties we see the crash but in the forties, Canadian growth is exponential and even higher than in the twenties when life was "roaring."
  - - - Canadians fought German U-boats in the Battle of the Saint-Lawrence. The St. Lawrence has always been a place of travel and transportation. The Sea was one of the largest ways to get imported goods into Ontario and Quebec, and still is.
        
        During the Second War, German U-boats were attacking this area constantly; sinking ships, raiding ships, exploding them, exploding newly developed boats at docks, exploding docks.
        
        After months of much chaos and destruction, Canadians finally developed the Corvette which was used effectively to defeat German U-boats and pursue several attacks such as D-Day, Dieppe, and defending the St. Lawrence river and sea.
        
        Because of Canada's great accomplishments with their boats, they were named the best navy in the world as part of NATO.
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlxSUHCc9IE
        
        Video is in French with English subtitles
    - - Not to mention, Elsie MacGill, who showed the world that women are smart and capable of doing "men's work" as she was the head designer and crafter for aircrafts during the war.
- - - - Jews faced the most amount of hate in Quebec. Quebec was always a very Catholic dominated region and they detested other religions to the nth degree. One man hated Jews so much (he was a fascist) that he founded groups around the country to show their hatred towards Jews and Communists.
        "Journalist and Nazi sympathizer Adrien Arcand founded the anti-communist and anti-Jewish Parti National Social Chrétien (Christian National Socialist Party). Arcand later led the National Unity Party of Canada. It was an offshoot of anti-Semitic fascist groups that were organized in many towns and cities across the country. These included “swastika clubs” organized in Ontario" (Goldberg).
    - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB97KF-oDj4
  - - - "None is too many" became a popular phrase after the books release and was often used largely beforehand.
        During WW2, the authors of the book discovered that Canada had only accepted around 5'000 Jews, making it one of the worst records among the developed countries of the world.
        "They discovered thousands of letters written by European Jews seeking refuge in Canada from the growing Nazi threat. Time and again, the Canadian government’s response was to tell those people to look elsewhere" (Noakes).
        
        Even before the book was published, it made headway in the government when a few chapters were sent in before its release. "In the late 1970s, advance copies of several chapters were sent to Canadian Immigration Minister Ron Atkey. At the time, Canadians were debating whether the country should accept refugees from Southeast Asia. Popular opinion was divided, and Atkey wasn’t sure what was the best course of action; however, reading the advance chapters of None Is Too Many convinced him that the mistakes made by the King government during the 1930s and 1940s should not be repeated" (Noakes).
  - - - "As a result of Canada's wartime policies, nearly 2,300 men were interned as "enemy aliens" in camps across the country between 1940 and 1943. These were mostly Jewish refugees from Austria and Germany" (“History of Canada and the Holocaust - Canada.ca”)
    - - The MS St. Louis was a ship harbouring 937 people seeking refuge from Germany. "Nearly all of the passengers were Jewish, mostly German citizens, with some eastern Europeans aboard, as well as Spanish and Cuban passengers. Some were officially “stateless” and many had lost their businesses and homes. Others had been freed from Dachau and Buchenwald on the condition they promptly leave Germany" (Yarhi).
        
        Upon arrival to Cuba, "The ship was held in port when it arrived at Havana on 27 May. Only 29 passengers were allowed to disembark; 28 purchased new documents in port, and one was hospitalized in Havana (another passenger had died during the voyage). Increased anti-Semitism, the corrupt sale of landing certificates, and recent changes to immigration regulations in Cuba kept the ship and its passengers in port for days" (Yarhi).
        
        The Captain of the ship refused to send the people back to Germany so they sailed to Florida hoping for acceptance. Guards in Florida wrote to the President but to the dismay of the refugees, "American officials argued that the refugees aboard the ship had to wait their turn in a long line of asylum seekers" (Yarhi).
        
        When news of the refugees reached Canada, a few Canadians wrote to Mackenzie King to accept them. Since the Prime Minister was away, he told his undersecretary of state for external affairs to consult the matter with the Minister of Justice and the Director of the Government of Canada's Immigration Branch.
        
        "Lapointe (Earnest Lapointe, Minister of Justice) was “emphatically opposed” to admitting the refugees, and Blair argued that they did not qualify under current immigration laws — laws he had created. “No country,” according to Blair, “could open its doors wide enough to take in the hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who want to leave Europe: the line must be drawn somewhere.” (Yarhi).
        
