Citizenship.md

• Canada is a constitutional monarchy, a parliamentary democracy and a federal state
• Canadian law has several sources, including laws passed by Parliament and the provincial legislatures, English common law, the civil code of France and the unwritten constitution that we have inherited from Great Britain.
• Magna Carta in 1215 in England (also known as the Great Charter of Freedoms)
• Habeas corpus, the right to challenge unlawful detention by the state, comes from English common law.
• The Constitution of Canada was amended in 1982 to entrench the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• The most important of these include: Mobility Rights, Aboriginal Peoples’ Rights, Official Language Rights and Minority Language Educational Rights, Multiculturalism
• There is no compulsory military service in Canada
• Our institutions uphold a commitment to Peace, Order, and Good Government, a key phrase in Canada’s original constitutional document in 1867, the British North America Act.
• poets and songwriters have hailed Canada as the “Great Dominion.”
• Territorial rights were first guaranteed through the Royal Proclamation of 1763 by King George III,
• From the 1800s until the 1980s - aborigins sent to residential school
• In 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to the former students.
• In the 1970s, the term First Nations began to be used.
• Aborigins - Indian/First Nation, Inuit, Metis
• Inuit which means “the people” in the Inuktitut language - Arctic
• Metis - Prairie - Michif language - European/Aboriginal mix
• About 65% of the Aboriginal people are First Nations, while 30% are Métis and 4% Inuit.
• Anglophones 18M, Francophones 7M
• one million Francophones live in Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba
• New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province.
• The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who began settling in what are now the Maritime provinces in 1604.
• One million Anglo-Quebecers have a heritage of 250 years and form a vibrant part of the Quebec fabric.
• English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers
• The great majority of Canadians identify as Christians/Catholic
• Canada’s diversity includes gay and lesbian Canadians, who enjoy the full protection of and equal treatment under the law, including access to civil marriage.
• European exploration began in earnest in 1497 with the expedition of John Cabot, who was the first to draw a map of Canada’s East Coast.
• Jacques Cartier -> kanata (village )-> Canada
• In 1759, the British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City — marking the end of France’s empire in America.
• New France -> Province of Quebec
• The Quebec Act restored French civil law while maintaining British criminal law.
• The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758.
• The Atlantic colonies and the two Canadas were known collectively as British North America.
• In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire.
• In 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were united as the Province of Canada
• From 1864 to 1867, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, with British support, worked together to establish a new country.
• The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867. ]
• Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as “Dominion Day”
• In 1867, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a Father of Confederation, became Canada’s first Prime Minister
• Parliament has recognized January 11 as Sir John A. Macdonald Day. His portrait is on the $10 bill.
• Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.
• The Huron-Wendat of the Great Lakes region, like the Iroquois, were farmers and hunters. The Cree and Dene of the Northwest were hunter-gatherers. The Sioux were nomadic, following the bison (buffalo) herd. The Inuit lived off Arctic wildlife.
• 1497 - European exploration began in earnest in 1497 with the expedition of John Cabot, who was the first to draw a map of Canada’s East Coast.
• 1534 - 1542 - Jacques Cartier, Kanata -> Canada
• 1604 - French - Quebec City Fort
• In 1759, the British defeated the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City — marking the end of France’s empire in America. The commanders of both armies, Brigadier Ja
• 1774 - To better govern the French Roman Catholic majority, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act of 1774.
• 1758 - The first representative assembly was elected in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1758
• 1791- The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the Province of Quebec into Upper Canada (later Ontario), which was mainly Loyalist, Protestant and English-speaking, and Lower Canada (later Quebec), heavily Catholic and French-speaking.
• 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire.
• 1832 - The Montreal Stock Exchange opened in 1832
• 1812 - US invation failed
• 1837 - responsible government. This meant that the ministers of the Crown must have the support of a majority of the elected representatives in order to govern
• Some reformers, Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché and Sir George-Étienne Cartier, later became Fathers of Confederation, as did a former member of the voluntary government militia in Upper Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald.
• 1840 - Upper/Lower -> Province of Canada
• 1847 - The first British North American colony to attain full responsible government was Nova Scotia
• 1867 - From 1864 to 1867, representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada, with British support, worked together to establish a new country
• 1867, July 1 - The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867
• In 1867, Sir John Alexander Macdonald, a Father of Confederation, became Canada’s first Prime Minister.
• Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.
• 1873 - NWMP
• 1871 - British Columbia joined Canada in 1871 after Ottawa promised to build a railway to the West Coast.
• On November 7, 1885, a powerful symbol of unity was completed when Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona
• Sir Wilfrid Laurier became the first French-Canadian prime ministe
• WW1 - More than 600,000 Canadians served in the war
• WW1 - April 9 is celebrated as Vimy Day.
• WW1 - ended Nov 11, 1918.
• 1916 - women’s suffrage movement, Dr. Emily Stowe, Manitoba
• 1917 - Nurses + wartime women
• 1918 - Everyone else
• 1921 - Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman MP
• Rememberance day - John McCrae composed the poem “In Flanders Fields”
• WW2 - 1M+ canadian/NF