An Italian Canadian is a
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
of Italian descent or heritage. As of the 2006 census, 1,445,335 Canadians (4.6% of total population) consider themselves to be of Italian origin, according to the 2006 Canadian census. The Italian-Canadian population climbed by more than 12% and half (over 700,000) have combined Italian origins along with another ethnic group, mostly other European ethnic groups.
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/ethnic/pages/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Table=2&Data=Count&StartRec=1&Sort=3&Display=All Altogether, Italians continue to be the 5th largest ethnic group in
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
after British and Irish origins, French origin and German origin.
History
Italians were among some of the earliest Europeans to migrate to North America. A number of the early explorers such as
John CabotGiovanni Caboto known in English as John Cabot, was a Venetian navigator and explorer whose 1497 'discovery' of North America is commonly held to be the first European voyage to the continent since Norseman Leif Ericson's landing in c.1003. The Canadian and United Kingdom government's official...
(Giovanni Caboto) and Giovanni da Verrazzano were Italians. During the
New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
era, France also occupied parts of Italy and there was a significant Italian presence in the French military forces in the colony. Notable were
Alphonse de TontyPierre Alphonse de Tonty, or Alphonse de Tonty, Baron de Paludy was an Italian officer who served under the French explorer Cadillac and helped establish the first European settlement at Detroit, Michigan, Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit on the Detroit River in 1701...
, who helped establish
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, and
Henri de TontiHenri de Tonti was an Italian-born soldier, explorer, and fur trader in the service of France.-Early life:Henri de Tonti, a Sicilian, was mostly likely born near Gaeta, Italy in either 1649 or 1650. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti, a financier and former governor of Gaeta...
, who journeyed with La Salle in his exploration of the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the second longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
. Italians made up a small portion of the
populationIn biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything...
, however, and quickly lost their ethnic identities. In 1881, only 1849 Canadians claimed to be Italian. A number of Italians were imported to work as navvies in the construction of the
Canadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a Canadian Class I railway operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited. Its rail network stretches from Vancouver to Montreal, and also serves major cities in the United States such as Minneapolis, Chicago, and New York City...
.
A substantial influx began in the early twentieth century when over a hundred thousand Italians moved to Canada. These were largely peasants from rural southern Italy and agrarian parts of the north-east (
VenetoVeneto , is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice....
,
FriuliFriuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, leaving Trieste out...
). They mainly immigrated to
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
and
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
, both of which soon had large Italian communities. Smaller communities also arose in
HamiltonHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
,
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
,
WindsorWindsor is the southernmost major city in Canada and lies in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is located south of Detroit, is separated...
,
Niagara FallsNiagara Falls is a Canadian city of 83,184 residents on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. Across the river is Niagara Falls, New York...
,
OttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada and a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, the city lies on the southern banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway forming the local boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and...
, Sherbrooke,
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
, Sudbury and the
Saguenay-Lac-Saint-JeanSaguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is a region in Quebec, Canada. It contains the Saguenay Fjord, the estuary of the Saguenay River, stretching through much of the region...
area. Many also settled in mining communities in
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
,
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
,
Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the French word "Breton", referring to Brittany.Cape Breton Island is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada...
and
Northern OntarioNorthern Ontario is the part of the province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing....
. The Northern Ontario cities of
Sault Ste. MarieSault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. Residents of the city are called Saultites...
and
Fort WilliamFort William was a city in Northern Ontario, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970...
were quite heavily populated by Italian immigrants. There was a
Royal Commission appointed to Inquire into the Immigration of Italian Labourers to Montreal and alleged Fraudulent Practices of Employment Agencies in 1905, which exposed the abuses of immigration agents known as
padroni.
This migration was largely halted by
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, and new immigration laws in the 1920s limited Italian immigration. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Italian-Canadians, as well as
German-CanadianGerman Canadians are Canadians of ethnic German ancestry. The 2006 Canadian census put the number of Canadians of German ethnicity at 3,179,425. Only a small fraction of German Canadians are descendants of immigrants from what is today Germany...
s were regarded with suspicion and faced a great deal of discrimination. Those who had been actively pro-Fascist, and some who were falsely accused, were interned at Camp Petawawa during the war. There was no mass internment as befell Japanese-Canadians, however.
