Gough Barry M. Historical Dictionary of Canada

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

430 • WELFARE

concentrated on food, housing, security, and employment. Charitable

giving was invariably from individuals rather than corporations, the

general system being largely chaotic and unorganized even if well

meaning. This was the era of the Social Gospel, essentially 1890 to

1930.

In the long evolution of welfare in Canada, a number of chari-

ties have made decided contributions, such as the Salvation Army,

the Church Army of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Method-

ist Church of Canada (after 1925 part of the United Church of

Canada), and the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the agencies

that encouraged social reform in the early decades of the 20th cen-

tury, sometimes referred to as “the social passion,” were church

groups. Temperance groups can be included here because they pro-

moted health and working families free from the debilitating effects

of drink. Many church-sponsored programs often developed into

state-run, state-sponsored programs. The same is true for schemes

developed by service clubs such as Rotary International, Kinsmen,

and PEO.

Leonard Marsh’s classic Report on Social Security for Canada

(1943) offered a clarion call for the modern welfare system. Added

to it were the rising chorus from churches, the Cooperative Com-

monwealth Federation, the Canadian Labor Congress, and the left-

of-center magazine Canadian Forum. These viewpoints were wide-

spread and became increasingly popular, especially with the return of

service personnel after World War II.

Highlights of early legislation include the Workman’s Compen-

sation Act of Ontario, 1914; Old Age Pension, 1927; Dominion

unemployment relief during the 1930s Great Depression; and R. B.

Bennett’s New Deal and the Dominion Housing Act, 1935. In con-

sequence of a federal-provincial agreement that brought a change to

the British North America Act, two pieces of legislation—the Unem-

ployment Insurance Act, 1940, and the Family Allowance, 1944—

expanded the social security net. As will be realized, the incremental

growth persisted, but it was preliminary to the consolidation of the

welfare state in the 1950s under Lester Pearson’s Liberals. Pres-

sures for social reform were relentless in the fields of public hous-

ing, assistance programs for blind and disabled persons, and federal

assistance for the operation of hospitals. Changes in Old Age Pen-

10_506_Gough.indb 43010_506_Gough.indb 430 9/28/10 5:36 AM9/28/10 5:36 AM

WELFARE • 431

sions and Old Age Security, to lower the eligibility age from 70 to

65, were introduced in 1951–52, followed by a new Unemployment

Assistance Act, 1956.

The Pearson government brought in three pieces of legislation

regarded as the last building blocks of the welfare state: the Canada

Pension Plan (national, compulsory); the Canada Assistance Plan,

which folded provincial assistance with disability, single parents,

and day care; and Medicare, a national system of personal health

insurance. To these were added, under the enabling measures of

the Establishment Programs Financing Act, the Guaranteed Income

Supplement, the increase in post-secondary education funding, and

consolidation of hospital, Medicare, and post-secondary educational

funding.

The system of welfare now comes under the general purview of the

federal and provincial/territorial governments. The National Council

of Welfare produces its annual Welfare Incomes series, which are

estimates of incomes for individuals and families on welfare in each

of the jurisdictions of Canada. It gives direct advice to the minister of

human resources and social development, Government of Canada, on

all matters relating to social development. Ottawa’s role in welfare is

shared with the provinces and territories by the terms of Section 92 of

the British North America Act, and social insurance is administered

by the provinces and territories—with some funding supplied out of

Government of Canada resources. Welfare relating to First Nations

(Indians, Métis, and Inuit) is funded directly by Ottawa, except in

the case of Ontario, where there is a degree of cost sharing.

Welfare practices and legislation developed incrementally in Can-

ada in the critically important 1940s through 1960s. Notable achieve-

ments occurred in Québec under universal laws passed during World

War II, including family allowance and compulsory schooling, which

benefited boys in particular. These laws, and the social research that

led to them, uncovered deep poverty; at the same time, they fostered

egalitarian language about universal access based on need. The

Canada Assistance Plan, which ended in 1966, was a means of Ot-

tawa funds being transferred to provinces and territories for program

development. In 1966, this was replaced by the Canada Health and

Social Transfer, which included health care. This continued until

2004, when the Canada Social Transfer came into existence. This

10_506_Gough.indb 43110_506_Gough.indb 431 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

432 • WELFARE

includes health, post-secondary education, social assistance, social

services, early childhood development, and other areas.

