Social Transformations in Modern Times

Urbanization, Immigration, Feminism, Union movements, the rights of Native Peoples --  These are social phenomena which resulted from and contributed to the way technological and other forms of change were altering the way we work and live together in the modern age.  This collection of resources traces these phenomena and the prominent individuals involved, in order to better understand the way people adjusted to their changing world.  It also presumes a relationship between the way society is organized and the way we think.  Again, a new mentality develops, a new role for individuals, groups and government evolves.


Urbanization
Various trends in urbanization are discussed in context in the Canadian Encyclopedia entry called simply Urbanization.
History of Quebec City:  The Creation of a New Urban Entity (1945-2000) provides a overview of a few changes occurring in the capital city.
Various excerpts for History texts are also available on the McCord Museum page also called Urbanization.

Immigration
Canadian Immigration Over The 20th Century: The Living Legacy provides an overview of immigration history in Canada, including the contexts of the depression and World War II.  "The second great wave of immigration of people to Canada occurred between the years 1947-1961. The second wave of immigrants featured newcomers from continental Europe, southern Europe, especially from Italy; and central Europe became much more important sources of immigrants."

Labour History in Canada
Quebec the common front traces labour history in Quebec.  While the Civilization.ca site called Canadian Labour History provides a wider view on the subject.

---

Feminism and Women's Rights

Links related to International Women's Day and National Women's History Month:

Parcs Canada offers their section on Canadian Women's History:  Be Proud of it....Be part of it!   Apart from general summaries of women's history in Canada the site offers useful lists and backgrounder descriptions of Sites, Persons, and Events associated with Women's History in Canada.

For more timelines and sources about women's rights movements around the world try  http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm
and for reference http://www.teacheroz.com/women.htm 

Canadian references for comparison purposes and overviews view the CBC archive collection Voting in Canada: How a Privilege Became a Right and the recently added collection entitled Equality First: The Royal Commission on the Status of Women.

For a collection of articles of the times discussing the issue, browse Claude Bélanger's collection of documents entitled Women's Right to Vote in Quebec

Radio Minutes: Women is another interesting multimedia experience can be found on the History by the Minute website, which collects together various biographical audio portraits of women in Canadian History.

And of course, the Heroines.ca page of classroom resources located here contains a number of references that also deal with 20th century events.



Related Image-Interpretation Sites

Picturing Modern America - Image Detective!
"Build your skill at 'reading' photos as you look for clues on these topics:   Immigration, The City, Woman & Suffrage, Industrialization The West, Children’s Lives, Leisure & Amusement, Progressive Reform, World War I..."




Native Rights

The Native experience during the 20th century in Canada was like no other culture's, especially as concerns the Residential Schools they were placed in, the development and displacement of settlements, and eventually the agreements that were made to ensure a certain amount of Native control over land and resources.  Tracing the changing role of government and a changing mindset towards and on the part of natives in Canada is, because of these variations, an interesting and alternative approach to the designated focus in this section of the History and Citizenship course.

A Lost Heritage: Canada's Residential Schools describes the way "church-run, government-funded residential schools for native children were supposed to prepare them for life in white society."  Various media clips and oral discussions detail the way residential schools meant a "devastation for those who were subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse."  

Ironically, the removal of people from reserves and isolated settlements would also give a whole new  generation of Natives an empowering perspective on their rights in white society.  That generation produced a movement to gain power over land by using the Canadian legal system, and also eventually helped push for more native control of their own education.  See Native People, Education and also the History of the Kativik School Board.

The Cree experience in Quebec during a the 20th century's shift in government roles is discussed in the pages entitle Hunting and the Quest for PowerThe James Bay Cree and Whitemen in the 20th Century
See also The Crees of Northern Québec A Photographic Essay. Indian and Northern Affairs provides their short history of the James Bay agreement.







Events by date:


1940 Right of women to vote in Quebec
Elections Quebec provides an overview of "the quest by Québec women for political equality" as well as quotes from "adversaries" and a short questions page to test your knowledge. 
Elections Quebec - Right to vote of Québec women

Claude Bélanger, of Marianopolis College has collected a number of relevant articles and primary source documents on the history of women's suffrage in Quebec here: Women's Right to Vote in Quebec. 

