Governments make mistakes.

I thought I would get this reaction. I rise today to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of one such mistake. A hundred years ago, the following Order-in-Council was passed by the Government of Canada. It reads:

The Governor General in Council: Whereas the Minister of Immigration and Colonization reports that, owing to conditions prevailing as the result of the war, a widespread feeling exists throughout the Dominion, and more particularly in Western Canada, that steps should be taken to prevent the entry to Canada of all persons who may be regarded as undesirable, owing to their peculiar customs, habits, modes of living and methods of holding property. They are not likely to become readily assimilated or assume the duties and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship within a reasonable time. Whereas the minister further reports that numerous representations have been received by the Department of Immigration and Colonization indicating that persons known as Doukhobors, Hutterites and Mennonites, are of the class and character described, and that consequently, it is desirable to prohibit the entry to Canada of such.

Therefore His Excellency, the Governor General in Council under the authority of section 38 of the Immigration Act chapter 27 is pleased to order and hereby ordered that on and after the second day of May, 1919, and until further ordered, the entry to Canada of immigrants of the Doukhobor, Hutterite and Mennonite class shall be and the same is hereby prohibited.

That prevented my parents, relatives and thousands of other Mennonites who had applied to come to Canada after leaving the Soviet Union. They were therefore stuck.

I don’t raise this to simply acknowledge the pain and suffering of those of 100 years ago, but as a lesson in intolerance for today and as a testament against falsehoods and prejudice in our times.

Jonathan Swift writes:

Falsehoods flies, and truth comes limping after it...

So it did with this Order-in-Council as well, because three years later — a new government I should add, and if I was political I would say a Liberal government — said:

His Excellency, the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the acting Minister of Immigration and Colonization, is pleased to order that the Order-in-Council of June 9, 1919, prohibited the landing in Canada of any immigrant of Doukhobor, Hutterite and Mennonite classes shall be and the same is hereby rescinded as respects Hutterites and Mennonites.

Therefore, of course, the thousands of what became known as the Mennonite exodus from Russia took place in the 1920s and 1930s.

I speak today so that we may redouble our efforts to make Canada an ongoing beacon of protection for refugees, a welcoming of immigrants, of pluralism and as a guard against falsehoods and other claims of racial discrimination.