Charles Roach: a Toronto civil rights lawyer and co-chairman of the International Committee Against Racism, talks about Black immigration since the fifties, its positive effects, and the plight of "visible" immigrants in Canada.

     Before 1962, Black people could not migrate to Canada as independent applicants. They had to come either as indentured workers, that is, workers who had to work at specific occupations where work was available and workers were needed, before they could apply for full status: or they had to come as sponsored dependents, that is, their parents or spouses who had permanent residence here could sponsor them.

     And there were other ways of getting in. Some friends of mine, for example, got in by joining the Canadian army for active service during World War II. They served abroad and then were able to get status as landed immigrants.

     Beginning in 1955, there was a significant movement of West Indian indentured female workers to Canada. The first load of one hundred women came in 1955. They came to word in domestic jobs of different kinds, as chambermaids, baby sitters, cooks, that type of thing. Under that program, women between the ages of eighteen and forty were selected from the various islands, particularly from Jamaica, because it was the largest island with the largest population. They came here on the basis that they would work as domestics for a period of maybe two years, after which they would be allowed to take other jobs, they could be fully landed, and after five years, they could apply for citizenship.

     I should point out that many of the people who came on that program were, at least during these first years, not domestics, but persons with quite good educations. They were often librarians, secretaries and so forth, but they came to work as domestics because it was the only way they could get into Canada.

     Laws explicitly barring Black immigration were repealed in 1962, and Black people were allowed to enter the country as independent applicants under what was known as the "points system," which came into force in 1967. Under the points system, persons would be assessed, and if they got more than fifty out of one hundred points, they would be allowed to migrate here.