Canadians in the Boer War

The Royal Canadian Navy was formed in 1910 and the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1920, both branches coming under the command of the Department of National Defence which also oversaw the land army.

As a Commonwealth country, Canada was one of the first supporters of the British Empire when the First World War (1914 – 1918) broke out but conscription later in the war proved divisive for French speaking Canadians especially.  Of 625,000 who served, 60,000 were killed and 173,000 wounded.

The Second World War (1939 – 1945) was Canada’s next big involvement and its first independent declaration of war (on Nazi Germany).  Britain and France declared war on 3rd September 1939 and Canada on the 10th September.  1.1 million Canadians fought in this campaign resulting in 45,000 deaths and 54,000 wounded.

Canada was involved in the Korean War (1950 – 1953) but did not officially take part in the Vietnam War (1955 – 1975), although some units were used towards the end of the conflict to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.  Earlier, Canada had supplied the Americans with munitions and other supplies.

Canadians in Afghanistan

The most recent reorganisation of the Canadian armed forces occured in 1968 when the three branches wer merged into one centralised command structure.  Canada is an active member of the United Nations and regularly contributes personnel when required around the world.  Recent undertakings have included Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia.

There are approximately 67,000 active personnel in the Canadian military with another 43,000 reservists available if required.  Recent decreasing numbers of entrants have led to a government aim to increase the size of the army and reequip the navy and air force over the next decade.

From the 1750s onwards it became necessary to mobilise residents of the various provinces in response to a number of internal and external threats.  Internally, the locally recruited militias would respond to threats (rightly or wrongly) from indigenous residents who were unhappy with European settlement in certain areas. External threats were limited to other European nations and, after the American War of Independence, the United States and border skirmishes regarding ownership of one or two areas did in fact lead to violence.  In these external threats, the locally recruited militia would be used to assist the British Army to carry out the defence of the nation.

Fenians and Canadian militia

Following Confederation in 1867 and the beginning of friendlier relations with the United States, the British began to reduce their military capacity in Canada as internal and external threats subsided.

The first action the new Canadian militia saw was to repulse the Fenian invasions which were undertaken by radical Irish Catholics trying to pressure the British to pull out of N Ireland.  There were five cross border raids in total which saw an improving Canadian military eventually repulse the Fenians, aided by the United States who impeded the raiders in their side of the border.

Metis leader Louis Riel

Artillery groups were formed in the early 1870s, prior to the North West Rebellion in 1885. This was an uprising by the Métis tribe in Saskatchewan who were fighting for greater rights for indigenous people.  It was a pretty brief skirmish but the first in which the British were not involved and it ended with defeat for the Métis and their leader Louis Riel, who was subsequently hanged.

Part Two follows…..

It’s a useful insight into how many charities there are, what sector they belong to, where the money comes from and what the big totals are.  The following is split up into Employees and Volunteers, Donors and Organisations.

Employees and Volunteers

• Charities in Canada employ around 2 million people, around 50% of which are part time workers.
• Voluntary workers contribute around 2 billion hours annually, which translates to about 1 million full time jobs.
• More than 40% of organisations are pretty small; 40% have between 0 and 5 paid workers and are run largely by volunteers.
• More than 25% of Canadians over the age of 15 volunteer for a charitable organisation every year, which totals just over 1 billion hours.
• 75% of voluntary hours are contributed by 25% of the volunteers.

Donors

• About 50% of all donors have a post-graduate or university degree.
• 85% of the Canadian population over the age of 15 donated to charity in 2006.
• Households with annual incomes of less than $20,000 contributed a higher percentage of their income than those with greater incomes.  An online casino will also receive a small amount.
• The three provinces/territories with the greatest proportion of the population donating to charity were Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island at 93%.  Nunavut has the lowest percentage of donators at 63%.
• However Nunavut also has the highest per capita donations by some distance at around $400 per annum.
• Around 50% of all money donated goes to religious charities, but health care receives the largest number of donations.

Organisations

• There are about 80,000 charities registered with the Canada Revenue Agency.
• There is an average of just over 500 charitable and non-profit organisations per 100,000 Canadians.
• Registered charities make up more than 50% of all non-profit organisations but more than 60% of the total revenue received.
• 90% of the 80,000 registered charities are actually charities, the other 10% is private and public foundations.
• Of that 90%, or 73,000, there are 32,000 religious charities, 13,000 welfare charities, 12,500 which are of benefit to the community, 12,000 devoted to education and 4,500 concerned with health care.
• Failure to file prompt tax returns means that around 2000 charities are de-registered each year, 40% of which re-apply for charitable status.
• Donations from members of the public actually make up a relatively small percentage of the total.  The numbers are as follows: 49% is provided by local or federal government, 35% is earned from sources such as memberships and sales or merchandise, 13% comes from donations from individuals and other organisations.

