The People of Canada
There were three founding peoples of Canada:
- The Aborignal Peoples
- The English
- The French
Aboriginal Peoples
The Aboriginal Peoples were the first to live in Canada. Aboriginal treaty and territorial rights are guaranteed in the Canadian Constitution.
From the 1800s through the 1980s, the federal government placed many Aboriginal children in residential schools to assimilate them into Canada's mainstream culture, prohibiting the children's use of their own language and cultural traditions; this was unsuccessful and stopped.
The term Aboriginal peoples refers to three distinct groups:
- The Inuit: a term that means "the people" in the Inuktitut language; they live across the Arctic.
- The Métis: people of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry, living mostly in the Prairie Plains
- Indian: those not Inuit or Métis and are known as the First Nations.
About 65% of the Aboriginal people are First Nations, 30% are Métis and 4% Inuit.
English and French Peoples
Canadian society stems mostly from English and French speaking settlers that came from Europe.
Today in Canada there are 18 million Anglophones--people who speak English as their first language and 7 million Francophones--people who speak French as their first language.
Francophones and Acadians
The majority of Francophones live in the province of Quebec, but one million live in Ontario, New Brunswick and Manitoba. New Brunswick is the only official bilingual province.
Quebecers are the people of Quebec and descendants of French settlers from the 1600s-1700s.
Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who settled in the Maritime provinces in 1604.
During the war between England and France, 1755-1763, two-thirds of Acadians were deported ; this period was known as the "Great Upheaval." Still many survived this ordeal and maintained their cultural identity.
Languages and Diversity
Both English and French are the official languages of Canada and the federal government, by law, is required to provide services in both.
After English, the Chinese language is the second most spoken language at home.
In two of Canada's biggest cities, Vancouver and Toronto, the population that speak Chinese languages is 13% and 7% respectively.
The largest religious affiliation of Canadians is Catholic.