The system is now all embracing and includes the Canada Child

Tax Benefit, the National Child Benefit, foster home payments, child

welfare payments, Goods and Services Tax Rebates, insurance settle-

ments, compensation for HIV victims, hepatitis C victims, Japanese

Canadians, and former members of the Merchant Navy serving in

World War II. The Canada Health Act (1984) effectively ended the

process by which physicians could opt out of Medicare in order to

charge higher fees. A system of student loans continues in place for

persons undertaking post-secondary education or training. An impor-

tant result of state-supported assistance for universities and colleges

in Canada is that there are very few private educational institutions,

and costs of university education are far lower than in the United

States. Moreover, the assumption exists that Canada has a financial

obligation to assist institutions of higher learning and to aid students

to achieve their goals in such.

For many years, the Family Allowance was the pillar of the Cana-

dian welfare state. It consisted of a monthly payment to the mother

for each child, and it encouraged large families. This ended essen-

tially when the Family Allowance became a taxable benefit and was

replaced by the Canada Child Tax Benefit.

There was a general battering of welfare institutions in the 1980s

and 1990s, when deficit-obsessed governments reduced the amount

of social assistance. When the Liberals under Minister of Finance

Paul Martin reduced the transfers to the provinces, these welfare

cuts, too, were passed on to the municipalities and institutions and

bodies carrying out welfare in the communities and in the streets.

Much of this was driven by a neo-conservative agenda, and that of

the Mike Harris government in Ontario is a notorious case in point.

Even the decentralization of drinking water testing had tragic results:

deaths in Walkerton, Ontario.

All in all, Canada has developed a strong network by which Ca-

nadians and their governments have met, or attempted to meet, the

needs of those confronting poverty, illness, unemployment, disabil-

ity, and old age. The programs include social security, unemploy-

ment insurance, employment training, child care, housing, care for

the aged and infirm, and municipal relief. That being said, the annual

10_506_Gough.indb 43210_506_Gough.indb 432 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

WINNIPEG • 433

reports of the Welfare Incomes series are graphic, telling reminders

that many children live in poverty, that many single mothers are

inadequately provided for, that housing and shelter are not always

to national standards, and that many homeless die in the streets.

Public consciousness of these things is sharp and considerable, and

Canadian governments are mindful of their obligations even if the

demands always seem to exceed the abilities to respond. The Cana-

dian Council on Social Development is another agency devoted to the

study of social issues and welfare needs. Stats Can provides statisti-

cal evidence on these (and other) matters.

WHITE, THOMAS (1866–1955). Wartime minister of finance in the

administrations of Robert Borden, White was a lawyer and general

manager of the National Trust Company. In 1911, he was one of

the groups of businesspeople in Toronto who opposed the Liberal

proposal of reciprocity with the United States. He was minister of

finance throughout World War I, and his measures for financing the

war effort were of crucial importance. He introduced the income tax

as a temporary measure. He was knighted in 1916 and retired from

politics in 1921.

WILLIAMS, EUNICE (1696–1785). Eunice Williams was born in

Deerfield, Massachusetts, to a Puritan family. Her father was a Pu-

ritan minister. Living in a hostile environment that was harsh and

cruel, Puritans in New England were in constant threat of attack from

enemy First Nations. When her village was attacked in winter 1704

by a group of Mohawk and French forces, Williams was kidnapped

and taken back to Mohawk territory. By 1713, she was married to a

Mohawk named Arosen and had adopted the language and way of

life. Although she and her Mohawk family paid visits to her Puritan

family, she always refused to stay. She lived until the age of 89 in

Kahnawake, Québec. Eunice Williams was Puritan by birth but Mo-

hawk by choice.