It’s an interesting list and although a few of the figures are out of date, the percentages will remain relatively stable year upon year, as will a europa casino bonus.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that after the Asian tsunami of December 2004, Canadian citizens raised the astonishing sum of $20 million in the first four days following the disaster.

The British version was originally called the British National Society for Aid to the Sick

George Sterling Ryerson

and Wounded in War.  The Canadian organisation was founded in 1896 by Colonel Dr. George Sterling Ryerson and became the Canadian Red Cross in 1909, when the Parliament of The Canadian Red Cross Society Act was passed, granting the organisation ‘independence’ from the British movement.

In each country in which it operates, the Red Cross (more specifically now called the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) is the organisation responsible for providing voluntary services under the governance and guidelines of the Geneva Convention (largely governing treatment of victims of war).  Canada’s organisation comprises two bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

We tend to think of Red Cross organisations as operating mainly in war-torn countries but in first world countries such as Canada it undertakes other duties mainly based around training programs in local areas.  These programs include education in disaster management, youth training, humanitarian issues, prevention of violence, first aid provision and swimming and boating safety.

One of the services it it was historically responsible for in Canada was the provision of blood services.  This entailed collecting and supplying blood for use in medical services in Canada.  This responsibility ended in 1998 after the Krever Commission found that the Red Cross had been supplying tainted blood, despite being aware of a test which could have identified infected blood.  Since 1998, the Canadian Blood Services have taken over this task.

Canada definition of charity is derived from an English court case referred to as Pemsel (the full title is Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel) and defines charity in Canada as the following:

• The relief of poverty
• Advancement of education
• Advancement or religion
• Of benefit to the community

Canada has just under 86,000 registered charities, all of which are regulated under the Income Tax Act.  Historically charities registered themselves as one of three types of organisation – charitable organisations, public foundations and private foundations. Although different in the past these organisations are now similar in structure and regulation.

All Canadian charities are overseen by the Charities Directorate which, as you would expect, makes sure the various charities are complying with their legal obligations.  It keeps the public informed on charitable donations and, importantly, decides which organisations will be granted charitable status.  As well as the directorate, the various charitable organisations will also be accountable to the state in which they are located and must abide by the local regulations in that state.  Charities focused on different areas of industry (hospitals, education, etc.) may also be liable to regulation from that industry. Despite the comprehensive regulation, it’s not unknown for charities to be rightly or wrongly accused of offences such as tax evasion and money laundering.

Elsewhere on this site we will introduce some of main Canadian, charities and voluntary organisations.

At the time, only the United States had achieved the advances necessary to develop a fledgling nuclear industry.  In 1944, Chalk River in Ontario was chosen as the site to develop the Zero Energy Experimental Pile (ZEEP) and in 1945 this facility achieved the first “self-sustained nuclear reaction outside the United States”.  Canada soon became a world leader in the field.  The National Research Experimental reactor (NRX) came online in 1947, contributing much valuable information experimental physics of the era.

The Chalk River Site

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited was formed as a Crown Corporation in 1952, just prior to one of the world’s first nuclear power mishaps.  The NRX suffered a partial meltdown in December of that year but 14 months later the facility was back online and upgraded. It was eventually decommissioned in 1992.

The AECL’s original mandate was to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy but over the subsequent years it’s role expanded to encompass research and development, maintenance of nuclear sites, waste management and diagnostic services to all areas of the Canadian nuclear industry.  It also oversees exports of various parts of it’s nuclear technology to other countries, particularly with reference to CANDU, an acronym for the Canada Deuterium-Uranium reactor.  CANDU is a pressurised, heavy water reactor originally devised in Canada.  This technology has been exported to South Korea, China and India, among others.  Canada also produces 05 of the world’s supply of medical radioisotopes.

Various derivatives of the CANDU reactors are currently in operation in Canada, the most recent update being the AECL Advanced CANDU Reactor which is scheduled to go online in 2017 at Lac cardinal in Alberta.

The wild nature of much of the country and its colonial British history meant that for the early years of responsible government, the military performed the task of policing the settled areas which were historically based around forts anyway.

Circa 1900

The Dominion Police are largely regarded as Canada’s first civilian police force and this was a group set up in 1868 to protect the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, under Gilbert McMicken. The Northwest Mounted Police was founded in 1873 as a frontier force and police outfit – Royal was added in 1904.  In 1920 these two organisation were merged and became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).  In the early days of law enforcement in Canada, before the merger, priorities for the new force was keeping the peace between First Nation tribes and securing Canadian sovereignty in the Yukon during the gold rush years. Part of their reputation is based on the fair and efficient way in which they policed affairs in these areas.

