The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents are an amalgamation of various codified acts, treaties between the Crown and indigenous peoples, uncodified traditions and conventions. Canada is one of the oldest constitutional democracies in the world.
Canadian Confederation was the process by which the three colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into one federation called the Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. Upon confederation, what had formerly been called the Province of Canada was divided into the two provinces of Ontario and Quebec and thus, along with the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the new Dominion initially consisted of four provinces. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of ten provinces and three territories.
The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, was a long series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. The laws also regulated England's fisheries and restricted foreigners' participation in its colonial trade. While based on earlier precedents, they were first enacted in 1651 under the Commonwealth. The system was reenacted and broadened with the restoration by the Act of 1660, and further developed and tightened by the Navigation Acts of 1663, 1673, and 1696. Upon this basis during the 18th century, the Acts were modified by subsequent amendments, changes, and the addition of enforcement mechanisms and staff. Additionally, a major change in the very purpose of the Acts in the 1760s — that of generating a colonial revenue, rather than only regulating the Empire's trade — would help lead to major rebellions, and significant changes in the implementation of the Acts themselves. The Acts generally prohibited the use of foreign ships, required the employment of English and colonial mariners for 75% of the crews, including East India Company ships. The Acts prohibited colonies from exporting specific, enumerated, products to countries and colonies other than those British, and mandated that imports be sourced only through Britain. Overall, the Acts formed the basis for English British overseas trade for nearly 200 years, but with the development and gradual acceptance of free trade, the Acts were eventually repealed in 1849. The laws reflected the European economic theory of mercantilism which sought to keep all the benefits of trade inside their respective Empires, and to minimize the loss of gold and silver, or profits, to foreigners through purchases and trade. The system would develop with the colonies supplying raw materials for British industry, and in exchange for this guaranteed market, the colonies would purchase manufactured goods from or through Britain.
Swinburne Island is a 4-acre (1.6 ha) artificial island in the Lower New York Bay, off the South Beach of Staten Island, New York City. It was used for quarantine of immigrants. Swinburne Island is the smaller of two islands near South Beach, the other being Hoffman Island.
The Colony of British Columbia was a British Crown Colony that resulted from the amalgamation of the two former colonies, the Colony of Vancouver Island and the mainland Colony of British Columbia. The two former colonies were united in 1866, and the united colony existed until its incorporation into the Canadian Confederation in 1871.
Post-Confederation Canada (1867–1914) is the history of a new nation from its formation to the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Canada had a population of 3.5 million, residing in the large expanse from Cape Breton to just beyond the Great Lakes, usually within a hundred miles or so of the Canada–United States border. One in three Canadians was French, and about 100,000 were aboriginal. It was a rural country composed of small farms. With a population of 115,000, Montreal was the largest city, followed by Toronto and Quebec at about 60,000. Pigs roamed the muddy streets of Ottawa, the small new national capital.
Grosse Isle, is located in the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. It is one of the islands of the 21-island Isle-aux-Grues archipelago. It is part of the municipality of Saint-Antoine-de-l'Isle-aux-Grues, located in the Chaudière-Appalaches region of the province.
The history of immigration to Canada details the movement of people to modern-day Canada, which also belongs to a wider debate continuing among anthropologists over various possible models of migration to the New World, as well as their pre-contact populations.
Title 8 of the United States Code codifies statutes relating to aliens and nationality in the United States Code.
An arrival card, also known as an incoming passenger card, landing card or disembarkation card, is a legal document used by immigration authorities of many countries to obtain information about incoming passenger not provided by the passenger's passport and to provide a record of a person's entry into the country. The card may also provide information on health and character requirements for non-citizens entering the country. Some countries require an arrival card for each incoming passenger, while others require one card per family unit, and some only require an arrival card for non-citizens only.
Smith v. Turner; Norris v. Boston, 48 U.S. 283 (1849), were two similar cases, argued together before the United States Supreme Court, which decided 5-4 that states do not have the right to impose a tax that is determined by the number of passengers of a designated category on board a ship and/or disembarking into the State. The cases are sometimes called the Passenger Case or Passenger Cases.