The Hon. Marie Thérèse (Forget) Casgrain
First woman head of a political party in Quebec.
http://www.collectionscanada.ca/femmes/002026-847-e.html
Credit: Yousuf Karsh / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / PA-178177
Restrictions on use: None    Copyright:  Out of date 

"They were the last women in Canada to get the provincial vote. But thanks to Thérèse Casgrain and her colleagues, Quebec women finally got the right to vote provincially in 1940. In this 1972 Quebec Now clip, Casgrain recalls the difficulties in rallying Quebec women to fight for the vote." 
CBC Archives audio clip on Thérèse Casgrain and Quebec Women and the vote.
See and hear other clips here at How a Privilege Became a Right CBC Archive collection and timeline
Additional information about Thérèse Casgrain can be found at Collections Canada's Canadian Women in Government ..Marie Thérèse (Forget) Casgrain

1945 and Post War Economic Prosperity
"The war created an unprecedented demand for military as well as civilian goods, since Canada was Britain’s principal supplier of war materials until the United States entered the war." [....]  " From 1946 to 1957, the country saw rising prosperity, fuelled partly by the needs of a rapidly growing population for homes, schools, hospitals, roads, and factories. Canada’s exports also continued to grow with its participation in the U.S.-led reconstruction of a war-ravaged Europe." 
Source:   1939-1945 -WWII -Transformed the Canadian Economy

1945 to 1960 – The Baby Boom
The Second World War caused a new economic boom in North America, as government spending increased, and more importantly as new industries developed to meet the challenge of supporting the war, in part by hiring women.  When the men returned from war women often left those jobs (to the men) to return home.  Young couples, who had been waiting for more secure times, began to start families.  The economic prosperity and low unemployment carried through most of the 1950s, a time we now refer to as the baby boom.
 
1964 – Woman now have legal status
Law number 16, promoted by Casgrain and made binding by Lesage's government gave married women legal status, whereas previously they were judged as minors in certain situations.  This "equality in the eyes of law" echoed trends in women's rights movements and the new position women were finding themselves in various spheres of influence.  (See this event in context of Women's Rights in time on this CHRC site.)


1969 – Social Aid Act
"The Social Aid Act profoundly transformed social assistance. First, it took over all the specialized programs set up since the putting in place of Québec's social assistance system in 1921. Then it set up an assistance plan modulated according to the resources and needs of recipients and their family situation."   Source:  Quebec Institute de la statistique


1970 – Quebec Health Care
Whether in a hospital or in a private clinique universal health care in Quebec now became a reality.  This meant equal access to medical treatment regardless of one's financial wealth.
(At Canadian Encyclopedia see  Daniel Johnson  and Claude Castonguay)


1960-1980  The Growth of Suburbs
Bedroom communities (eventually cities in and of themselves) like Laval, Brossard, Boucherville and Saint-Bruno grow in size during this period.  An exodus from the centre of cities takes place, adding the commuter and suburban experience to our social habits, changing the way people work and live.  Contributing to the change in our social makeup, immigrants to Montreal, unlike in other cities in Canada, tended to settle in the city centres, making suburbs in Montreal comparatively homogeneous.  "Montreal is pretty unique in North America in its hyper-concentration of immigration in the centre city"  (Source: Annick Germain in article by Ingred Perez)

1972 – Le front commun des centrales syndicales
"Since the late 1960s, the Quebec labour movement has been characterized by the establishment of common fronts, the most well known being the first joint public sector common front, which, in 1972, united more than 210,000 provincial government employees from a combination of unions.

Once united, the common front called for - and won - a minimum wage of $100 per week, cost-of-living adjustments, improved pension plans and significant wage increases for all."  (Source and more info and pictures at Quebec: The Common Front.)

 
1979 – La Commission de la santé et sécurité au travail, CSST
"This Act was a first attempt at protecting industrial workers, notably women and children, in a sector undergoing constant growth.
[...] Over time, legislative measures were extended to other activity sectors, adapted to meet new standards, and enhanced with new notions, for example, occupational risks. This latter notion implied that all work constitutes a risk, which must be assumed by employers rather than workers."  (Source:  CSST History page)