“THE KIND OF PEOPLE CANADA WANTS”: CANADA AND THE DISPLACED PERSONS, 1943-1953 By Julie Frances Gilmour A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Julie Frances Gilmour (2009) ii Abstract “The kind of people Canada wants”: Canada and the Displaced Persons, 1943-1953 Julie Gilmour Graduate Department of History, University of Toronto For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 In 1947 the federal government of Canada began a program to move European Displaced Persons (DP) out of the International Refugee Organization (IRO) camps in Germany and Austria. This program, designed to fill chronic labour shortages in Canada’s resource industries and contribute to a solution for Europe’s refugee crisis, occurred in a transitional moment in Canadian society. Canadians emerged from World War Two with a new sense of Canada’s role in the world, but despite a changed international climate, a new discourse of human rights and a potentially robust economy, old perceptions of race, immigration and economic management lingered in the postwar years complicating the work of a new generation of civil servants, politicians and industry operators. This is a history of the transition. It demonstrates the ways that old and new ideas of the nation, citizenship, race and immigration co-existed. It highlights the significance of the beginnings of a debate on the elimination of discrimination based on race in Canada’s immigration policy; shows the link between economic prosperity and popular support for immigration; and demonstrates the importance of individuals within industry, the civil service and in government in national decision-making. This is an international history, spanning the Atlantic and bringing a global perspective to local experience in Canadian industries. Chapters on the federal decision making process are supplemented by evidence from the United Nations Relief and iii Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the IRO, the Ontario Ministry of Education and forestry, mining and hydro industries. It uses a variety of methodologies including policy history, oral history, public opinion polling, gender, ethnicity and labour studies to investigate the implications of these decisions for Canadian society. It demonstrates that the 1947-1951 movement of DPs was initiated primarily under dual pressure from Canadians who had served abroad and industry leaders who had previously used POW labour to solve on going shortages in the bush. These decisions were strongly informed by both the crisis in Europe and Canadian assumptions about race, labour and citizenship. By examining the expectations Canadians had for the behaviour of its newest arrivals and future citizens this study highlights the foundations of Canadian citizenship in 1947: community participation, contribution to the development of the economy, and political loyalty to the nation. iv Acknowledgements In September 2003 I found myself sitting at a table of women with whom I had attended high school. Fifteen years had passed since graduation and the question of what I had been doing in the meantime came up more than once over the course of the evening. The truth was that an incomplete thesis in Soviet History loomed large and the prospect of finishing it seemed remote. I have Dr. Catharine Wearing, Maryam Sanati, and Jane Langford to thank for asking the obvious question – why not return to graduate school in Canadian history and write about the Displaced Persons about whom I was writing anyway in my spare time? The idea would not have gone any further if not for the support of Dr. Robert Bothwell, Dr. Robert Johnson, Dr. Mark McGowan, Dr. Steven Penfold and Dr. Lynne Viola who were early adopters of the idea of my return to the University of Toronto to do this work. The benefit of their support has been incalculable. For this and more I am extremely grateful. The whole project would have died on the vine without financial support from the University of Toronto, Department of History, the Ontario Government and John P. Gilmour. The archival assistance of Dommi Freestone, of the former Hydro Archives, Tory Tronrud of the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society Archive, Adam Chapnick for pointing me to the John Holmes papers at the Trinity College Archive, and the helpful, knowledge and friendly staff of the Archives of Ontario and Library and Archives Canada have been critical to any success I might have had in the project. I am grateful to the former Displaced Persons who were willing to talk to me about their experiences, even though it was not always easy. Thanks to them for their trust and support. A special thanks must go to Tony Miil for sitting down with me to explain the tough times. Fellow graduate students in the department have provided a supportive and collegial atmosphere in which to write. Thanks must therefore go to Alexandra Guerson, Janine Rivière, Wilson Bell, Christian Knudson, Cara Spittal, Denis