WINNIPEG. The capital of Manitoba, Winnipeg is named from a

Cree word for “murky water.” Indigenous people first gathered at

the future site of Winnipeg about 4000 BCE. In 1738, Fort Rouge,

the first trading post, built by the French, was erected at the forks of

10_506_Gough.indb 43310_506_Gough.indb 433 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

434 • WINNIPEG

the Red River (running northward toward Hudson Bay) and the As-

siniboine (the traders’ route to the western plains). The North West

Company (NWC) built Fort Gibraltar on the same site in 1810. In

1812, agents of the Earl of Selkirk established an agricultural colony

at Red River. The Nor’Westers opposed the introduction of these

settlers, Scots who were called derisively “oatmeal eaters.” Ten-

sion led to violence. In 1816, following the Battle of Seven Oaks,

Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière journeyed from Red River to Montréal

to advise Selkirk. With 100 Swiss and German mercenaries, the de

Meurons, Selkirk headed west from Ontario. He seized the NWC

depot at Fort William and wintered there. The de Meurons pushed on

to Red River and recaptured the settlement. Selkirk marched into Red

River in June 1817. He awarded Lagimodière land at the junction of

the Red and Seine rivers, now St. Boniface. Lagimodière became a

prominent trader and farmer.

The early population of Winnipeg, and of the Red River forks, was

multicultural: English, Scots, native peoples, and Métis. Local politi-

cal organizations, political assemblies, and colleges (e.g., St. John’s

College, established 1849) promoted local strengths and cultures.

The fur trade and agriculture moved side by side. But gradually,

through decline of fur-bearing mammals and collapse of the beaver-

felt hat market, demand for furs diminished. The buffalo, too, faced

extinction. In 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company sold Rupert’s Land

to Canada, by way of the transferring auspices of the British govern-

ment. This sparked a strong resistance from the Métis and brought

to the fore the young, educated, and eloquent Louis Riel, grandson

of Lagimodière.

The provisional government established under Riel’s command

resulted in the introduction of martial law (unauthorized by Canadian

law), the killing of the Orangeman Thomas Scott, and the necessary

and authorized reprisal by the Dominion of Canada. Meanwhile,

Riel brought forward political demands, most of which were met. He

drafted declarations of Métis rights and for Manitoba as a Canadian

province, and he is thus referred to as “the father of Manitoba.” He

was elected an MP on several occasions but was denied the right

of taking his seat in the House of Commons in Ottawa. He traveled

widely in the United States, especially in Minnesota and Montana

(where at Sun River he taught in a Jesuit school). In 1884, Riel an-

10_506_Gough.indb 43410_506_Gough.indb 434 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

WINNIPEG • 435

swered an urgent Métis appeal to lead the rebellion in the upper Sas-

katchewan River valley. He was captured, found guilty, and hanged

in Regina (16 November 1885). His body was taken to Winnipeg

and buried in St. Boniface, now one of the most famous graves in

Canada.

Agricultural growth, steamship navigation, and economic diversity

characterized the early history of Winnipeg. In 1878, the railway

arrived, initiating a phenomenal era of expansion, speculation, and

prosperity. Particularly important was the grain trade and Grain

Exchange. The immigration boom saw many arrive from Ontario,

the British Isles, Iceland, and Eastern Europe. Businesspeople used

American cities as their model of success, especially Chicago. In-

deed, Winnipeg has been called the “Chicago of the North,” as well

as “Gem of the Prairies” and “Bull’s Eye of the Dominion.”

Winnipeg was the location of the famous Winnipeg General

Strike of 1919. Winnipeg was also a focal point of Methodist, Bap-

tist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and other Christian denomina-

tions, besides being a locus for Jews and Orthodox Ukrainians and

Russian Mennonites. Winnipeg was a melting pot, but north of the

railroad tracks, it also had ethnic and religious diversity. Eaton’s

department store was built in 1905 on Portage Avenue, and “Portage

and Main” became the most famous crossroads in the Canadian

urban landscape. Because Winnipeg was the capital of the Province

of Manitoba, all major government buildings were built there for

conducting provincial and federal business. The city is also a com-

mercial headquarters and distribution center for western Canada,

and Winnipeg’s leaders and newspapers adopted transcontinental

Canadian perspectives as well as continental perspectives. The first

club of Rotary International was founded in Winnipeg. Other notable

establishments were the University of Manitoba (established 1877)

and Wesley College (later University of Winnipeg). In 1970, the

Hudson’s Bay Company archives were transferred from London to

the Archives of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Historical sites and institu-

tions dedicated to history include the Children’s Museum, Museum

of Man and Nature, St. Boniface Museum, Western Canada Aviation

Museum, and Lower Fort Garry (north of town).