        Passengers were forced to sail back to Europe where they dispersed in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Britain. Though many survived, many were sent to Concentration Camps and 254 died there.
- - - - During the Cold War, NATO was used as a potential defense against the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union though, the treaty remained in tact and continues to prosper today.
  - - - The Eisenhower committee took surveys from towns to gauge what people thought would be better than large protection buildings. The information from the survey was never really used by the team as Eisenhower chose to focus more on private nuclear protection sites.
  - - - Igor Gouzenko was a Soviet cipher clerk stationed at the Soviet Union's embassy in Ottawa. After the second war, he left the embassy and brought documents to the government proving that his country had been spying on its wartime allies.
        "According to the documents, the Soviet embassy was home to several spies. They were connected to agents in Montreal, the United States and the United Kingdom who had been providing Moscow with classified information" (Herd). He was given asylum by the Canadian government due to his sharing of information.
        
        "The Gouzenko affair led to widespread investigations in Canada, the US and Great Britain. In Canada, 39 suspects were arrested and 18 were convicted. Some of the most high-profile Canadians who were convicted included: Fred Rose, who was a member of Parliament; Sam Carr of the Labor-Progressive Party (see Communist Party of Canada); and Canadian Army Captain Gordon Lunan" (Herd).
    - - Americans went about the not so quiet process of bringing in everyone they were suspicious of, of being a communist. They went on a "witch-hunt" and looked for "reds." Several news reporters, journalists, etc. that people were suspicious of were brought before the government to be questioned.
        
        Canada took a quieter approach. In Ottawa, security checks were conducted and over 70'000 were done in just one year alone. "The RCMP quietly investigated civil servants, scientists, university professors, and trade unionists, seeking out political or sexual nonconformity" (CBC).
        
        In Quebec, "Premier Maurice Duplessis introduced the Quebec Padlock Act in 1937 to give police the power to seal off any property where communist literature or activity was suspected. (National Archives of Canada, C-031052)" (CBC).
        
        "The Quebec Padlock law gave police the power to seal off any property where communist literature or activity was suspected" (CBC).
        Many families and their homes were raided because of this law and it completely violated the privacy of Canadians along with their rights.
  - - - In 1956, the Egyptian government nationalized the Suez Canal which was the main route for receiving oil in Britain and France. Because they were concerned about what the nationalization would mean for their countries, they attacked Egypt, but did so without notifying NATO. Canada sought to minimalize the damage done between the western alliances and turned to Lester Pearson, Canada's secretary of state for External Affairs.
        
        "Working with UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, Pearson suggested creating a peacekeeping force to stabilize the situation and to permit the withdrawal of the attacking forces. Pearson also offered a battalion of Canadian troops. The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was quickly formed and placed under the command of Canadian Major-General E.L.M. Burns" (Granatstein).
        
        To everyone's surprise, the Egyptians rejected the offer claiming that Canadian flags and uniforms were too similar to those of Britain and would cause confusion amongst their citizens.
        "As a compromise, Canada did not send infantry soldiers. Instead, it sent a reconnaissance unit, signals and supply troops, and helped airlift personnel and cargo. These were all vital to the success of the UN mission" (Granatstein).
        
        The experience influenced Pearson, who later became the Prime Minister, that Canada needed its own flag, uniforms symbols, etc. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize and left Canadians with pride over the idea of peacekeeping.
- - - - I know right now that my opinions are very different to Hitler's. I know that I have no respect for him, but if he were in the room with me right now I wouldn't start yelling at him or assaulting him.
        Of course, that example is a rather specific and extreme one and there aren't too many people like Hitler that we know about.
        Unlike Hitler, I wouldn't be attacking his religion or his god or beliefs. Sure I might not agree with something but I'd be respectful and either move on or politely disagree and let him have his own opinions and me have mine.
        
        We should have also learned what not to do. We should have learned that if someone is actively harming someone or something, you don't just go along with it to avoid conflict. You do something in order to prevent a bigger conflict.
        
        We should have also learned to look at all the evidence and facts provided. This means that next time a fascist writes a book and they're in control of a whole country, we should definitely read it. By doing this, we remain informed and prepared!
  - - - Black people, Asians, etc. are now accepted into societies globally. Of course, not everywhere, but around the globe, more places accept people than don't.
  - - - We learned from the bombing of Pearl Harbor that not all people of the same race are the same. A lot of people actually detested the bombing and they were Japanese.