Italian-Canadian
Encyclopedia
An Italian Canadian is a Canadian of Italian
descent or heritage. According to the 2006 census of Canada, 1,445,335 Canadians (4.6% of total population) consider themselves to be of Italian origin. The Italian-Canadian population climbed by more than 12% and half (over 700,000) have combined Italian origins along with another ethnic group, mostly other European ethnic groups. Altogether, Italians continue to be the 5th largest ethnic group in Canada
after British and Irish origins, French origin and German origin.
era, France also occupied parts of Northern Italy and there was a significant Italian presence in the French military forces in the colony. Notable were Alphonse de Tonty
, who helped establish Detroit, and Henri de Tonti
, who journeyed with La Salle in his exploration of the Mississippi River
. Italians made up a small portion of the population
, however, and quickly lost their ethnic identities. In 1881, only 1,849 Canadians claimed to be Italian. A number of Italians were imported to work as navvies in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway
.
A substantial influx began in the early twentieth century when over a hundred thousand Italians moved to Canada. These were largely peasants from rural southern Italy and agrarian parts of the north-east (Veneto
, Friuli
). They mainly immigrated to Toronto
and Montreal
, both of which soon had large Italian communities. Smaller communities also arose in Hamilton
, Vancouver
, Windsor
, Niagara Falls
, Ottawa
, Sherbrooke, Quebec City
, Sudbury and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
area. Many also settled in mining communities in British Columbia
, Alberta
, Cape Breton Island
and Northern Ontario
. The Northern Ontario cities of Sault Ste. Marie
and Fort William
were quite heavily populated by Italian immigrants. There was a Royal Commission appointed to Inquire into the Immigration of Italian Labourers to Montreal and alleged Fraudulent Practices of Employment Agencies in 1905, which exposed the abuses of immigration agents known as padroni.
This migration was largely halted by World War I
, and new immigration laws in the 1920s limited Italian immigration. During World War II
, Italian-Canadians, as well as German-Canadian
s were regarded with suspicion and faced a great deal of discrimination. Those who had been actively pro-Fascist, and some who were falsely accused, were interned at Camp Petawawa during the war. There was no mass internment as befell Japanese-Canadians, however.
A second wave occurred after the Second World War when Italians especially from the Latium
and Abruzzo
regions left the war-impoverished country for opportunities in a young and growing country. Many Italians from Istria
and Dalmatia
also immigrated to Canada, during this period, as displaced persons (see Istrian exodus
). In the 1960s, immigration laws were again changed, and the bias in favour of Europeans was removed. In the same period, Italy was rapidly growing in wealth, and by the early 1970s fewer Italians were interested in emigration.
ancestry, in which 741,045 had sole Italian origins while the other 704,285 were of partial Italian origin along with other ethnic origins, chiefly with other European ethnic groups e.g. Italian-Irish
, Italian-English
, Italian-French
, etc. The latter group climbed by almost 25%, while the Italian Canadian population as a whole grew by 12% since the 2001 census
.
Canadians of Italian ancestry make up 4.6% of the population of Canada, a rise from 4.3% in 2001. The majority live in Ontario (867,980) where they constitute more than seven per cent of the population, while another 300,000 live in Quebec.
The main concentrations of Canadians of Italian ancestry are in the following metropolitan areas and Census agglomerations:
In 2001, about three-quarters of the 1.3 million Canadians of Italian descent (903,375) were born in Canada according to the 2001 Census and 315,455 Canadian residents were born in Italy. Of those 315,000 immigrants, almost half (46.7%) immigrated to Canada before 1961, 38.3% between 1961 and 1970, another 10.3% between 1971 and 1980. Italian immigration to Canada since 1981 has been very slow with only 6.4% of Italian immigrants coming to Canada since 1981.
More than half of Canadians of Italian origins (670,300) claimed English
as their mother tongue, 81,000 French
and 469,485 Italian
. Their religious profile represents the historical ties with Italy. Out of the 1.3 million Italian
s in Canada, 1,015,725 or 79.9% are Roman Catholic, 113,455 or 8.9% Protestant, 23,805 or 1.8% other Christian
. Those who do not profess a faith constitute 109,515 or 8.2%. The largest non-Christian faith that some Italians follow is Judaism
.