A dominion was one of the semi-independent polities under the British Crown that constituted the British Empire, beginning with Canadian Confederation in 1867. A "dominion status" was a constitutional term of art used to signify a semi-independent Commonwealth realm; they included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State. India and Pakistan were also dominions for a short period of time, as was Ceylon. The Balfour Declaration of 1926 recognised the Dominions as "autonomous communities within the British Empire", and the 1931 Statute of Westminster confirmed their full legislative independence.
Compagnie Francaise de Navigation a Vapeur v. Louisiana Board of Health, 186 U.S. 380 (1902), was a United States Supreme Court case which held constitutional state laws requiring the involuntary quarantine of individuals to prevent the spread of disease. Louisiana's quarantine laws, Justice Edward White said, were a reasonable exercise of the state's police power that conflicted with neither the Dormant Commerce Clause nor the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In dissent, Justice Henry Billings Brown, joined by John Marshall Harlan, agreed that while quarantine laws were constitutional, Louisiana's went beyond the scope of the state's authority over interstate commerce, even violating several treaties between the United States and other nations.
The padrone system was a contract labor system utilized by many immigrant groups to find employment in the United States, most notably Italian, but also Greeks, Chinese, Japanese, and Mexican Americans. The word 'padrone' is an Italian word meaning 'boss' or 'manager' when translated into English. The system was a complex network of business relationships formed to meet a growing need for skilled and unskilled workers. Padrones were labor brokers, usually immigrants or first-generation Americans themselves, who acted as middlemen between immigrant workers and employers.
The Immigration Act of 1907 was a piece of federal United States immigration legislation passed by the 59th Congress and signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on February 20, 1907. The Act was part of a series of reforms aimed at restricting the increasing number and groups of immigrants coming into the U.S. before World War I. The law introduced and reformed a number of restrictions on immigrants who could be admitted into the United States, most notably ones regarding disability and disease.
The Steerage Act of 1819, also called the Manifest of Immigrants Act, was an Act passed by the United States federal government on March 2, 1819, effective January 1, 1820. Its full name is An Act regulating passenger ships and vessels. It was the first law in the United States regulating the conditions of transportation used by people arriving and departing by sea. In addition to regulating conditions in ships, the act also required ship captains to deliver and report a list of passengers with their demographic information to the district collector. The Act was passed near the end of the term of the fifteenth United States Congress and signed into law by then United States President James Monroe. The Act was augmented by many additional Acts starting 1847 and finally repealed and superseded by the Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855. At the time of passage of the Act, the United States had no laws restricting immigration. In fact, the first federal legislation regulating immigration, the Page Act of 1875, was over 50 years in the future.
The Immigration Act of 1891, also known as the 1891 Immigration Act, was a modification of the Immigration Act of 1882, focusing on immigration rules and enforcement mechanisms for foreigners arriving from countries other than China. It was the second major federal legislation related to the mechanisms and authority of immigration enforcement, the first being the Immigration Act of 1882. The law was passed on March 3, 1891, at the end of the term of the 51st United States Congress, and signed into law by then United States President Benjamin Harrison.
The Carriage of Passengers Act of 1855 was an act passed by the United States federal government on March 3, 1855, replacing the previous Steerage Act of 1819 and a number of acts passed between 1847 and 1849 with new regulations on the conditions of sea transportation used by passenger ships landing in the United States. The law was passed by the 33rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce.
Passenger Act of 1882 is a United States federal statute establishing occupancy control regulations for seafaring passenger ships completing Atlantic and Pacific transoceanic crossings to America during the late 19th century and early 20th century. The Act of Congress sanctioned vessel compartment dimensions in cubic feet comparable to the level within a ship's deck. The public law authorized the numerical serialization of berths which were subject to compartment occupancy inspections of emigrants and ocean liner passengers. The Law of the United States accentuated and endorsed a regulatory clause stating no person, on arrival of a vessel in a port, will be allowed to go aboard a passenger ship necessitating a bow to stern inspection.
The Columbia River Quarantine Station, now known as the Knappton Cove Heritage Center, is a historic site in Knappton, Washington. The station provided fumigation and quarantine services to maritime vessels at the port on the Columbia River from 1899 to 1938, and is the sole remaining quarantine station on the West Coast of the United States as all others were burned for fear of contamination. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