A second wave occurred after the Second World War when Italians left the war-impoverished country for opportunities in a young and growing country. Many Italians from
IstriaCroatian Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
and
DalmatiaDalmatia , is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea and is situated in modern Croatia. It spreads between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Bay of Kotor, in Montenegro, in the southeast...
also immigrated to Canada, during this period, as displaced persons (see
Istrian exodusThe expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia , after World War II. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia , today they are parts of the Republics of...
). In the 1960s, immigration laws were again changed, and the bias in favour of Europeans was removed. In the same period, Italy was rapidly growing in wealth, and by the early 1970s fewer Italians were interested in emigration.
Demographics
As of 2006, 1,449,695 Canadians residents stated they had
ItalianThe Italian people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Italian culture, descent, and speaking the Italian language as a mother tongue...
ancestry, in which 741,045 had sole Italian origins while the other 704,285 were of partial Italian origin along with other ethnic origins, chiefly with other European ethnic groups e.g. Italian-
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians The Irish...
, Italian-
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
, Italian-
FrenchFrench people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
, etc. The latter group climbed by almost 25%, while the Italian Canadian population as a whole grew by 12% since the 2001 census.
Canadians of Italian ancestry make up 4.6% of the population of Canada, a rise from 4.3% in 2001. The majority live in Ontario (867,980) where they constitute more than seven per cent of the population, while another 300,000 live in Quebec.
'Canadians of Italian descent by province and territory'
| Province/Territory |
Canadians of Italian ancestry
population |
Per cent of
population |
Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is a province of Canada on the country's Atlantic coast in northeastern North America. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: the island of Newfoundland off the country's eastern coast, and Labrador on the mainland to the northwest of the island.A...
|
1,375 |
0.27% |
Prince Edward IslandPrince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
|
1,005 |
0.75% |
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
|
13,505 |
1.5% |
New BrunswickNew Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province in the confederation. The provincial capital is Fredericton...
|
5,900 |
0.8% |
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
|
299,655 |
4.0% |
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
|
867,980 |
7.2% |
ManitobaManitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
|
21,405 |
1.9% |
SaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of and a population of 1,023,810 , mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 233,923 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 194,971 live in the provincial capital, Regina...
|
7,970 |
0.8% |
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
|
82,015 |
2.5% |
| British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
|
143,160 |
3.5% |
| Yukon Yukon , or The Yukon, is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River, Yukon meaning "Great River" in Gwich’in....
|
620 |
2.0% |
Northwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada....
|
610 |
1.5% |
NunavutNunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999 via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
|
125 |
0.4% |
The main concentrations of Canadians of Italian ancestry are in the following metropolitan areas and Census agglomerations:
- Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area is the most populous metropolitan area in Canada. The GTA is a provincial planning area in Southern Ontario with a population of 5,555,912 at the 2006 Canadian Census...
(467,015) or 9.2% of total population.
- Greater Montreal Area (261,115) or 7.3% of total population. (15.6% of Anglophone Montrealers)
- Vancouver/Lower Mainland (76,525) or 3.6% of total population.
- Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
(72,770) or 10.6% of total population.
- St.Catharines-Niagara (49,045) or 12.7% of total population.
- Ottawa-Hull (45,210) or 4% of total population.
- Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost major city in Canada and lies in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is located south of Detroit, is separated...
(33,865) or 10.5% of total population.
The York Region community of
Vaughan, OntarioVaughan is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vaughan is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada, having nearly doubled in population since 1991. Vaughan is located in Southern Ontario and is part of the Greater Toronto Area...
, located just north of
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
, has almost 100,000 Italian residents accounting for 40% of the total population; this area has the largest concentration of Italians in Canada. Sizeable Italian communities are also located in
Calgary RegionThe Calgary Region is the metropolitan area based around Calgary, Alberta. The borders of this area are defined differently for each of the Census Metropolitan Area and the Calgary Region. The area is a major transportation hub for southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, eastern British Columbia, and...
,
Edmonton Capital RegionThe Edmonton Capital Region , also known as Greater Edmonton or the Alberta Capital Region, comprises Alberta's provincial capital of Edmonton and surrounding communities in Sturgeon County , Parkland County , the Specialized Municipality of Strathcona County and Leduc County . A small portion of...
