Vintage Italian-Canadian photos from the SFU Archives

It’s a rainy day, so it’s a good day to look back and reflect. Lucky for me, I’ve found a great trove of vintage Italian-Canadian photos to check out and share with you. Simon Fraser University offers a wealth of images, audio and video that gives a snippet of what life was like for early Italian immigrants to Canada. Here’s a few and there’s more to come…

Italian-Canadian march (city unknown)

Italian-Canadian family with horse and carriage

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The Internment of Italian-Canadians during WWII

Last month, it was hard to miss all the news about WWII for those of us in the Italian-Canadian community. That may seem strange, but last month saw the release of a number of projects that documented how Italian-Canadians were treated during that tense time in Canadian, and world, history. The internment of Italian-Canadians during WWII is now documented well, where very little was available before.

For those who haven’t read about it, or attended one of the events, and for my readers who many not be familiar with this topic, I thought I would cover it here and point to all the new resources available to find out more about the history of Italians in Canada. WWII saw the toughest of times for Italians.

In June of 1940, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King declared war on Mussolini’s Fascist government.  Days later the Canadian Minister of Justice signed an order that resulted in labelling thousands of Italian-Canadians as enemy aliens. During this time, 31,000 were were fingerprinted, photographed and ordered to report monthly to the police. Approximately 600+ Italian-Canadian men were interned at camps in rural areas for years, most never even charged with a crime. The remote camps were in Petawawa, Ontario, Kananaskis, Alberta, and Fredericton, New Brunswick, operating from 1940 to 1945. Before and after this internment, Italians were treated harshly. There was public hostility, ethnic slurs and Italian businesses were boycotted. In addition, many men and women lost their jobs. Thousands of Italian-Canadian families were denied relief across Ontario, and forbidden to speak Italian and congregate in groups larger than five.

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Italian-Canadian Glass Art and Glassblowing

We didn’t intend to connect with an old Italian art when we signed up for an glassblowing class last month, but that’s just what we got. A connection to art, heritage and community and some great glass pieces to go home with.

Us two Italian-Canadians headed to small town Ontario, namely the beautiful town of Elora, to learn how to create art out of glass. We thought it would be a neat new thing to learn. As soon as I saw the fires, kiln and gorgeous glass artwork, I was immediately reminded of the spectacular sights in the glass shops in Venice that I saw when I was much younger. Venetian glass dates back to the early 1200s, glassblowing in Ontario, I’m sure, is just a few hundred years old but has a very strong artistic community.

At Blown Away Glass Studio, Katherine guided us through the toughest art lesson I’ve ever had. I don’t think I even grabbed a sixteenth of the glass that the real artists pick up to work with, and yet my arms were killing me.

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What makes us Canadians, Italian?

Many times when I think of my “Italianness” and what it means to have culture and history in your life, your identity tied to your heritage, I think of an old friend of mine and his experience with his heritage. His story is one that always makes me think – what makes me Italian? What traits am I looking for? Who decides who I am at heart?

This particular guy was dating a friend of mine, she was Italian-Canadian and he was, by all accounts Italian. He had worked in Little Italy for some time and certainly, he had picked up some traits of the all-Italian machismo that surrounded him and from the patrons that were more often that not Italian. When he started dating my friend, his Italianness was even more evident – the way he loved, his passions, his love for food, his dedication to family and many other traits that at the time, we insisted – he was Italian in the most basic sense of the word. Yet, he was completely Canadian – tall and blonde and from small town Ontario.

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