The History of Italians in Canada, from the Canadian
Encyclopedia,
is presented in 2 Parts
Yesterday: Part 1 covered
The First 300 years
Early 19th Century
Late 19th Century
Origins (of Italians by Italy's Regions)
Early Migration and Settlement
Settlement and Economic Life
Today: Part 2 will cover
Community Life
Cultural Life
Education
Religious Life
Politics
Group Maintainance
===================================================
ITALIANS IN CANADA
Community Life
Mutual-aid societies, many of which grew out of village organizations, were among the earliest institutions established by Italian immigrants. The Order of the Sons of Italy (the first Canadian branch was established in Sault Ste Marie in 1915) was open to all people of Italian heritage.
In 1927 some Québec lodges, opposed to the order's profascist leanings, broke away to form a parallel structure, which a decade later was renamed the Order of Italo-Canadians. Wartime hostilities inhibited the work of the mutual-aid societies, but their decline was really made inevitable by the growing influence of the WELFARE STATE and insurance companies.
After WWII, numerous new clubs and societies were established around regional, religious, social or sporting functions. Building on the work of the Italian Immigrant Aid Society, in the early 1960s the Centre for Organizing Technical Courses for Italians was founded in Toronto to provide technical education and upgrading, as well as English courses and counselling. In the mid-1970s, COSTI also established a special program to meet the needs of immigrant women and during the next decade expanded to assist many newer immigrant groups (eg, Chinese, Portuguese, Latin Americans, etc).
In 1971 the Italian Canadian Benevolent Corporation was founded in Toronto. Undertaking what was the largest project of its kind in North America, the ICBC built a multifaceted complex with senior citizens' housing and a community centre offering recreational, cultural and social services. Similar projects followed in quick succession in Italian communities across Canada including those in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
The founding in Ottawa in 1974 of the National Congress of Italian Canadians was an attempt to bring national cohesion to the group and increase its political influence. The congress co-ordinated the raising of millions of dollars from across Canada to provide relief for the victims of earthquakes that devastated Friuli in 1976 and Campania and Basilicata a few years later.
In the late 1980s the congress took up the issue of the wrongful internment of Italian Canadians during WWII, for which it received an apology from the prime minister.
Given the large size of the group, it is not surprising that internal divisions would occur along regional, political, generational and class lines. The Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association and the Italian Chamber of Commerce represent the interests of employers and professionals, while working-class Italian Canadians have sought to protect their interests through the various organized labour movements. Comprising a conspicuously large proportion of the labour force in both the construction and textile industries, they have been especially prominent, for example, in the International Labourers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
Cultural Life
Like the major community organizations, the Italian-Canadian press and media have promoted cohesion and have mediated between their constituency and the wider society. The first Italian newspaper in Canada was published in Montréal in the late 19th century; by 1914 several others had been founded from Toronto to Vancouver.
After 1950, dozens of Italian newspapers and magazines, many aimed at particular regional, religious or political markets, proliferated across Canada. By the mid-1960s, Italian-language publications had a readership of 120 000. The most influential of these are Il Corriere Italiano of Montréal, and also Il Corriere Canadese of Toronto, which carries an English-language supplement to reach younger Italian Canadians.
In 1978 the owner of Il Corriere Canadese launched a multilingual television station in Ontario which transmits in Italian (as well as other languages) daily, and a few years later the Telelatino Network commenced operations as a national cable system for Italian and Spanish programming. Currently, Italian and Chinese are the most widespread non-official languages in Canadian television and radio broadcasting.
Italian Canadians have altered society's tastes in food, fashion, architecture and recreation, thus helping to bring a new cosmopolitanism to Canadian life. They have also made important contributions to the arts. Mario BERNARDI of Kirkland Lake, Ont, for example, was appointed the first conductor of Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1968 and helped guide it to international stature. The avant-garde paintings of Guido MOLINARI of Montréal now hang in leading galleries. At the more popular level, Bruno GERUSSI, a former Shakespearean actor, became a well-known radio and TV personality. Among the many writers of Italian background, J.R. COLOMBO is a best-selling author of reference works and literature (see also ITALIAN WRITING; ETHNIC LITERATURE).