Canadians of Italian ancestry had above-average incomes ($34,871 average employment income vs. $ 31,757 for all Canadians) and below-average unemployment rates (5.4% compared to 7.4% for the Canadian labour force as a whole). While they work in all walks of life, they represent a disproportionate number of Canada's construction workers: 6 % of Canadians employed in the construction industry are of Italian ancestry. On the other hand, they are under-represented in agriculture. In other industries, the proportion of Canadians of Italian ancestry is not far from their percentage of the general population.
founded a similar radio station (CHIN
) in Toronto. CFMB has become a cultural bulwark for Italians in Montreal, however, the station's programming is often criticized as being geared only toward the older generations. Hardly any new pop songs from Italy, for instance, receive airtime and older songs from the 1970s and 1980s are usually privileged. A short programme on Friday afternoons, Spazio ai giovani, was recently introduced to address these criticisms.
Dan Iannuzzi
founded the first multicultural television station in Canada (CFMT-TV), which began operations at Toronto in 1979. Now owned by Rogers Communications, the service has spun off into two multicultural television services in southern Ontario: OMNI-1 and OMNI-2. TeleItalia, an Italian-language television service, was founded in Montreal shortly thereafter. TeleItalia shared airtime with other multicultural programming at the station but had the most and best timeslots. TeleItalia programming included programming purchased from RAI
, the Italian state broadcaster, as well as numerous locally-produced programmes, including the nightly newscast at six o'clock. In 1997, a reform of the city's multicultural television station (CJNT) saw a drastic decline in the quality of all programming and major cuts to airtime. At one time, CJNT was on air for less than twelve hours a day. The CanWest Global company later purchased the station and has since improved programming. Nevertheless, there is now little Italian programming shown.
A third station, Telelatino
(TLN) of Toronto, is widely available through cable distribution. Though offering programmes in both Spanish and Italian, most of TLN's revenue (70%) is derived from the latter. TLN, along with RAI International, an arm of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, has recently been at the centre of a dispute over Italian-language broadcasting in Canada. Telelatino had carried since 1984 some RAI content in addition to locally produced shows and dubbed Spanish programming from Latin America. By the beginning of this decade, however, there was growing dissatisfaction with TLN programming, especially in Montreal. Critics in Montreal labelled TLN's locally-produced shows too "Torontocentric" and poked fun at dubbed Spanish programming bought from Latin American stations. Most of these latter shows were soap operas filmed in the 1980s.
. The Italian community in Montreal was almost wholly in favour of admitting RAI. The Committee for Italians Living Abroad in Montreal (COM.IT.ES.), an arm of the Italian foreign ministry, led the campaign to have RAI admitted. The Italian community in Toronto, however, was divided. Some in Toronto saw the move as part of a scheme by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
to gain greater influence over the Italian language media in Canada. Italian law provides the Italian diaspora votes in Italian elections and permanent seats in the Italian parliament. Unlike the more independent Telelatino, RAI was widely seen as pro-Berlusconi. Those in favour of the RAI in Montreal pointed out that TLN quickly replaced its RAI programming with shows bought from SKY, a private television network. Berlusconi is said to have much more control over his private TV companies than over the state-run RAI.
In November 2003, community leaders in Montreal led a protest march in Ottawa under the slogan "RAI Now". They then presented a petition with some tens of thousands of signatures in favour of their cause. The CRTC initially turned down the application allowing RAI International to broadcast in Canada, declaring it would be impossible to set up a domestic Italian channel if that came to pass. In Montreal editorials lambasting the federal government and the CRTC were published in the community newspapers and leaders spoke out again a perceived injustice. With a federal election set for the summer of 2004, one in which the Liberal Party did not seem guaranteed a victory, opinion makers in Montreal began asking if Italians were simply not sheep herded along by the Liberals. (The great majority of Italians in Montreal are Liberal and federalist). Many called on voters to vote against the Liberal party which was blamed for the CRTC's decision. Ultimately, nervous Liberal candidates signed a statement days before the vote, guaranteeing that RAI would be broadcasting within a year or that the laws would be changed to permit it. The Liberals won their election and in the spring of 2005, the CRTC reversed its earlier decision. RAI thus began broadcasting in June of that year.
