Latvieši Kanādā: Agrie gadi
Displaced Persons (DP) Labour Policy
In 1947, in a change from its restrictive previous policies, the Government of Canada established a new labour program for Displaced Persons (DPs) in an effort to both alleviate the labour shortage in Canada and ease the refugee burden in Europe. After being screened for suitability, DPs were permitted to come to Canada as landed immigrants in exchange for one year of labour. Most typically, for men, this was bottom-of-the-rung physical labour in the mining, forestry, hydro, or construction industries. Women usually served as hospital workers or domestic servants.
The first ships carrying Latvians began to arrive in mid-1947. Only single individuals were accepted, and those with dependents had to leave them behind in DP refugee camps in Germany, where hunger and misery continued to prevail. Those in Canada were able to send aid packages to the camps directly or through commercial enterprises, such as Canada Packers. LNAK was instrumental in setting up the mechanisms for the delivery of food aid and ran fundraising campaigns for this purpose, urging workers to donate one hour of their hourly wage per month to the campaign.
The Latvian Relief Association endeavoured to meet each and every ship carrying Latvians as they disembarked in Halifax Harbour. In the early days, it was Mariss Vētra himself. Later, as the LRA developed a relationship with Canadian immigration authorities, they were notified in advance of expected arrivals. The new arrivals were given the most recent issues of Latvian community newspapers and the names and addresses of Latvians in the communities to which they were heading, who were willing to provide assistance and support. Vētra's colleague at the Halifax Conservatory Teodors Brilts took on the responsibility of establishing a register of Latvian immigrants and diligently recorded their names and addresses. By 1952, Brilts had a register of over 12,000 names.
Left: Broņislavs Ivsiņš on his way from Halifax Harbour to his work placement as a bricklayer in Montréal in 1949
After completing one year of service, the new Canadian immigrants were entitled to sponsor their family members to come to Canada. Some saved their earnings, some had assistance from church groups, but later their passage was covered by the International Refugee Organization (IRO) or the Government of Canada.
Jānis Ivsiņš with his mother, Janīna Ivsiņa, on their ocean voyage aboard the USAT General Omar Bundy to join their father and husband, Broņislavs Ivsiņš, in 1950.
Latvian immigrants to Canada were scattered across the country. Men were often dispatched to remote locales. However, there were places that required large numbers of workers, and it was possible for Latvian community life to emerge on these worksites. One example is the Latvian community at Rolphton, near Petawawa, where Ontario Hydro built a hydro-electric dam on the Ottawa River in the late 1940s using thousands of DP workers. Some locals referred to them as IPs, short for Imported Persons. The dam site employed over 3,000 individuals at its peak. The dam went into service in 1950 and is still one of Hydro Ontario's most important assets.
Left: Latvian workers at Rolphton celebrating the Latvian Summer Solstice in 1949.
Canada's 50,000th Displaced Person was Ausma Lēvalds Rowberry
Ausma Levalds was Canada's 50,000th displaced person welcomed into Canada after the Second World War, brought by the international Refugee Organization. She arrived at Pier 21 in February 1949, at the age of eight with her mother, Karline Levalds, and her sister, Rasma. They were sponsored by her father, Janis Levalds, who had emigrated a year before to Canada. Levalds spent the previous year as an agricultural labourer in Ontario.
Here is the start of a story about Karline Levalds, told by her daughter Ausma:
On April 16, 1906 Karline was born into a busy three generation family in Nigrande, Latvia, daughter of Anna (Meiers) and Juris Vidners, a sister to Lize (1902), a deceased brother (1903) and Paulite (1904). Anna, born in 1907 died from diptheria at the age of six. In 1909, three year old Karline was sent to reside, for a year, with her maternal grandparents, at Gruntos. In 1910, she was reunited with her family for the next five years at Mezainos. Karline again was separated from her parents and sisters: Lize, Paulite and Velta, born in November of 1915, for three years during the war. She was taken to Gruntos while the rest of the family was ordered from their farm to Vidzeme. In 1918, Karline lived only briefly with her family, prior to her mother's death from brain inflammation, and then, her maternal grandparent's farm Grunti became her permanent home.
Read Ausma's story about her mother, Karlīne, on the Pier 21 website.
Arrival Via Other Countries
While most post-war Latvian immigrants to Canada arrived via the DP route from European refugee camps, approximately 4,000 accepted similar labour contracts as European Volunteer Workers (EVWs) in the United Kingdom and arrived later via ordinary immigration. Initially, EVWs were excluded from immigrating to Canada, but LNAK and Mariss Vētra played a large role in lobbying the federal government to allow them entry. They likewise lobbied for older individuals and veterans to be admitted to Canada. Mariss Vētra earned the moniker "The Crazy Man from Halifax" for his efforts. Most of these people wanted to come to Canada because they were afraid of the Russians and wanted to get as far away from them as possible.
A similar situation arose in Sweden, which had extradited some Latvians to the Soviet Union in 1945. People did not feel safe there and applied for immigration to Canada.