The RCMP undertakes something of a unique role in the world of policing – they act first and foremost at a federal level, enforcing those laws which come under federal jurisdiction. However they also provide law enforcement to territories and areas which do not appoint their own local police organisations.   For example Ontario and Quebec both appoint their own province-wide law enforcement organisations, these are the Ontario Provincial Police and the Surete de Quebec.  In each of the other eight provinces the RCMP assumes the duties under the auspices of the provincial authorities, although the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has reclaimed some of its power ceded to the Mounties following Newfoundlands addition to the Federation in 1949.

Additionally the RCMP no longer have the responsibility for foreign intelligence gathering, that role is now undertaken by the Canadian Security intelligence Service.

Ottawa Mint

to provide usable currency to a country.  More money is constantly required to replace unusable, lost or damaged currency, and also to add more money into circulation as the need arises, for example as inflation gradually raises the prices of goods and services. Usually a Mint is self-funding – the cost of production of a coin or note will be far less than its face value and this difference (called seigniorage) is where the profit comes from.

From 1858 until 1908, Canadian coins were minted at The British Royal Mint in London and occasionally at the privately owned Heaton Mint in Birmingham, also in the U.K.  With the advent of independence in 1867 and an increased need for currency as the Canadian economy grew, the natural progression was to build a mint in Canada.

Ottawa was chosen as the site and in 1902 authorisation for an offshoot of The British Royal Mint was provided.  It actually began production in 1908, exactly fifty years after coins started shipment from the U.K.   The Ottawa Mint achieved complete independence from the British Royal Mint in 1931 as The Great Depression crushed economies around the world.  It now reported to the Department of Finance and was known as the Royal Canadian Mint.

In 1969 the Department was re-organised and the Mint became a Crown Corporation,

Winnipeg Mint

meaning it was now a self-funding body with only arms length control from central government.  From the early 1960s it had also been apparent that the Ottawa facility was antiquated and overstretched and that an extra location should be developed.  It took some years and no little political wrangling but in 1976 a new branch of the the Royal Canadian Mint was opened in Winnipeg.  Its impressive production capacity allowed Ottawa to concentrate on memorial and collector coins while it took over the role of producing the national currency.  It has also been called upon to produce the coins of several other countries, such is its standing.

Despite its remoteness, large areas need protecting for various reasons – animal husbandry, conservation of flora and fauna and the like.  Similarly other areas are promoted as destinations to be visited and enjoyed.

Canada currently has 36 National Parks and 6 National Park Reserves and these are spread out over all of Canada’s thirteen provinces and territories.  The map below shows the distribution of these areas throughout Canada.

Way back in 1885 Banff National Park in Alberta was the first to be so designated.  It was

Banff National Park

then known as Banff Hot Springs Reserve.  It was originally set aside as a National Park to protect the hot springs which had become the focus of competing business and ownership interests.  The land around the hot springs was gradually absorbed into the Park boundaries and today it measures 6,641 square kilometres.

Banff is a relatively small park compared to some of the others.  The largest is Wood Buffalo National park, also in Alberta, which measures in an enormous 44,807 square kilometres.  For some perspective that is twice the size of Wales and two thirds the size of the entire United Kingdom.  Canada does also have much smaller parks and the St. Lawrence Islands are the smallest of these at 9 square kilometres.

There is a government body to oversee all the National Parks and that is Parks Canada.  It grew out of the Dominion Parks Branch which the world’s first such organisation in 1911.  The name has changed several times over the decades but Parks Canada was settled on in 1988.  It’s tasks are laid out in the 1930 National Parks Act and their mandate is as follow:

“On behalf of the people of Canada, we protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage, and foster public understanding, appreciation and enjoyment in ways that ensure the ecological and commemorative integrity of these places for present and future generations.”

English and French are the dominant languages – English is spoken by 58.8% of the population and French by 23.2%.  For this reason Canada is one of the few countries in the world to have more two official languages.  There is nothing complex behind the reasons for having English and French as the major languages – it simply reflects the history of the past several hundred years and the agreements between the English and French colonial powers when their citizens made up the majority of immigration.

The Official Languages Act was first signed into law in 1969 and the essential purpose of it is to ensure parity between the languages.  It has been tweaked and altered over the years but it remains broadly similar to the original Act.  Probably the most well known job of the Official Languages Act is to make sure all documents produced at a federal level are in both English and French.

With regards to the various province and territories, they decide at a local level their official languages.  This is most clearly demonstrated in provinces such as Quebec (French is the official language and 81.8% of the population regard it as their first) and Ontario (English is the official language spoken by 81.4%).  Several states do in fact have English and French as joint official languages.  Check out the chart below for full, countrywide details.

As far as the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages is concerned, it’s task is to oversee the implementation of the Act and to ensure the development of each language is promoted equally.  The Commissioner is appointed for a seven year term and must be approved by the Senate and House of Commons.  The current Commissioner is Graham Fraser.