founded in Montreal in 1941, followed by Il Corriere Italiano, founded by Alfredo Gagliardi also in Montreal in the early 1950s. Corriere Canadese
, founded by Dan Iannuzzi
in 1954, is Canada's only Italian-language daily today and is published in Toronto; its weekend (English-language) edition is published as Tandem. Other newspapers include Insieme (Montreal),L'Ora di Ottawa (Ottawa, Ontario) and Il Postino (Ottawa, Ontario). Il Postino was established in 2000 by a young group of local Ottawa Italian Canadians to convey the history of the Italian community in Ottawa. (www.ilpostinocanada.com). Insieme was originally founded by the Italian Catholic parishes of Montreal but has since been put under private ownership. It nevertheless retains an emphasis on religious articles.
Many of the older Italian newspapers are criticized, like CFMB radio, for only serving the interests of the older generations. Several trendier, more modern magazines or newspapers have thus been founded. Many are run by recent Italian immigrants to Canada and are geared towards youth. Panoram Italia magazine, a bimonthly publication distributed in the Greater Montreal and Toronto areas, is the most popular among them. However, most others have failed or are published sporadically due to financial problems. The movement to support these upstart newspapers, however, is fairly strong in Montreal where many people under 40 years old can still communicate in Italian. Eyetalian magazine was launched in 1993 as a challenging, independent magazine of Italian-Canadian culture. It encountered commercial difficulty, and leaned towards a general lifestyle magazine format before concluding publication later in the 1990s. Italo of Montreal is published sporadically and is written in Italian, with some articles in French and English. Dealing with current affairs and community news. La Comunità, while an older publication, was taken over by the youth wing of the National Congress of Italian Canadians
(Québec chapter) in the late 1990s. It experimented with different formats but was later cancelled due to lack of funding.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
descent or heritage. According to the 2006 census of Canada, 1,445,335 Canadians (4.6% of total population) consider themselves to be of Italian origin. The Italian-Canadian population climbed by more than 12% and half (over 700,000) have combined Italian origins along with another ethnic group, mostly other European ethnic groups. Altogether, Italians continue to be the 5th largest ethnic group in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
after British and Irish origins, French origin and German origin.
History
The first explorer to North America and to Canada was the Venetian Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot). His voyage to Canada and other parts of the Americas was followed by his son Sebastiano Caboto and Janus Verrazanus (Giovanni da Verrazzano). During the New FranceNew France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
era, France also occupied parts of Northern Italy and there was a significant Italian presence in the French military forces in the colony. Notable were Alphonse de Tonty
Alphonse de Tonty
Pierre Alphonse de Tonty, or Alphonse de Tonty, Baron de Paludy was an officer who served under the French explorer Cadillac and helped establish the first European settlement at Detroit, Michigan, Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on the Detroit River in 1701...
, who helped establish Detroit, and Henri de Tonti
Henri de Tonti
Henri de Tonti was an Italian-born soldier, explorer, and fur trader in the service of France.-Early life:Henri de Tonti, a Sicilian, was mostly likely born near Gaeta, Italy in either 1649 or 1650. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti, a financier and former governor of Gaeta...
, who journeyed with La Salle in his exploration of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. Italians made up a small portion of the population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
, however, and quickly lost their ethnic identities. In 1881, only 1,849 Canadians claimed to be Italian. A number of Italians were imported to work as navvies in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
.
A substantial influx began in the early twentieth century when over a hundred thousand Italians moved to Canada. These were largely peasants from rural southern Italy and agrarian parts of the north-east (Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
, Friuli
Friuli
Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...
). They mainly immigrated to Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, both of which soon had large Italian communities. Smaller communities also arose in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Windsor
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls is a Canadian city on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The municipality was incorporated on June 12, 1903...
, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Sherbrooke, Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Sudbury and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region...
area. Many also settled in mining communities in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
and Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario
Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...
. The Northern Ontario cities of Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. The community was founded as a French religious mission: Sault either means "jump" or "rapids" in...
and Fort William
Fort William, Ontario
Fort William was a city in Northern Ontario, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Ever since then it has been the largest city in Northwestern...
were quite heavily populated by Italian immigrants. There was a Royal Commission appointed to Inquire into the Immigration of Italian Labourers to Montreal and alleged Fraudulent Practices of Employment Agencies in 1905, which exposed the abuses of immigration agents known as padroni.
This migration was largely halted by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and new immigration laws in the 1920s limited Italian immigration. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Italian-Canadians, as well as German-Canadian
German-Canadian
German Canadians are Canadians of ethnic German ancestry. The 2006 Canadian census put the number of Canadians of German ethnicity at 3,179,425. Only a small fraction of German Canadians are descendants of immigrants from what is today Germany...
s were regarded with suspicion and faced a great deal of discrimination. Those who had been actively pro-Fascist, and some who were falsely accused, were interned at Camp Petawawa during the war. There was no mass internment as befell Japanese-Canadians, however.
A second wave occurred after the Second World War when Italians especially from the Latium
Latium
Lazio is one of the 20 administrative regions of Italy, situated in the central peninsular section of the country. With about 5.7 million residents and a GDP of more than 170 billion euros, Lazio is the third most populated and the second richest region of Italy...
and Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
regions left the war-impoverished country for opportunities in a young and growing country. Many Italians from Istria
Istria
Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
and Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
also immigrated to Canada, during this period, as displaced persons (see Istrian exodus
Istrian exodus
The expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia , after World War II. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia , today they are parts of the Republics of...
). In the 1960s, immigration laws were again changed, and the bias in favour of Europeans was removed. In the same period, Italy was rapidly growing in wealth, and by the early 1970s fewer Italians were interested in emigration.
Demographics
As of 2006, 1,449,695 Canadians residents stated they had ItalianItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
ancestry, in which 741,045 had sole Italian origins while the other 704,285 were of partial Italian origin along with other ethnic origins, chiefly with other European ethnic groups e.g. Italian-Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
, Italian-English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, Italian-French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
, etc. The latter group climbed by almost 25%, while the Italian Canadian population as a whole grew by 12% since the 2001 census
Canada 2001 Census
The Canada 2001 Census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 15, 2001. On that day, Statistics Canada attempted to count every person in Canada. The total population count of Canada was 30,007,094. This was a 4% increase over 1996 Census of 28,846,761. In...
.
Canadians of Italian ancestry make up 4.6% of the population of Canada, a rise from 4.3% in 2001. The majority live in Ontario (867,980) where they constitute more than seven per cent of the population, while another 300,000 live in Quebec.