McKim, Jennifer Polk, Heather Metcalfe, and John Dirks, as well as the members of the department workshops at which I presented chapters. (Gender; Politics and Policy) Thanks also to the stimulating influence of the members of the Senior Common Room at Trinity College who were always willing to listen to this graduate student prattle about her project. For their sustaining friendship, suggestions, and sense of humour over the course of my entire graduate career, thanks also must be given to Dr. Paul Manning, Dr. Alison Smith and particularly to Jeffrey Kilpatrick who has read everything I have written in the last six years at least once and taught me just about everything I know about logic. The project is dedicated to Endla, Elise and Eduard my DP roots. v Table of Contents Preface 1 I: “And who is my neighbour?” 5 II: Kanada 34 III: “The kind of people Canada wants” 69 IV: “Full of the miseries of life in Europe” 119 V: “Operation DP” 155 VI: “The great privilege of the Canadian way of life” 197 VII: Conclusions 229 Appendices 238 Bibliography 248 1 Preface On September 13, 1947 the General Stewart docked in Halifax carrying 831 men, former Displaced Persons (DPs). 1 Each had been selected by Canadian teams in Europe, screened, and offered contracts to work as pulpwood cutters in Canada for a period of ten months. Although many had family remaining in Europe and no real work experience in the pulp and paper industry, they were grateful for the work, the chance to settle in Canada and build a life for themselves and for those waiting for their turn to cross the Atlantic. While most Canadians today could name someone in their acquaintance whose family was part of this postwar movement, few are aware of the conditions under which these agreements were considered, signed and implemented. While most Canadians understand that after the Second World War there was a huge expansion in immigration to the country, few are aware of the reasons why this was so. Why then? Why these immigrants? This is a history of the details behind these decisions and most significantly, of the process of change that Canada and Canadians underwent in the years after the war. This is a history of Canada’s changing sense of itself, its citizens, and its role in the world between 1943 when postwar reconstruction planning began and 1953 two years after the programme to move DPs had been completed. It aims to approach these events from multiple perspectives: Canadian foreign policy; federal politics; 1 The term “DP” originally had a specific bureaucratic meaning discussed in some detail in Chapter One. In the years after their arrival in Canada, within Canadian society the term took on a pejorative meaning. Throughout this work I use the term with no intention of repeating the negative associations, but only to describe a particular class of refugee managed first by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and after July 1, 1947 by the International Refugee Organization (IRO). 2 industrial management; provincial education policy; volunteerism, and ideally, from the perspective of some of the 160,367 individuals who arrived in Canada under this program. 2 In addition to approaching this programme from the vantage points of a variety of participants, this project also examines events within both a short and long term narrative of Canadian history. Chapter one, “And who is my neighbour?” looks at the importance of immigration and refugee policy for Canadians over the last one hundred years, and places postwar events firmly at the centre. This transitional period demonstrates the ways that old and new ideas of the nation, citizenship, race and immigration co-exist and complicate events. It highlights the significance of the beginnings of a debate on the elimination of discrimination based on race in Canada’s immigration policy; shows the link between economic prosperity and popular support for immigration; and demonstrates the importance of individuals within industry, the civil service and in government in national decision-making. Once the long term significance of the discussions begun in this period have been laid out, Chapter Two will return to the wartime roots of the immigration-labour scheme. “Kanada” demonstrates that managers in Canada’s pulp and paper industry chose to solve acute wartime labour shortages through cooperation with the Department of Labour. In this case, the solution lay in the use of volunteer German Prisoner of War (POW) workers in the bush. Ongoing industry consultation with 2 Library and Archives Canada (LAC), RG26, Citizenship and Immigration, v.140, 3-40-4– Statistics – displaced persons 1949-1956, Immigration to Canada showing Displaced Persons, by Racial Origin, from April 1947 to 31 January 1952. 3 Arthur MacNamara, 3 the Deputy Minister of Labour, and officials from the National Employment Service (NES) made it possible for managers to keep production going despite the loss of Canadian men to the armed forces.