Ethnic Groups in Canada

I

Introduction

Ethnic Groups in Canada, groups of people in Canada who share the same history and culture. There are more than 100 different ethnic groups in Canada, and many have maintained their own languages and cultures. Canada has been described as a cultural mosaic where ethnic groups remain distinct.

In contrast to Canada, the United States is characterized as a melting pot in which ethnic identities are absorbed by a larger American identity. Through a policy called multiculturalism, the Canadian government officially encourages each of Canada’s ethnic groups to preserve its own heritage and to share it with the rest of the Canadian population. This article discusses Canada’s major ethnic groups, including government policy and general information about each group’s geographic distribution, culture, and history.

Most social scientists agree that for a group to constitute an ethnic group it has to see itself and be seen by others as distinct. Social scientists also agree that such a group must have two essential attributes: a long and shared history and a cultural tradition of its own, which includes family customs and manners that may or may not be tied to religion. Other characteristics often shared by members of an ethnic group include language, geographical origin, religion, food, race, and literature.

Canada has two founding ethnic groups, the British and the French. British Canadians have traditionally dominated Canada, but French Canadians have maintained their own language and culture in the populous province of Québec. In the 1960s the sizable French minority pressured the federal government to prevent the French language and culture from being absorbed by the Anglophone society. In response, the Canadian government began to consider ways of preventing discrimination against the country’s various ethnic groups. Other major ethnic groups in Canada include Germans, Italians, aboriginal peoples, Ukrainians, Chinese, and Dutch.

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In the late 1960s the government began to admit prospective immigrants based on their work skills and education, thus eliminating a long-standing bias against non-Europeans. Canada now has one of the most liberal immigration policies in the world, and ethnic groups from non-European countries are a growing percentage of the immigrant stream. The government classifies many of these ethnic groups as visible minorities, defined in the Employment Equity Act (1986) as “persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in color.” In 1968, 9 of the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants were European. By 1976, 5 of the top 10 were non-European. In 2004 nearly half of all legal immigrants entering Canada came from Asia and the Pacific Rim. Overall, visible minorities have continually increased as a percentage of the Canadian population in recent decades, from 6.3 percent in 1986 to 9.4 percent in 1991, 11.2 percent in 1996, and 13.4 percent in 2001.

II

Government Policy

Ethnic groups emerged as a national issue in Canada during World War II (1939-1945). French Canadians in Québec opposed the federal government drafting people into the armed forces. At the same time, the government arrested some Italian Canadians without warrants and confined thousands of Japanese Canadians and took their assets. In an effort to defuse tensions between ethnic groups, the government emphasized patriotism and national unity, adopting the first Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947. In 1960 Canada approved the Canadian Bill of Rights, the first federal law to bar discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, race, color, religion, or sex.

In the 1960s French Canadians began to demand cultural protection from the government because they feared losing their language and culture to the dominant Anglophone society. Radical French Canadians urged Québec’s secession from Canada and carried out terrorist bombings. In 1963 Prime Minister Lester Pearson established the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism to examine how to ensure an equal partnership between British and French Canadians.

The report released by the commission in 1969 emphasized that Canada was both bilingual and multicultural. The commission encouraged the federal government to help members of all of Canada’s ethnic groups “participate fully” in Canadian society. The government introduced the Official Languages Act in 1969, which established English and French as the two official languages of Canada. In response to requests by several ethnic groups, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau adopted multiculturalism in 1971 as a government policy. He committed the Canadian government to acknowledge the contributions of all ethnic groups in Canada. The government also signaled that there is no official culture into which every Canadian is expected to assimilate.

As more visible minorities came to Canada in the 1970s, the government began to focus more attention on human rights. In 1977 the government passed the Canadian Human Rights Act, in which it pledged that all Canadians would have equal opportunities and established a commission to help eliminate discrimination if it was reported and confirmed. In 1982 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was ratified as part of the Constitution of Canada to ensure that people of all ethnic groups have equal rights in Canada. It protected voting, legal, language, and civil rights.

In 1986 the government passed the Employment Equity Act to ensure equal job opportunities for minority groups, including aboriginal people and visible minorities. Parliament enacted the Canadian Multiculturalism Act two years later, confirming its commitment to honor ethnic groups’ heritages. The act committed the government to “recognize and promote the understanding that multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society to preserve, enhance, and share their cultural heritage.” Federal officials say the act is an ongoing work, which they will modify as the Canadian population’s needs change. In 1996 the federal government established the Canadian Race Relations Foundation to help stamp out racism in Canadian society. Led by a 15-member board of directors, the foundation studied data on racism and promoted programs to eliminate discrimination.

Despite the influx of non-European immigrants since the 1970s, the British and French remain the largest ethnic groups in Canada. Official numbers for these ethnic groups are misleading though, since many British and French Canadians began to report “Canadian” as their ethnic origin in the 1980s and 1990s. Many British and French Canadians registered this way in the 1996 census, the first year “Canadian” was included as a suggested choice.

III

Anglo Canadians

A

Population

British Canadians, often called Anglophone or Anglo Canadians, have been numerically and culturally dominant since Canada became a nation in 1867. Anglo Canadians include people with four different ethnic origins: England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. At the time of the 1871 census Anglo Canadians represented 60 percent of the population. Those of Irish origin were the most numerous, followed by the English, Scottish, and Welsh. A century later, in 1971, Anglo Canadians represented 45 percent of the national population, and the English were the largest single group, followed by the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh.

During the 1980s and 1990s the official number of Anglo Canadians dropped. Much of the decline is due to changes in the census that encouraged people to register as Canadians. Increasing numbers of individuals with British ancestry claimed Canadian identity when asked about their ethnic origin. Taking this information into account, people of British ancestry were estimated to constitute 44 percent of the population in 2000. In the 2001 census, however, only 20.2 percent of Canadians claimed British ancestry.

The English Canadian population is concentrated in Ontario, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Alberta. The Scottish Canadians are most numerous in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island). Most of the Irish live in rural areas of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, and Québec. The Welsh are by far the smallest group among the British Canadians, and they have also settled in the Atlantic provinces and Ontario.

B

Culture

The language spoken by British Canadians is mostly English, but some Welsh speak their own Celtic language and some Scots, Gaelic. The English tend to belong to the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Roman Catholic religions. The Irish are primarily Roman Catholic and Anglican. The Scottish are mainly Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Episcopal Church of Scotland. The Welsh are primarily Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist. See also United Kingdom.

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