| Province/Territory | Canadians of Italian ancestry population |
Per cent of population |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario Ontario Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... |
867,980 | 7.2% |
| Quebec Quebec Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.... |
299,655 | 4.0% |
| British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... |
143,160 | 3.5% |
| Alberta Alberta Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces... |
82,015 | 2.5% |
| Yukon Yukon Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in.... |
620 | 2.0% |
| Manitoba Manitoba Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other... |
21,405 | 1.9% |
| Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the... |
13,505 | 1.5% |
| Northwest Territories Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south... |
610 | 1.5% |
| New Brunswick New Brunswick New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area... |
5,900 | 0.8% |
| Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota.... |
7,970 | 0.8% |
| Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population... |
1,005 | 0.75% |
| Nunavut Nunavut Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993... |
125 | 0.4% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400... |
1,375 | 0.27% |
The main concentrations of Canadians of Italian ancestry are in the following metropolitan areas and Census agglomerations:
| Area | Canadians of Italian ancestry population |
Per cent of area population |
|---|---|---|
| Niagara Region | 49,045 | 12.7% |
| Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe... |
72,770 | 10.6% |
| Windsor, Ontario Windsor, Ontario Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor... |
33,865 | 10.5% |
| Greater Toronto Area Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York... |
467,015The GTA (York Region) community of Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vaughan is the fastest growing municipality in Canada achieving a population growth rate of 80.2% between 1996–2006, according to Statistics Canada having nearly doubled in population since 1991. Vaughan is located in Southern... , located just north of the city of Toronto Toronto Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from... , has almost 100,000 Italian residents accounting for 40% of the community's total population; this area has the largest concentration of Italians in Canada. |
9.2% |
| Greater Montreal Area Greater Montreal Area Greater Montreal is one of the two metropolitan communities of Quebec.Greater Montreal is the most populous metropolitan area in Québec. As of 2009, Statistics Canada identifies Montréal's Census Metropolitan Area as Canada's second most populous with a population of 3,859,318... |
261,11515.6% of Anglophone Montrealers | 7.3% |
| National Capital Region National Capital Region (Canada) The National Capital Region, also referred to as Canada's Capital Region, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding urban and rural communities.... |
45,210 | 4.0% |
| Metro Vancouver | 76,525 | 3.6% |
In 2001, about three-quarters of the 1.3 million Canadians of Italian descent (903,375) were born in Canada according to the 2001 Census and 315,455 Canadian residents were born in Italy. Of those 315,000 immigrants, almost half (46.7%) immigrated to Canada before 1961, 38.3% between 1961 and 1970, another 10.3% between 1971 and 1980. Italian immigration to Canada since 1981 has been very slow with only 6.4% of Italian immigrants coming to Canada since 1981.
More than half of Canadians of Italian origins (670,300) claimed English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as their mother tongue, 81,000 French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and 469,485 Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. Their religious profile represents the historical ties with Italy. Out of the 1.3 million Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
s in Canada, 1,015,725 or 79.9% are Roman Catholic, 113,455 or 8.9% Protestant, 23,805 or 1.8% other Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. Those who do not profess a faith constitute 109,515 or 8.2%. The largest non-Christian faith that some Italians follow is Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
.
Canadians of Italian ancestry had above-average incomes ($34,871 average employment income vs. $ 31,757 for all Canadians) and below-average unemployment rates (5.4% compared to 7.4% for the Canadian labour force as a whole). While they work in all walks of life, they represent a disproportionate number of Canada's construction workers: 6 % of Canadians employed in the construction industry are of Italian ancestry. On the other hand, they are under-represented in agriculture. In other industries, the proportion of Canadians of Italian ancestry is not far from their percentage of the general population.
Radio and television
The first multicultural radio station in Canada (CFMB) began broadcasting at Montreal in 1962. Founded by Casimir Stanczykowkski, a Pole, peak hours programming was nonetheless mostly in Italian. Four years later, in 1966, Johnny LombardiJohnny Lombardi
Johnny Barbalinardo Lombardi, CM, O.Ont was a pioneer of multicultural broadcasting in Canada. He has received many decorations and honours....
founded a similar radio station (CHIN
CHIN Radio/TV International
CHIN Radio/TV International is a Canadian radio and television broadcasting company, which owns and operates three radio stations and a television program production unit, all targeting multilingual communities...
) in Toronto. CFMB has become a cultural bulwark for Italians in Montreal, however, the station's programming is often criticized as being geared only toward the older generations. Hardly any new pop songs from Italy, for instance, receive airtime and older songs from the 1970s and 1980s are usually privileged. A short programme on Friday afternoons, Spazio ai giovani, was recently introduced to address these criticisms.
Dan Iannuzzi
Dan Iannuzzi
Daniel Andrèa Iannuzzi, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian entrepreneur, journalist, and broadcaster.A third generation Italian Canadian, Iannuzzi was born in Montreal. He moved to Toronto in 1954 and founded the Italian-Canadian newspaper Corriere Canadese...
founded the first multicultural television station in Canada (CFMT-TV), which began operations at Toronto in 1979. Now owned by Rogers Communications, the service has spun off into two multicultural television services in southern Ontario: OMNI-1 and OMNI-2. TeleItalia, an Italian-language television service, was founded in Montreal shortly thereafter. TeleItalia shared airtime with other multicultural programming at the station but had the most and best timeslots. TeleItalia programming included programming purchased from RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
, the Italian state broadcaster, as well as numerous locally-produced programmes, including the nightly newscast at six o'clock. In 1997, a reform of the city's multicultural television station (CJNT) saw a drastic decline in the quality of all programming and major cuts to airtime. At one time, CJNT was on air for less than twelve hours a day. The CanWest Global company later purchased the station and has since improved programming. Nevertheless, there is now little Italian programming shown.
