There was -- as government correspondence in Ottawa records now makes clear--a long series of letters exchanged among immigration authorities worried about how to be functionally anti-Black without seeming anti-Black. Since much of its recruitment of immigrants was done by mail, it became difficult for immigration officials to discern the race of African-American postulants. In U.S. cities where there were no Canadian immigration agents present to discriminate openly, civil servants would write to the local (presumably white) American postmaster and ask whether the applicant was Black. Those few Blacks in Canada had apparently got to here either by persistence or through accident.
For example, for Blacks trying to enter Canada there were strict regulations on health, literacy, and financial support. These regulations were set up on the assumption that most African-Americans would never meet them and thus would not be allowed to enter the country. On March 21, 1911, a party of two hundred Blacks arrived at a Manitoba border station and requested admission to press on to Amber Valley, to which relatives had preceded them. The Canadian officials subjected them to the most rigorous exam possible and found that they could not stop a single member of the group. No one had less than $300 (or $100 more than the law required), all were in excellent health, and all had documented proof of good moral standing. During the pre-First World War years, Ottawa was under various kinds of pressure to exclude blacks. In 1910, for instance, the Edmonton Board of Trade passed a resolution to stop the undesirable influx of Negroes. Six months later, Canada would shift its underhanded discrimination policy to bar Blacks overtly.
1905 – ONLY WHITES FOR THE WEST
PM Laurier’s Minister of the Interior from 1896-1905, Clifford Sifton, was eager to populate western Canada with farmers in order to stimulate the economy and help pay the national debt. The government offered free homesteads to applicants who qualified. Canadian immigration authorities rated newcomers according to their race, perceived hardiness and farming ability: If British immigrants are not available, other white immigrants would do. White immigrants from Eastern Europe (Italians, Portuguese, South Slavs, Greeks, Syrians, Jews) were reluctantly accepted in large numbers, but Black and Asian immigration is discouraged.
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