It is #SikhHeritageMonth and this is the story of Sikhs gaining the vote!
The first Sikh immigrants to British Columbia were permitted to vote in civic elections. This right to vote would not last long as the province began to strip rights away from the Sikh people.
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In March 1907, BC Premier William Bowser introduced legislation to deny the provincial vote to any immigrant from India who was not of Anglo-Saxon descent.
Vancouver took the vote away from Sikhs the following month.
The Sikh people couldn't vote federally either.
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At the 1921 Imperial Conference in England, a resolution was passed to grant South Asians in the British Empire the right to vote.
Canada simply ignored the resolution.
Some MPs, like Samuel Jacobs, Canada's 1st Jewish MP, supported giving Sikhs the vote.
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In 1924, BC passed the Provincial Elections Act to deny the vote to all Asians except Japanese veterans of WW1.
Men such as Dr. D.P. Pandia (pictured), Kapoor Singh Siddoo, Mayo Singh & Kartar Singh Hundal campaigned to get the vote for Sikhs and others.
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In the 1940s, Sikhs, such as Naginder S. Gill (pictured) continued to pressure the government to grant the vote to South Asians.
India PM Jawaharial Nehru joined the cause of gaining the vote.
On April 2, 1947, South Asians gained the provincial & federal vote.
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On July 12, 1855, some drunk clowns got into a massive brawl with a bunch of firefighters at a Toronto brothel.
By the next day, several firefighters were beaten and the circus was burned to the ground.
This is the story of Toronto's Firemen And Clown Brothel Riot.
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In 1855, Toronto was a bustling city in between its two terms as the capital of the Province of Canada.
On July 12 of that year, the Star Troupe Menagerie and Circus arrived in the city for a series of shows.
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After giving a sold-out performance that night, the clowns in the circus decided to celebrate. After drinking for awhile, the clowns made their way to a brothel located at King and Jarvis. This also happened to be a favourite place for local firefighters.
Coming Out was a groundbreaking documentary series that aired in Canada in 1972.
It was the first Canadian television program to target the LGBTQ community.
It became a landmark series that is mostly forgotten today.
This is its story.
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In 1972, only three years after homosexuality was decriminalized in Canada, Maclean-Hunter's cable community channel in Toronto launched Coming Out.
The series was targeted specifically to an LGBTQ audience, running for 13 episodes in total.
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Focused on the gay community of Toronto, it premiered on Sept. 11, 1972.
It was hosted by Paul Pearce and Sandra Dick of the Community Homophile Association of Toronto.
The show provided a positive portrayal of the LGBTQ community that was rare at the time.
Canada has over 8,500 named rivers that have helped shape our landscape, culture and history.
Some rivers are short, some are very long, but where do they begin?
Every great river starts as a trickle of water.
These are the sources of some of our major rivers.
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The Mackenzie River is the longest river in Canada at 4,241 kilometres long. Its drainage basin is 1.7 million square kilometres, second in North America to only the Mississippi.
That all begins at Great Slave Lake, the source of the Mackenzie River.
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The Yukon River is the second longest river in Canada, running for 3,185 kilometres.
It stretches from British Columbia, through Yukon, and into Alaska.
The source is generally believed to be the Llewellyn Glacier at Atlin Lake in BC (or maybe Lake Lindeman).
For a time in the 1930s, five sisters were the biggest tourist attraction in Ontario, surpassing even Niagara Falls.
But behind the scenes, they were exploited by everyone around them, including the Ontario Government.
This is the story of the Dionne Quintuplets.
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On May 28, 1934, five girls (Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie) were born to Oliva-Édouard and Elzire outside Corbeil, Ontario.
Born premature, they were the first known quintuplets to survive infancy.
They were delivered by local doctor Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe.
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Their total weight at birth was 13 pounds six ounces (6.1 kg). The babies were kept in a wicker basket borrowed from neighbours, covered with heated blankets. They were each massaged with olive oil and given water sweetened with corn syrup.
Since 1947, the Canadian Rangers have provided a military presence in the Canadian North.
Experts in wilderness survival, they cover areas of Canada that are not practical for conventional Army units.
Considered to be "always on duty", this is their legendary story.
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The origin of the Canadian Rangers dates back to the Second World War and the Pacific Coast Militia Rangers. The PCMR monitored the British Columbia coast for a Japanese attack. The militia was made up of self-sufficient loggers, trappers and fishermen.
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After the war ended, the force was disbanded.
Two years later, with Cold War tensions increasing, the need to have a military presence in the Canadian North became apparent.
Rather than station regular troops in the Arctic, the Canadian Rangers were formed.
Elijah Harper was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, little known outside of the province.
But when he refused to accept the Meech Lake Accord and voted against it while holding an eagle's feather, he became an icon of resistance.
This is his story.
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Elijah Harper was born on March 3, 1949 at Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba.
As a young man, he studied at the University of Manitoba and then worked as a community development worker and program analyst for the Manitoba Department of Northern Affairs.
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In 1978, he was elected Chief for Red Sucker Lake Band, serving for four years.
In 1981, he was elected as an NDP MLA to the Manitoba Legislature. He was the first Treaty Indigenous to be elected.
In 1990, the Meech Lake Accord was being debated in Canada.