,
London, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor with a metropolitan area population of 457,720; the city proper had a population of 352,395 in the 2006 Canadian census....
,
Winnipeg Capital RegionThe Winnipeg Capital Region is located in the Red River Valley in the south central portion of the province of Manitoba, Canada, containing the provincial capital of Winnipeg and its surrounding rural municipalities , cities, and towns. It was created to co-ordinate land use policy and economic...
,
North Bay, OntarioNorth Bay is a city in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is the seat of Nipissing District, and takes its name from its position on the shore of Lake Nipissing.-History:The area was first explored by Samuel de Champlain...
,
Sault Ste. Marie, OntarioSault Ste. Marie is a city on the St. Marys River in Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay, with a population of 74,948. Residents of the city are called Saultites...
,
Thunder Bay-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of two places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, Ontario...
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
,
OshawaOshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe...
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, Sudbury,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
, and
GuelphGuelph is a city in Ontario, Canada.Guelph may also refer to:* Guelph , consisting of the City of Guelph, Ontario* Guelph , as the above* University of Guelph, in the same city...
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
.
In 2001, about three-quarters of the 1.3 million Canadians of Italian descent (903,375) were born in Canada according to the 2001 Census and 315,455 Canadian residents were born in Italy. Of those 315,000 immigrants, almost half (46.7%) immigrated to Canada before 1961, 38.3% between 1961 and 1970, another 10.3% between 1971 and 1980. Italian immigration to Canada since 1981 has been very slow with only 6.4% of Italian immigrants coming to Canada since 1981.
More than half of Canadians of Italian origins (670,300) claimed
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
as their mother tongue, 81,000
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
and 469,485
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
. Their religious profile represents the historical ties with Italy. Out of the 1.3 million
ItalianThe Italian people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Italian culture, descent, and speaking the Italian language as a mother tongue...
s in Canada, 1,015,725 or 79.9% are Roman Catholic
http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/themes/RetrieveProductTable.cfm?Temporal=2001&PID=68635&GID=517770&METH=1&APATH=3&PTYPE=55496&THEME=44&AID=0&FREE=0&FOCUS=0&VID=0&GC=0&GK=0&SC=1&SR=1&RL=0&CPP=99&RPP=9999&D1=12&D2=0&D3=0&D4=0&D5=0&D6=0&d1=6&d2=0&d3=0, 113,455 or 8.9% Protestant, 23,805 or 1.8% other
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
. Those who do not profess a faith constitute 109,515 or 8.2%. The largest non-Christian faith that some Italians follow is
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
.
Canadians of Italian ancestry had above-average incomes ($34,871 average employment income vs. $ 31,757 for all Canadians) and below-average unemployment rates (5.4% compared to 7.4% for the Canadian labour force as a whole). While they work in all walks of life, they represent a disproportionate number of Canada's construction workers: 6 % of Canadians employed in the construction industry are of Italian ancestry. On the other hand, they are under-represented in agriculture. In other industries, the proportion of Canadians of Italian ancestry is not far from their percentage of the general population.
Radio and television
The first multicultural radio station in Canada (CFMB) began broadcasting at Montreal in 1962. Founded by Casimir Stanczykowkski, a Pole, peak hours programming was nonetheless mostly in Italian. Four years later, in 1966,
Johnny LombardiJohnny Barbalinardo Lombardi, CM, O.Ont was a pioneer of multicultural broadcasting in Canada.The son of Italian immigrants, Lombardi was born in the Little Italy section of Toronto...
founded a similar radio station (
CHINCHIN Radio/TV International is a Canadian radio and television broadcasting company, which owns and operates three radio stations and a television program production unit, all targeting multilingual communities...
) in Toronto. CFMB has become a cultural bulwark for Italians in Montreal, however, the station's programming is often criticized as being geared only toward the older generations. Hardly any new pop songs from Italy, for instance, receive airtime and older songs from the 1970s and 1980s are usually privileged. A short programme on Friday afternoons, Spazio ai giovani, was recently introduced to address these criticisms.
