At the end of this month, 2024 will be over. This has been a milestone year for the Museum. 2024 marked 25 years since Pier 21 reopened to the public on July 1, 1999.
This editorial cartoon by beloved Nova Scotian Bruce MacKinnon was published in recognition of the reopening of Pier 21.
Pier 21 was an active immigration facility between 1928 and 1971, serving as the port of arrival for nearly a million immigrants, mostly from Europe.
But in the years after, it fell into disuse. Over time it became a home to pigeons and rats. The significance of the site was in danger of being forgotten, and might have been, if not for the efforts of a small and determined group of people, including J.P. LeBlanc and Ruth Goldbloom OC.
In the cartoon, MacKinnon captures something felt by many- the feeling of being welcomed in Canada – the feeling that the country represented a chance at a better life. Indeed, on the side of the building, above where passengers disembarked, were written the words “Welcome Home to Canada.”
Was Canada welcoming to everyone?
The cartoon represents an ideal to be aspired to: the notion that Canada is, essentially, a welcoming nation. Many certainly felt that, but to be sure, Canadians haven’t always been welcoming to newcomers. Some immigration policies have been racist or discriminatory, and have sought to exclude certain people. When Pier 21 first opened as an immigration hub, Canada still had laws on the books that excluded Chinese and “Asiatic” immigrants, classed Eastern Europeans as non-preferred immigrants, and refused entry to most people of African ancestry. Canada’s policies and populace evolved though, and by the time Pier 21 closed in 1971, overt racial discrimination had been removed from most immigration policy.
Like sands through the hourglass
Many of those who arrived through Pier 21, often with their children and grandchildren, have visited and continue to visit. They come to retrace their steps as they arrived and began a new life. For those people, the building can signify something much bigger. After all, the building itself is not grand or opulent. Indeed, it’s utilitarian. It is a space people from different parts of the world funneled through on their way to board trains to locations across the country. The late Canadian journalist (and Pier 21 alumnus) Joe Schlesinger compared Pier 21 to the narrow part of an hourglass, where many people came together briefly before being dispersed. And yet for many who came through, the site represents something profound – a transition point between the old life they left behind and the new life they were just about to embark upon. It reminds them of the sacrifice, the hope, and the fears they felt.
More than just Pier 21
But the Museum is about much more than Pier 21. The role it plays today is to collect and tell the stories of all those who have come to Canada, whether by ship, car or plane, over the past 400+ years. It’s about people from all over the world in all kinds of circumstances. The Museum also collaborates with Indigenous scholars to make sure the story of Indigenous presence and resilience in the context of settlement is told authentically. The Museum strives to make people feel welcome not by pretending that every Canadian immigration story has been idyllic, but by authentically representing the complexity and variety of what people have experienced – the challenges, the successes, the failures, and the resilience of those who have settled here.
