Frederick Charles Blair

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Frederick Charles Blair (Born 1874 in Carlisle, Ontario), became the assistant deputy minister of immigration for Canada in 1924 and was appointed director of the Immigration Branch of the Department of Mines and Resources from 1936 to 1944.^[1]

As part of the government of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Blair is considered largely responsible for holding back Jewish Immigration during the 1930s and war years. Between 1933-1939, only 4,000 to 5,000 German Jews were allowed into Canada, in comparison to over 140,000 into the United States, and about 20,000 into Mexico.^[1]

In September of 1938, in a letter to the Prime Minister, when Jews are extremely desperate to leave Nazi Germany and escape the violent escalation there he writes, "Pressure by Jewish people to get into Canada has never been greater than it is now, and I am glad to be able to add that after 35 years of experience here, that it has never been so carefully controlled".^[1]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c Irving Abella and Harold Troper, "The line must be drawn somewhere": Canada and Jewish Refugees, 1933-1939" in A Nation of Immigrants, Iacovetta, Ventresca, Draper (eds). 1998.