LYCOS RETRIEVER 
History of Canada: French Canadians
built 233 days ago
A professor emeritus of history from the University of Toronto, Desmond Morton was ... founding director of McGill’s Institute for the Study of Canada. He is the author of forty books on Canadian history, a lecturer at the Canadian Forces Staff College, and a frequent media commentator. He lives in Montreal.
Source:
Blacks have never constituted a major segment of the Canadian population, but their history has been an interesting one. Although Louis XIV in 1689 authorized the importation of slaves from the West Indies, black immigration into Canada has been almost entirely from the U.S. Some British Loyalists brought slaves north with them during and after the American Revolution. The British troops that burned Washington, D.C., in the War of 1812 brought many slaves back with them to Halifax. As early as 1787... Nova Scotia, and six years later, Upper Canada, abolished slavery, thus setting precedents for the whole British Empire. The fact of free soil in Canada was a major influence in the operation of the Underground Railroad, which, during the abolition campaign in the U.S., transported many slaves into Canada, particularly to Chatham and Sarnia. Blacks make up 2.1% of the Canadian population, according to the 2001 census.
Source:
The story of the Canadian Constitution is far more than the history of the Constitution Act, 1867, which was once called the British North America Act, or even the Canada Act, 1982 and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. These documents, while important, tell only a portion of the story. It begins long before Canada was formed as a nation, in Britain, France and among the Aboriginal peoples of North America.
Source:
Probably one of the most important times in Canadian history was the settling of western Canada. Many rebellions took place, and seven treaties were signed with natives for the land. In 1873, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were created for law and order. Settlement of the west was greatly aided through the opening of the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway.
Source:
Any sketch of the religious history of Canada would be incomplete without reference to the missionary efforts of the Canadian churches in Canada itself. From the time when the Jesuit missionaries established themselves in Huronia in 1639 until the time when Protestant missionaries went into the Yukon with the gold rush in 1897, the churches have followed close on the heels of exploration and colonization, and have sometimes preceded them. Some of the most glorious pages of Canadian history are those which relate to the story of what are called "home missions". The history of the Canadian West would be very different to-day if it were not for the forward-looking policy adopted by the churches of eastern Canada when the West was in the making. The settlement of the West took place under much more favourable auspices, as regards religion, than did the settlement of the East; and the West owes an undischargeable debt of gratitude to the many nameless "sky-pilots" who presided over its spiritual birth.
Source:
Throughout its history, Canada has often been troubled by a lack of unity among its people. French Canadians, mostly from Quebec, have struggled to preserve their French culture. They have long been angered by Canadian policies based on British traditions, and many of them support a movement to make Quebec a separate nation. People in Canada's nine other provinces often favor local needs over national interests.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
French Canadians