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The Official Line
by Chris Kitzan, Library and Archives Canada
Few documents would create more controversy in Canada in the 1920s than the Railways Agreement. Signed in 1925 by the Canadian government, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the Canadian National Railway (CNR), this agreement dramatically changed the country's immigration policy by giving these two national transportation companies the right to directly recruit agricultural labourers from central and eastern Europe. Under the Railways Agreement, more than 165,000 immigrants entered Canada between 1925 and 1930. The majority headed for the Canadian West, where their arrival was greeted less than enthusiastically.
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