Latvians in Canada: The Early Years

Displaced Persons (DP) Labour Policy

In 1947, in a change from its previous policies, the Government of Canada established a new labour program in an effort to alleviate the labour shortage in Canada and ease the refugee burden in Europe. After being screened for suitability, Displaced Persons were allowed to come to Canada in exchange for one year of labour. Most typically, for men, this was bottom-of-the-rung labour in the mining, forestry, hydro, and construction industries. Women usually served as hospital workers or domestic servants.

The first ships carrying Latvians began to arrive soon. Only single individuals were accepted, and those with dependents had to leave them behind in 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 new arrivals were met in Halifax by Mariss Vētra or another member of the Latvian Relief Association. They were given the newest issues of Latvian community newspapers, and their names and addresses were recorded as the LRA worked to build a support network. Often, they were also provided with the names and contact information of people willing to provide assistance at or near their destination.

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 Government of Canada.

Jānis Ivsiņš with his mother, Janīna Ivsiņa, on their ocean voyage 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 some 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 dams.

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.

Other Routes to Canada

Arrival From Other European Countries

While most post-war Latvian immigrants to Canada arrived via the DP route from refugee camps, a significant percentage accepted similar labour contracts as European Volunteer Workers (EVWs) in the United Kingdom and arrived later via ordinary immigration. Initially, EVWs were to be 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.

Illegal Arrivals

There were people who could not access the Displaced Persons resources that offered the ordinary route to immigration. There were a number of ships and boats that made independent voyages across the Atlantic Ocean in search of refugee in North America. One of these was the Sarabande that arrived in 1949. The boat broke down and had to be towed into Halifax Harbour and Mariss Vētra received a call from Immigration Canada to prepare to receive unscheduled arrivals in the middle of the night.