<aside> ❗ Note:

Canadian citizens enjoy many rights, but Canadians also have responsibilities. They must obey Canada’s laws and respect the rights and freedoms of others.

This guide will help you prepare to become a Canadian citizen. Good luck!

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General Notes

Introduction

• Sources of Canadian Law = laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law, the civil code of France and the unwritten constitution that we have inherited from Great Britain
• Combined all above = Magna Carta / Great Charter of Freedoms (1215 AD)
• Habeas corpus = Right to challenge unlawful detention by the state (English Common Law)
• Constitution of Canada amended to include Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982)
• Fundamental freedoms + Additional rights
• Mobility rights, Aboriginal People's Rights, Official Language Rights and Minority Language Educational Rights, Multiculturalism
• Responsibilities = Obeying the law, taking responsibility for oneself and one’s family, serving on jury, Voting, Volunteering, Protecting/Enjoying heritage and environment
• Defending Canada = foreces.ca / cadets.ca for young people

Rights and responsibility as listed in Magna Carta in 1215 in England (also known as the Great Charter of Freedoms), including:

• Freedom of conscience and religion;
• Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of speech and of the press;
• Freedom of peaceful assembly; and
• Freedom of association.

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

• Mobility Rights — Canadians can live and work anywhere they choose in Canada, enter and leave the country freely, and apply for a passport.
• Aboriginal Peoples’ Rights — The rights guaranteed in the Charter will not adversely affect any treaty or other rights or freedoms of Aboriginal peoples.
• Official Language Rights and Minority Language Educational Rights — French and English have equal status in Parliament and throughout the government.
• Multiculturalism — A fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity. Canadians celebrate the gift of one another’s presence and work hard to respect pluralism and live in harmony.