Education
Dante Alighieri societies throughout Canada offer films, lectures, Italian-language courses and other programs to foster knowledge of Italy. In 1976 the Canadian Centre for Italian Culture and Education was founded in Toronto to design and institute Italian-language programs in schools. Also important are the cultural institutes run by the Italian government, the Italian-language holdings of public libraries and the many Italian clubs in universities and high schools.
The 1970s ushered in major changes in Canadian education as a result of the adoption of multiculturalism in public policy. By the mid-1980s all provinces, except for those of Atlantic Canada, had developed heritage language programs, which included the teaching of Italian where sufficient demand existed.
In Ontario, over 40 000 elementary school students were enrolled in Italian courses, comprising almost half the total enrolment in non-official languages.Great strides were made by Italian Canadians in educational achievement, as reflected in post-secondary statistics. By the mid-1980s a greater percentage of Canadian-educated Italians (Canadian-born and those emigrating before age 15) had a university degree compared to 10% for the total population, and over one-quarter had a community college education, 3% more than overall. Over 7% of Italian-Canadian male students were enrolled in the professional fields of law, dentistry and medicine (which was at par with the average for all groups) and they had one of the highest proportions undertaking graduate studies.
Religious Life
Italian ethnicity in Canada is closely connected to Roman Catholicism, the faith of 95% of Italian Canadians. Historically the Catholic Church has sought to minister to Italians through religious orders, especially the Servites in Montréal, the Franciscans in Toronto and the Oblates in the West. Scalabrinian priests specializing in work with immigrants became active in major cities after WWII, and great expansion occurred in the 1960s when many national parishes and Italian-language services were established across the country.
By 1970 Montréal's Italians were being served by 8 churches, while in Toronto (where they accounted for one-third of the city's Catholics) they were served by 3 times this number and by 65 Italian-speaking priests.As well as addressing the spiritual needs of its members, the church has been involved in immigrant aid, education and recreation, and contributed toward the preservation of the group's language and culture.
A distinctive Italian-Canadian Catholicism has been preserved by 2 major practices - the honouring of the saints' days throughout feste and the celebration of the sacraments (especially marriage) through banquets. These practices are both religious and social and often bring together several hundred relatives and paesani.
In daily life, the influence of Catholicism can be seen in the strong family values of Italian Canadians, which give the group higher rates of marriage and fertility, and lower rates of divorce and separation, compared to the overall Canadian average. The majority are opposed to divorce, abortion and even artificial contraception. Most Italian Canadians believe they have a responsibility to care for aged parents, a conviction reflected in living arrangements showing almost half in multi-family households.
Politics
The first successes of Italians in politics occurred in northern Ontario and the West rather than major cities. Through the 1930s Italian Canadians were elected to local councils and mayoral offices in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ont, Mayerthorpe and Coleman, Alta, and Trail and Revelstoke, BC.
One of these, Mayor Hubert Badanai of Fort William, in the 1950s was elected as one of the first Italian federal members of Parliament for the Liberal Party. In 1952, Philip Gaglardi of Mission City, BC, was elected to the provincial legislature for Social Credit and became the first cabinet minister of Italian origin in postwar politics. However, it was not until 1981 that Charles Caccia - initially elected as a Toronto MP in 1968 - was appointed the first federal Italian-Canadian cabinet minister by Prime Minister Trudeau.
