Shipped Out
by Vadim Kukushkin, University of Alberta
The Immigration Act gave the Cabinet ample power in interpreting and applying deportation regulations. It placed deportation proceedings outside the jurisdiction of Canadian courts unless the person being deported was a Canadian citizen or had acquired Canadian domicile, which required five years of residence in the country. If an immigrant was suspected of falling into one of the deportable categories, a municipal or local immigration official was required to file a complaint to the Minister of Immigration, who then ordered a board of inquiry to deal with the case. The decision of the board (which often consisted of a single immigration officer) could be appealed, but such appeals were rarely successful. Immigrants without Canadian domicile were the most vulnerable to deportation. Acquiring domicile gave an immigrant a measure of protection against deportation unless it was established that he or she had entered Canada in violation of the law, in which case domicile was considered void. Naturalized immigrants were normally exempt from deportation unless their citizenship certificates were revoked.
The majority of deportations in the 1930s were based on the grounds that the immigrant in question was a "public charge." This category was applied to the unemployed, inmates of mental institutions and all others judged incapable of supporting themselves. Many Canadian municipalities -- the main providers of relief to the unemployed -- vigorously resorted to deportation as a way to reduce pressure on their meagre funds. Lists of immigrants receiving welfare assistance were regularly forwarded to the Department of Immigration, which always kept deportation warrants at hand.
Those shipped out for political reasons constituted a special category of deportees. In official statistics, political deportations were disguised under various other categories such as public charges or criminals; therefore, the number of people deported from Canada for political reasons in the 1930s is not known. What is certain is that at least several hundred were deported on the grounds of their political beliefs. Immigrant radicals arrested and tried for "seditious activities" were sent to their countries of origin either immediately or after serving a prison sentence. The status of the Communist Party as an unlawful association, effective after August 1931, gave the authorities a powerful weapon to deport communist agitators. According to the law, immigrants convicted under Section 41 of the Immigration Act remained liable to deportation even if they had acquired Canadian domicile.
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