Dan IannuzziBruno Iannuzzi, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian entrepreneur, journalist, and broadcaster.A third generation Italian Canadian, Iannuzzi was born in Montreal. Dan Iannuzzi did more than bring Italian radio to Toronto. He founded the Italian-Canadian newspaper Corriere Canadese in 1954...
founded the first multicultural television station in Canada (CFMT-TV), which began operations at Toronto in 1979. Now owned by Rogers Communications, the service has spun off into two multicultural television services in southern Ontario: OMNI-1 and OMNI-2. TeleItalia, an Italian-language television service, was founded in Montreal shortly thereafter. TeleItalia shared airtime with other multicultural programming at the station but had the most and best timeslots. TeleItalia programming included programming purchased from
RAIRai , known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by parliament. RAI is the biggest television company in Italy...
, the Italian state broadcaster, as well as numerous locally-produced programmes, including the nightly newscast at six o'clock. In 1997, a reform of the city's multicultural television station (CJNT) saw a drastic decline in the quality of all programming and major cuts to airtime. At one time, CJNT was on air for less than twelve hours a day. The CanWest Global company later purchased the station and has since improved programming. Nevertheless, there is now little Italian programming shown.
A third station,
TelelatinoTelelatino, also referred to as TLN, is a Canadian cable and satellite television channel broadcasting general interest programming from Canada and around the world primarily in the Italian and Spanish languages...
(TLN) of Toronto, is widely available through cable distribution. Though offering programmes in both Spanish and Italian, most of TLN's revenue (70%) is derived from the latter. TLN, along with
RAI InternationalRaitalia is the international television service of RAI, Italy's public national broadcaster. Rai Italia operates a television network that broadcasts around the world via 3 localized feeds...
, an arm of the Italian state broadcaster RAI, has recently been at the centre of a dispute over Italian-language broadcasting in Canada. Telelatino had carried since 1984 some RAI content in addition to locally produced shows and dubbed Spanish programming from Latin America. By the beginning of this decade, however, there was growing dissatisfaction with TLN programming, especially in Montreal. Critics in Montreal labelled TLN's locally-produced shows too "Torontocentric" and poked fun at dubbed Spanish programming bought from Latin American stations. Most of these latter shows were soap operas filmed in the 1980s.
RAI controversy
In 2003, RAI pulled its content from Telelatino and petitioned the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to set up its own channel. This effort was backed by
Rogers CommunicationsRogers Communications Inc. is one of Canada's largest communications companies, particularly in the field of wireless communications and cable television, with additional telecommunications and mass media assets. It is headquartered in the Rogers Building in Toronto, Ontario.The company considers...
. The Italian community in Montreal was almost wholly in favour of admitting RAI. The Committee for Italians Living Abroad in Montreal (COM.IT.ES.), an arm of the Italian foreign ministry, led the campaign to have RAI admitted. The Italian community in Toronto, however, was divided. Some in Toronto saw the move as part of a scheme by Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconiis an Italian politician, entrepreneur, real estate and insurance tycoon, bank and media proprietor, sports team owner and songwriter. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister of the Italian Republic , a position he has held on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and...
to gain greater influence over the Italian language media in Canada. Italian law provides the Italian diaspora votes in Italian elections and permanent seats in the Italian parliament. Unlike the more independent Telelatino, RAI was widely seen as pro-Berlusconi. Those in favour of the RAI in Montreal pointed out that TLN quickly replaced its RAI programming with shows bought from SKY, a private television network. Berlusconi is said to have much more control over his private TV companies than over the state-run RAI.
In November 2003, community leaders in Montreal led a protest march in Ottawa under the slogan "RAI Now". They then presented a petition with some tens of thousands of signatures in favour of their cause. The CRTC initially turned down the application allowing RAI International to broadcast in Canada, declaring it would be impossible to set up a domestic Italian channel if that came to pass. In Montreal editorials lambasting the federal government and the CRTC were published in the community newspapers and leaders spoke out again a perceived injustice. With a federal election set for the summer of 2004, one in which the Liberal Party did not seem guaranteed a victory, opinion makers in Montreal began asking if Italians were simply not sheep herded along by the Liberals. (The great majority of Italians in Montreal are Liberal and federalist). Many called on voters to vote against the Liberal party which was blamed for the CRTC's decision. Ultimately, nervous Liberal candidates signed a statement days before the vote, guaranteeing that RAI would be broadcasting within a year or that the laws would be changed to permit it. The Liberals won their election and in the spring of 2005, the CRTC reversed its earlier decision. RAI thus began broadcasting in June of that year.