In the 1980s and 1990s, Winnipeg became an important scien-

tific and communications center and continued its diversifications

10_506_Gough.indb 43510_506_Gough.indb 435 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

436 • WINNIPEG GENERAL STRIKE

in manufacturing. It remains a prominent center for aviation and is

headquarters of Canadian Air Command. The population in 2008

for Greater Winnipeg was 735,000. See also RED RIVER REBEL-

LION; WINNIPEG GENERAL STRIKE.

WINNIPEG GENERAL STRIKE. Perhaps the largest, most sig-

nificant labor and public strike in national history, the Winnipeg

General Strike of 1919 lasted 40 days. It commenced as a relatively

small demand by building and metal trades for collective bargaining

procedures and increased wages. The Winnipeg Trade and Labor

Council joined the strike in sympathetic solidarity. Federal interven-

tion on behalf of business and industry (in the assumed interests of

law and order) led to a rally and march, which was broken up by the

official use of violence. That event is known as Bloody Saturday.

One spectator was killed and 30 injured. Strike leaders and backers

were arrested and jailed for sedition. In the 1920 Manitoba election,

four of the jailed strike leaders were elected as socialists. In 1921,

J. S. Woodsworth was elected first socialist of the House of Com-

mons, representing Winnipeg.

WOLFE, JAMES (1727–1759). A British commander of forces bat-

tling against the French in the Seven Years War, Wolfe was an ex-

cellent practitioner of combined operations. After his creditable per-

formance during the capture of Louisbourg in 1758, he was placed

in command of the British attack on Québec. Maj. Gen. Wolfe’s

troops defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham, capturing Qué-

bec for Great Britain on 13 September 1759, but he died in battle,

as did the French commander, Montcalm. Of a reluctant, dithering

disposition, Wolfe was pressed into action late in the season, urged

on by his brigadiers. In many ways an unlikely hero, he nevertheless

altered the course of Canadian history.

WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY. The role of women in Canada,

past and present, is central to the fortunes of the country, which

has always had a small population in comparison to the size of its

geography and resources. Native women had roles largely dictated

by domestic needs, such as gathering foods, cooking, and child care.

But disease, notably smallpox, cut into native numbers. Many na-

10_506_Gough.indb 43610_506_Gough.indb 436 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

WOMEN IN CANADIAN HISTORY • 437

tive women became the partners of fur traders and soldiers. Their

offspring were known as Métis.

Early in the European settlement of Canada, several women’s re-

ligious orders sent members to Canada, most notably the Ursulines.

Jeanne Mance was co-founder of Montréal. Some of the other

women prominent in early Canadian history are Marie de la Tour,

who fought against the British; Laura Secord, who warned the Brit-

ish of an American attack during the War of 1812; and Thanadel-

thur, a Chipewyan interpreter and guide. But the lives of many more

women of early Canada are lost to the annals of history.

To increase European marriages in Canada, the King’s Daughters

were introduced under auspices of church and state during the era of

New France. The seigneurial system was a means of promoting fam-

ily life as well as development in agriculture. Home and community

development were central to policies of church and state during the

French era.

Various colonization schemes, corporate and religious, were de-

signed to people Canada with European families. Immigration by

such groups as the Ukrainians was by family pattern. With the ex-

pansion of public education and the self-conscious nature of Cana-

dian society about family life and values, notable in the 20th century,

great attention was given to domestic science or home economics.

Nutrition also became a matter of professional study. A champion of

child care and home management was Adelaide Hunter Hoodless.

Emily Jennings Stowe, a medical doctor, organized the first wom-

en’s rights group in Canada. Many more professional women were

primary and elementary teachers and nurses. Secretaries and clerks

were predominantly female. Accounting and law grew as places of

opportunity, and real estate likewise. Early women university presi-

dents in Canada were Lorna Marsden and Pauline Jewitt, both social

activists.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, middle-class, urban, and

university-educated women championed the cause of employment

equity. In consequence, in 1983, the federal Royal Commission on

Equity in Employment, chaired by Judge Rosalie Abella, was orga-

nized and recommended that existing voluntary programs give way

to more certain measures. The result was the federal 1986 Employ-

ment Equity Act, which affected not only women, but also aboriginal

10_506_Gough.indb 43710_506_Gough.indb 437 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

438 • WOODSWORTH, JAMES SHAVER

peoples, persons with disabilities, and minorities. The Canadian Hu-

man Rights Act had ended discrimination, but Canada’s employment

equity law resulted in bringing, by 2010, the proportion of women

in the public service to be bigger than their share of the broader la-

bor force, with signs that this would continue. The law is reviewed

every five years by parliamentary committee. By this time, too, the

majority of students in Canadian universities were female, with the

percentage rising.

