In this 3-episode series, host Sean Dineley lets a sampling of long-time St. Catharines residents do most of the talking. The people whose stories you will hear have all been participants in the museum’s StoryLab program. This ongoing oral history project is all about getting the diverse experiences and perspectives of real St. Catharinites into the museum’s collection. By conducting, recording, and transcribing interviews with local residents, we hope to learn more about the wide array of people and communities who call this city home as well as how it has evolved in their lifetimes. Ultimately, the project supports our mission to collect and present a more complete story of St. Catharines.
This episode is the third and final part of this series. Parts one and two provided a glimpse into the significant waves of emigration caused by the totalitarian regimes, famines, genocides, and World Wars that ravaged Europe in the first half of the 20th century. Even before this period of turmoil the ethnic makeup of immigrants in Canada had been overwhelmingly European, but beginning in the 1960s, the trend started to change. Race-based selection criteria was removed from Canada’s Immigration Policy in 1962, and new schemes like the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Canadian Multiculturalism Policy helped sow the seeds for new cultural communities.
Take a listen and share your thoughts with us! The views and opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre and the City of St. Catharines.
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