Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
15 August 2011
Immigrants to Canada
Arrived at Pier 21
Before international air travel became common
many newcomers to Canada got their first glimpse
of their new home at Halifax’s Pier 21
More than one million immigrants to Canada arrived through Pier 21 in Halifax. Between 1928 and 1971 most new Canadians arrived by sea, and Pier 21 was the central entry point for processing them. Their first sight of their new homeland was this rather dreary shed on the Halifax waterfront.
With the advent of cheap, commercial jet travel the days of the ocean liners came to an end. Pier 21 was closed down and left to decay as a warehouse.
Arrival Recalls Experience
One of the people who passed through Pier 21 was writer Peter C. Newman. He arrived in 1940 with his parents from Czechoslovakia. They were among the few Jews to escape to Canada from Hitler’s Nazis.
In 1996, he wrote about the experience in Maclean’s magazine: “I...vividly recall
what happened inside. Instead of being summoned to our new home, we were tagged-
The tags contained details of where the immigrants had come from, when they arrived and where they were headed. They were held in cages so they could all be dealt with as a group. The Newman family was processed and waved through the immigration holding area.
“...we were welcomed by volunteers from the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society. I was handed a Fig Newton (cookie). Nothing has tasted better since.”
Greek arrivals at Pier 21 in 1953.
Marika Epstein wrote of her arrival in 1951 from Hungary: “We disembarked at Halifax, Canada, on January 8, 1952, the passage having taken some four days longer than expected due to (a) storm.
“As energized as we all felt, it was, sadly, not an auspicious time. We were directed into a large room, lined up, so many people in a row, and sprayed through hoses with DDT (an insecticide). It was a strange, demeaning experience.
“ ‘Mummy, why are they doing this?’ I asked.
“Her eyes were downcast. She hesitated a moment or two before responding, and instinctively I knew she felt shame. I looked at her inquiringly, needing her reassurance. I could barely make out her subdued reply.
“ ‘They think we are dirty,’ she whispered to me. Suddenly I felt very unwelcome. I clung to Mummy’s hand.
“With that, each family was given $5 and we were sent off, to make our own way.”
Immigration Shed Renovated
In the 1990s, a group started a program to stop Pier 21 from falling into decay.
Ruth Goldbloom was one of those who worked for the preservation of Pier 21. She says,
“We wanted our great-
“We wanted them to understand the courage it took and to realize that these stories
haven’t ended -
© Canada and the World, August 2011
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WAR BRIDES
Among the many arrivals through Pier 21 were 50,000 war brides (above). These were women who met and married Canadian servicemen who were in Europe during World War II. Along with them were their 22,000 children.
One of these war brides was Jean Deshane. She met her future husband at a dance in Glasgow, Scotland.
Later she recalled “My husband came home before I got over here and I came on the Aquitania in March 1946. I came from the city to a farm: no electric light, no inside toilet, no phone. It was a real experience! I wondered what I had gotten myself into, like so many others did.”
FROM TROPICS TO ALBERTA IN WINTER
Lucille, came to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1971.
“I was 10, the youngest of five kids. In a few days travel, we went from 90-
-
Adventure!
“On the bus trip up from Edmonton, my dad commented on how much the passing landscape reminded him of the film, Doctor Zhivago!
“We weren’t sure whether there’d even be streetlights in Fort McMurray -
“But, everywhere we went...from the initial landing in Vancouver, to the airport in Edmonton, to the bus station in Fort McMurray, and the subsequent years spent up north, the friendly curiosity and generosity of Canadians helped us all feel at home...
“And, all of us have moved all over, from Toronto to Vancouver to Saskatoon, to Yellowknife to Edmonton to Calgary.
“We’re like any other Canadian family, I suppose. I can’t imagine calling any other country home.”