History of Canada

• Peace, Order, and Good Government comes from British North America Act (1867)
• Songwriters called Canada "Great Dominion"
• Founding peoples = Aboriginal, French, British
• Aboriginal people migrated from Asia thousands of years ago.
• Territorial rights were first guaranteed through the Royal Proclamation of 1763 by King George III
• 1800 - 1980 => Aboriginal children in residential schools, Schools were poorly funded, students abused, Aboriginal language and cultural practices were prohibited. In 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to former students.
• Aboriginal people = 3 groups | First Nations (65%), Metis (30%), Inuit (4%)
• 'Indian' refers to all Aboriginal people who are not Inuit or Métis. Term no longer used. Now they are called 'First Nations'.
• About half of First Nations people live on reserve land in about 600 communities | Remaining off the reserve in urban centers
• Inuit, means "The People" in Inuktitut language live in Arctic. Knowledgeable about land, sea, wildlife
• Metis = people of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry. Majority in Prairie provinces. Their dialect = Michif (French + English speaking backgrounds).
• John Buchan | 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | popular Governor General of Canada (1935-40) | Said "Immigrant groups should retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character." at Canadian Club of Halifax, 1937.
• Today, Anglophones = 18 million, 7 million Francophones (majority live in Quebec) - 1 million live in Ontario, NB & Manitoba
• NB is the only official bilingual province
• Acadians = descendants of French colonists, began settling in the Maritime provinces in 1604.
• Between 1755 and 1763 (war b/w Britain and France), 2/3rd of Acadians were deported from their homeland. This is known as "Great Upheaval".
• Quebecers = People of Quebec (French speaking majority). Descendants of 8500 French settlers
• The House of Commons recognized in 2006 that the Quebecois form a nation within a united Canada.
• One million Anglo-Quebecers have a heritage of 250 years | vibrant part of Quebec fabric
• basic way of life in English-speaking areas established by English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers, soldiers and migrants from the 1600s to 20th century
• Canada = "Land of immigrants"
• From 1970s, most immigrants have come from Asian countries.
• Chinese is second most 2nd most spoken at home.
• Vancouver = 13% speak Chinese at home | Toronto = 7% speak Chinese at home
• Majority of Canadians = Christians
• Canada's diversity includes gay, lesbian | All protection under the law including marriage
• Marjorie Turner-Bailey of Nova Scotia = Olympian, descendant of black Loyalists, escaped slaves & free men, fled to Canada in 1780s from America.
• Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois = farmers and hunters
• Cree and Dene of the Northwest = hunter-gatherers
• Sioux = Nomadic, following bison herds.
• Inuit = Lived off Arctic wildlife
• West Coast natives = preserved fish by drying and smoking
• Warfare was common among Aboriginal groups for resources, land & prestige
• Many aboriginals died because of European diseases they didn't have immunity to
• Vikings from Iceland, colonized Greenland 1000 years go reached Newfoundland & Labrador
• The remains of their settlement L’Anse aux Meadows = World heritage site
• European exploration began 1497
• John Cabot = first to draw a map of Canada’s East Coast.
• Jacques Cartier, voyages across Atlantic, claiming land for King Francis I of France
• Jacques Cartier = first European to explore St. Lawrence River, set eyes on present-day Québec City & Montreal
• Iroquoian word 'Kanata' means village
• By 1550s, name "Canada" began appearing on maps
• Samuel de Champlain = In 1608, built a fortress in Quebec City
• French and the Iroquois made peace in 1701
• French and Aboriginal people collaborated in the vast fur-trade economy, demand for beaver pelts in Europe
• Jean Talon, Bishop Laval, and Count Frontenac built a French Empire from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico
• Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) defeated American invasion of Quebec in 1775
• King Charles II of England = In 1670, granted Hudson’s Bay Company exclusive trading rights over the watershed draining into Hudson Bay
• Voyageurs / coureurs des bois = Montreal-based traders | men who travelled by canoe | formed strong alliances with First Nations
• Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City = 1759 | British defeated French marking the end of France’s empire in America
• Commander of both Armies (Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm) were killed in the war
• After the war, Britain renamed the colony the “Province of Quebec.”
• Canadiens / Habitants = French speaking Catholic people
• Quebec Act = 1774 | Passed by British parliament | allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office
• Quebec Act restored French civil law while maintaining British criminal law
• In 1776, 13 British colonies to the south of Quebec declared independence and formed the United States.
• People loyal to the Crown = “Loyalists" fled oppression and moved to Nova Scotia and Quebec
• Joseph Brant led thousands of Loyalist Mohawk Indians to Canada
• In 1792, some black Nova Scotians were given poor land, moved on to establish Freetown, Sierra Leone
• First representative assembly in Halifax, NS in 1758 | PEI in 1773 | NB in 1785
• Constitutional Act = 1791 | divided Province of Quebec to Upper Canada (Ontario) & Lower Canada (Quebec)
• Constitutional Act of 1791 granted, for the first time to the Canadas, legislative assemblies elected by the people
• "Canada" became the official name of the land in 1791
• Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America
• First elected Assembly of Lower Canada | in Quebec City on Jan 21 1793 | debated whether to use both French and English
• Upper Canada in 1793 | led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe | became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolition
• 1807 = British Parliament prohibited buying and selling slaves
• 1833 = Abolished slavery throughout the empire
• Slaves escaped from US, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network
• Fort Garry is in Winnipeg | Fort Langley is in Vancouver
• Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832
• The War of 1812 | Americans lost | United States launched an invasion in June 1812
• In July, Major-General Sir Isaac Brock captured Detroit | Died when defending against an American attack at Queenston Heights, Niagara Falls
• In 1813, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles de Salaberry | turned back 4,000 American invaders at Chateauguay, south of Montreal
• In 1813 the Americans burned Government House and the Parliament Buildings in York (now Toronto)
• In 1814, as a retaliation, Major-General Robert Ross led an expedition from Nova Scotia that burned down the White House and other public buildings in Washington | the American attempt to conquer Canada had failed
• Present Day Canada - US border is partly an outcome of the War of 1812, which ensured that Canada would remain independent of the United States
• In 1814, Duke of Wellington sent some of his best soldiers to defend Canada. He chose Ottawa (Bytown) as endpoint of Rideau Canal (network of forts to prevent USA from invading Canada again). He defeated Napoleon in 1815, founded the national capital.
• In 1813, Laura Secord (pioneer wife and mother of five children) made a dangerous 19-mile (30 km) journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James Fitz Gibbon of planned American Attack. Her bravery contributed to victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams.
• Lord Durham - English reformer, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be merged and given responsible government
• Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Sir John Alexander Macdonald = Fathers of confederation
• In 1840, Upper & Lower Canada united as 'Province of Canada'.
• Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, Robert Baldwin, Joseph Howe (NS) worked with British governors towards responsible government
• In 1847 - 48, Nova Scotia was the first North American colony to attain full responsible government
• In 1848–49 the governor of United Canada, Lord Elgin introduced responsible government
• La Fontaine, a champion of democracy and French language rights, became the first leader of a responsible government in the Canadas
• 1864 - 1867 | representatives from NS, NB & Province of Canada formed a new country.
• Federal & provincial governments were created
• Province of Canada split into Ontario and Quebec
• 1867 = British North America Act
• July 1, 1867 = Dominion of Canada was born
• The term "Dominion of Canada" was used for 100 years
• July 1 = Dominion Day (until 1982) | Today, it is called "Canada day"
• Sir Leonard Tilley | suggested the term "Dominion of Canada" | “dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.”
• When provinces joined Canada
• 1867 — Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick
• 1870 — Manitoba, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.)
• 1871 — British Columbia
• 1873 — Prince Edward Island
• 1880 — Transfer of the Arctic Islands (to N.W.T.)

Notable Canadian figures

Discoveries and inventions

Government of Canada