July 18, 1979 - Vietnamese "Boat People"

Canada accepts immigration of 50,000 Vietnamese “boat people.” Two years after the Vietnam war ended, the country’s communist government began stripping the rights of its ethnic Chinese citizens. Hundreds of thousands of them fled any way they could. Those who traveled by boat often landed on the shores of China and other Southeast Asian countries. International pressure mounted for Western countries to admit more of these “boat people,” prompting Canadians to apply pressure on their own leaders. On July 18, 1979, Prime Minister Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative government announced that Canada would accept 50,000 of these refugees by the end of 1980. In the end, more than 60,000 were allowed to make Canada their new home.

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