Newspapers
The first Italian-language newspaper in Canada was
Il Cittadino CanadeseIl Cittadino Canadese is a newspaper based in Montreal, Quebec and is the oldest Italian language newspaper of Quebec and Canada, founded in 1941....
founded in Montreal in 1941, followed by
Il Corriere Italiano, founded by Alfredo Gagliardi also in Montreal in the early 1950s.
Corriere CanadeseCorriere Canadese is an Italian-language daily newspaper published in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 1954 by Daniel Iannuzzi, it is now owned by Multimedia Nova Corporation and published by Italmedia srl. Its target audience is a subset of the nearly two million Italian Canadians...
, founded by
Dan IannuzziBruno Iannuzzi, CM, O.Ont was a Canadian entrepreneur, journalist, and broadcaster.A third generation Italian Canadian, Iannuzzi was born in Montreal. Dan Iannuzzi did more than bring Italian radio to Toronto. He founded the Italian-Canadian newspaper Corriere Canadese in 1954...
in 1954, is Canada's only Italian-language daily today and is published in Toronto; its weekend (English-language) edition is published as
Tandem. Other newspapers include
Insieme (Montreal),
L'Ora di Ottawa (Ottawa, Ontario) and
Il Postino (Ottawa, Ontario).
Il Postino was established in 2000 by a young group of local Ottawa Italian Canadians to convey the history of the Italian community in Ottawa. (www.ilpostinocanada.com).
Insieme was originally founded by the Italian Catholic parishes of Montreal but has since been put under private ownership. It nevertheless retains an emphasis on religious articles.
Many of the older Italian newspapers are criticized, like CFMB radio, for only serving the interests of the older generations. Several trendier, more modern magazines or newspapers have thus been founded. Many are run by recent Italian immigrants to Canada and are geared towards youth. However, most have failed or are published sporadically due to financial problems. The movement to support these upstart newspapers, however, is fairly strong in Montreal where many people under 40 years old can still communicate in Italian.
Eyetalian magazine was launched in 1993 as a challenging, independent magazine of Italian-Canadian culture. It encountered commercial difficulty, and leaned towards a general lifestyle magazine format before concluding publication later in the 1990s.
Italo of Montreal is published sporadically and is written in Italian, with some articles in French and English. Dealing with current affairs and community news.
La Comunità, while an older publication, was taken over by the youth wing of the National Congress of Italian Canadians (Québec chapter) in the late 1990s. It experimented with different formats but was later cancelled due to lack of funding.
Notable Canadians of Italian descent
Many Italian immigrants found work in the constructions trades, and later built their own construction businesses. Canadians of Italian ancestry can now be found in almost any profession in Canada. For a more complete list of notable individuals, see:
List of Italian Canadians.
Montreal
- Little Italy, Montreal
Montreal's Little Italy is located on Saint Laurent Boulevard between Jean-Talon and St. Zotique Streets and is home to one of Montreal's original Italian Canadian communities...
- Church of the Madonna della Difesa
The Church of the Madonna della Difesa is a church in Montreal's Little Italy, Canada. It was built by Italian immigrants to Montreal, specifically those from Molise, to commemorate the apparition of the Madonna in La Difesa, in [Casacalenda], Molise...
- Città Italiana, nickname for Saint Leonard, Quebec, a borough of Montreal
Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
- Via Italia
- R.D.P.
Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles is a borough of the City of Montreal, Quebec.-Geography:The borough is located at the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal. It is composed of the districts of Rivière-des-Prairies and Pointe-aux-Trembles, which were part of the City of Montreal prior to the...
, a borough of MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
- LaSalle, a borough of Montreal
Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
- St.Leonard, a borough of Montreal
Montreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
See also
- Spoken languages of Canada
- Demographics of Canada
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Canada, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.-Provinces and territories:...
- Italian American
An Italian American is an American of Italian ancestry, and/or may also refer to someone possessing Italian/American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States.-History:...
- Italians
- Canada-Italy relations
External links