A third station, Telelatino
Telelatino
Telelatino, also referred to as TLN, is a Canadian Category A Specialty channel broadcasting general interest programming from Canada and around the world, primarily in Italian and Spanish...
(TLN) of Toronto, is widely available through cable distribution. Though offering programmes in both Spanish and Italian, most of TLN's revenue (70%) is derived from the latter. TLN, along with RAI International, an arm of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, has recently been at the centre of a dispute over Italian-language broadcasting in Canada. Telelatino had carried since 1984 some RAI content in addition to locally produced shows and dubbed Spanish programming from Latin America. By the beginning of this decade, however, there was growing dissatisfaction with TLN programming, especially in Montreal. Critics in Montreal labelled TLN's locally-produced shows too "Torontocentric" and poked fun at dubbed Spanish programming bought from Latin American stations. Most of these latter shows were soap operas filmed in the 1980s.
RAI controversy
In 2003, RAI pulled its content from Telelatino and petitioned the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to set up its own channel. This effort was backed by Rogers CommunicationsRogers Communications
Rogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications, cable television, home phone and internet with additional telecommunications and mass media assets...
. The Italian community in Montreal was almost wholly in favour of admitting RAI. The Committee for Italians Living Abroad in Montreal (COM.IT.ES.), an arm of the Italian foreign ministry, led the campaign to have RAI admitted. The Italian community in Toronto, however, was divided. Some in Toronto saw the move as part of a scheme by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
to gain greater influence over the Italian language media in Canada. Italian law provides the Italian diaspora votes in Italian elections and permanent seats in the Italian parliament. Unlike the more independent Telelatino, RAI was widely seen as pro-Berlusconi. Those in favour of the RAI in Montreal pointed out that TLN quickly replaced its RAI programming with shows bought from SKY, a private television network. Berlusconi is said to have much more control over his private TV companies than over the state-run RAI.
In November 2003, community leaders in Montreal led a protest march in Ottawa under the slogan "RAI Now". They then presented a petition with some tens of thousands of signatures in favour of their cause. The CRTC initially turned down the application allowing RAI International to broadcast in Canada, declaring it would be impossible to set up a domestic Italian channel if that came to pass. In Montreal editorials lambasting the federal government and the CRTC were published in the community newspapers and leaders spoke out again a perceived injustice. With a federal election set for the summer of 2004, one in which the Liberal Party did not seem guaranteed a victory, opinion makers in Montreal began asking if Italians were simply not sheep herded along by the Liberals. (The great majority of Italians in Montreal are Liberal and federalist). Many called on voters to vote against the Liberal party which was blamed for the CRTC's decision. Ultimately, nervous Liberal candidates signed a statement days before the vote, guaranteeing that RAI would be broadcasting within a year or that the laws would be changed to permit it. The Liberals won their election and in the spring of 2005, the CRTC reversed its earlier decision. RAI thus began broadcasting in June of that year.
Newspapers and Magazines
The first Italian-language newspaper in Canada was Il Cittadino CanadeseIl Cittadino Canadese
Il Cittadino Canadese is a newspaper based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1941, it is the oldest Italian language newspaper of Quebec and Canada.This weekly tabloid has a circulation of 18,000. It is published in Montréal and covers Greater Montreal....
founded in Montreal in 1941, followed by Il Corriere Italiano, founded by Alfredo Gagliardi also in Montreal in the early 1950s. Corriere Canadese
Corriere Canadese
Corriere Canadese is an Italian-language daily newspaper published in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 1954 by Dan Iannuzzi, it is now owned by Multimedia Nova Corporation and published by Italmedia srl. Its target audience is the Italian Canadians...
