Canada And Humanitarianism During The 20th Century History Essay

Canada And Humanitarianism During The 20th Century History Essay At present day, Canada is a country widely affiliated with peacekeeping, third world aid, and humanitarianism, to people internationally. Canada being one of the most culturally diverse nations, Canada has been known to accept many people regardless of controversial individual characteristics, such as gender, religious views, sexual orientation, or place of birth. Though, it is human nature internationally to distinguish and isolate fellow beings based on these criteria, yet to be humanitarian one must have an ideology of kindness, consideration and compassion towards all people, regardless of their status. However, during the past century, Canada had not stuck to its philanthropic nature as one would have believed. Primarily, the various discriminatory and restrictive laws which were instituted by the Canadian government. Secondly, Canadian treatment of certain groups of people was poor and unfair. Lastly, Canada had unethically weakened the rights of particular citizens. Although Canada may be considered a nation that does not discriminate any person, Canada went through a very rough and arguable past, during the last century, and humanitarianism is and has not been a part of Canada’s national identity. Firstly, humanitarianism is not part of Canada’s national identity, since Canada had implemented many laws that were restrictive and discriminatory against people residing in Canada. Japanese Canadians first started immigrating to Canada, particularly British Columbia in large numbers during the late 1800’s through to the early 1900’s. Due to the majority of white skinned people living in Canada at the time, the Japanese community was unfortunately subject to indirect discrimination and harsh treatment due to descent. In B.C., many political leaders passed various laws including the denial of voting rights aimed at the Japanese population, for the sole purpose of encouraging them to leave the country (â€Å"Japanese Canadians†). Among other things, Japanese immigrants were not able to work like other Canadian citizens, they were given poor wages and laws were passed to prevent them from working in professions they might have had in their country of origin (â€Å"Japanese Canadians†). Twelve weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbour the Canadian passed the War Measures Act which had allowed the Canadian government to legally remove Japanese people living in Canada within a 160km of the pacific coast (â€Å"Japanese Canadians†). Japanese Canadians had to undergo many situations similar to these due to government policies, though most policies were solely created or instituted due to Japanese discrimination. On another note, there was also many laws and policies passed by the government to further discourage and prevent the immigration of Japanese or any other racial distinction other than the preferred, from entering Canada. An example of this was the Komagata Maru incident, where 376 Punjab is from Eastern India had boarded the Japanese-owned ship to sail to Canada in hopes of boarding and living in Canada (â€Å"Komagata Maru†). Due to the views of Canada on immigration, Canada had put into effect an order-in-council that required immigrants travelling by boat to travel in a non-stop continuous passage to Canada (â€Å"Komagata Maru†). This made it extremely difficult for immigrants to successfully enter Canada. Upon arrival, majority of the people on board were detained, they had then lost their case to get into Canada, and were planning on a how to depart. They had departed back to Kolkata, India in a Canadian provided cruiser, upon arrival they were under suspicion by police which then resulted in 20 of the passengers being killed (â€Å"Komagata Maru†). This is a clear historical event that could have been prevented by the government of Canada, as there was no reasons for the harsh treatment of the innocent passengers of this particular ship u pon arrival on Canada. Canada’s ignorance for others particularly Asian immigrants further show why humanitarianism has not been part of Canada’s national identity.