JAMAICAN immigration to Canada has been a major phenomenon only for the past four decades, but Jamaica’s long-standing association with Canada dates back to the late eighteenth century. Jamaican Maroons, descendants of escaped slaves who had zealously guarded their freedom in the mountains of Jamaica, are known to have arrived in Halifax on July 22, 1776. There they helped to reinforce Nova Scotia’s defences by building the Halifax Citadel, 1795-1800.

During the nineteenth century, the immigrants’ enterprise showed itself in the variety of work they did. Jamaican John Robert Giscome came to Canada when gold was discovered along the Fraser River in 1858. When the boom days of the California Gold Rush ended, Giscome trekked north to make his fortune in the Cariboo gold fields of British Columbia. Imbued with an adventurous spirit, he also explored and charted much of the Fraser and Peace River water system. In Victoria, James Barnswell used his great skill as a carpenter to build some of that city’s most fashionable residences. Another remarkable member of the early Jamaican-Canadian community was Robert Sutherland of Ontario. A graduate of Queen’s University (1852) and Osgoode Hall (1855), Sutherland became Canada’s first black lawyer. Upon his death in 1878, this bachelor legalist bequeathed his entire estate, in the amount of $12,000, to Queen’s University, Ontario.

As the twentieth century began, Jamaican Canadians helped to fill the demand for railway porters, domestics, blacksmiths, and foundry workers that an expanding Canadian economy necessitated. At the same time, Jamaican-Canadian activists began to search for alternative strategies to help liberalize postwar Canadian society and its immigration laws. A Canadian government scheme to recruit female domestics of African descent wase stablished in 1955. To be eligible, an applicant had to be a single female in good health aged between eighteen and thirty-five. After working as a domestic for at least a year, a woman would be granted landed immigrant status. By 1965, over 1,000 women had arrived from Jamaica under this scheme. Jamaican nurses soon followed, gaining admission as “cases of exceptional merit” in response to medical labour force needs.

Since 1967, two aspects of Canada’s immigration policy encouraged the growth of the Jamaican-Canadian community. Canada started admitting immigrants on the basis of a “point system” that allowed it to select people who were educated and skilled. An “independent” applicant received points for his or her level of education, ability to speak English or French, work experience, and other factors. As a result, many Jamaican immigrants who were trained in management, a profession, or a trade were able to come in through the “independent” class. Canada also continued its policy of reuniting families, and so immigrants who became landed residents could apply to bring over members of their immediate family. Many women who came during this time gravitated to work in service and clerical occupations. The combined admissions of independent and family-class immigrants resulted in the steady growth of Canada’s Jamaican population.

According to the 1996 census, there were 188,770 persons of Jamaican origin in Canada. Of this total, the largest concentration of Jamaican Canadians (159,465) resided in Ontario. They could also be found in Quebec (10,075), Alberta (7,815), British Columbia (6,030), and Manitoba (2,925). Jamaican immigrants usually settled in the large urban centres of Canada with Toronto (73,865) and Montreal (9,605) being the most popular cities. In these and other metropolitan areas, they were widely dispersed through the suburbs and downtown areas albeit in small concentrations downtown.

Jamaicans of West African ancestry traditionally have been the largest group to immigrate from Jamaica to Canada. Reflecting the ethnic heterogeneity of Jamaica, a percentage of immigrants of European origin include Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal, English and German Jews, as well as Jamaicans of Chinese, East Indian, or Lebanese origin. Representatives from these minority groups include Michael Lee-Chin of the Berkshire Group; Montrealer Ray Chen, photographer; Dr. Ronald Wong, family doctor, Surrey, B.C.; Ophthalmologist, Dr. Garth Taylor of Cornwall, Ontario; and Vancouver architect, Richard Henriquez.

Today in Canada there are Jamaican Canadians in all walks of economic life. Retail and fast-food outlets, restaurants, hairdressers, and barbershops created for the needs of the Jamaican-Canadian community have become natural commercial centres for other members of the Caribbean community. Jamaican Canadians can be found in the public sector, medicine and health-care delivery, law, banking, and the financial services industry. Mary Anne Chambers, a vice president at the Bank of Nova Scotia, is typical of the many women who have made significant achievements in their chosen field.

Jamaican Canadians have also seen fit to nurture their own culture within the Canadian mosaic. The church has been a major instrument providing this outlet. Jamaicans have also showed remarkable initiative, forming organizations among themselves for social, cultural, and educational purposes including the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA), Council of Jamaicans, and National Council of Jamaicans and Supportive Organizations in Canada (NCJSOC). Jamaica’s firebrand political activist and thinker, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, struck an important chord in the immigrant community during the interwar period with his encouraging message of Black pride and achievement.

Jamaicans have also joined hands with other Caribbean people to found the Organization for Caribbean Cultural Initiatives (OCCI), the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA), the West Indian Social and Cultural Society (WISC), and the John Brooks Community Foundation. Members of the Jamaican Canadian diaspora have also generously provided assistance to the homeland, supporting the island’s schools, colleges and universities, various hospitals, and patient clinics.

Jamaican Canadians played a substantive and important role while serving in Canada’s armed forces during both World Wars. They were also on the front lines in the war against racism and discrimination, working hard for various government measures to ensure an environment in which all immigrants and racial minorities can live and work together as equals. An early community leader, Harry Gairey, who came to Canada from Jamaica, via Cuba, in 1914, helped to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to aid against unfair treatment and lack of opportunity in the workplace. The same can be said for Bromley Armstrong, Labour Relations

Officer, and Herman Stewart, Trade Unionist. It should therefore come as no surprise that a number of Canadians of Jamaican origin including Bev Salmon, Rosemary Brown, and Alvin Curling participated in municipal politics, sat in provincial legislatures and the federal parliament and in cabinets at both levels. In 1968, Lincoln Alexander, whose mother immigrated to Ontario from Jamaica during World War I, became the first Black elected to the House of Commons where he served as the Progressive Conservative member for Hamilton West until 1979. It was during his final year in Parliament that he became the federal Minister of Labour, marking the first time a Black had been a Cabinet Minister at the federal level. In 1985 he became the first Canadian Lieutenant Governor of colour, serving the people of Ontario in that capacity until 1991.

In the sporting arena, Jamaican-born track and field stars such as Milt Ottey and Mark Boswell in the high jump, and Molly Killingbeck and Charmaine Crooks in the relays and long sprint events have carried the athletic hopes and dreams of all Canadians at international track and field events. So did Ben Johnson. But, when sprinter Donovan Bailey became “the fastest man in the world” after winning the 100-metre event at the Atlanta Olympics, 1996, all Canadians were euphoric.