Moreover, a former St Catharines councillor, Laura Sabia, became chairperson of the Ontario Council on the Status of Women in 1973 and a leading activist in the women's movement.Federally the Italian ethnic vote has generally supported the Liberals, partly because they were perceived as being more open toward immigration and more committed to multiculturalism. Like other Canadians, Italians have tended to vote differently at the provincial level. In both Ontario and BC, for example, many have supported the New Democratic Party. In the 1984 federal election, however, the Progressive Conservative Party made gains among the group, especially in Québec where 2 Montréal candidates of Italian background were elected.By the mid-1980s Italian Canadians had attained a level of political representation commensurate with their numbers. In 1993, 15 Italian-Canadians were elected to Ottawa. This comprised 5% of House of Commons seats, which compares favourably with their standing at about 4% (multiple origins) of the Canadian population.
Group Maintenance
While group cohesion among Italian Canadians has been provided by a sense of shared history, community institutions, and distinctive cultural and religious traits, ethnic maintenance rests upon the bedrock of the family.
The most significant social institution among Italian Canadians has been the family, both nuclear and extended. Commonly, in the traditional family in Italy the roles were clearly defined. The husband was considered family head and provider; the wife was expected to be a good homemaker and mother. Children were to show obedience and respect towards their parents. Each member was to act for the betterment of the whole family rather than for his or her individual interest. Many Italian immigrants have attempted to maintain such family patterns, but change was inevitable.
Because traditional ways differed markedly from what was expected in the wider Canadian society, the resulting conflict was often at the root of many social problems. At times the children of immigrants have found that their aspirations for upward mobility and individual expression conflicted with the family's insistence on solidarity and the fulfilment of traditional roles.
The second-generation Italian-Canadian family, however, has changed considerably. While usually maintaining an emphasis on family cohesion, respect and loyalty, it has increasingly moved toward a greater equalization of roles between husband and wife. The family still provides its members with important support, and the extended family (relatives to third cousin) is frequently reunited at weddings, baptisms and similar events. Often friends are drawn from the extended family and economic favours are exchanged among family members.
Related to this, local loyalties among Italian Canadians from the same village often link extended families into a much larger group (paesani) connected by personal bonds.This is not to suggest, however, that Italians have wished to live as an ethnic enclave. Prewar Italian Canadians, by 1941, had a higher rate of intermarriage (45%) than most other major ethnic groups and in the postwar period a similar rate was again reached by the mid-1980s.
In Québec, Italian Canadians integrate more easily into the francophone society than do many other ethnic groups. Over 84% of Italian Canadians are able to speak French, giving them one of the highest levels of French-language facility of any ethnic group in the province.The expansion and consolidation of the Italian-Canadian community since WWII has been due to a strong degree of ethnic commitment on the part of immigrants and their children.
The resulting high level of institutional completeness provides Italian Canadians with the possibility of expressing their ethno-cultural identity through a wide spectrum of activities ranging from Italian-language television to sports leagues.
Within the private realm, the family and religion have been interrelated pillars of ethnic identity continuity and both maintain greater importance for Italian Canadians than the general population.
Despite the growing proportion of the Canadian-born and increasing level of exogamy, Italian family and moral values have persisted to a significant degree. Identification with the Famiglia and ethnic group is a major means of providing Italian Canadians with a sense of security in the midst of an impersonal mass society.
Interestingly, the census suggests that many children of mixed marriages are likely to identify themselves as Italian Canadians; hence multiple-origin Italian Canadians increased more than threefold between 1981 and the mid-1990s.
Author FRANC STURINO
Suggested Reading Kenneth Bagnell, Canadese: A Portrait of the Italian-Canadians (1989); Roberto Perin and Franc Sturino, Arrangiarsi: The Italian Immigration Experience in Canada (1992, 2nd ed); Robert F. Harney, If One Were to Write a History: Selected Writings (991); Franc Sturino, Forging the Chain: A Case Study of Italian Migration to North America, 1880-1930 (1990); John E. Zucchi, Italians in Toronto: Development of a National Identity, 1875-1935 (1988); Franca Iacovetta, Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar Toronto (1992).
The Canadian Encyclopedia
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