Identités et échanges
English · Première générale · BO : B1+ ; visée B2 vers C1
A crowded waterfront market in Montreal: families with bundles and trunks, sellers, carts and children in front of a red brick building, with ships and masts on the river behind. In the centre, a young man in a dark coat holds a portfolio and a silver candelabrum.
William Raphael (1833 to 1914), Behind Bonsecours Market, Montreal, 1866, first titled Immigrants at Montreal. Oil on canvas, 67.5 × 109.6 cm. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, purchased 1957, accession 6673. Public domain. Image via Wikimedia Commons, not cropped or retouched.

Who Gets In? Canada and the Promise of Welcome

Introduction

Look for him first. In the middle of this busy Montreal market, a young man in a dark coat holds a portfolio under his arm and a silver candelabrum in his hand. He is the painter, William Raphael. He was born Israel Rafalsky in Nakel, in Prussia, in 1833, and he arrived in Montreal by train on 23 April 1857.

Nine years later he painted his own arrival and called the picture Immigrants at Montreal. The candelabrum was his family’s ritual object: he brought his past with him into his new country. Today the painting hangs in the National Gallery of Canada.

In this sequence you will meet other newcomers: Highlanders who lost their land, Black Loyalists who were promised land, farmers from Eastern Europe, Sikh passengers who were refused, war brides and refugees. Each time, ask two questions: what did Canada give them, and what did they give Canada?

The question of the sequence:

Has Canada kept its promise of welcome, and what have newcomers and their host country given each other?

How the sequence works

The sessions

S1 · Why Leave? The Last of the Clan
Highland Scotland in 1865 and Canada in 2021: why people leave, and why they choose Canada.S2 · Black Loyalists: A Promise of Land
Birchtown, broken promises, a petition to London and the voyage to Freetown in 1792.S3 · The Last Best West: Choosing Settlers
Clifford Sifton’s “stalwart peasant in a sheep-skin coat” and the settlement of the Prairies.S4 · Closed Doors: The Head Tax and the Komagata Maru
Laws that kept people out, and the apologies of 2006 and 2016.S5 · Pier 21: Gateway to Canada
Halifax, 1928 to 1971: nearly one million newcomers, war brides and refugees.S6 · “No Official Culture”: Multiculturalism
The points system of 1967 and Pierre Trudeau’s statement of 1971.S7 · Refugees and Today’s Debate
Private sponsorship, the Nansen Medal of 1986 and the Immigration Levels Plan.Final task
A bac-style written test on unseen documents, or a five-minute oral report: “Canada’s Welcome Report”.

Timeline

Programme

Bulletin officiel n°22 du 29 mai 2025

Arrêté du 5 mai 2025, annexe 4 : programme d’anglais pour les classes de lycée général et technologique. Classe de première, repères culturels.