, founded by Dan Iannuzzi
Dan Iannuzzi
Daniel Andrèa Iannuzzi, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian entrepreneur, journalist, and broadcaster.A third generation Italian Canadian, Iannuzzi was born in Montreal. He moved to Toronto in 1954 and founded the Italian-Canadian newspaper Corriere Canadese...
in 1954, is Canada's only Italian-language daily today and is published in Toronto; its weekend (English-language) edition is published as Tandem. Other newspapers include Insieme (Montreal),L'Ora di Ottawa (Ottawa, Ontario) and Il Postino (Ottawa, Ontario). Il Postino was established in 2000 by a young group of local Ottawa Italian Canadians to convey the history of the Italian community in Ottawa. (www.ilpostinocanada.com). Insieme was originally founded by the Italian Catholic parishes of Montreal but has since been put under private ownership. It nevertheless retains an emphasis on religious articles.
Many of the older Italian newspapers are criticized, like CFMB radio, for only serving the interests of the older generations. Several trendier, more modern magazines or newspapers have thus been founded. Many are run by recent Italian immigrants to Canada and are geared towards youth. Panoram Italia magazine, a bimonthly publication distributed in the Greater Montreal and Toronto areas, is the most popular among them. However, most others have failed or are published sporadically due to financial problems. The movement to support these upstart newspapers, however, is fairly strong in Montreal where many people under 40 years old can still communicate in Italian. Eyetalian magazine was launched in 1993 as a challenging, independent magazine of Italian-Canadian culture. It encountered commercial difficulty, and leaned towards a general lifestyle magazine format before concluding publication later in the 1990s. Italo of Montreal is published sporadically and is written in Italian, with some articles in French and English. Dealing with current affairs and community news. La Comunità, while an older publication, was taken over by the youth wing of the National Congress of Italian Canadians
National Congress of Italian Canadians
The National Congress of Italian Canadians is an umbrella organization that represents Italian Canadian organizations in Canada. It was founded in 1974 as a successor to the Federation of Italian Canadian Associations...
(Québec chapter) in the late 1990s. It experimented with different formats but was later cancelled due to lack of funding.
Notable Canadians of Italian descent
Many Italian immigrants found work in the constructions trades, and later built their own construction businesses. Canadians of Italian ancestry can now be found in almost any profession in Canada. For a more complete list of notable individuals, see: List of Italian Canadians.Montreal
- Little Italy, MontrealLittle Italy, MontrealMontreal's Little Italy is located on Saint Laurent Boulevard between Jean-Talon and St. Zotique Streets and is home to one of Montreal's original Italian Canadian communities...
- Rivière-des-PrairiesRivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-TremblesRivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles is a suburban borough on the eastern tip of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the farthest borough in the eastern end of the island of Montreal.-Geography:...
- Saint Leonard, Quebec
- Via Italia
Toronto
- Little Italy, TorontoLittle Italy, TorontoLittle Italy, sometimes referred to as College Street West, is a district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is well known for its numerous Italian Canadian restaurants and businesses. There is also a significant Latin American and Portuguese community in the area...
- Corso Italia, Toronto
- Woodbridge, OntarioWoodbridge, OntarioWoodbridge is a large suburban community in the City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto in Southern Ontario. It was once an independent town before being amalgamated with nearby communities to form the city in 1971. Its traditional downtown core is the Woodbridge Ave...
See also
- Spoken languages of Canada
- Demographics of CanadaDemographics of CanadaThis article about the demographic features of the population of Canada, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population, the People of Canada....
- Italian AmericanItalian AmericanAn Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
- Italians
- Canada-Italy relations
External links
- The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Italian Canadian Heritage
- The Canadian Encyclopedia - Italians
- Bibliography
- A History of Italian-Canadian Writing
- History of Ours: History of Italo-Canadian People in Brantford
- Multicultural Canada website includes digitized books, newspapers and documents, as well as Italian Canadian women oral history and photograph collections