Issue 64 July 2012 ISSN 1485-8460 CIHS Launches New Web Site The Society's Executive is delighted to announce Canada employee who most generously that on June 12th we launched the Canadian volunteered his time and website expertise to our Immigration Historical Society’s new website - cause - was a key player in helping the Society www.cihs-shic.ca. We invite you to visit the site design and launch the new site. CIHS president, and bookmark it for repeat visits. Mike Molloy, and the CIHS web site team attended Infrastructure Canada’s Public Service This site will help the Society achieve its goals of Week ceremony on June 2012 and presented promoting interest in Canada's immigration and Dan with a certificate of appreciation and a copy refugee history, and in the role we and many of Valerie Knowles’ Strangers at our Gates. other colleagues have played in these nation- building programs. At a time when there is increased concern over the preservation of Canada's history, our new site will play its role in preserving that history. We fully expect the site to evolve beyond its present state. That evolution will, in large part, depend on the work of Society volunteers in both managing the site and populating it with information. If you can participate in any of these ways, please let us know - volunteers are always welcome! Daniel Godin receiving his certificate We wish to highlight the role that CIHS members We will be alerting many other key audiences Brian Davis, Ian Thomson and Gerry Maffre and institutions about the launch of this site. We played in getting this site up and running, and to encourage you to share this news with people in thank them for the long hours of exacting work your circles and so increase the numbers of they carried out in getting us to this point! people using and contributing to an informative and reliable website on Canada's immigration As well, Daniel Godin - an Infrastructure and refugee history. CIHS Activities – by Mike Molloy The Gunn Prize The 2011/12 academic year Gunn Prize Contest closed on 30 April. A jury consisting of CIHS members Gerry Van Kessel, Kurt Jensen and Rob Vineberg, along with Dr. Jonathan Crush CIGI Chair in 1 Migration and Development Balsillie School of International Affairs, reviewed submissions and determined that no submission met the criteria of the award. Indochinese Refugee Book Project supporting sponsors and resettling The Indochinese Refugee crisis, which began Government sponsored refugees; with the fall of Saigon in April, 1975, resulted in strengthening the resettlement Canada’s largest resettlement operation. Books system; the Refugee Liaison Officers; and studies on this event focus on the and the Family Reunification experiences of the refugees or on the groups that Program. sponsored them; but the herculean task of selecting the refugees in camps from Macau and To date, the project team has been in touch Hong Kong to the Philippines, Thailand, with 70 potential writers and we are looking for Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, ensuring more. If you were involved in the resettlement they met health and security requirements, of Indochinese refugees at a post abroad, at transporting them to Canada, matching has been the Greisbach or Longue Pointe Reception largely ignored by scholars. Centres, at the national or regional matching centres, or in any capacity at National To mark the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon Headquarters, a Regional Office or especially in 2015, the Canadian Immigration Historical at a CEC or CIC, we are interested in hearing Society plans to tell the story from the point of from you. Please contact Mike Molloy at view of the men and women who worked directly [email protected] or c/o the Canadian with the refugees and the sponsoring groups Immigration Historical Society, CPO Box whether in Canada or in the refugee camps in 9502, Station T, Ottawa, ON, K1G 3V2. South East Asia. While the refugee movement continued into the early 1990s, we plan to focus Uganda Refugee Movement 40th primarily on the five-year period from the fall of Anniversary Saigon in 1975, to the end of Canada’s 1979- Forty years ago this August, the Ugandan 1980 commitment to resettle 60,000 refugees. dictator Idi Amin announced the expulsion of most of Uganda’s Asian population. Canada The project will collect memoirs, documents and responded by sending a team to Kampala artefacts that pertain to the experiences of our under the leadership of Roger St. Vincent and colleagues regarding: setting up a special reception facility at The fall of Saigon; the Promise of Visa Canadian Forces Longue Pointe. Between 6 Letters and expedited family reunification; September and 6 November 1972, the the baby airlift; the initial resettlement Kampala team selected and transported over from camps in Thailand, Hong Kong, 6000 people to Canada. Guam, Wake Island, Camp Pendleton, Fort Chaffee, Indian