Preserving our immigration history.

Foreign operations

Photograph of Maurice Mitchell working at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, circa 1948
Photograph of Maurice Mitchell working at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, circa 1948
Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Jack Mitchinson Interview

Jack Mitchinson, featured in Bulletin 107, was interviewed at his 1990 retirement party about his two years (1986-1988) of auditing overseas visa offices. Jack had earlier worked in several immigratio...
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Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Hector Cowan

Canadian diplomats carry out many different duties when serving abroad. CIHS member, Hector Cowan, was tasked with helping a group of Canadian students leave the disaster zone of the 1986 Chornobyl nu...
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Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Elvire Westley donation of photographs

Elvire Westley donated these photographs in November 2017 that she had gathered during her career with the Canadian immigration office in Paris. Mme Westley contributed an article about her career to...
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Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Forms used by Indochinese refugees

Indochinese refugees families applying to come to Canada completed an IMM8 application form, usually right after they had been interviewed and accepted by a visa officer. Unique to the Indochinese mov...
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Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Officer recruitment in the 1950s

In 1957, the Government launched a recruitment program to bring university students into the Foreign Service as immigration officers. A CIHS member who was recruited through the program has provided u...
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Black and white photograph of students in a classroom, circa 1930s-1940s.

Designated Classes

A regulatory device to target humanitarian resettlement programs. Those who were around at the time might argue that the government’s decision in November 1978, to enact 3 separate classes to facili...
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