Women such as Kim Campbell have become prominent politi-

cians. They have fought for political rights and recognition (as in

the Persons Case) and for temperance. Women writers such as

Susanna Moodie, Catharine Parr Traill, Lucy Maud Montgom-

ery, Emily Beavan, and many others have contributed to Canadian

literature. Women have excelled in Canadian sport and have served

in the Canadian Army, Canadian Air Force, Canadian Navy,

and Canadian Coast Guard. Their roles in nursing and medicine,

law, education, domestic science, science, and numerous other fields

have shaped the character of Canada in innumerable ways. See

also MACPHAIL, AGNES CAMPBELL;MCCLUNG, NELLIE

MOONEY; MURPHY, EMILY FERGUSON; UNITED CHURCH

OF CANADA.

WOODSWORTH, JAMES SHAVER (1874–1942). The Ontario-

born Woodsworth was a Christian Socialist, ordained Methodist cir-

cuit rider, and proponent of the Social Gospel. A radical in his time,

he was concerned with many causes, including urban missions, and

worried about the threat of Mormon and non-Christian immigration

into Canada. He also worked for longshoreman’s rights in British

Columbia. He was a progressive reformer who left a profound leg-

acy in the style as well as content of social welfare legislation. First

leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, he remained

an MP for Winnipeg (North Center riding) from 1921 to 1942. He

was the father of Grace MacInnis, a well-known progressive politi-

cian. Woodsworth died in Vancouver.

WORLD WAR I. When Great Britain declared war on Germany and

Austria-Hungary on 6 August 1914, the entire British Empire, in-

cluding Canada, was automatically at war. Immediately, the minister

10_506_Gough.indb 43810_506_Gough.indb 438 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM

WORLD WAR II • 439

of the militia, Col. Samuel Hughes, called for volunteers to fight in

the European war. The first contingent sailed to England in October

1914. By the end of 1914, the Canadian Expeditionary Force

(CEF) numbered 50,000, and by the summer of 1915, 150,000. By

the end of 1916, the CEF was to full strength of four divisions. In

the middle of 1916, Prime Minister Robert Borden pledged over

500,000 men for overseas service. However, only 330,000 were re-

cruited voluntarily. Thus arose the contentious issue of conscription.

The demands for labor made it profitable for many to stay home.

The old English-French conflict came to a head and threatened to

pull the country apart. Many in English Canada thought that Québec

was not doing its share by sending its sons overseas. In Québec, there

was a feeling that the war was a British one and that sons of Québec

should not be forced to fight and die on the European continent.

Statistics tell all: to fight in this war, Canada sent the largest number

of all the dominions; only 5 percent of these were French-speaking

Canadians, though they accounted for 40 percent of the population.

At first, the untried Canadian forces suffered severe losses. At

the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, the 1st Canadian Division

suffered over 6,000 dead in facing German gas attacks, but they held

their ground. The Canadian Corps took part in other battles at Arras

and Passchendaele.

In April 1917, the Canadian Corps took Vimy Ridge from its

German defenders during the Nivelle offensive. Two other attempts

to take the ridge by British and French forces had resulted in severe

losses and failure. Vimy proved important for Canadian pride and

prestige, since the CEF took the hill alone. The ridge was taken in

five days and at terrible cost. After Vimy, the Canadian Corps was

placed under the command of a Canadian, Gen. Arthur Currie. The

Canadian Corps also took part in the final and great offensive of the

war. This lasted 100 days and began at Amiens, a battle that cracked

German resistance on the western front and forced the 11 November

1918 armistice. Of the Canadian force in the conflict, 619,636, it has

been calculated that 66,655 died in battle—that is, 10.75 percent. See

also INTERNMENT; VERSAILLES, TREATY OF.

WORLD WAR II. Having won the right to declare war independently

in the 1931 Statute of Westminster, Canada did not declare war on

10_506_Gough.indb 43910_506_Gough.indb 439 9/28/10 5:37 AM9/28/10 5:37 AM