Town Gap; and the The fall Bulletin will include an account of the General Quang controversy. Uganda operation. In the meantime, CIHS is The Boat People; the increasing involved with Carleton University in a project to Canadian involvement in Thailand, preserve and make available to the public an Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines important collection of historical materials on etc. in 1975-78, including the “Hai Hong”; this refugee movement. Included in this how the refugee measures in the 1976 collection are Roger St. Vincent’s account of Immigration Act were deployed to meet the Uganda Operation “Seven Crested Cranes,” the growing challenge. a unique collection of Ugandan press clippings The 1979-80 commitment to accept covering 1970-72, and a comprehensive 50,000, then 60,000, refugees; operations collection of Canadian, British and U.S. press in SE Asia, the selection and processing clippings covering the events in Uganda and systems; sponsorships; matching and their repercussions in Canada. These will be destining; the Reception Centres; supplemented by electronic collections of 2 Canadian and UK official documents and media Audience Engagement, our long-time coverage, including the Quebec media, all compiled contact at Pier 21. Under the new by three University of Ottawa graduate students. organization she is in charge of exhibitions, Patti Harper of Carleton University’s Archives and and gave us a tour of the impressive facility Research Collections will oversee the conservation and exhibits. The museum will be of the original materials and the creation of an expanding into a second building across internet accessible electronic archive. A number of the lane that was once the railway track related activities to mark the 40th anniversary are and which served as the departure point for being planned, including talks on this historic the immigrants. We also met with Cassidy movement at various locations across the country. Bankson, Oral Historian, and Tania Bouchard, Chief Curator in charge of CIHS- WCI Video Project document collections, archiving etc. It was A decade ago, CIHS produced six videotaped gratifying to learn that materials CIHS sent interviews with a selection of experienced to Pier 21 a decade ago are an important immigration officials. The project was largely element of their collection. We had a forgotten until CIC Librarian Charlene Elgee brought preliminary discussion about whether Pier it to our attention. Inspired by the initial project, we 21 might be the logical repository for have now formed a partnership with the Welcoming documents and artifacts CIHS collects over Communities Initiative (based at the University of time. As the Museum is still developing its Western Ontario) to continue the video project with document and artifact collection policies, the idea of using the past to shed light on perennial we came to no firm decision. immigration challenges. A small steering committee representing CIHS and WCI met in Ottawa on 5 At noon, Mike Molloy gave a presentation April 2012 to plan the first filming session. It will on the 1972 Uganda movement to an involve five or six interviews which will take place audience of 35 people. Included in the this fall. We have agreed to initially explore issues audience were three members of the Popat relating to refugees, and the challenge of managing family who were on one of the last charters immigration to meet Canada’s labour market needs. out of Uganda, and who have some Wherever appropriate, we plan to look at the remarkable photos taken in the airport at challenges through the eyes of both policy and field- Kampala and at the reception Centre at level officers. More on this later Longue Pointe Quebec. In addition, Mario de Mello, also from Uganda and a Republishing of CIHS articles successful Halifax businessman, attended CIHS has concluded agreements with Citizenship the talk. Two former immigration and Immigration Canada’s Insider newsletter and employees who played key roles in the the Professional Association of Foreign Service 1979-80 Indochinese Refugee movement, Officers’ award-winning magazine Bout de Papier, Cheryl Munroe, formerly the Refugee to re-publish selected articles from our Bulletin. So Liaison Officer, Prince Edward Island, and far the Insider has reprinted Jim Humphries’ series Iris Peebles, Nova Scotia Region’s refugee on the creation of CAIPS (Bulletins 59, 60 and 61). coordinator were also there. There is Bout has carried an article on the Czech refugee clearly an appetite for future presentations movement by Gerry Maffre based on Bulletin 46 on immigration and refugee operations, (Czech mates edition) and is planning a series of from both overseas and domestic features on the immigration program based on our perspectives. members’ articles. There was a brief meeting with Pier 21’s CIHS Visit to Halifax and Pier 21 newly-appointed CEO, Marie Chapman.